2007 salmon preparations thread (april 7th opener)

I caught more silvers than anything else in 2006

Just in one day north of Muir I mustve released/shook 6 or 8 of them and a boat in the same area probably had 3 times that Probably less damage to the silver pops if I kept the first 2 and went home

I agree.  The slivers outnumbered the kings from my experience last season.  I heard some guys caught 20 silvers before catching their first legal king.  I'm sure that can't be good.

Is there a good reason for keeping silvers totally off limits?  Why not at least a limited season on them?

Ca Coho are listed on the state's endangered species list but not on the federal list so they can be fished beyond the states border. Haven't seen any new info regarding the current population but last year they were here in force.   

etienne, when you are launching and landing, you might get wet, but you are not getting stranded miles from shore.

I think your priorities are misplaced.

when you are miles from shore, it is hairball when the wind and waves come up. you might not get back to shore
for a long time if ever, at least not under your own power.

so I think open water situations are definitely worth serious thought. I am far more concerned about those than
landing and launching, from the point of view of how bad things could go.  landing and launching, as long as you
don't get hit by your boat, you are pretty much going to make it to shore.

4 or 5 miles out? it is not so clear you are going to make it to shore when the weather gets bad.

my 15% figure is based on the effort required to go a given distance with a given boat. as for the gate, it's not
the getting out that I care about, it's the coming back!

last year I was out 4 to 5 miles in monterey bay,
I got my one salmon near the boat a couple times, it got off, I immediately tried to cover the same
ground for a second hookup, but the wind came up hard right then  , with rain and the waves got steep quick.
There was no way to easily deploy another 2lb ball, and get back up wind to that fishing spot at the same time, so I had to basically retreat downwind. I was at the limits of my abilities trying to get back to that spot and when it is like
that I want to be sure I have the best equipment I can get and I'm pretty sure that is a longer, faster boat.

Another day we went out the wind came from the east hard and was blowing to hawaii. it did eventually quit, letting
freddie catch his limit and make it back in, but it took me a long time to paddle back to the harbour that day. no fun!

But you are your own man, you do what you want, I'm not trying to start an argument but I am saying I'm not fishing
way offshore with somebody paddling a scrambler.

I personally would feel a lot more comfortable paddling out 4 or 5 miles with somebody that had a boat as long as
mine, otherwise I feel like I have to worry about them as well as myself. I'd like to go out with somebody at least
as capable and well prepared as myself so that they can rescue my ass, and not the other way around.

There is also the fact that sharks that are 14 feet long might happily hit a 12 foot scrambler but think twice about
a boat that is longer than them. okay that is a little silly, but confidence is everything!

Regarding sailing, I once was on a Cal 39, a cruising sailboat, off the coast of rhode island in the mid 1980's.
It was a couple days trip back from maine where we had picked up the boat to be returned to a berth in connecticut.
Hurricane Bob came up the coast as we came down and we met the remnants of Bob
off newport. For awhile we tried to sail upwind and continue to our destination. bad idea.
I watched waves roll over the bow of the boat along with the only navigator on board go under water as he
tried to put the anchor back in the anchor track! He had no harness on either. I was at the helm at the time because I could steer, but I could not go below and read the loran or I would get sick. After that experience I have been wary of going to sea in a sailboat that does not have some size! maybe that is why I like the bigger kayaks too?

So pardon me for questioning your boat, I'm really just worried about myself,  .

J

Last opener, I saw a Fish  & Game warden at Moss Landing searching the boats nearling the harbor for any Coho. One boat was given a $400 ticket. How does this correlate with the 3 mile offshore rule?

You're still transporting it back to a harbor in state waters. 

Silver (coho) salmon are state AND federally endangered.  Coho populations in California are absolutely not on the rise, in fact its the opposite.  I doubt that coho will be opened for ocean anglers to keep for a very long time in CA.  Almost all those coho out there that everyone was catching were Oregon and Washington fish.  A lot of people complain that they should be able to keep hatchery coho out in Californian waters.  Well the people in Oregon and Washington apparently don't agree.  Their state taxes pay for their hatcheries.  Besides, there is no way California will get allocated any of OR, WA or BC coho at the North of Falcon meetings (I think that's meeting where they decide that stuff).

Leave the Coho alone!  You won't want one once you've caught a king!   

I don't appreciate them outa state silvers comin down here moochin baitfish from the natives.  We should send Or and Wa a bill for the food their hatchery fish are eating   

 

So is this a good time to mention the CA Chinooks that are intercepted in OR and WA as they pass through.   

-Allen

Excellent point Allen, we should bill them for those too.....

Don't worry about the WA silvers Art, we sent some killer whales down to clean up the errant WA silvers that are down there.  Hopefully, they've learned to tell the difference between CA Chinooks and WA Cohos!   

-Allen

I personally would feel a lot more comfortable paddling out 4 or 5 miles with somebody that had a boat as long as
mine, otherwise I feel like I have to worry about them as well as myself. I'd like to go out with somebody at least
as capable and well prepared as myself so that they can rescue my ass, and not the other way around.

So pardon me for questioning your boat, I'm really just worried about myself,  .

J

I guess it is not all size that matters most.  Maybe in a displacement keel sailboat that is a different debate.  If you do not want to fish with me because of my boat then that is fine.  I don't think you are reading all of what I wrote.  I would not expect to find myself out 5 miles with big weather changes expected.  If I do, I will deal with it, always have.  I have paddled the Scrambler in very rough conditions mostly alone and I too do not want to have to worry about the other people I am fishing with.

Have fun out there.  I'll see you at the launch and in your reports.


   

Leave the Coho alone!  You won't want one once you've caught a king!   

A nice fat marbled king will beat a silver in taste any day.... but silvers put up a better fight for their size.

king has a much ritcher flavor.  Coho is a little dry for my taste.

I have read the silver/chinook differentiation comments a number of times, but I have the distinct feeling it is
not going to be so easy to tell them apart out on the water.

I guess it's like anything else, once you have done it 4 or 5 times, no big deal, like a black vs blue rockfish, which
I now know immediately, but at one time did not know.

picked up 10 1.5 lb balls today.  hopefully I will get to drop a few on the bottom of the ocean this april!

blue, is there any fish you have not eaten?

J