Salmon season opened on Saturday in the Klamath Management Zone, which stretches from the Oregon border to Horse Mountain, located just north of Shelter Cove. The return of a healthy sport fishing season is excellent news for anglers and businesses in the region. Experts said that for the last three years, salmon fishing has been relatively nonexistent on the north coast due to fishery restrictions designed to protect California salmon stocks and a lack of local salmon in near shore areas.
Weather plays major part in the success fishing in the season. And this give fair opportunity to the anglers to pursue salmon from Crescent City to Fields Landing with “hit-or-miss” catches reported. On Sunday, the weather turned stormy and those few salmon anglers who ventured out on the rough seas returned early from their trip without much luck.
Ed Roberts, DFG associate marine biologist, said that the start of salmon season is promising, weather hampered anglers on Sunday, but on Saturday most boats landed a few legal fish and also released some undersized fish. Anglers reported that cold water conditions and scattered bait made locating schools of salmon difficult.
As the season proceeds, waters are expected to warm and anglers will be better able to locate schools of bait and salmon. Spring weather is notoriously difficult to predict while summer days normally bring calmer seas. Wardens checking anglers found good overall compliance with salmon regulations.
