The Fishing Report: Politics threaten salmon future

King salmon continue to make their way to the Golden Gate or to the Klamath in waves and as a result, scores of salmon off of our Sonoma coast have been more sporadic than the solid action we had all July. Saturday out of Bodega Bay, sport boats landed very few – and then on Sunday, the action reportedly increased markedly with several boats reporting limits of large king salmon to 40 pounds.
Most boats are mooching but there are some boats continuing to take fish on the troll. Concentrate on schools of bait that are usually spawning squid. A purple haze Hootchie will “match the hatch” if you’re trolling, and a herring or anchovie mooched head-down will garner bites. I have also heard of some anglers that are using the squid that come up on their down rigger lines as bait when placed in a rotating salmon killer.
Albacore tuna are starting to make their presence known.  Anglers out of Fort Bragg last Saturday were able to target tuna as close in as 15 miles but only the larger boats were able to get there as weather conditions were very difficult. Scores of 20 to 40 fish were reported.
Ocean conditions have been fantastic this year and, as a result, the rock fishing has also been sensational. The new Sea Angler ran up beyond Timber Cove last weekend and caught 31 limits of rockfish along with 31 lingcod to 24 pounds.
Another cool (cool being the operative word) option this year would be to fish the San Francisco Bay for halibut. Scores are increasing and live bait is available at the Berkeley bait receivers. In addition, you could try for salmon at California City, which is on the backside of Tiburon at the top of the tide. This is a great option if you have access to a boat but don’t like to go out on the open ocean. But what makes this such an appealing trip is that the America’s Cup catamaran boats are racing around the Bay at speeds upward of 40 miles an hour, and while I just caught a bit of the action on TV Sunday, it looks to be extremely exciting with guys falling in the water and boats nearly capsizing. The boats are followed closely by safety-assist vessels. The swimmers were only in the water for a minute or two and all were wearing extreme protective gear.
Okay, it is soapbox time. The fantastic, maybe epic, salmon fishing that we had this year could be just a memory that you will be able to tell your kids about. The salmon runs both in the Sacramento River and the Klamath River are both in serious trouble as a result of politics.
First, on the Klamath, a federal District Court in Fresno has issued a temporary restraining order halting BOR’s planned increased releases from Lewiston Dam that were intended to guard against a large salmon die-off in the lower Klamath due to warm river temperatures. Excuse me for wondering out loud but how can a district judge in Fresno make an impartial ruling on water releases in Northern California? It was just 11 years ago when we had the largest salmon die-off on the Klamath River in recorded history. We know what caused it – a lack of cold water. Why are we letting history repeat itself?
And now for the Sacramento salmon… Governor Brown has been trying to “ram rod” the Peripheral Canal tunnels through the system for the last six years in direct contradiction to all available science. It is misnomered as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and there is nothing about the plan that conserves the Bay or the Delta. The Delta cannot afford to lose any more water. The current system has decreased the current water supply to the Delta by a devastating amount and now they want to take more.
The salmon, along with all of the species that depend on the mix of fresh and salt water in the Delta, need the water more than the huge agribusinesses in the south. For more information on both of these issues, please visit the Golden Gate Salmon Association website.
For information and/ or reports, please contact Hunt Conrad at Prospect Mortgage, 707-431-9715.