California’s recreational salmon fishery will open in ocean waters on Saturday, April 3, but only in the Monterey management area, from Pigeon Point south to the U.S./Mexico border. The waters off our Sonoma Coast will not open.
In fact, all other areas off the California Coast will remain closed, due to do what the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) calls “poor stock forecasts.” That means that preliminary fish counts of adult salmon are way lower than average.
The season dates for our area will be decided during the virtual PFMC meeting to be held April 6-9 and 12-15. The general consensus is that they will push the start dates to summer. Restrictions being considered include cutting both commercial and sport ocean salmon fishing to half of a normal season.
The Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA) is blaming the low forecast numbers on “…unbalanced water practices that regularly divert too much of California’s river waters needed for salmon. About 80 percent of the water used in California goes to agriculture, with trillions of gallons going to grow almonds.”
The GSSA, which represents the recreational and commercial salmon-fishing industries in California, says that the state’s chronic over-diversion causes conditions in which the salmon fry die before they can return to the ocean. It advocates that the state Department of Fish and Wildlife move its San Francisco Bay hatchery releases west, from the current release sites near Vallejo to closer to the Golden Gate Bridge, which, it says, will improve the survival rate of hatchery salmon by 200 to 300 percent.
The final decision on salmon fishing in our waters is a month away, but don’t plan any salmon fishing trips or big fish barbecues until you hear the decision.
Those hardy enough to try fishing during the recent cold winds and rain have had mixed success. Keith Fraser at Loch Lomond Bait Shop in San Rafael says that when the weather is right, the halibut and striped bass are biting. His shop is the only one on the bay selling live smelt, the best bait for both halibut and stripers. The best angling from shore is off China Camp, and Paradise and McNears Park on the Marin Shoreline.
Fly-fishers are catching rainbow trout on the Sacramento River between Redding and Anderson. And Guide Kirk Portocarrero is finding fish for his clients on Lake Shasta and on the Sac; call him at (800) 670-4448.
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