Salmon Season Has Begun - Word on the Street Version...

I've had kids' soccer all day and now it's windy and still foggy as crap.  I sat out at Table Bluff listening to my VHF between soccer games at 1PM.  Heard there's legions of boats and nary a fish being caught - or at least very few and some of them shakers...  I'm still just jacked to get out there, but Mama's got work to do at her classroom and a neighbor invited me and the kids over for BBQ and beer pong (not for the kids!   ), soooo...  I'll probably wait until tomorrow to get in the water. 

We'll see how much more I hear about today's bite...

Thanks for sharing the WOTS version AK.
 I probably won't fish salmon for a while, but I'm still following your posts on 'em.
I'm only familiar with he "beer" part of beer pong, but have fun! hmmm. a beer sounds pretty good...

Beer Pong: http://www.realbeer.com/fun/games/games-150.php

To see it and all the good beer games in action, rent the movie "Beer Fest". The same crew who did Super Troopers. Beer Fest is not as good IMO, but it's still good (if you are into juvenille, silly slapstick movies).

Thanks for the info Eric.  Good luck tomorrow...

 

  Hang in There Mr. King!!!!

The little soccer-rats were too burnt to go to the neighbors' barbecue, so I cooked up some rockfish for dinner and then cruised down to the South Jetty just before sunset.  I only saw one boat coming in and there was zero action on the radio.  I had all my gear with me, just in case I saw birds working bait inside the bay or something...  The bar didn't look bad at all.  The buoy report off of Eureka showed the wind dropping all afternoon, and the swell was around 6-7'.  It was easily do-able, so I hope it stays that way for tomorrow afternoon as that's when I'm hitting it with Brandi and Steve.  I cruised back to town and BS'd with Dom a bit - he heard about half a dozen fish was all the counter checked in at one of the ramps...  He also heard that Englund Marine's Big Salmon Contest only weighed in a handful of fish too, and the leader is 19 pounds.  Someone got lucky!   

So, it may be a case of "finding" the fish, or it may be tell-tale of bleak conditions out there...

Either way, I still hope to get lucky myself.  To hook into a King on the ocean is somewhere close to heaven.  I know bluekayak follows that religion too.  Chovies will be towed tomorrow.   

Leave the silver fishies alone. IMHO, the salmon fishery should be closed for 15 years... Their habitat is effed and most West Coast populations south of Alaska are on the brink of collapse... The numbers have dropped significantly and the proof is in the pudding... I worked on salmon monitoring projects with DFG for 5 years and have looked at historic data for the fishery... They could be gone like the dodo by the time I have kids and they're grown (if I ever do)... Look at the way the halibut and seabass fishery has recovered up and down the Cali coast since gill nets were banned not too long ago... Fishing is definitely not the true source of the problem, and the industries surrounding the salmon fishery have definitely taken a beating, but.. se la vie.. we're in a time when dynamic environmental management can make or break a number of different aspects of our nations rich environmental heritage, the salmon fishery included!...

Brendan has a good point;
 Though we sure didn't bring em to the brink....we would perhaps take a tiny fraction of one more % point to the 90% already created by mega agriculture, the water barons, their lobbyists and the politicians they can grease and buy access to.
We didnt dam the rivers, divert and warm up the water, fill it w/ silt and pesticides, create golf courses in the deserts etc. ...but the one 1/100th of one percent we want is just not going to be there anyway if the genuine issues are not delt with.

Hey, wheres the Packard mob when ya need em?
 They don't take on their own kind or what?
Steve
 

Their habitat is effed and most West Coast populations south of Alaska are on the brink of collapse...

Not even close to true.  If you were next to me on Friday, you would know just how wrong you are.

Thanks for the input, Men.  I'd like to hear more of that story, Sean...

Brendan - you're a bold guy, and I like and respect that.  Expressing your opinion is something I'd like to hear more of - I think we agree on most issues.  Fishing for a salmon in the ocean though is something that represents a different experience for each of us.  For me it's a time when I feel very close to my deceased father.  Many years before I ever caught a salmon I was taught about their lifeway, their importance and majesty, and how people have screwed them and their habitat up.  My father always did the right thing when it came to fish, just like he did with people.  I have strong beliefs about what people should do, but I also have my own lifeway, and it includes these outdoor pursuits that I always want to combine with a message of appreciation and sustainabililty.  I've had plenty of people say I cannot be both a harvester and a preacher for conservation.  I always answer that with this:  "that is who I am."  When it came to fishing for salmon in the Eel River, where I grew up and have never kept an adult fish (or seen one dump its gametes...), I took a lot of criticism here.  I listened, and I agreed with what I was hearing - I'm 100% for closing it to C&R because there's no point to the fishery and it continues to erode what's already trashed.  But it's open, and I still fish it here and there.  I desire that interaction with an animal that I was taught is noble and magnificent.  My bottom line is this:  I feel that I can push a message of "save it", "restore it", "appreciate it" at the same time as enjoying the interactions that I pursue AND showing that the nature of your interaction, the way you carry yourself and the methods you use, are respectful and always cognizant of the Big Picture.

The Big Picture is that we're screwing up way more than salmon.  The Big Picture is that we have way too many people that do not walk with a message.  The Big Picture shows that people must know and care for the very Nature of things or they'll just consume them - Tragedy of the Commons is strangling us more and more quickly.

Keep walking with your message, Bro, and I'll keep walking with mine.  If it gets to a point where my message is being muted by my gluttony for the sweetest interactions then I may have to turn the volume down.  It's something that I try to keep a focus on, so thanks for the status check.   

I am sorry but the salmon are not on the verge of anything. The reasons for the two bad years of salmon returns are very well documented. Two things happened.

