When is salmon season 2018

Results of the fishing season in California reveal a rebound in both harvest and escapement totals for the Central Valley, likely reflecting lessening impacts of the recent historic drought as well as a more accurate preseason forecast of salmon abundance.

In California, the PFMC report focuses primarily on fall-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River Basin, as this population contributes the majority of fish caught in the ocean fishery. The metric used to represent this abundance is the Sacramento Index SI , which is the total number of adult fish ages projected to be available in the ocean that will either be harvested or will escape to spawn in natural areas and hatcheries in the Central Valley. The preseason forecast for was an expected SI of , fish, with a total projected spawning escapement in both hatcheries and natural areas of , fish, based on fishing regulations and quotas.

This escapement would have exceeded the management goal of , hatchery and natural area spawners. However, the escapement goal was not met due in part to higher than anticipated harvest rates. Natural area spawners 71, did exceed hatchery returns 33, , which was a reversal of the previous year, when more fish returned to hatcheries than natural areas Figure 3. The sport seasons, dates, locations and bag limits will be published in the Sport Fishing Regulations Supplement, which will be posted on the CDFW website in May.

Skip to content The recreational salmon seasons have been set for , and it appears to be a mixture of good news and bad for California anglers. The Monterey area between Pigeon Point and the U. The recreational inland salmon season for California inland waters is as follows: Seasons for Central Valley fishery start on traditional dates on all sections of all rivers.

Only one salmon per day may be retained and the possession limit is two salmon. In the Klamath River the season will open Aug. The Trinity River season will be open from Sept. Sunday, September 2 and reopen at 8 a. Monday, September 3. Fishermen may use 4-inch or smaller mesh size gillnets to target non-salmon species during subsistence salmon closures.

The Emmonak field office closed for the season on Friday, August If you have any questions after this time, contact the Fairbanks office at Fish and Wildlife Service. Several major sockeye salmon stocks displayed unexpected run timing in Kvichak River sockeye salmon run peak was 10 days later than average, making it the latest run since Over half of Kenai River late-run sockeye salmon returned during the month of August this has only occurred once before , and Copper River sockeye salmon returned in three distinct pulses, the third happening in mid-July.

These unusual run timing events created uncertainty for fishery managers who depend on relatively consistent run timing to ensure fisheries are managed sustainably , and resulted in foregone harvest opportunity for commercial fishermen.