State officials ban fall-run fishing until November 

Redding Record Searchlight

May 10, 2008

MONTEREY — Central Valley recreational salmon anglers — along with the guides and ancillary businesses that rely on them — will get a crack at hooking one late-fall king salmon a day on one stretch of the Sacramento River during a truncated season from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.

The California Fish and Game Commission on Friday unanimously adopted an unprecedented closure for fall-run salmon within all Central Valley spawning waters of the Sacramento River Watershed — including the Feather and American rivers — with the exception of a shortened, late-fall-run season on a stretch of the Sacramento River .

“This is unprecedented to do to a salmon run,” said commission president Richard Rogers. “This kind of situation is particularly painful for each and every commission member, because each and every member is an outdoors person.

“But our charge is to the sustainable abundance of every species in the state.”

The commission’s decision comes after the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) severely curtailed salmon fishing along the entire West Coast in April. It marked the first time the PFMC has taken such a drastic step and basically shutters salmon fishing — both commercial and recreational.

Speculation was that commissioners would follow the PFMC and not allow recreational anglers to keep a single salmon this season. But commissioners decided that a partial season for late-fall fish — there are four distinct runs within the Sacramento River Watershed — would pose little threat to the fall-run fish and would keep open the opportunity for recreational anglers to bag some fish.

Still, salmon closures in the ocean and within inland waters will mean an estimated economic impact of $255 million to the state, with a loss of an estimated 2,263 jobs, said Department of Fish and Game fisheries branch manger Neil Manji.

This season, recreational anglers will be allowed to keep one late-fall king, or chinook, salmon a day from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 from 150 feet below the Sycamore Boat Ramp in Red Bluff, just downstream of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, to the Knights Landing Boat Launch in Yolo County .

“It’s a one-fish limit, one-fish bag limit,” Manji said. “Once that fish is consumed, the angler can then go out and fish for another one.”

The traditional daily bag limit was two fish per day for fall-run and late-fall-run salmon.

“We’ll be able to get some people out on the river for salmon, which is good,” said Bill Divens, who along with his wife, Julie, owns Salmon King Lodge and Guide Service in Red Bluff. “Still, we’re going to push people to just be out on the river, push them toward steelhead and salmon trips. Besides that, we’ve got our permit to fish on ( Lake ) Shasta, so I’m sure we’ll squeak by.”

While a partial season was welcomed by anglers, the specific stretch of river open to fishing soured many longtime guides.

“What do I think? I think we just got screwed,” said Redding guide Mark Mlcoch. “We’ve lost 30 miles of river that was just great for those late-fall fish. And now, all that pressure is going to be on that stretch of river for those late-fall fish — and that’s an area you normally have to sneak around to catch fish.

“It’s going to be tough, and we’ll just have to do the best we can do.”

Divens said he was concerned that there would not be some sort of punch-card that would regulate the take.

“That run is just going to get hammered,” he said. “And I’m concerned without a punch-card, well, that’s going to be a problem.”

While the PFMC sets the ocean season, the state’s inland salmon season is decided by the commission, with input from the National Marine Fisheries Council and the PFMC. The commission sets its regulations every three years and is midway through its current regulation cycle.

But each year, supplements to the sportfishing regulations are released in May and June to specifically address changes to the ocean and inland salmon regulations, according to the Fish and Game Commission Web site. The seasons are set in a way that shelters protected spring-run and winter-run fish that also enter the Sacramento River watershed to spawn.

And now, those supplemental regulations will protect the fall-run fish that have seen a historic collapse over the past two years.

Salmon season along the Sacramento River traditionally opened July 16 of each year from 150 feet below the Sycamore Boat Ramp to the Carquinez Bridge in San Francisco Bay for fall-run fish. The river then opened on Aug. 1 from 500 feet upstream of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam to the Deschutes Road Bridge .

The fall-run season below the Red Bluff Diversion Dam traditionally closed Dec. 31 each year; the late-fall season from above the dam to the Deschutes Road Bridge traditionally closed on Jan. 15.

Historically, 1 million to 3 million chinook salmon spawn each year in the streams and tributaries that branch from the Sacramento River . But this year, just 50,000 are expected to return to the Central Valley river systems to spawn.

Only about 90,000 adult salmon returned to the Sacramento River and its tributaries to spawn last year, the second-lowest number on record and well below the government’s conservation goals. That’s down from 277,000 in 2006 and a record high of 804,000 in 2002.

Biologists are predicting that this year’s salmon returns could be even lower because the number of returning young males, known as “jacks,” hit an all-time low last year. About 2,000 were recorded, which is far below the 40,000 counted in a typical year.

“This is going to be expensive to fix politically,” said DFG chief deputy director John McCamman. “It’s going to be expensive to fix, period.

“But we need to invest in the root cause of the problem, and not just the symptoms.”

Experts are unclear about what caused the collapse. Some marine scientists have said the salmon declines can be attributed in part to unusual weather patterns that have disrupted the marine food chain in the ocean along the Pacific coast. But anglers, environmental groups and American Indians put the blame on poor water quality and water diversions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Specifically, they say, the massive pumping of water to the San Francisco Bay area and Southern California has altered the flows and temperature of the delta’s rivers and streams where salmon smolts reside until they move to the ocean and mature.

Anglers at the commission meeting in Monterey said they feared the restrictions wouldn’t be lifted in subsequent years. But commissioners pointed to the die-off of salmon in the Klamath River Watershed in 2006 — and proposed regulations this year that call for an allotment of more than 20,000 fish to be caught by anglers on the Klamath and Trinity rivers.

“We have a suite of options to choose from,” Manji said. “But fishing looks very good this year. All indications are for full fishing on the Klamath.”

The Klamath River regulations will be finalized by the commission during its June 26-27 meeting in Sacramento .

Reporter Thom Gabrukiewicz can be reached at 225-8230 or at tgabrukiewicz@redding.com.

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