Declining fish numbers in some waterways, including Smith River, raises eyebrows but this winter their have seen their best salmon returns since the 1970s. According to the California Department of Fish and Game and local biologists this run was a good start of business for the fishermen. The revival of freshwater recreational fishing is especially important for areas like Crescent City, which 30 years ago was a booming forestry and commercial-fishing town.
In the past 20 years, environmental restrictions curtailed the timber industry, and the trawl-net fishery collapsed, with the local fleet chasing ocean-bottom fish shrinking from 16 boats to four. The unemployment rate rises in Del Norte County, where Crescent City is located. The new bounty of Chinook salmon began early last fall and stretched through the end of the year, when fish crowded waterways from California’s Central Valley near Sacramento to the coastal streams north of the Oregon border.
Scientists say salmon remain imperiled, and that some fish populations in California are extinct or nearing extinction. What is clear is that this winter’s huge salmon runs have drawn legions of fishermen, creating business for fishing guides, tackle shops and motels in many small towns in the region. State regulations aim to protect the Smith run from overfishing by limiting anglers to killing one salmon a day, and requiring them to throw back any wild steelhead, a sea-going rainbow trout that draws fishermen to the region.
