Lack of salmon puts recreational fishing season in question.
Salmon population causes delay in opening
“We’re hoping desperately to find some salmon below Pigeon Point.” Tom Mattusch, owner and captain of the Huli Cat
The crystal ball is a bit cloudy for this year’s recreational salmon fishing season. But when it comes to coastal deep sea fishing, you don’t need a psychic to predict a great summer ahead.
The deep sea fishing season for rockfish and lingcod opens April 1, with a forecast of banner limit catches. Salmon season south of Pigeon Point in San Mateo County and in Monterey Bay opens two days later, on April 3, and comes with a lot of uncertainty this year: Forecasts show low salmon abundance, and with no fishing for the past six months, nobody knows for sure where the fish might be lurking.
Out of the Golden Gate, the salmon season was originally scheduled to open in early April as well, but with projections showing less than half the adult fish in the ocean as marine biologists would like to see, it was postponed earlier this month by the Pacific Fishery Management Council. The council will set this year’s seasons later in April, and according to insiders, the season opener for the Golden Gate fleet could be delayed well into June.
For most coastal anglers, salmon are No. 1 on the ticket, and with the current regulations, there could be a window out of Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay.
“We’re hoping desperately to find some salmon below Pigeon Point to Davenport in April and May,” said Tom Mattusch, owner
and captain of the Huli Cat and a member of the San Mateo Harbor Commission. “The rest of the season for the state looks like it will be curtailed.”
While COVID restrictions limit the number of anglers on party boats, most trips will cost a bit
more this year — in the range of $200 per person. Because of the unknowns for the salmon season, charter boat operations across the Bay Area say bookings are down, especially compared to the start of the Dungeness crab season last winter.
Monterey Bay salmon
At its March meeting, the fishery council forecast that 271,000 adult salmon would be available off the Bay Area and Monterey coasts — well below the general target of about 500,000 needed for a successful recreational season.
There is no official statement about the decline, but most blame drought and water diversions three years ago. Those factors caused poor spawning and low rates of survival among hatcheryreleased smolts in their downstream migration from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers out the Golden Gate to the ocean.
In Monterey Bay, prospects are always best early in the season, then wane as summer arrives and the salmon migrate north.
The sea conditions off Monterey appear ideal, with a water temperature of 53.4 degrees. Whale watching trips have noted recent up
welling along the edge of the Monterey Submarine Canyon, and skippers will look for schools of anchovies as the primary feed along the edge of the canyon, east of Moss Landing.
For the salmon opener, boats will head out from Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, Moss Landing and Monterey. The minimum size limit for salmon is 24 inches with a twofish limit.
“Traditionally, fishing
in the Monterey management area is better early in the season,” said Harry Morse, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. As summer arrives, the salmon then arrive within range of San Francisco, Fort Bragg, and along Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
Deep sea opener
Though rockfish and lingcod don’t get the
public’s attention like salmon does, the news for next Thursday’s deep sea opener is the best in years, with improved fish stocks and many areas reopening to fishing.
“The good news for 2021 is groundfish populations are rebounding,” said CDFW Senior Environmental Scientist Caroline McKnight.
Of the eight stocks that were declared overfished in the early
2000s, all but one — yelloweye rockfish — has been declared rebuilt today, McKnight said.
The primary fishing grounds off the Bay Area coast are the Deep Reef out of Half Moon Bay, the reefs near the Farallon Islands and Duxbury Reef off the Marin Coast.
For years off the Bay Area, fishing for rockfish has been limited to shallow reefs, no deeper than 240 feet, with a number of areas off limits to protect the large, slowergrowing species that roam the depths. Those rockfish species have recovered in population numbers, according to the CDFW, to expand fishing areas by an additional 300 feet of depth. That depth has been off limits to anglers for more than a decade.
“This is going to open up a lot of new real estate for fishing,” Mattusch said. “It’s really going to help at the Deep Reef, the Farallones, and up and down the coast.”
About the only thing that could spoil a deep sea trip, Mattusch said, would be strong winds pushing big swells and rough seas. One anomaly this spring is the cold water off the Bay Area coast — as cold as 50 degrees — which is a product of both La Niña and upwelling set off by winds out of the northwest, skippers say.
Amid the news of improved rockfish populations, many simplifications for bag limits will take effect for the coming season, said Melanie Parker, who works for the marine region of CDFW.