Let’s Go Fishin’: Short-term salmon prospects look promising

The returning numbers from last fall for Chinook salmon are promising, while future years may be of concern. The counts have come in from the Sacramento River and its tributaries and they were higher than expected.
The Klamath and Trinity River also had strong returns of salmon and this year’s predictions look good.
The Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) reported 212,000 adult salmon returned to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries in 2014. PFMC added that 10,000 adults returned to the San Joaquin, Mokelumne, and other Central Valley rivers.
The 2014 adult salmon return and escapement exceeded the minimum goal set by fishery managers of 122,000 to 180,000 fish.
This year, the returning numbers look to be even stronger, based on the number of “jack” salmon. The “jack” salmon is a two-year-old fish that returns one year early and usually makes up 25 percent of the population.
Based on the number of jacks that returned, there may possibly be 800,000 salmon from the Sacramento, out at sea as three-year-old fish. These numbers are prior to any take by sport and commercial fishermen and leads for a high number of escapement and positive returns for the fall of 2015.
The Klamath River had positive returns as well, based on fishery managers that were shooting for a minimum escapement of 40,700 natural adult spawners. They ended up with more than twice that at 95,330. And another 31,000 adult salmon returned to the hatchery.
The 2015 season is set to open April 4, and at this time will be held. A recent salmon information meeting took place on Thursday, Feb. 26 in Santa Rosa.
Fishery managers from the PFMC, NMFS, and advisory councils reviewed collected data.
Two more meetings will be held — one in March the other in April — to come to a formal decision on sport and commercial regulations to be set for the 2015 salmon season.
At this time, the sport salmon season is set to open on Saturday, April 4 off the California coast south of Horse Mountain, near Shelter Cove in southern Humboldt County.
While this sounds good for the 2015 season, the long-term prospects for salmon are of a concern.
The drought is an obvious one; however my biggest concern is the warm water outside central and northern California.
As juvenile salmon migrate to sea, they are greeted by warm-water species, a lack of fresh upwelling, and no plankton to feed on.
We will enjoy salmon this summer and hope for positive returns during the years to come.
– Mike Baxter has fished in the Monterey Bay Area since he was a boy and has been a licensed charter boat captain for more than 15 years. Contact him at [email protected].