<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 26px; ">OFF THE HOOK: Salmon are back</span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#999999" style="font: 10.0px Arial; color: #999999"><a href="http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/salmon-110166-corning-river.html#slComments"><u>Comments </u><font face="Arial" size="3" style="font: 11.0px Arial">0</font></a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); min-height: 15px; "><b></b><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#999999" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #999999">September 24, 2011 11:12:33 PM</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); min-height: 18px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="1" color="#999999" style="font: 9.0px Arial; color: #999999"><a href="mailto:sports@appealdemocrat.com"><u>Dan Bacher</u><u></u></a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="3" color="#666666" style="font: 11.0px Arial; color: #666666">For the Appeal-Democrat</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#666666" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">The stretch of the Sacramento River from Woodson Bridge near Corning to Hamilton City is legendary for the excellent salmon fishing it has offered over the years. With the improvement in salmon numbers this year after the unprecedented fishery collapse of 2008-'09, fishermen are excited to again be out for the hard-fighting chinooks during the first full season since 2007.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">"It's great to be back on the river," said Paul Kneeland, publisher of the Fish Sniffer magazine, after landing a 32-pound chinook, a beautiful buck netted by Robert Weese of Northern California Guide Service.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Kneeland and I were fishing with Brenden and Perry Montoya of Loomis. This was the first time that I had fished for salmon around the Woodson Bridge area since 2005.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">The fishing this season started on July 16 with spotty results, but has improved dramatically in recent weeks, with experienced guides and anglers catching daily limits. While jacks in the 4- to 10-pound range made up most of the catch earlier this season, larger fish are now showing.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Federal biologists this year forecasted an ocean abundance estimate of around 730,000 Sacramento River fall chinooks, far above the number needed for optimum spawning this fall. The conservation goal for salmon returning to spawn in the river is 122,000—180,000 fish.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">While salmon counts over the Red Bluff Diversion Dam were relatively low during the beginning of the season, the counts ramped up after the fall run entered the river. The cumulative total of fish over the dam this year was 7,134, compared with the 5-year average of 3,757. The total count for the final week that the dam gates were up was 2,270 fish, with 995 counted on Aug. 30.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Paul, Brenden, Perry and I met Robert at 5:45 a.m. at the Woodson Bridge County Park boat ramp. As soon as it began to get light, we sped down the river in Robert's Alumaweld jet boat. We started at the first spot — Four Mile Hole.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">"You want to each put on 4 ounce weights here," Robert advised. "Let out line slowly until you reach the bottom and reel up four cranks on the reel. You'll know it when you hook up."</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Then within 10 minutes, Weese had the first hook-up of the day. Unfortunately, he lost that fish. "Crank the gear up," Weese told us after we didn't have any more hits.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Finally, we got down to Anderson Hole. "You want to use 6 ounces here to get your Kwikfish down to the bottom," he advised.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Brenden hooked up a fish and began cranking it in. "Everybody get your lines out the water," Robert shouted. I began reeling in my line and felt a surge on my line and set the hook. "Hey, I'm hooked up also," I yelled.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">I tried to fight the fish on the starboard side of the bow, but the fish wouldn't cooperate. My line got crossed with Brenden's line.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Robert netted the first fish, a bright 10-pounder. At first, Robert thought that was my fish, but it actually turned out to be Brenden's.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">In spite of all the tangled lines, I still had a fish on that I slowly worked toward the boat. "Lift your rod," Robert said. I reeled the line up to the swivel, lifted the salmon up and Robert netted it.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">It was a 22-pound ocean bright hen. "That's probably the biggest fish caught in this stretch of river today," Robert said.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">After all of that pandemonium, we didn't hook any more fish for another hour. Robert decided to try a hole where nobody was fishing, the Kelly Hole. At the top of the hole, he saw big numbers of fish on his graph.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Within an hour, Brenden had caught an 8-pound salmon to fill his limit, and his dad bagged his first salmon of the day. Then Kneeland landed the biggest fish of the day, a beautiful 32-pound buck.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">Meanwhile, Perry landed his second fish, a jack, while Paul landed yet another big slug, a 24-pound beauty.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">We only had one more fish to go until we were limited out. It didn't take long. Before 2 p.m., I successfully battled my second fish of the day, another 22-pounder to match my earlier fish.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">We ended up with limits of chinooks, including four weighing 32, 24, 22 and 22 pounds. It was a great, memorable day of fishing on the Sacramento.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial">The salmon season will run through December 18 this year. For more information about salmon fishing with Robert Weese of Northern California Guide Service, call 530-755-7196. </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); min-height: 18px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); min-height: 18px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="5" color="#053466" style="font: 16.0px Arial; color: #053466"><a href="http://www.appeal-democrat.com/common/archives/?catID=13906&db=marysville"><u>See archived 'Outdoors' stories »</u></a></font></div></body></html>