Yuba Salmon?

[Natekursow]

I've heard mixed reports, and don't want to do anything illegal so I thought I'd check here :) This upcoming fall, is it legal to do C&R fishing for the salmon on the lower Yuba river? Thanks!

NK

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Some years ago there were far more salmon and steelhead in the lower Yuba river.

[Mark Kranhold]

If it were me I’d leave the salmon alone on the Yuba and let them do their thing, that is what’s left of natural wild spawning salmon on the Yuba. The Yuba gets strays but why fish it since our salmon are on a spiraling decline across the west coast, let em be! To add to it our water shortage this year will also effect the fishery this season through fall.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Yes, we need more wild salmon and less hatchery salmon.

[Tony Buzolich]

This past week there have been loads of terns and gulls diving on schools of smolt at the mouth of the Yuba. I don't know what kind of smolt they're eating but they can't be too large. No, they're not shad. One of those terns couldn't pick a shad up and there were no pelican around either.

So what kind of smolt are they, salmon. steelhead, maybe even squawfish ?
Tony

[Brian Clemens]

It is 100% illegal to target salmon on the Yuba. If you accidently hook one, I'd recommend breaking it off as you are probably using 4 or 5x and landing it will take an easy hr and that fish will never make it to spawn, let alone make it that day. If you by chance land it, taking it out of the water for a pic is considered catch and keep per dfg and is felony poaching. Personally I'd recommend leaving them alone. The Yuba use to get 25k and more salmon, now the run is down to 3-5k, we need every one of them to spawn successfully. Target the egg eating trouts and let the salmon do their thing.

[PV_Premier]

It is 100% illegal to target salmon on the Yuba.

Here, here...this tells you all you need to know.

Back in my early days of Yuba fishing the egg bite, I accidentally flossed a jack salmon in the jaw, probably 5-10# range. I was on 2-3x and it straightened the sh*t out of my hook after a 15' tussle. Thought it would break my rod. Never again. Every once in awhile you will hook one in the back egg fishing, just break them off as you will never land them and you will just harm them in the process. If you hook onto their backs you are not doing it right anyways.

If you are trying to swing a chinook, you could do better numbers wise and legality wise on another river.

[Mark Kranhold]

Perfect, let em be!

[Jcolin]

It is 100% illegal to target salmon on the Yuba. If you accidently hook one, I'd recommend breaking it off as you are probably using 4 or 5x and landing it will take an easy hr and that fish will never make it to spawn, let alone make it that day. If you by chance land it, taking it out of the water for a pic is considered catch and keep per dfg and is felony poaching. Personally I'd recommend leaving them alone. The Yuba use to get 25k and more salmon, now the run is down to 3-5k, we need every one of them to spawn successfully. Target the egg eating trouts and let the salmon do their thing.

Is it really a felony to poach salmon? I thought the penalty for POS’s poaching wild steelhead (and I've seen my fair share of that living on the Russian river) was basically a slap on the wrist. It would warm my heart so much to know that the few that get caught get charged with a felony, of course I always call CALTIP to report them but doubt that has once resulted in a fine. As an aside, I remember reading in the press democrat about a dude who was arrested further up the coast in Manchester for a big pot bust up on the Garcia river, they found a bunch of wild steelhead from the river with the adipose fins sliced off in his freezer. He was a member of the Stornetta family too. I'm sure he was facing serious charges but figured it was more from the weed than the poaching.

[Natekursow]

Thank you for the information! I didn't realize that the run was down that much:eek: I'll take your advice on this and let it be. Thanks again!

NK

[Lucas Dement]

its a shame its not a slap on wrist with a machete :rolleyes:

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The Sacramento and the Feather rivers have good salmon runs in the Fall.