1. DFG tried to save money. They took all the fingerlings from the central valley hatcherys and instead of putting them in the floating pens in the bay and letting them get used to the salt water before releasing them in small amounts at night, they just backed up the hatchery trucks and dumped the baby salmon into the bay during daylight, one truck at a time. Just like when they stock trout, they back the truck up stick out a pipe and dump all the fish into the water.
The effect was stunned baby salmon and tens of thousands of birds feasting on them. DFG feed 20 million baby salmon to the birds in 95 and 96, Very few escaped into the ocean.

2. Bad ocean conditions. In 95 the Alaska current that normally flows south from Alaska druing the spring and summer, causing the upwelling and bringing lots of food for all the ocean life didnt happen until August. The ocean was crystal clear and had very little life that spring and summer.
In 96 the current never happened at all. All the baby fish, crabs everything that spawned in those two years died from lack of food. Not only where there low salmon and steelhead returns the last couple of years but there where also no legal crabs in the ocean in the 07 and 08 years. The runs of all salmon and steelhead was way off very low last year on the entire pacific coast. These where the 05 and 06 hatched fish.
I am an avid diver and am in the ocean or on the ocean as much as possilbe. I sold my business in 02 and have the time.
This year the ocean is full of life, lots of crabs, limits for me every time i dove for them, fish both adult and baby everywhere.
There is a strong run of salmon on the Klamath right now and there should be a strong run of salmon in all the rivers both wild fish in the Russian and the hatchery fish in the central valley river systems.
In Alaska they are having problems with salmon as a bycatch in the cod trawlers which are affecting the runs there.

Abking u got a way with words...  are u in sales by chance... your Ed. shows...and your Zin for life flows...U better keep "keeping it real" Because of your posts and a LOT of others...I'm thinking when I "DO" catch the big breader fish...I will take a pic and let um go...I've always eaten what i've caught, and the smaller ones taste sooo much better...And Brenden you've got the knack also...keep it coming...I love this site... Theres a lot of wisdom here!!!

Its interesting to see the varied responses here... I hope that we are not on the verge of a salmon fishery collapse, and that the data from both sides of the picture, left and right, show it as such. I am not educated enough to make a statement of statistical validity on this issue, but what I do know is that Californias native runs are nowhere what they were just 20 years ago, let alone 50-100... Most of the Central Coast drainages that provided salmonid spawning habitat no longer hold native fish, and host only a few hatchery fish, if any. My fishing experiences up in Oregon and the north coast show pretty much the same... You can spend weeks fishing and your lucky to get one take down, or even one fish for the year. I won't even fish salmonids anymore based on the environmental principle (and in no way do I expect anyone else to adopt this take on it.. its my personal ethic and the way I live it). I've spent time in Alaska and seen what a healthy salmon run looks like. Reading historic Americana accounts of the West Coast salmon fisheries described the SF bay and north coast drainages being so rich with salmon that you could walk across them. And, I'm sorry, but in my opinion, an anadromous fishery that is any more than 15% supplemented by hatcheries is unsustainable. Its a sad thing when what was at one time such a rich part of Californias natural heritage now needs to be almost fully sustained by fish farms that breed genetically homogenous (by river) fish that need to be trucked out to the ocean to be let go, to sustain both a recreational and commercial industry. And as far as the science goes, data can be swayed in both directions, to the right and to the left, as we have seen with the MPA process. A scientist, or lobbyist, can come up with data to support whatever the stance of his funding source is... For that reason I take all scientific studies, and statements by interest groups, with a grain of salt. I know what I have seen, what I have read about, and what old timers have told me about. I watched the salmon stocks in the Monterey Bay steadily decline through the nineties up until now, and its really kinda sad to see guys burning hundreds of dollars in gas, driving $30k boats offshore for a couple of fish (if they're lucky... aren't we also running into fuel supply issues?). But, who am I to judge how another guy has his fun in life. I just think the salmon should be left alone for awhile to rebuild their populations.
Abking- Thankyou for sharing a bit of yourself-philosophy and history. Mad respect. Walk softly and continue on with that attitude. I definitely respect your opinion and take on things, and their is something very special about carrying on a rich family tradition.
SBD- post me the links to the data that may show otherwise, including funding sources. And, if you have them, send me the links to the data being supported by the other side.
Ocean 314-I love it up inyour neck of the woods this time of year!- this is an incredibly rich year all up and down the coast. I've been self employed in a field that allows me the time and freedom to spend ALOT of time out on the water the past few years and definitely can attest to how healthy this particular cycle is. There are a lot of big fish out there and a good handful of cohos are being incidently caught while c-bass fishing down here. Still, in my opinion, any fishery that needs to be artificially supplemented to the degree that Californias salmon fishery does should be given a rest for a long time.
I'll now get down off my soapbox and look forward to the continued debate. These types of conversations are healthy as long as no one gets their panties too bunched up!..

I spent the last 15 year counting salmon, and I serve on the PFMC, as well as 8 million other committees...I have a pretty good idea how salmon are doing.  While there are runs in trouble, your broad statement regarding all stocks south from Alaska is BS.   

For a strong run look no farther than the Klamath which is expecting its strongest cohort in decades.  The Smith is essentially all wild with the exception of Rowdy Creek and it also makes tons of fish every year.

Thanks Sean. We were there and man . Its cooking on the Klamath. Lots of water and the season is going to explode. According to reports the native gill netters have alreadt caught over 22,000 fish and are closing in on the quota. Dont say jack about the natives they already got screwed once. ( sorry Eric no jack here)  Go get em big boy. We traveled past the ocean today at around 2 at Trinidad and it looked totally doable on the outside with the surf at 3-4 ft. Kind of choppy but we are supposed to be in a calming period.