The Fishing Report: Jack salmon back in huge numbers

The Pacific Coast Management Council has totaled up the Central valley returning salmon and the findings are somewhat conflicting. Returning adults totaled just 122,000 fish. This was far less that the projected escapement numbers of 377,000. However the Jack Salmon return was off the charts with an amazing (unbelievable) 70,000 2 year olds that made their way back to Central Valley Rivers. If the PFMC uses the previous model to project out the total number of salmon available for harvest, that number would be over 2 million fish available to catch and an all-time record. But before you get too giddy and go out and buy a new boat for the upcoming salmon season, I would caution you that the PFMC has been wildly in accurate as to their projections in the past. Also one of the problems believing these numbers is that last fall we didn’t see any of those fish in our salmon sport catch. If there were truly millions of 1-2 year old fish swimming around one would certainly surmise that we would have caught a whole bunch of Shakers in August and September. But that didn’t come to pass. There are many reasons to believe that the increased Jack count is a result of the trucking that was done last year to avoid the pumps and predators abut that has been ceased. I would be cautiously optimistic about our Ocean salmon season and hold off on buying that new boat just yet.
One major factor that could affect the shape of upcoming salmon season will be the serious decline of the Winter and Spring Run salmon to just 670 fish that returned. This was after a high count of over 17,000 fish in 2006. Many believe that over the last five years the huge increases in pumping of water to southern California is the cause of the decline while politically influenced fishery managers are blaming it on poor ocean conditions. All the experts agree that fishing has little impact on returning adults. The Juveniles are not making it out to the sea.
Lack of rain continues to be the main factor in Steelhead fishing counts. Low clear river levels make it tough on the fish and anglers alike. The Russian however is continuing to kick out decent hatchery fish for dedicated anglers. Fishing lower in the system is definitely the way to go. I can’t remember a better year for Guerneville Anglers fly fishers however as of this writing the mouth is closed barring the access to the river. Also another factor that will continue to bode well for Russian River Steelhead anglers is that the Sonoma County Water Agency controlling Lake Mendocino continues to hold back water and barring a major deluge, should continue this practice well into the spring. There are still many fish needing to come back into the system and March and April could see some of the best fishing in recent years.
Other Streams like the South fork Eel have had some good days but the river has dropped out and is now subject to low flow closure. I was up there last weekend and managed to land a couple of beautiful wild Steelhead to 32 inches in the lower section below Miranda. Your best bet on this system right now is to move out on to the Main Stem. By this time of this printing all anglers looking north should check to see if your destination river is on the low flow closure list.
For more fishing reports and/or information, please call Hunt Conrad at Prospect Mortgage, 431-9715.