Auburn, California
Okay salmon fans, here's a little number that you're going to like - 1.6
million.
That's the number of fall-run Central Valley Chinook salmon that the
Department of Fish & Game is estimating are out there in the ocean right
now, getting ready to run up our rivers this summer and fall.
Let me run that by you again... 1.6 million! That lofty figure comes from the
DFG's recently-released preseason evaluations of the 2005 Chinook salmon
abundance and is over two times our seven-year average.
One of the main factors pointing to a big return of kings this season is the
extremely high number of 2-year old "jacks" that entered the
Sacramento River and its tributaries in 2004. Jacks are kings that return to
freshwater a year early to provide some genetic diversity to the run. They are
fully capable of spawning and will die afterward, just like a full-grown
salmon.
The main difference is jacks, because they are only two years old, are always
small - say 2 to 10 pounds or so. Anybody who did even a little salmon fishing
in the ocean or our local rivers last year knows what I'm talking about here.
The Sacramento, Feather and American rivers were totally overrun with the
little guys and I'll bet I didn't get 20 fish over 20 pounds in about 100 days
of fishing last season. The big "jack attack" was all the local
guides could talk about at the boat ramp in 2004.
There was, however, a silver lining to all those small salmon last season...
According to Allen Grover, a biologist with the DFG, a high number of jacks
one season is generally a pretty good indication that the next year's run will
also be large. To that end, it is estimated that a whopping 84,000 jacks
ascended the Sacramento, Feather, American and San Joaquin rivers and other
tributaries last year.
If the 2005 salmon run comes even close to the DFG's preliminary estimates, we
could be in for an absolutely epic year of fishing. Of those 1.6 million fish,
over 846,000 of those fish should be bound for the Sacramento River alone!
There are other factors that contributed to the big number of fish out in the
ocean and one is favorable feeding conditions in the saltwater. For a large
number of predatory fish to reach adulthood, there must have been an abundance
of krill, squid, anchovies, sardines and other feed in the sea over the past
few years.
We also had big returns and a good spawn in 2002, the year that this
season's crop of fish was hatched and juvenile survival rates in the rivers
must have also been higher than normal. Of course, salmon runs are cyclic, so
we may just also be in a natural "high" period as well.
Whatever the reason, I'm just excited about the prospects of a banner salmon
season. Better start getting those hooks sharpened!
qqq
J.D. Richey is a 1986 Placer High graduate, and his outdoors pieces have been
published nationally. He can be found on the Web at http://www.thesportfisher.com/.