Sacramento
Area Report - by Jack
Chapman
Sacramento
CSBA Report (01/10/2006)
The
delta remained closed thru Thursday the 8th. Even after opening
the water was and is running very high so no one from our chapter
ventured out on the rivers. A few members did try their hand in
Susin and San Pablo Bays for a mixture of stripped bass and sturgeon
but the fishing in general could best be described as slow.
Most
of the members attended the San Francisco Fred Hall Show at the
Cow Palace. I attended the Angler Caucus on Saturday Morning.
Darrell Ticehurst, a member of the PFMC (Pacific Fisheries Management
Council and Coastside Fishing Club) made the following speech
that very nicely summaries the plight of our fisheries.
After
spending some 30 months on duty at the PFMC I thought I’d
give you my perspective on where we have been, and then talk about
the three key threats that I see to recreational fishing as we
know it.
It
was not that many years ago that we enjoyed a full year of bottom
fishing, three fish salmon limits, and an expectation that we
could catch our limits on most trips, not to mention a robust
striper fishery and a really good halibut season. Then all of
a sudden things changed. There just weren’t enough fish
to go around. Certain commercial fishermen, using increasingly
productive, and more wasteful, techniques were over fishing many
key species, headed into a downward spiral, and we were suffering
along with them. Then along came our saviors! No, not what you
would expect, some organization of recreational anglers or fish
and game management people, it was the environmentalists! While
we and the CA F&G were wringing our hands, they stepped in
and stopped the over fishing, forced the PFMC and the states to
live up to their responsibilities and actually use science to
manage fisheries. They saved the fisheries that were headed for
total disaster and we owe those environmentalists a big vote of
thanks for what they did.
The
PFMC is now managing the over fished fisheries in much better
ways, and so is the state. Science is the ruling factor in setting
seasons and bag limits for commercial and recreational fishing.
The environmentalists continue to police our decision making and
insure that we manage the resource so that the ocean remains healthy.
Much is better today.
Yet,
as we I talk about the three key threats to our recreational fisheries,
I must put some of these same environmentalists at the top of
the threat list as our single gravest danger. The California Marine
Life Protection Act mandated marine protected areas. Now the studies
are underway and is supported by many environmental groups with
an agenda to shut down recreational fishing along much of our
coast. Never mind that we didn’t cause the over fishing
in the first place. Never mind that there is no science to back
their claims that “no take” protected areas actually
work. Never mind that losing recreational fishing is an economic
catastrophe. Certain environmentalist organizations want us off
the water, and they are working hard to force us to hang up our
rods.
We
at Coastside continue to fight this irresponsible rush to establish
huge “no take” reserves, but if we lose, then recreational
fishing will cease to exist as we know it.
The
second grave danger to recreational fishing is the continued,
and escalating (!), harvest of our forage fish—the anchovies,
herring, sardines and squid that feed our salmon, our ling cod,
and our endangered rockfish. Both the state and the PFMC continue
to view each forage species in isolation, establishing take levels
based upon how much we can harvest at MSY (or Maximum Sustainable
Yield). Both organizations fail to adequately allow for the fact
that the ocean species that are further up the food chain were
already dependent upon those forage fish, and that managing forage
fish is an ecosystem wide problem. Taking too much forage out
of the middle of the food chain results in less robust populations
of the much more important higher level food species, and it is
irresponsible. Yet, the pressure to take more and more forage
continues. The aquaculture industry demands more and more of these
fish to feed those tilapia in New Zealand and those salmon swimming
in a soup of defecation and antibiotics in Norway. Japan wants
the roe from our herring--and what do they do with the rest of
the fish? It’s wasted—gone from the ecosystem to give
a few people a payday.
Our
recovering species need a large and reliable supply of forage
if they are to recover. The high harvest levels of forage fish
is taking medicine away from the patient, and it is our government,
both at the state and federal level, who are doing it.
