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http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/04/08/MNGIDP4V7M1.DTL
A CITY HOOKED ON SALMON

Go fish: The sportfishing season for wild chinook opened yesterday -- Bay Area anglers optimistic this year's catch will be better than in 2006

Glen Martin, San Francisco Chronicle April 8, 2007
 

The first Giants home game isn't the only opening day that inspires teary eyes and trembling lips in San Francisco. For many locals, the beginning of the sport salmon-fishing season -- usually held the first Saturday of April -- is equally hallowed.

That's because there's an almost mystical connection between Bay Area residents and wild chinook salmon. They are a totemic fish, as much an emblem of San Francisco as the Gay Pride Parade, cable cars, Dungeness crab and sourdough bread. Plus, they're tremendous fun to catch, and almost impossibly delicious.

So the adrenaline level was high Saturday morning as anglers filed onto party boats docked at Fishermen's Wharf for the first day of the season, which runs until fall in California.

On the Wacky Jacky -- skippered by the eponymous Jacky Douglas, an icon in the local fishing community and the only female party boat captain in the city -- a festive atmosphere prevailed.

This was a special trip, the client list composed of Jacky's regulars. They all had known the ebullient -- and yes, slightly wacky -- Jacky for years, and esteemed her highly.

"Jacky rocks," said customer Billy Kerns. "She's the best. The first salmon of the season, the last -- it doesn't matter, they all excite the hell out of her. She's intense"

Douglas returned the high regard.

"I love these people, and I love fishing," Douglas said. "I've been doing this for 34 years, and I just can't wait to get back out on the water and start catching fish. I feel a lot more normal, a lot happier, on my boat than I do at home."

Expectations were high as Douglas piloted her boat past the Golden Gate at dawn into big, gray-green swells.

Sea lions lolled on their backs, and murres scudded in squadrons across the water; fog lay heavy on the Headlands. It was a vivid reminder that just west of the bridge, a great wilderness still exists, one burgeoning with wildlife.

San Francisco resident Tom Cayton sat on the stern of the Wacky Jacky, and watched the scores of boats that were exiting the bay for the fishing grounds.

"There're hundreds of people out on those boats, and I guarantee not one of them had a good night's sleep," he said. "Salmon fishermen are like little kids as the opener gets closer. They can't think of anything else."

The anglers expressed hope that this year will make up for the dismal 2006 season. Last year, commercial fishermen endured heavy strictures because of low returns of Klamath River salmon -- even though Sacramento River runs, the mainstay of the fleet, were plentiful.

Because the Klamath runs were fairly strong this year, commercial fishermen will enjoy more liberal quotas. The commercial season is expected to start in May.

While recreational fishermen faced few restrictions in 2006, the fishing was poor -- due at least in part, say many scientists, to unusually warm water that depressed plankton populations, the basis of the marine food web.

Last year's scant catch led some on the Wacky Jacky to worry about the future of the Bay Area's signature fish.

"I've been going out on these boats for 20 years, and I have to say I'm worried about the fishery," said Lala Llacuna of Concord.

Llacuna said she's afraid that global warming could be changing currents or water temperatures, and that salmon -- which need cold water -- might be suffering.

But Tom Bernot, the Wacky Jacky's co-skipper, said he thinks California's salmon runs are in decent shape.

"There've always been fluctuations in the runs," Bernot said, as he carefully threaded frozen baitfish on hooks.

"Salmon run on two- to five-year cycles," Bernot said. "If there isn't enough food close to shore when they're supposed to fatten up and head up the rivers to spawn, they'll stay at sea for another year or two until conditions are better. We've seen it all before."

And the conditions were good yesterday, with cold water teeming with anchovies, a salmon staple.

"I just hope it keeps up," Llacuna said.

Nobody expected a boatful of fish on Saturday. Few salmon openers yield bumper catches.

The fish are scattered -- no one knows where they're concentrating.

"But in a few days or a week or two, we'll know where they are," Bernot said.

Douglas spent most of the morning trolling slowly, hoping to strike fish off Half Moon Bay. By 10:30, only two "shakers" -- immature salmon barely a foot long -- had been hooked and released.

Then, around 11 a.m., the boat resounded with the cry familiar to salmon anglers from Cordova to Morro Bay: "Fish on!"

Sunnyvale resident Yukio Manabe had hooked a Chinook, a big one. It jumped and rolled several times, its iridescent flanks flashing as Manabe wrestled it into Bernot's net.

"Wow, that's great -- the first keeper of the season," said Manabe, catching his breath. "He tired me out a little."

Douglas rushed from the cabin to the stern, where anglers were congratulating Manabe and watching as Bernot removed the 22-pound fish from the net.

"God, you made my day, Yukio," she said, giving Manabe a hug.

The Wacky Jacky only boated two more fish before turning around at 1 p. m. and heading back to Fishermen's Wharf. The story was the same for most other boats. One boat took 11 fish, but most caught 5 or fewer.

"Right now, most of the action seems to concentrated in Monterey," Bernot said. "But they'll start moving north pretty soon."

One of the Wacky Jacky's salmon was caught by Dolores Klisiak of Newark. Klisiak said she had fished on party boats eight times, and never had landed a salmon.

"This is my first one," she said, quaffing some celebratory red wine from a Styrofoam cup. "You can't believe how good it feels. I'm going to buy everybody a drink when we get back to the city."

E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin@sfchronicle.

 
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