Fishing report round-up

A few reports came in while I was wrapping up my tales of the Darby Damsels, including this one on Aug.|

A few reports came in while I was wrapping up my tales of the Darby Damsels, including this one on Aug. 7 from Sonoman Steve Arelt who just returned from fly-fishing for steelhead in British Columbia:

“I’m just back from our annual Dean River trip. The steelhead and salmon return this year is the best since I started fishing British Columbia in the mid ‘70s. Our group of nine anglers in camp went 201 for 290 in six days of fishing (that’s 290 takes with 201 brought in to be released) ... this is only swinging flies and many of them on dries ... pretty epic numbers.

“The good news for the whole Skeena system is that the sockeye run is low hence they’ve restricted commercial netting. That’s good news because steelhead get caught in those same nets. If anyone is thinking about fishing the Skeena drainage – Skeena, Copper, Bulkley, Kispiox or Sustut – this would be a good year to give it a shot. Ken Morrish or Brian Geis at Flywater Travel can find slots. I’ll be headed back up to the Kispiox mid-September and can’t wait.”

Then my regular fishing correspondent, Steve Kyle, sent me this report about local salmon action: “(I got) ... a quick call from Bill Brinton with a ‘Do you wanna?’ and an even quicker ‘Yes!’ found me and Sonoma local, Dub Hay, jumping into Bill’s wonderful fishing boat for a quick trip out the Golden Gate for a day of intense fish-whispering on the salmon schools gathering outside for their run up the local rivers in the fall. 

“While school was still in session for most of the day, we did meet a few truants with one landed, one lost at the net and a few more fed by lost grabs. Sunny, cool and all in all a great day.  Bill is a fine skipper while we others were rated Crew Number One.”

You can almost copy-and-paste the ocean fishing report from every column in the last month. Capt. Rick Powers of Bodega Bay Sportsfishing reports excellent rock fishing and ling cod fishing. In fact the rock fish are so aggressive, that it is hard for Rick’s clients to get down to the lings. Meanwhile salmon action off our coast is very slow.

Inside San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay, striped bass continue to make anglers smile, but they are on the move as they begin to head towards their spawning grounds in the deltas. Many anglers are finding bass up in San Pablo Bay. And there are lots of smaller bass being caught from the banks of the Napa River.

Salmon season opened on the Sacramento on Aug. 1 to mixed reports. Guide Kirk Portocarrero says it is improving and his clients are having two- to five-fish days fishing in an area that runs from Sacramento all the way upstream to Anderson near Balls Ferry. The size average is between 12 and 15 pounds. Call Kirk at 1-800-670-4448 to book a trip.

My catch of the week is Vivian Roweena Lynch, who weighed in Wednesday morning in Portland at 8 pounds, 9 ounces, our grandchild number eight and daughter of our son, Ryan, and daughter-in-law, Rachel. She’s a beauty.

Hunting

and

Fishing

Bill

Lynch

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