CDFG News Release - North Coast Salmon Season Opener Shows Promise

North Coast Salmon Season Opener Shows Promise

Department of Fish and Game (DFG) biologists are expecting a promising north
coast salmon fishing season through Labor Day, Sept. 5. The sport season
opened two weeks ago in the Klamath Management Zone, which stretches from the
Oregon border to Horse Mountain, located just north of Shelter Cove.

The return of a healthy sport fishing season is excellent news for anglers
and businesses in the region. For the last three years, salmon fishing has
been relatively nonexistent on the north coast due to fishery restrictions
designed to protect California salmon stocks and a lack of local salmon in
nearshore areas.

Early in the season, fishing success and opportunity is very
weather-dependent. When boats have been getting out, they have been getting good results.

Field samplers with DFG's California Recreational Fisheries Survey program
contacted approximately 200 anglers fishing from private skiffs and
commercial passenger fishing vessels and checked almost 100 chinook salmon
landed during the opening weekend. Heads were collected from all adipose
fin-clipped salmon because the missing fin indicates that the salmon snout
was implanted with a microscopic, coded-wire tag that reveals the hatchery
of origin and other information important to California salmon management.

"This is a promising start to the salmon season," said Ed Roberts, DFG
associate marine biologist. "Weather hampered anglers on Sunday, but on
Saturday most boats landed a few legal fish and also released some
undersized fish."

Anglers reported that cold water conditions and scattered bait made locating
schools of salmon difficult. As the season proceeds, waters are expected to warm and
anglers will be better able to locate schools of bait and salmon. Spring
weather is notoriously difficult to predict while summer days normally bring
calmer seas.

Wardens checking anglers found good overall compliance with salmon
regulations. The most common violation continues to be the use of barbed
hooks while fishing for salmon. Anglers north of Point Conception are
reminded that they are required to use only barbless hooks while fishing for
salmon and that once a salmon is onboard their boat or other floating
device, all anglers must use barbless hooks, even if they switch to bottom
fishing.