The
third major threat to recreational fishing is the California Department
of Fish and Game. At the mid levels, where the work gets done,
they do not care about us. For instance, when it comes to a choice
between allocating canaries (canary rockfish) so that we can have
a longer season or to give that tonnage to a dog fish fishery
so that a dozen or so guys can sell dogfish at 21 cents a pound,
the CF&G is MIA in fighting for us. When six draggers want
an “experimental fishing permit” CF&G does battle
to get them the canary allocation—never mind that nearly
a million anglers could use those fish to have a longer season!
Most
of you know Bob Franko (sitting down there in the front table).
He was once a medic in Viet Nam and he talks about triage--deciding
who can be saved, and just who is too far gone. CF&G needs
a lesson in triage. They seem to be incapable of making the decision
to save recreational fishing—the one fishery that is environmentally
sound, most economically beneficial, and that has caused the least
harm in the past. Instead we suffer the death of a thousand cuts,
and the neglect that has been institutionalized over the last
30+ years by prioritizing environmentally unsound commercial fishing
practices—fishery practices that cannot continue. F&G
seems unable to muster the will to protect the least harmful fishery
and continues to overprotect the most harmful and least sustainable
fisheries.
Ryan
Broddrick has his hands full attempting to turn around a department
that has never prioritized recreational fishing and that has institutionalized
procedures that avoid making the tough decisions, and even worse,
that has failed to promote recreational fishing while telling
us they were doing so. I’m supposedly on the “inside”
and yet, I cannot tell you how many times I have sat in PFMC meeting
only to be surprised by the things our state marine division had
agreed to without my being aware of what was happening. We need
to continue to try convince the state that they need to spend
some effort to save us because recreational fishing is worth saving.
We
need to remain active in supporting MLPA initiatives that are
supported by science and that recognize the important contribution
that recreational fishing makes to our economy and our enjoyment
of life. We need to become more active in criticizing and attacking
environmentally unsound forage fish harvests. That is why the
Coastside Fishing Club has become so politically active, and we
need to accelerate our effort to support those who work to enhance
our recreational fishing experience for us and for our children,
and to continue to fight those who would destroy it.
Information
about the CSBA, each of its chapters, upcoming events, a message
board and much more are available at the organizations web site,
http://www.striper-csba.com/.
Striped
Bass
I
only heard of one second report of brave, perhaps foolish, anglers
fishing the Sacramento after the closure was lifted. They fished
on Saturday moving around with the wind and dodging logs, trees,
and just about anything that floats. They water was very muddy
and as might be expected they came back without any fish.
Sturgeon
Steve
Talmadge of Flash Sportfishing was our speaker at our January
3rd meeting and filed this report last Sunday, “Just did
3 trips in a row. 2 of 3 days we landed sturgeon. Best bait was
eel/ghost. One keeper landed on roe. Best area was from buoy 4
to the Glomar buoys. Best depth was 9' and 24' of water. All our
fish were hooked on the outgo. Top Sturgeon was 71 3/4”,
87 lbs. We also landed a bass on a bullhead, 36" 17lbs.”
Where I’d Fish This Upcoming Weekend
The
Mothball Fleet for Sturgeon using eel and JSP (just plain shrimp)
for bait.
Good
luck and tight lines, Jack
Bob’s
Bait Report,
A
bit about Captain Steve, Captain Steve fished the San Francisco
Bay since 1970, when his grandfather would take him out
to the old Berkeley pier. He bought his first boat in 1980
and got his Captain's license in 1997. He enjoys small groups
(no more than 6) and gives personal attention to all. Having
2 young daughters himself, he is especially patient with
children on the boat. Bring your own equipment or use Steve's
top of the line equipment. Steve has impressive state of
the art commercial electronics on the boat to optimize your
fishing experience! And yes, we went to the same High School,
Welcome Capt. Steve!
Sturgeon
fishing is by far ahead of last years score at this time.
New
Melones in Great Shape for Fat Trout
