California Salmon Season 2011 has being happening for over 1 month now, and the early word on the salmon that have been caught is small fish. The legal size that all the salmon need to be is a minimum of 27 inches in California per the Department of Fish and Game regulations. This new size limit has been making it difficult for fishermen to make it home with something in the fish box.
There have been many fishing reports of boats catching 4-5 fish per rod, however, many times these same boats are returning with just 1 or 2 legal salmon fish. Although the season is still very early and there is a great chance that this year the salmon might simply need a few more months out in the ocean to feed on sardines and krill and squid to fatten up and turn into a legal size fish, fishermen are still getting frustrated.
Last weekend in Santa Cruz, California, the weather was nice and sunny but quite windy and so the amount of boats who ventured out to fish was definitely less than the opening day fleet. And when walking around the docks and the launch ramp in the early afternoon, it was fish story after story about small shaker salmon being caught.
There have been several years in recent history when the large 30 pound salmon were not caught off the California coast until well into the summer months, and there is hope that this is going to be the case again this year in 2011.