The only Central Valley salmon fishing season allowed last year has been declared a success.
Due to a sharp decline in fall-run chinook, fishery managers allowed anglers to catch salmon only on the Sacramento River during November and December, and only between Knights Landing and Red Bluff. The goal was to allow limited fishing for a different species, the late fall-run, whose population is stable.
Department of Fish and Game officials said Thursday this limited season achieved its aims, with anglers harvesting 2,400 chinook during the period. An additional 100 were caught and released. Coded wire tags and scale samples collected from the harvested fish indicated these were late-fall chinook, and that anglers successfully avoided any major contact with the depleted fall run and endangered winter run.
Further analysis showed 71 percent of the harvest consisted of hatchery-raised salmon.
Of the coded tags collected, all but one was a late-fall salmon from the Coleman National Hatchery. That one exception was a winter-run salmon.
In total, the department reported that fishing efforts more than doubled due to the compressed season in the limited area, and the harvest increased slightly compared with the average since 1998.
– Matt Weiser
http://www.sacbee.com/fishing_hunting/stor...Fishing/Hunting
Due to a sharp decline in fall-run chinook, fishery managers allowed anglers to catch salmon only on the Sacramento River during November and December, and only between Knights Landing and Red Bluff. The goal was to allow limited fishing for a different species, the late fall-run, whose population is stable.
Department of Fish and Game officials said Thursday this limited season achieved its aims, with anglers harvesting 2,400 chinook during the period. An additional 100 were caught and released. Coded wire tags and scale samples collected from the harvested fish indicated these were late-fall chinook, and that anglers successfully avoided any major contact with the depleted fall run and endangered winter run.
Further analysis showed 71 percent of the harvest consisted of hatchery-raised salmon.
Of the coded tags collected, all but one was a late-fall salmon from the Coleman National Hatchery. That one exception was a winter-run salmon.
In total, the department reported that fishing efforts more than doubled due to the compressed season in the limited area, and the harvest increased slightly compared with the average since 1998.
– Matt Weiser
http://www.sacbee.com/fishing_hunting/stor...Fishing/Hunting
