Many of us almost forgot what is like to have a real salmon season along the Central Coast of California. As the Chinook situation developed over the past month, things are actually looking pretty good. Last week, water temps dropped a critical four or five degrees thanks to an increase in northwest winds and resultant upwelling, which brings cool nutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface and feed a beautiful array of sea life including salmon. 

Santa Cruz angler Matt Mitchell got a tip about good water to the north this week. Though most salmon are being caught in Monterey Bay at the “usual spots,” near the deep canyons, Mitchell decided to head north and give it a try. What a rebel. He reported on Monday of the outing with Forrest Cook and his dad Mark saying, “We can across the absolute idealistic salmon conditions with birds and whales working everywhere! We worked all the zones from 30 foot to the bottom which was 235 feet Finally after a couple hours of trolling, boom! The rod with the toxic hazmat hoochie and a red hotspot at 225 OTW goes off! And Forrest netted his first salmon! We were all thrilled beyond belief to have a solid 31” fish in the box!”

Saturday is forecast to get real windy, real fast. The National Weather Service Marine Forecast reports, “Occasional storm force gusts are possible across the inner waters Friday into the weekend. Very high wind driven seas between 12 to 17 feet are expected. Hazardous conditions for mariners and very dangerous conditions for small crafts continue through this weekend before winds ease early next week.” This is beyond nasty, it’s very dangerous. Get off the water early on Saturday and check the NMWS carefully for the few days following.

When plans were set by the California Fish and Game Commission, open fishing dates, bag and size limits were set. Because the population of Chinook salmon is fragile, with most West Coast runs labeled as “threatened” and a few considered “endangered,” the powers that be included total harvest restrictions in the regulations. The Harvest Guideline for “Summer Season” in the Central Region is set at 21,800 fish. The official count of king salmon caught since the opener as is 2328 recreational chinook as of 4/30/26. That leaves 19472 fish still available to catch before August 31.  

Fall Season is scheduled to open immediately thereafter on September 1 and runs through September 30. Minimum size for the salmon has been 24 inches since the April opener but changes on May 15 (today) to 20 inches total length thereafter. Fish are measured from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail fin. An additional 20,000 chinook total harvest for Fall Season has been approved for the Central Region. We can keep track of the number of fish estimated as caught, and the number still available at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website, wildlife.ca.gov. Use the search term “2026 Summer Recreational Chinook Salmon Catch by Area.”  

So, we may be looking at a good stretch of salmon fishing in our area for the immediate future if the catch rate remains stable. Not too many fish, and not too quickly. This week skunks were still being reported though fewer boats came in with zero fish. Salmon catches in the ones, twos and threes were much more common and a greater number of boats were happy to report limits of fish for their forays.