By MATT WEISER, Sacramento Bee SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Salmon didn’t make the big fall comeback in California’s Central Valley rivers that anglers and nature lovers yearned for, raising the likelihood of a third year of fishing restrictions. Some areas saw more fall-run chinook return from the ocean to the Sacramento River and its tributaries. This includes the American River, where the state’s Nimbus Hatchery spawned about 40 percent more salmon in 2009. But the run as a whole seems likely to turn out the same or slightly smaller than in 2008, which was the smallest year ever recorded. “We are really upset,” said Dick Pool, president of Pro-Troll Fishing Products, a San Francisco Bay Area manufacturer of salmon fishing tackle. “Every appearance is the fall run returns this year (2009) may set a new record low.” The Central Valley fall chinook is arguably the most important salmon run on the West Coast. It makes up virtually all of the commercially harvested salmon in California and Oregon. The run’s poor condition led regulators to ban all commercial salmon fishing in both states in 2008 and 2009. Recreational fishing was banned in 2008 and severely limited in 2009. The cause is likely two-pronged: — Poor ocean conditions, which reduced food supplies. — Problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where young salmon contend with pollution, water diversions and non-native predators on their migration to the sea. Studies have estimated only about 8 percent of young salmon released in the rivers survive to reach the ocean. The biggest disappointment in 2009 came on Battle Creek, where the number of fish spawned at the Coleman National Hatchery was about 35 percent less than in 2008. Coleman is normally the biggest single producer of salmon in the Central Valley. …
Autumn chinook run falls short; fishing limits likely
