Thursday, July 22, 2021

 

       Deborah, Chris and Alec joined me for a salmon trip today. After a tour of empty water (Where'd the bait go in the outer bay?) we went to the Trees. There, we caught four salmon pretty quick, until the Dark Lord (you know who you are) arrived and the bite shut down, around 9:00. We caught one more in the shadow of Sauron and then, later, around noon, stumbled over one of those acorns that a proverbial blind pig eventually finds. By 1:00 PM the weather started to turn towards what had been forecast, so we left. Slowly. It looked like there may have been a bite in close by Tomales Point, judging by the bird activity earlier in the day and the small group of boats trolling the area when we ran in. Our fish weighed in at 22, 20, 20, 18, 18, and 17 pounds. All fish caught on a hootchie/flasher combo, and not because that was all that was offered. The beauty of taking more people is that you can try different things with your extra lines. Four offerings and the fish picked door number one six times. It's more compelling than four out of five dentists choosing Trident. Probably have a hootchie somewhere in the mix. 

      Fishing takes me away from the boat launch, so I am unaware of any direct reports from anyone else, except for Cameron's report that the guys he spoke with that fished the bay did not have good days. He didn't talk to everybody, but the ones he did weren't happy. Even the man who went out just to catch some anchovies to freeze for bait wasn't happy. The halibut this year just don't seem to want to play ball. Mostly. The seeming randomness of their mostly nonexistent bite is frustrating at best. It does keep it interesting, though. 

      At this point, I would like to thank the Golden State Salmon Association, whose advocacy got salmon smolts trucked past the failed river system and into the bay. The success rate of fish that don't have to fight in the Thunderdome is high. We can't all be Mel Gibson. The season forecast for the commercial fishermen was something like 62,000 fish. By the end of June they had caught over 120,000 salmon. Is it because they're such badasses? Maybe, but also maybe there's a whole lot of fish in the ocean, way more than predicted. It could be that factory fish, Amazon delivered, skew the numbers. Pretty much any salmon you have caught this year is a factory-made (hatchery) fish. It fought pretty good, didn't it? Tasted good, too. The powers that be have pretty much killed the rivers and the drought is batting cleanup. If you're not already a member, check these guys out: https://goldenstatesalmon.org/     They got the smolts trucked past the river. That alone is enough for me, but they do more than that. As far as I'm concerned as a salmon fisherman, shut up and take my money. And, oh yeah, thanks. And, one more thing; is there a Golden State Halibut Association? Because we maybe need one. 

8 comments:

  1. Well said my friend. These fish have and are produced and providing what our clogged arteries and mismanaged river systems can no longer sustain. Was a great day with good people! Thank you Willy and the efforts of gssa and other organizations creating fish for the web to continue

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  2. Great day on the water, that was a very consistent average of slabs of salmon Willy.

    It is worth repeating - the GSSA has done phenomenal works for us. Very well worth contributing to this crowd of do-good’rs

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  3. Hey willy was just curious last time I fished those waters it was jelly fish love fest I'm assuming they were in there that bad have they cleared out for the most part thanks reminds me of the great days days fishn out there see you there next week 3 day camp trip fish on

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    1. The jellies weren't bad for us yesterday but they move around. Today could be different.

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  4. Seems to me that whether "there's way more than predicted" can't be determined until after the end of both ocean and river seasons and we see what made it back.
    No doubt the GSSA is doing good work with advocacy re trucking. Just questioning the wisdom in allowing double the forecast to be commercially harvested.

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    1. I don't think there will be many making it back. That involves river travel, which, I think we can agree, is difficult at best in good times. This year ain't good times to be something that needs water to survive. Also, I believe that there's a formula where X number of salmon are caught per day of commercial fishing in July, Y per day in August, etc. These numbers reflect average daily catches over some set of years. Unless tactics and methodology have changed dramatically this season it seems likely that more fish in the ocean equals more fish in the catch. Why would there be more fish? Lots of reasons I can't think of, but trucks is a pretty good one. I'll guess that there will be more fish caught by sport and commercial fishermen than were predicted to exist but overall returns to the river will be too small to allow salmon fishing next year.

      Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

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  5. May GSSA be a light to us in dark places, when all other lights go out.

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  6. I'm thinking that maybe NOAA farmed out the the work for the salmon biomass estimates to the University of East Anglia.
    Just thinkin.

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