Salmon - real King (Chinook) Salmon

tf211 · November 4, 2011

Hi, Raiders,

As I am lucky enough to spend time in both Sydney and San Francisco, I thought you might like to hear about the King (Chinook) Salmon we have been catching off San Francisco. These fish are some of the best fighting (on light gear) and best eating fish you can imagine. The smaller ones we eat, and the larger ones we smoke or preserve (three different methods, all delicious).

We catch them through the Northern summer, about 8 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge and about 2 to 3 miles offshore, in water around 60 to 80 feet deep. They are pelagic, and normally feed on the anchovies that come in huge numbers (big bait balls). Find the bait balls, and the fish are somewhere around. The regs require that we use barbless hooks, which adds to the anxiety a bit when the fish gets close to the boat, and starts ducking, weaving, and shaking its head. The general rule is "net it on the first try" because if you miss the first time, there's a good chance the fish will get off. Most fish that are lost are, for various reasons, lost right at the boat. The successful fishermen are the ones with their netting technique sorted out.

2011 was the best year since 2004 - the years in between have been either dreadful, or worse, completely closed season, due to the poor counts of fish returning to the local rivers. However, this year was back to kinda normal, although the fish were smaller than usual.

For the season just ended (October 30), our boat caught 46 fish, with weights up to 12.5Kg.

The two photos show my personal best (17Kg) and my wife's personal best (15Kg).