Changes to Klamath River Basin Salmon Sport Fishing Regs

Press release provided by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

DFWThe California Fish and Game Commission adopted changes to the Central Valley and Klamath River basin salmon sport fishing regulations for the 2015 season on Friday, April 17. The changes include fall-run Chinook quotas, bag and possession limits, and restrictions at the mouth of the Klamath River (spit area) and in the main stem Klamath River in the vicinity of Blue Creek. The only change to the Central Valley regulations is an increase in the possession limit from two to four salmon. All other Central Valley regulations remain unchanged from last year.

The Klamath basin sport fishing quota for adult fall-run Chinook salmon is 14,133 fish. This represents a 250 percent increase over last year’s salmon quota and allowed for an increase in daily bag limit. The daily bag limit for fall-run Chinook salmon is three fish, no more than two adults (greater than 22 inches) and the possession limit is nine fall-run Chinook salmon, no more than six adults. The 2015 sport fishing season for fall-run Chinook salmon will run from Aug. 15 through Dec. 31 on the Klamath River and Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 on the Trinity River.

The Commission adopted two new restrictions for Klamath anglers, one recommended by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) in regard to the spit area and one in the main stem Klamath near Blue Creek recommended by the Yurok Tribe. The new spit area restriction limits anglers to “catch and keep” for all legally caught Chinook salmon. Additionally, once anglers have retained two adult Chinook salmon greater than 22 inches or their total daily bag limit they must cease fishing in the spit area.

The Commission reviewed two key proposals for Blue Creek. CDFW’s, which requested a joint focused study to determine hook and release mortality in the Blue Creek area and the Yurok Tribe proposal to implement a conservation closure. The Commission selected the Yurok Tribe proposal to close all non-tribal sports fishing in the Blue Creek area from June 15 through Sept. 14 from ½ mile below to 500 feet above the confluence of Blue Creek and the Klamath River. From Sept. 15 through Dec. 31 the closure is 500 feet above and below Blue Creek. The Commission adopted the proposal as a conservation measure.

The Klamath fall-run Chinook quota is subdivided into sub quota areas within the basin.   The lower Klamath River (mouth to Weitchpec) will receive 50 percent (7,067 fish) of the quota, the upper Klamath River (upstream of Weitchpec) will receive 17 percent (2,403 fish) of the quota and the remaining 33 percent (4,663 fish) is allocated to the Trinity River, split between the lower (Trinity confluence to Cedar Flat) and upper Trinity (upstream of Cedar Flat). The mouth of the Klamath River (spit area) will receive an allocation of 2,120 adult fall-run Chinook which is inclusive of the lower Klamath River sub area quota.

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

4 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Fish On
Guest
Fish On
8 years ago

Doesn’t seem like anybody wants to touch this subject. Can the natives close a sport fishing section of the river? Are they going to be netting in the closed area? I’m not playing cowboys and indians here. It just bothers me that the natives gill net, harvest tons of fish, take all species including coho in these nets and close a section to “non-native, sport fisherman”. What about non-native sustenance fisherman? I eat what I catch. I guess closing it “officially” is better than what took place a few years ago when a certain individual out there closed a section on his own. He put a .223 bullet across your bow if you entered his zone. Perspective anyone?

Richard
Guest
Richard
8 years ago
Reply to  Fish On

It’s getting to where the white boy has know where to fish. Let me see if I can understand this. I pay $60 a year for license and tags. Through this, I help pay for the fish and game commissioners salary. We are told we can’t go into an area that is too warm to release fish, but yet the tribe can net them. I guarantee the tribe will be out there with jet boats dragging thousands out of the water, and were worried about a couple of fish that don’t make it after being released. Would it be better to release them down stream where it is warmer. We can solve the problem. We’ll just keep everything we catch. I’m tired of being the last one thought of, when I’m the one paying to be able to fish. Even your own biologists say you didn’t listen to them. Do a study. No, we’re going to listen to a group that doesn’t have to abide by our laws anyway. You guys are pathetic.

tod shallenberger
Guest
8 years ago

All they do is take ,they have plenty of fish already , as it is when they cant sell to the public going through they dump on side of road quick money and gone

Pam Evers
Guest
Pam Evers
5 years ago

My family has owned 102 acres on the lower Klamath since 1965, purchasing it from a private logger who had purchased it from a NA family; the Yurok were not recognized as a tribe then, but as a loosely knit group of family groups that were permitted to sell their ancestral lands. To put it mildly, they have not been good neighbors, despite our efforts, and our experiences confirm the above comments. The region is poverty stricken for a reason: theft, vandalism, lawlessness, intimidation, lying, threatening, legal manipulations, favoritism. Despite always permitting Indian access to our land as long as they do not net, they do, and run cattle through our forest, destroying our creek beds that feed a critical deep hole, which we own, and which they illegally fish without permission. We have been shot at from the river while on our property, on which we pay taxes, have had our access blocked, our seasonal fish camp business and buildings destroyed, our efforts to reach out to the tribe and govt agencies ignored. I seriously distrust their stated intentions.