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Random Quote: It is a theoretical impossibility to catch fish without beer.
The President of our Steelheaders Chapter was out on the West Coast last week and found out that CA is trying to stop all salmon fishing. Something about getting salmon from fish pens, anyone want to fill me in on what's going on or where I can go on the web to find out more?
The reason being that us Great Lakes salmon fishermen normally get behind the west coast anglers with letters to Government officials and whatever.
Its all about the inability to manage the Klamath river water shed and the poor condition of the river, IE; low flow, warm water, dams etc. and hence, the dwindling returns of salmon.
The Klamath river originates at Klamath lake in Klamath Falls, Oregon, where water is siphoned for irregation purposes. It then flows down river through two dams. Then excessive logging
in the caost range on Northern Cali. All of this has contributed to the decline of Klamath river returning fish. They are lobbying to close comercial salmon ocean fishing from Cali. to Cape Falcon
in Oregon because the Klamath river fish migrate that direction. The real problem is, they (all who are contributing) need to fix the river, period. If they stop harvest in the ocean and the river
stays the same, the decline will continue. If it were me, I would blow out those dams, and make them stop siphoning for irrigation. Oh, and the sport fisherman are staring at a reduced or no
ocean season as well. The bright side to that, if there is one, is that the bay and river fishing in the fall in Oregon could be stellar.
It looks like we will have a reasonably normal sport Salmon season (thanks to Coastside Fishing Club, all 12,000 of us), but things look pretty bleak for the commercial trollers. We're fishing Salmon in State waters right now (up to three miles out), and should get the Federal waters to open up on May 1.
Thanks guys. We have our Board Meeting tommarrow and our Pres. will be bringing more information on it. Our salmon population here is on the brink too. The salmon in Lake Huron virtually all dissapeared because of no bait thanks to the cormorants, commercial netters (Ontario), and so on. The size of the salmon on Lake Michigan was alot smaller last year and were kinda waiting to see what happens this year. No one knows if it'll crash like Huron or not. What Pi$$es me off is that after the DNR gets done with thier multi year studies, the fishery is already in the toilet.
Tight lines guys....send some pics of those salty salmon and I'll send some "no salt" pics.
Greg
Cali's ocean salmon stocks are very very strong. The problem (as mentioned above) is the farms along the klamath river and the federal government allowing them to drain water below the necessary levels for the salmon to spawn in the Klamath River. There were some years (2002) when the fish could reach parts of the river to spawn and all the fish died before spawning. Salmon stocks in the Klamath have not returned to acceptable levels, so the government decided that it would be a great idea to close salmon season permenantly until stocks rebounded. Keep in mind that 2 out of every 1000 ocean salmon spawn in the Klamath River.
Someone did a economic comparison b/w the value of the salmon season vs. the farms. Recreation salmon season (not including commerical fishing) gernerates 700million dollars (noaa study) vs. the farms 30million (can't remember the exact figures but that is in the ball park). In April a judge ruled that those farms can no longer drain the river during times of drought, so it looks like things are goign to workout.
Another cause of the declining fish populations wouldn't happen to be that the once 40,000 sea lion population has been allowed to grow to ten times that much would it? Hmmm, I wonder what 400,000 smelly sea dogs EAT?! It's so good that they're protected now.
Here is a good review of the issues..Same as in the Northwest..Development, water-use practices, dams and lost habitat combined with poor ocean conditions = few fish.
The CA Central Valley king salmon population has collapsed, with returning fish numbers down over 90% from 5 or 6 years ago. It's not clear what happend, but everyone agrees it's not due to overfishing. The best theories point to increasing Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta diversions to Southern CA and unfavorable ocean conditions possibly linked to global warming. (I said "possibly." No need for a global warming rant. I'm not sure what to think about it either.)
It looks like ocean and delta salmon fishing will be prohibited for the foreseeable future, or nearly so, for CA and OR, which may focus fishing pressure on remaining species with a possible domino effect. It's a total drag. (No pun intended.)
Well . . . it's a real kick in the balls. I spent $2500 and 1.5 years getting a commercial salmon permit transfered to one of my boats. Finally happened last July and now the season is closed for good :/ I wonder what . . . if anything they'll do for commercial salmon fishermen that are SOL because of the regs. Last year was weird . . . the salmon showed up really late. There were a bunch of fish that showed up outside the gate close to christmas???? (Way after the season had closed). It's probably a combination of a lot of factors here . . . I think people think they have a LOT more effect on fish population . . . than we really do . . . (except for when we build damns blocking the rivers or when the farmers pulled all the water in the Klamath like in 2002)
California Salmon Ban???? 
