fishing planet alaska chinooks where is the bend

“There’s nothing else like a wide-open salmon bite,” he said.Ĭhinook salmon caught by two recreational anglers off the San Mateo County coastline in 2017. “Our customers want salmon,” he said, adding that last year, his customers caught roughly 2,000 Chinook.ĭavis, 53, who has fished all his life, said the thrill of salmon fishing never grows old. The closure, Davis said, “is going to be devastating to my business.” He said he will “try to scrape together a season” by targeting other species, like rockfish, lingcod, halibut and striped bass, but generating interest in catching these fish will be a challenge. Salmon season usually runs from May through October. Last year, the industry’s economic value was an estimated $460 million for fish sales and related businesses, including restaurants, tackle shops, private fishing guides, campgrounds and other services. In response to crashing Chinook populations, a council of West Coast fishery managers plans to cancel this year’s salmon season in California, which will put hundreds of commercial fishermen and women out of work in Northern California and turn the summer into a bummer for thousands of recreational anglers. Last year, California’s commercial and recreational fishing fleet, from the Central Coast to the Oregon border, landed about 300,000 salmon.īut this year, Davis and other salmon anglers won’t be fishing for salmon at all. Hooked Chinook thrash at the surface, and the deck becomes strewn with flopping fish. On the best days, fishing rods bend double the moment the lines go down, and a frenzy of action ensues, often amid a hundred or more other boats.

When the bite is steady, the Salty Lady may have 20 customers on board, each spending $200 for the chance to catch salmon. “Drop ‘em down!” Davis calls out the window. When the signs look good, he throttles down to trolling speed and tells his customers to let out their lines. His eyes sweep the horizon, looking for diving birds, but mostly he watches the screen of his dashboard fish-finder for schools of anchovies - a sure sign that salmon are near. Most summer mornings at first light, Jared Davis is a few miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, motoring his charter fishing boat Salty Lady over the Pacific Ocean.

Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters Jared Davis stands beside his charter fishing boat, Salty Lady, as it sits in dry dock in Richmond on Mar.

Fishing planet alaska chinooks where is the bend