Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3819 Aug 30-Sep 13 | Page 27

Aug 30 - Sept 13, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 19 GONE FISHING 25 Continued from page 1 Gate? Nostalgia, that’s how! Back in the ‘80’s when I first started charter boat fishing, we did a ton of mooching and caught a lot of big salmon. We’d either fish Fat Gizits tipped with a strip of anchovy fillet or whole anchovies threaded with an octopus hook protruding from the eye socket. Those were great days… And then the law changed and we were limited to using circle hooks. No more Gitzits, no more easy hookups. While circle hooks diminished the popularity of mooching, declining salmon numbers in the late 90’s all but killed mooching outside the Golden Gate. Over the years, a number of Fish Sniffer readers have asked me about the possi- bility of hosting a mooching trip. These are guys that remember the good old days when mooching produced huge salmon for guys fishing with light tackle, not the heavy albacore class sticks that we use when trolling with heavy weights. Well for years, I never thought ocean salmon numbers were strong enough to justify a mooching adventure, but with high sustained scores being reported by Golden Gate trollers this summer I figured it was now or never to give mooching a try. I talked to Captain Chris Smith of Pacific Dawn Sportfishing out of Berkeley and he was game for giving it a try. When I announced the trip, it booked up so quickly that we expanded the trip to Captain Jonathan Smith’s Happy Hooker and just like that we had 60 anglers signed up and ready to mooch on July 31! After meeting everyone, getting all the anglers checked in and stocking both boats with prizes we were off to the salmon grounds. There were very exciting moments aboard both boats to be sure and the bites were there, but we were snake bit by the circle hook regulation. We probably hooked 25% of the fish that came knocking. We ended the day with 6 kings and a shark of the Pacific Dream and 7 salmon on the Happy Hooker. The bright spot and also a point of frustration was the quality of the kings that we landed. Most of the fish that we landed were in the 12 to 18-pound class. We were glad to have those fish, but it also indicated that a lot of those hard but missed bites were from big beautiful chromers….. Frustrating! We passed out a lot of prizes including rods, line and lots of salmon lures. The angler that landed the biggest overall fish on the two boats, took home a huge prize package including a couple rods a $200 PENN reel and a gift certificate for a free trip in the future! And Now A Rant From The Editor… Just to be clear, let me start by stating that I admire the work that California Fish & Wildlife wardens do. Having said that, I’m a harsh critic of the leader- ship of the department. As California anglers, we pay a lot of money for our licenses and fishing isn’t a particularly cheap sport in many of its forms. Some of the things that the DFW does best is NOT advo- cating for anglers and hunters, Bill was thinking salmon when he hooked a hard fighting pushing forth rules and regu- fish aboard the Pacific Dream, but to everyone’s surprise lations that are NOT in the he came up with a dandy thresher shark. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. best interests of the sporting community, fish or wildlife and last but not least offering up solutions to problems that simply don’t exist. A prime example was the idea of dropping the lingcod limit from two fish to one fish this year, when recently the limit had been raised to three fish. After a lot of public outcry the limit was raised back to two fish. Two fish, one fish, three fish?...I thought these rules were supposed to be put into place to protect resources. From these quick changing This big king hit the deck of the Pacific Dream after an rules are we to believe that A.) epic battle on light mooching gear! Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. There is an overabundance of lings. B.) Lingcod numbers are in place to protect small salmon. are stable or C.) Lingcod numbers are I’m not a government know nothing that in decline and the only thing that will spends his time sitting behind a desk thinking save the fishery is a one fish limit. of new and improved ways to harm anglers, I choose D.) The DFW is an utterly hunters and resources. In contrast, my incompetent government agency that perspective comes from many thousands of lacks both effective leadership and a hours on the water. long-term plan. Salmon as a class of fish are delicate when Moving on let’s talk salmon fishing. Trollers are able to drag lures and baits it comes to hooking and releasing them. Salmon that are netted and released have a armed with barbless J-Hooks. Okay good chance of dying. that’s fine, to be honest I’m not even Why not have regulations in California sure if barbless hooks are needed, but like we have in other parts of the U.S. and I’ll address that in a bit. Canada? A daily bag limit without a size If trollers can use J-Hooks why are limit. In this scenario, the department decides moochers restricted to barbless circle what the fishery can withstand in terms of hooks that make hooking salmon a harvest and the season and bag limits are set very low percentage proposition? Moochers can’t cover nearly as much accordingly. On the water this sort of regulatory ground as trollers, so they are going to encounter few fish. Why is it necessary oversight looks like this. Every salmon that is hooked and landed goes into the box end to further handicap a complete class of of story. No fish are released and there is no anglers that simply want to harvest an need for gear restrictions. ocean salmon on light gear? Want to rig your anchovies on barbed treble The short answer is that it’s not hooks? Go for it, because regulations are necessary. It’s just another example of set with the assumption that you are going an utterly incompetent DFW solving a to harvest fish. This is contrasted by the problem that doesn’t exist. backward-looking regulations we have in Now if you ask the DFW why we California that assume X fish will be released have a barbless J-Hook and barbless and Y fish will survive being released and Circle Hook regulation for moochers so on…. Like I’ve stated a couple times, they will tell you that these regulations the California DFW defines the term “utter incompetence” at the leadership level! I’d like to tell you something comforting, Powered by Clean, Quiet, Dependable Honda 4 Stroke like it’s just a matter of time until the DFW Outboards. Now available in 2 hp. to 250 hp. 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(916) 652-1660 3320 Boyington Rd. at Penryn in Loomis, CA 3819 www.auburnoutboard.net The quality of the salmon caught while mooching on July 31 was outstanding, but the overall number of fish landed was low do to inefficiency of using circle hooks while salmon fishing. Photo by JONATHAN SMITH, Happy Hooker Sportfishing.