14 Sept 11, 2020 MAP FEATURE
VOL.39 • ISS. 19
The Golden State Salmon Association’s
“Fish Like A Girl” charter
group went outside the Golden Gate in
pursuit of Chinook salmon on Sunday,
August 16 – and experienced some of the
wildest weather that they, the captain and
the deckhand, had ever seen while fishing.
“The morning started out with thunder,
lightning and rain. Then the weather
switched from a warm, hot wind, to
a heavy, cold wind, to more rain, to
sunshine,” said Cat Kaiser, GSSA Fundraising
and Events Coordinator.
They spent their day fishing off Stinson
Beach along the Marin County Coast. “In
spite of the crazy weather, the seas were
flat except for the wind,” she said. “It
was quite pleasant. We had mimosas and
brunch and all had brought something to
share.”
The 14 anglers caught a total of 15
salmon. Most of the fish were over 15
pounds.
“The day started off with Linda Vaio
catching her first fish, a 10 pounder, on
the portside of the boat,” said Kaiser.
“Four girls who
had never been
fishing or caught
a salmon
before
Linda Vaio had a great battling
this hefty Chinook salmon
off the Marin County Coast
aboard the Salty Lady on
August 16.
Photo courtesy of JARED
DAVIS.
The Marin County coast is one of the most productive areas to fish for king salmon in California waters because this is where the salmon
stage before entering the Golden Gate on their journey up the Sacramento River to spawn.
Photo courtesy of JARED DAVIS.
Wild Weather, Wild Salmon Fishing on GSSA’s
‘Fish Like a Girl’ Trip off Marin Coast
landed fish.”
The captain, Jared Davis, started the day
trolling over 65 feet of water. The anglers
trolled anchovies anywhere from 30 to 45
feet deep.
Darien Corey of Fairfield, who had
never been fishing before, landed two
shiny salmon weighing 20 pounds each.
Another angler, Samantha, also bagged
her first-ever salmon. Crystal Smith of
Novato took the day’s jackpot with a 24
lb. Chinook.
“Our group today fished like a bunch
of girls ... and that’s a very good thing,”
Captain Davis said. “Nothing could stop
them — they turned some wild weather
this morning and a ‘gotta work for it” bite
into one for the books — and a fish per
rod day that will be remembered for years
to come.”
“Limits of smiles, fun, love and support
for their sisters made for a truly epic experience
- and they put 15 salmon
in the box to boot,” he said.
Deckhand Tommy Watson
also commented that no fish
were lost or dropped during
the trip.
“All of these girls are now
new friends,” Kaiser said.
“Two girls were celebrating
a birthday and one a
retirement.”
“Seeing four women
catching their first
salmon is what these
trips are all about.
Getting more women
involved in fishing
is a beautiful thing.,”
concluded Kaiser.
This year was third
one that GSSA has
sponsored the
very popular
“Fish Like a Girl” trips on the
Salty Lady.
The National Marine Fisheries
Service’s 2020 ocean abundance
projection for Sacramento
River fall Chinook salmon was
473,200 adult fish. This indicates
that we should see large numbers
of fish migrate back into the
Sacramento, American, Feather,
and Mokelumne rivers this fall.
Last year, we saw solid salmon
fishing outside the Golden Gate,
particularly off the Marin County
Coast, until the end of the
salmon season. Hopefully, the
same will take place this year.
This has been a good year
so far for salmon off the California
Coast from Bodega
Bay to Monterey, but the most
consistent fishing has been off
the Marin County Coast from
Stinson Beach north.
In 2019, Approximately
272,000 salmon were harvested
in the commercial fishery and
88,500 were harvested in the
recreational ocean fishery,
according to data collected by
the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife (CDFW
John McManus, GSSA President, noted
that ocean fishermen and women are
seeing a good number of small salmon
in the ocean, even into the late summer,
pointing to a good season next year.
‘These appear to be two year old fish
which would be expected to return to
Central Valley rivers as adults next year,”
stated McManus. “Assuming they are
next year’s fish, we should be looking
at another decent fishing season. These
fish were born in late 2018 and exited the
Central Valley and the Bay in the spring of
2019 when we had good runoff from a wet
winter and spring. So we’d expect to see a
good number survive.”
“Runoff this past spring of 2020
wasn’t very good, which will affect
what kind of fishing we’ll have in 2022.
The silver lining is the move of more
hatchery releases west in the bay that has
provided the equivalent of adding a new
Naz Aaron shows off the 20 lb. salmon that she caught
while trolling aboard the Salty Lady outside of the
Golden Gate during the GSSA “Fish Like a Girl” trip.
Photo courtesy of JARED DAVIS.
hatchery in terms of number of fish that
survive to adulthood.,” said McManus.
The Golden State Salmon Association
(GSSA) is a coalition of salmon advocates
that includes commercial and recreational
salmon fishermen and women, businesses,
restaurants, a native tribe, environmentalists,
elected officials, families and communities
that rely on salmon. GSSA’s mission
is to “restore California salmon for their
economic, recreational, commercial, environmental,
cultural and health values.”
One of the GSSA’s biggest victories
for salmon this year took place on May 1
when a federal court ruled that a federal
Bureau of Reclamation water diversion
and pumping plan, deadly to salmon and
other wildlife in the Central Valley, must
restrict pumping.
“The ruling comes in two cases, one
brought by GSSA and allied groups and
one brought by the state of California.
Both seek to overturn excessive water
diversions by the Bureau of Reclamation
because of the extreme environmental