July 17, 2010    Headlines

Salmon Hit and Miss Tuna Offshore Rockfish Limits

Tom with FishOn sportfishing reports there are still a few scattered salmon being taken at Soquel Hole and the Soldier's Club On Saturday 7-17. Over the past week he says that they are seeing scores of 1 to 3 fish per day. The fish are holding deep along the canyon edges but there have also been a few salmon landed off Pajaro in as little as 120 feet of water. Tom is running salmon trips this week but has grand plans for tune once they show within 60 miles. Sonny Arcaleo of Chris’s Landing in Monterey said the northwest wind came up Thursday 7-15 afternoon, and their boats landed a single salmon mooching off of the bottom at the Soquel Hole. He said the private boats are still “slapping” them with some boats landing a couple of limits of big salmon. He said the fish are all on the bottom, and trolling deep with downriggers has been the best way of getting to the fish. Arcaleo added that commercial boats working the salmon survey landed several fish outside of the Soldier’s Club today, and one of the their boats went to the area with reports of fish being taken, but the bite was over by their time of arrival. Stripers still are being taken on top water lures or swimbaits in the early mornings at Tioga near Del Monte Beach. Chris’s has a full load on Saturday, but there is room on their rockfishing trips on Sunday. Bayside Marine in Santa Cruz reported a decent salmon bite for anglers working the bottom at the Soquel Hole at 36'50/122'00, 36'49/122'00, and 36'51/121'59, trolling near the bottom in 280-330 feet of water with Krippled Herrings, Purple Haze Kajikis, Blue Kajikis, and Frog Hoochies. They reported that the wind was down early in the morning, and there were a few moochers who scored some fish near dawn. The wind picked up around 10:00 and most of the anglers called it an early day. The fish are still running in the 12-30 pound range and there were several fish lost due to old tackle. Halibut fishing was decent for a few anglers who fished near the Lighthouse and the Harbor, and one boat who tried to go out for Albacore but turned around before they got the weather buoy due to winds. On Wednesday, there were some decent scores of halibut and some thresher sharks caught up the coast on live sardines, so you may want to have some heavier leaders. During the next weather window both Tom with FishOn and Brad Mill with Ultimate charters will be scheduling trips. If the fingers of warm water keep pushing in we could see the fish show up within most boat's range while we are on vacation.   It's that time of year that we stow the keyboard and get serious about fishing. We are packing up the kids, extended family and friends and headed north to our vacation home on the Kenai peninsula for the next two weeks. This is our annual family trip that we look forward to all year in a place where they still value salmon and manage their fisheries for sustainability. (Cal fisheries managers could learn a lot by visiting) We will be targeting sockeye and kings in the local rivers, chasing halibut and lings in the salt, clamming along the local beaches and not typing reports (we have a no computer rule when in Alaska). We still have one week available in the cabin this season, August 22-29th and we are taking bookings for 2011. Reports and updates will resume here on July 31st. In the time being please contact our sponsors or visit their websites for current reports, information and bookings. Many of them do have updated fishing reports. Until then... good fishing! Mike Aughney Sonny Arcaleo of Chris’s Landing in Monterey said they had two boats down at Point Sur in the flat calm conditions on Tuesday 7-13, and limits of quality olives, browns, blues, and vermilions were the product of steadily picking away at the reefs. A few ling cod also made it to the sacks. They had salmon trips out on Monday with the Caroline landing 5 salmon to 30-pounds with the Checkmate hooking three salmon, but they lost these fish on the long drag up to the rail. The fish are hugging the bottom, and the private skiffs using downriggers are having a better shot at the fish. Arcaleo knew of skiffs with 2 and 3 limits of big salmon on Monday. They are running rockfish trips to Point Sur for the remainder of the week and will run salmon trips if interest warrants. Bayside Marine in Santa Cruz reported light fishing pressure on Tuesday with only a few boats looking for halibut with scores ranging from 0 to 4 fish a boat. The swell has been up, but the winds are down. The water temperatures at the Weather Buoy have climbed to 60 degrees, and the tuna may be moving in closer to shore. On Tuesday, the salmon bite was still on for anglers getting down to the bottom for the fish at 36'50/122'00 and 36'49/122'00 trolling down 280 feet in 300 feet of water. The anglers did best with Purple Haze Kajikis, Red Krippled Herrings, and Frog hoochies. There were a few fish caught near the point of Monterey and also at Mulligan Hill, but it seemed the best bite continues to be the Soquel Hole. Halibut fishing continues to be good for the anglers who are working the beaches on the west side of Santa Cruz. There have been some striped bass caught near New Brighton on Pencil Poppers. Tom is following the lead of Brad Miller and is also setting up and email list for the upcoming tuna season. When the weather looks cooperative and the fish are within range he will be sending out an email 12 to 48 hours in advance. With trips limited to four anglers the early bird will get the spot on the rail. Tom is a diehard tuna angler and has posted some very impressive counts the past few years. To sign up for Tom's tuna list you can email him at tom@fishonsportfishing.com Brad with Ultimate Charters has set up an email system for anglers interested in going on a short notice  when the tuna action turns hot.  