[Jcolin]

Anybody swing flies for them on the klamath? My buddy got a nice jack when we were on the lower klamath last october

[Brian Clemens]

I offer an all inclusive trip in the lower 30miles on the Klamath, while we aren't targeting salmon during these trips, we do get jack salmon while swinging for steelhead. We also get them on the trinity swinging too. It's all about timing, right place, right time and the right fish. I bet if we actually tried targeting them we would be more consistent on hooking them. It's just by catch right now. The lower in the system you are or closer to the ocean, your chances of hooking a salmon on the swing are much more probable. I'd say get out there, fish it in the lower stretches and be ready. Just watch for water temps, I don't recommend fishing anything over 67degs. Fish early fish hard and take the rest of the day off. If temps are feasible fish the last hr or 2 of light, water temps dependant of course. The water temps will be a huge issue this year, and typically after about 1 or 2pm it's to hot to fish.

[winxp_man]

Yes, we need more wild salmon and less hatchery salmon.

For this to work Bill, there might have to be a closure to commercial fishing, and sport fishing. The keeping part anyways. Rivers are far too messed up to sustain natural wild runs of salmon in my knowledge of reading about this subject. Down here in the valley anyways. To back up my statement the eel river that has been off limits to keeping since the removal of the hatchery system has done just enough to get some fish back. But not even a faction of what historical numbers where just as far back as 1930-1940’s. And the rivers up there are far better shape to natural vs us in the valley. Just a though.

[Rossflyguy]

For this to work Bill, there might have to be a closure to commercial fishing, and sport fishing. The keeping part anyways. Rivers are far too messed up to sustain natural wild runs of salmon in my knowledge of reading about this subject. Down here in the valley anyways. To back up my statement the eel river that has been off limits to keeping since the removal of the hatchery system has done just enough to get some fish back. But not even a faction of what historical numbers where just as far back as 1930-1940’s. And the rivers up there are far better shape to natural vs us in the valley. Just a though.

That’s because California is the only state on the west coast of North America who doesn’t do actual ocean take counts. Instead California would just GUESS the dang numbers of commercial and recreational ocean take. There should be a salmon card for the whole state so we see actual numbers being harvested and not estimates that seem to be wrong every year.

[Bob Smith]

We do know California commercial harvest which is both under quotas and requires operators to maintain accurate records. Party boat and guides also have to maintain daily logs and submit them annually. You are correct about not requiring actual punch cards for recreational ocean take. Those figures are estimates based on fish checker, party boat data (actual) and math (statistics) which estimate take. There's actually a lot of smart people that do the guessing (and care about salmon).

There's a lot of good info on the PFMC website and you can find estimates here (page 25): https://www.pcouncil.org/documents/2021/03/2021-preseason-report-i.pdf/

I realize your point is that due to drought, freshwater habitat, water use policies, ocean conditions and climate change, California salmon populations aren't sustainable, at least enough to support harvest. The Klamath will lose much of the Fall 2020 brood year production due to disease exacerbated by water temperatures and drought. It's 108 in Happy Camp today... ugh.

[Rossflyguy]

If you’ve read this document then you should be furious. Over 500k salmon harvested the last two years when pre harvest estimates where’s supposed to be in the 300k in that time frame? That’s not including the anglers that get missed by DFG survey as stated in your report. Not to mention all the other estimates for Klamath run and coho run were drastically miscalculated to the actual returns. My statement is solidified by this. Business driven people run our fisheries. Not the outdoorsmen. Thank you for that report. It’s worse than I thought.

[Bob Smith]

It's an imperfect science - especially when salmon split their time between freshwater and marine (where ocean conditions are ever changing and various stocks mix). California salmon have many many issues impacting them including (and especially) being entangled in the ugly politics of water.

Anyone can chose to get involved - the PFMC process is all inclusive with all of the stakeholders are at the table; ocean and river recreational anglers, party boat operators, commercial industry, tribes and the environmental community. While far from perfect, the process has successfully recovered several rockfish stocks on the West Coast.

[Rossflyguy]

Yea but rockfish are much different than salmon which you obviously know. I’m sure there are far better ways to figure out harvest numbers than guessing each year. It clearly isn’t working if we don’t even know if we’re over harvesting salmon and figuring out how many fish are actually returning. The state government doesn’t want that because it’ll put a spot light on the water management for salmon.

This goes back to the importance of hatcheries. If we can’t even monitor actual hatchery harvest numbers and guessing is the solution to official return numbers we’re gonna be talking about wild salmon as an extinct fish along with hatchery salmon.