Salmon Highway primed for big weekend
When it comes to salmon fishing, some days you’re the baseball and some days you’re the bat. Yet enough anglers have hit it out of the park this week to spark hope for the annual latesummer run on the Salmon Highway, the migratory route through the Golden Gate, into the delta and upstream to the rivers of their birth.
In the past week, a number
of boats have hit it just right at midmorning, trolling just north of the channel buoys, a staging area for the Salmon Highway, and caught limits for all aboard, often in twohour sprees.
A trip on the Argo out of Fisherman’s Wharf had a poignant ending. After all 15 anglers caught 30 salmon, Capt. Craig Hanson gathered the crew together and said, “Jacky Douglas, the legendary captain of the Wacky Jacky, is retired now and is my neighbor. Wouldn’t it be great to give her a salmon?” The vote was unanimous, and that evening, Hanson presented Jacky with a prize salmon.
Not all the trips have had such happy endings. On Sunday, for instance, a check with 10 salmon boats out of Bay Area harbors showed that 103 anglers caught 117 salmon. Within those numbers were all matters of limits, skunks and everything in between.
That’s how it is this year. The one constant is that the fish are chromebright with beautiful red flesh. On most trips, it takes a 15 to 25pounder to win the pot.
This weekend, the marine forecast is calling for clearing skies, calmer seas and warmer temperatures for the coast. In addition, the moon is dark this weekend, which many believe favors good fishing. A new moon arrives Sunday, and the next full moon is more than two weeks away.
From bay harbors, salmon trips are also available out of Sausalito, Berkeley and Emeryville. Since the onset of the pandemic, captains have taken smaller groups with plenty of elbow room, where every other rod holder is often kept open, at a higher price than in the past. For the most part, the price for a salmon trip is $200.
Out of San Francisco, it can be common to have a few newcomers aboard who may not know a salmon from a guppy. Deckhands can have their hands full and yet it seems everybody is looking out for one another.
On a recent day, Hanson guided his boat out of the Golden Gate near the channel buoys. The rods were set up to troll — the best way to cover the largest area of water in the shortest amount of time. By midmorning, there were a few salmon in the box, and Hanson said not to fear, “the best bite has been starting around 10 a.m.”
Sure enough, for a twohour stretch, 10 a.m. to noon, there was a nonstop procession of hookups, singles, doubles and triples, until the boat had limits for all aboard.
That is, with one extra special salmon heading straight to the dinner table of Wacky Jacky Douglas.