Thursday, July 19, 2012

Salmon Season Starts Hot

We may not have an active store front to get you set up, but we'd like to share the news that this salmon season has been strong! Last weekend, we ran up to Pt. Reyes and limited with nice fish. From the number of sport and party boats who were in the immediate vicinity, it was clear that the word may have gotten out.

Hopefully, over the next few weeks, the fish will begin moving through the Duxbury/Muir Beach zones. Quantities and quality of bait looks good in almost every location we went through, so it's just a matter of the schools moving in.

This from the California Department of Fish & Game:
California Department of Fish and Game News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 18, 2012

Media Contacts:

Brett Kormos, DFG Marine Region, (707) 576-3429
Carrie Wilson,
DFG Communications, (831) 649-7191

The Bite is On! Fishing for Salmon off
California Coast is Best in Years

If your fishing gear has been in the garage collecting dust, now's the time to pull it out because the salmon are here, and the bite is on! Anglers and sport-fishing charters off the California coast are returning to the docks with full boats and happy customers as the strong ocean salmon bite continues, making 2012 one of the best salmon seasons in years.

Mild weather and good ocean conditions are contributing to what fishermen and Department of Fish and Game (
DFG) officials hope will continue to be a robust year for ocean salmon fishing. Hopes are also high for big returns to California rivers this fall.

“Thanks to the favorable ocean conditions and plentiful food, all the reports we are receiving from the coast are very positive,” said
DFG Northern Regional Manager Neil Manji. “The charter boats are coming back early enough to make two trips a day because everyone has been catching their limits.”

The daily bag and possession limit is two salmon per person and the minimum size limit is 20 inches.

After several years of closed and reduced salmon fishing seasons,
DFG and federal officials earlier this year estimated there would be thousands of adult salmon off the coast available for harvest. When ready, the fish will move inland for a run to their traditional spawning grounds.

Early forecasts predicted 819,000 adult
Sacramento River fall-run Chinook and 1.7 million Klamath River fall-run Chinook adults off the coast. Since the opener in April, recreational harvest estimates for Chinook salmon off the California coast are the highest recorded since 2004. North of Horse Mountain, the totals are the highest since 2006 and five times those from 2011 during the same time period.

The
San Francisco area harvest is the highest since 2006, and landings in the Monterey area are the best seen since 2004. In the Fort Bragg area, landings have been more moderate, although comparable to seasons that occurred there in 2003 and 2004.

“In my 26 years of working with salmon on the
North Coast, I have never seen such a remarkable beginning to a salmon season. If the start of the season is any indication of what’s in store for the second half, anglers should not miss this opportunity of a lifetime. Get out there and take advantage of this epic bite!” added Manji.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Books and Items Available Online

We've been getting a number of requests for information about how to purchase new and used hunting, fishing and fly fishing books.  If you were in the store towards the closing of our San Rafael location, you saw us busily boxing books and moving them off-site.  Over the past couple months, we have been listing these through two sources - ABEBooks.com and via Amazon.com

These links will give you our currently available listings:

ABE Books - http://tinyurl.com/wssbooks-abe

Amazon -  http://tinyurl.com/wssbooks


There was also general merchandise left over from our hunting, fishing and fly fishing departments. (Note - all firearms and ammunition were sold before we closed the San Rafael location).  Much of this is being assembled into lots and offerings via eBay.  For now, the best way to find these items is to visit this link:

http://myworld.ebay.com/westernsportshop

or search for ebay user westernsportshop

Finally - a few words on flies.  After a big organization and counting project, we have detailed counts of freshwater and saltwater fishing flies which are available.  As you know, these were all high quality flies tied by Umpqua on Tiemco hooks.  While we are offering some mixed lots of flies through ebay,

we have been selling larger quantities directly to interested dealers, clubs and lodges.  If you wish to get some information regarding a bulk purchase of flies, please email me directly at wssjim at gmail dot com.