Where are the small salmon this year?

As we all know, this has been the season of big fish. Lots of personal best fish this year. But it seems there are far fewer small fish. Those schools of two year olds that were abundant off Pacifica the last few years seem to be gone. I worry that the next crop of fish simply are not here. Either they died or the hatchery program had a mishap and there is now a gap in the age classes which could result in a year of low to no salmon.

Anyone have any thoughts or concerns?

I only started to see smaller guys in mid august. Some bright ruby red krill eating 20 inchers at the cleaning station at the cove. Before that I had kept saying "there aint no small ones"

super interesting. Up in eureka we only usually see long skinny guys and the boats that were able to get them did see those. Maybe a couple 20lbers but that was the biggest up here.

All that upwelling and food out there this year? Maybe the fish just got lost in the bait offshore idk, hope they are doing ok out there.

Maybe there were there before the season started? I remember seeing some of those smaller grade at earlier of the season, but pretty much gone after the first 2 weeks.

Maybe there were there before the season started? I remember seeing some of those smaller grade at earlier of the season, but pretty much gone after the first 2 weeks.

Not to mention the window we had to fish when the season opens was rare to none. Im sure we just missed them when they've showed up. I went SC last weekend and some of the ones that got caught are too small or barely legal.

They seem to be around...I ran into a bunch of shakers in the LM cove earlier this year and some at Dux. But for some reason, I run into them in more shallow water...like 50fow or less.

A new batch of smaller grade fish just showed up off of Tomales.

I landed two shaker kings (~12" and ~15") last Friday at Bo. They're around.

Yeah, I've caught a handful of shakers this season but that small grade haven't presented themselves to me. I hope they come back as usual.

Yeah, I've caught a handful of shakers this season but that small grade haven't presented themselves to me. I hope they come back as usual.

This new batch has only been around for the last few days according to the Bodega Bay boat captains I was talking to yesterday.

I caught a little chunky 8 or 9lber that was chipped yesterday. The cutie survey girl took my info down and said I should be getting the data in a few months from the chip. I also gave her my email for a much larger fish that a friend had caught that was also chipped. It'll be cool to compare the data on the different generations of fish.

Maybe it’s a good sign.  Good ocean conditions would lead to larger fish.  Plus, it’s September already.  The smaller fish have all grown up.

-Allen

I also got a shaker - 18” (more or less) in BO a a month ago. Near Dux. And a tiny 10”. They’re around, but not many. Just like the bigger ones