The weather was nearly dead calm on Wednesday 5-16 with just 5 knots of breeze over a 4 foot swell. Excellent spring time weather! Rick on the New Sea Angler ran south and put in limits of mostly coppers, browns and vermilions adding 9 lings to 11 pounds. Rick did reset some crab pots and will be running gear on some future trips. How often they run the gear will depend on  the numbers they are seeing. Rick has space available.

The weather laid out over the weekend and the forecast looks great for the coming days. On Tuesday 5-15 Jeff was running the Samantha Irene. He ran north to Fort Ross and reported " some of the biggest, strike that.... the BIGGEST blues I have ever seen". They landed easy limits of rockfish but the lings were not cooperating. Jeff said he tried shallow, deep and in between. They ran swimbaits, trap rigs and soaking smaller rockfish for hitchhikers and only got one bite and one ling to the boat. Jeff has room daily and the forecast looks great. 707 245-1157
Rick on the New Sea Angler has a ton of space on Wednesday. 707 875-3344
This writer is sneaking off to our vacation home on the Kenai peninsula. We will be chasing kings on the local rivers and attending good friend Captain Steve Smith daughter's Kaylee wedding. We will be leaving the laptop at home and will return with full reports here on June 1st.
In the time being please contact our sponsors or visit their websites for current reports, information and bookings.
Until then... good fishing!
Mike Aughney

On Monday 5-14 Rick on the New Sea Angler ran south to Point Reyes. Rick reported 9 limits of all reds, coppers and bottom dwellers adding 7 lings to 17 pounds. Rick says that despite the great fishing Bodega is a ghost town. Rick said as he ran by the Westside launch ramp this morning "there was one boat in the entire parking lot and they were launching a couple of kayaks". 
On Mothers Day Jeff Caramella was at the helm of the Samantha Irene and reported 6 limits of HUGE blacks to 6 pounds, canary and vermilions plus limits of lings. Here on Sunday evening the fog has pushed in and winds are calm. Rick's next trip is on Wednesday and he has just six people on the books at this time. If you are looking to fish with a light load NOW is the time.

After a "touch of breeze" on Monday Rick on the New Sea Angler reported great fishing and weather on Tuesday 5-8. Rick took a light load of 11 anglers to Point Reyes where they scored limits of lings to 15 pounds and limits of quality rockfish. Rick reports the winds laid out overnight and the weather was calm.
 
On Monday Rick on the Sea Angler went north. The weather was a tad breezy with 12 to 15 knots of wind but the swell was under five feet. Rick said they had a mixed bag of reds and school fish for 14 limits adding 16 lings to 12 pounds.

 The fishing is hot and the sea conditions have been calm for the past several days. On Saturday 5-5 Rick on the New Sea Angler 24 limits of all quality rockies adding 19 lings to 17 pounds fishing at Pt Reyes.
Captain Jeff Caramella ran in the opposite direction to Timber Cover and reported limits of lings to 15 pounds and BIG blacks, vermilions and every other color of the rainbow.
Both Rick and Jeff have room all this coming week.
 

The weather was great and so was the action on the New Sea Angler on Friday 5-3. Rick ran south to Point Reyes and reported 25 limits of all quality rockfish adding 42 lings to 16 pounds. Rick said they saw mostly browns, vermilions, big quillback and china cod. Rick said the weather was great and he is seeing lots of good salmon sign of krill and brown water. Until June 17th we will have to enjoy white meat but this writer can's wait for that first krill fed salmon on the BQ  in about six weeks.

Rick has room all this coming week. 707 875-3344
Jeff on the Samantha Irene also has room this week.  707 245-1157

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Salmon season setting process is underway
The salmon season setting process is underway and the news is a mix of "the good (Klamath jack counts way up), the bad (Sac Valley projections) and the ugly (government spin)".
Ocean abundance estimates for the Sac Valley are nearly identical to last year at 230,000 fish for 2018. This is the forecasted number of adults in the ocean at this time and below what is needed to allow for a full season by sport and recreational anglers. (I am rounding all numbers for this story).
The good news is that the Klamath saw far higher jack counts than expected and the adult ocean adundanace forecast estimates there are 359000 swimming off the west coast.
California fishery managers want us to believe that drought and the old standby term of  "poor ocean conditions" are solely to blame. This is where I call bullshit.
Yes, drought has had a severe impact on our fisheries but so has the complete mismanagement of water releases from our states largest reservoirs.
In 2014, federal and state biologists estimate that 95% of the upper Sacramento river salmon spawn died in the gravel or soon after emerging due to too hot of flows being released from Shasta dam. Despite promising to "do better" in 2015 they killed an estimated 98% (again state and federal figures) of all juvenile salmon in the upper Sac river. Once again they had depleted the cold water pool in Shasta lake that is used for salmon in the late Fall. They placed the blame on a faulty temperature device that monitors the cold water pool available for salmon. News came out later that this device has been known to be have been broken or inaccurate for several years. So what happened to the cold water reserve of salmon? It was sent south to irrigate crops grow in the desert. In a nutshell politicians placed a higher priority on almonds than our iconic salmon runs.
Pictured above: from the Deck of the Salty Lady in June of 2017. These fish are all very fat and healthy and show no signs of poor ocean conditions.
The low return of upper Sac salmon this past Fall was spun by California Fish and Wildlife as too many hatchery fish being trucked and they got confused on their return. Again I have to call BS. In fact the only reason we had a season at all last year is that fish were trucked during the drought. It's estimated that well north of 90% of the entire 2017 ocean catch was of hatchery origin. This is due to the fact that the Bauru of Reclamation killed all wild stocks due to the release of lethally hot flows onto the Sac spawning beds. You can expect the same in 2018.
The CDFW news release just below starts with the headline of drought and poor ocean conditions. In reality party boat and commercial operators have all said they saw excellent conditions off the North and Central coasts while poor conditions were reported off Oregon and Washington.
In addition, the federally run Coleman hatchery has an abysmal survival record. While our state hatcheries see 1 to 2% plus returns of adults, the return to Coleman runs at .01 to .05. This is due in part of their refusal to truck fish in most years or to develop release strategies that our state hatcheries have shown to work. Acoustic tagging studies show an astounding 65% of all smolts released from Coleman are lost in the first 70 miles and fewer than 5% make it to SF bay. Add in the huge losses at the Delta pumps and you can see that drought and ocean conditions are more factor than cause.
The Golden Gate Salmon Association is pushing for changes.
These include:
Reserves of Shasta lake cold water pool maintained for both Winter and Fall salmon.
Stop the dewatering of redds on the upper Sac and smooth Fall water releases so that wild salmon survive.
Adopt new hatchery release procedures and coordinated pulse flows timed with hatchery releases to improve juvenile survival.
Eliminate predator hot-spots including the areas where night lighting attracts both out migrating salmon and predators like striped bass.
Rebuild side channels so young salmon have a place to grow.
Close or build a barrier at the Delta cross channel gates.
Adopting these changes will help rebuild our salmon runs.
You can support our salmon fisheries by attending a GGSA dinner or join as a member and receive their quarterly newsletter highlighting what they are accomplishing. All monies raised by GGSA goes directly to rebuilding our salmon runs. You can learn more about their mission, recent accomplishments and to donate here. Golden Gate Salmon Association

Over the next few weeks we will receive additional info on what to expect as far as seasons from the PFMC. I feel that Central Coast saltwater and Central Valley river anglers could be disappointed while those on the North Coast could be in for a pleasant surprise. In about a week we should see the season options from the PFMC.
Mike Aughney