No Longer Chrome Salmon

Crab bait Tim!  Freeze it for Nov.


Rey

    Crab bait is not an acceptable use for a dark salmon.  If you keep and kill a salmon, you should eat it yourself.  If the meat isn't worth eating, don't keep it so that is has a chance to spawn.  I guess one exception in my book would be a hatchery salmon.

Whether or not salmon are able to successfully reach their destinations and spawn, their dead bodies are 100% VITAL to river ecosystems.

http://www.mhhe.com/Enviro-Sci/CaseStudyLibrary/Topic-Based/CaseStudy_WhyTreesNeedSalmon.pdf

This paper focuses on the Pacific Northwest,  but the ideas presented also apply to our local rivers.

So yes, by all means keep a fish if you are going to eat it. If not, release it to go about it's natural business, even if that just means dying.

I'm sure people keeping a few river salmon as crab bait has a minimal effect on the environment in the grand scheme of things, but every little bit counts.

So eat that brown fish but return and shit in the woods nearby... Also toss the carcass back in... 

Crab bait Tim!  Freeze it for Nov.


Rey

    Crab bait is not an acceptable use for a dark salmon.  If you keep and kill a salmon, you should eat it yourself.  If the meat isn't worth eating, don't keep it so that is has a chance to spawn.  I guess one exception in my book would be a hatchery salmon.

Whether or not salmon are able to successfully reach their destinations and spawn, their dead bodies are 100% VITAL to river ecosystems.

http://www.mhhe.com/Enviro-Sci/CaseStudyLibrary/Topic-Based/CaseStudy_WhyTreesNeedSalmon.pdf

This paper focuses on the Pacific Northwest,  but the ideas presented also apply to our local rivers.

So yes, by all means keep a fish if you are going to eat it. If not, release it to go about it's natural business, even if that just means dying.

I'm sure people keeping a few river salmon as crab bait has a minimal effect on the environment in the grand scheme of things, but every little bit counts.

Some good points but it might be the CA releases so many king salmon from hatcheries they don't want them all back, that is why two a day, everyday limit, no possession limit unlike trout and steelhead only four in possession. Colemen fish hatchery only expects 1% of the 13,000,000 fish they release each year to return, otherwise it would overcrowd the hatchery/battle creek, not sure eco-system could handle all the carcasses. Lots of people eat brown salmon and pay guides to help them catch brown salmon, I see it everyday on the river.

Some good points but it might be the CA releases so many king salmon from hatcheries they don't want them all back, that is why two a day, everyday limit, no possession limit unlike trout and steelhead only four in possession.

I thought the possession limit of salmon is 2 daily bag limits (4 total)?

Some good points but it might be the CA releases so many king salmon from hatcheries they don't want them all back, that is why two a day, everyday limit, no possession limit unlike trout and steelhead only four in possession.

I thought the possession limit of salmon is 2 daily bag limits (4 total)?

On certain areas of the Sacramento River this is reg, I only kept one fish so far this year, it was enough for several meals, very good eating, rumor has it there is another run coming through Delta now and there should be some nice fish up this way by mid-next week.

July 16 through Dec. 16. 2 hatchery trout or hatchery
steelhead**
4 hatchery trout or hatchery
steelhead** in possession
2 Chinook salmon

That is a bag and possession limit. The possession limit is only specifically listed in that column if it is different than the daily bag limit.

The way it is listed on the table isn't exactly a model of clarity.

like the decaying one posted on aoty last year from the port I think? lol

Did someone eat that thing?

It still shines. No wait> That's the oil sheen from that big ship at the port. My bad.

Did someone eat that thing?

Mmmm...mmmmm! ZombieFish Tacos!

Buck Salmon meat stays very edible into the blush and darker stages. Then smoke 'em. Hens - the flesh goes downhill much faster. Have fished them in Alaska for 15 years and release the dark hens. Keeping blush bucks only when desperate to catch a limit.