Once the alert goes out the first people to respond will get the four spots available. He is going to pick the best weather days and fishing days so those who respond first will be on board. To sign up email Brad at ultimatefishcharters@yahoo.com with the subject Ultimate Albacore. Reminder: Salmon Fishing is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the remainder of the season, and the size limit for salmon is 24-inches. New regulations for the MLPAs are now in effect from Pt Arena to Pigeon Point. Anglers need to know which areas are affected and the regulations and the boundaries of the different zones. Please use this link and be sure to print a map for these areas to carry with you. The long decline of our salmon fisheries have been attributed to increases in water diversion out of the delta. We believe that the public and anglers alike must understand the root causes of the destruction of our fisheries and the players behind the scenes. The increased exports from the Delta estuary have wreaked havoc on all Delta fisheries, especially salmon. Salmon fisheries can NOT return to health until the Delta recovers and the Delta can't recover until water exports return to pre 2000 levels. The Monterey Plus Amendments Overturning the Monterey Plus Amendments to Protect California’s Freshwater Ecosystems and Freshwater Supplies In 1994, after negotiating for several months in secret at a resort in Monterey, the California Department of Water Resources and five State Water Project contractors executed the Monterey Agreement, which significantly modified the contracts of the State Water Project. Subsequently, the Department transferred public ownership of the Kern Water Bank, a 1-million acre-foot underground storage facility, to the agribusiness-dominated Kern County Water Agency, which in turn deeded the water bank to the Kern Water Bank Authority, a privately controlled joint powers authority. (Pictured left: the Delta Pumps In 2009, 3.5 million acre-feet of water were pumped from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley farms and urban users in the Bay Area and Southern California. The draw of the pumps, including the State Water Project's Harvey Banks Pumping Plant near Tracy, is powerful enough to trap fish and alter the currents through the Delta. In 1951, 220,000 acre-feet of water went south from the Delta. (The acre-foot, enough to cover one acre one foot deep, is the basic coin of the water economy.) In 1985, the total of both projects passed five million acre-feet, approximately the volume of San Francisco Bay. In 2000, the six-million acre-foot mark was reached. Combined with other withdrawals from the Delta watershed, this pumping reduced the outflow from the Delta by something between one quarter and two thirds, depending mainly on the wetness of the year.) After years of litigation and delay, the California Department of Water Resources has recently given final approval to the agreement, now called the Monterey Plus Amendments. These amendments fundamentally alter the State Water Project by: • Eliminating the “urban preference,” which prioritized water deliveries to municipal customers during drought. This change results in widespread urban water shortages and higher utility rates for Southern California ratepayers. • Illegally transferring state property in the Kern Water Bank to private entities and undermining the California Water Code by masking the purpose and place of water use. • Increasing water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, thus worsening water-quality problems and triggering the collapse of the Delta’s ecosystem and fisheries. • Authorizing a new, deregulated market for buying and selling “paper water” — water promised by contract that can never realistically be delivered. • Opening the door to privatizing the publicly financed State Water Project. For the first time in State Water Project history, publicly owned water rights and facilities are in essence privatized and placed under the control of for-profit corporations. A number of privately financed “water banks” have come into existence, allowing, in some cases, more money to be made by selling water than by farming. The Monterey Plus Amendments are the California Department of Water Resources’ second attempt at amending the long term water contracts. In 1995, three organizations successfully sued the Department and the Central Coast Water Authority over the inadequacy of the environmental impact report for the first attempt, called the Monterey Amendments. The courts agreed that, given the statewide implications of the first Monterey Amendments, environmental documents should have been prepared by the Department — not a local agency, the Central Coast Water Authority. The Department issued a draft environmental impact report on the Monterey Plus Amendments in 2007 and released a final document in 2010. In June 2010, the Center for Biological Diversity, the California Water Impact Network, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, and the South and Central Delta Water Agencies filed suit to overturn the Monterey Plus Amendments and force the return of the Kern Water Bank to state ownership and the return of all illegally secured profits. The lawsuit, filed under the California Environmental Quality Act, alleges that the environmental impact report was deficient and failed to provide (1) an adequate project description, (2) adequate disclosure of project impacts, (3) an accurate description of the environmental baseline without the Monterey Plus Amendments, (4) evaluation of feasible alternatives, (5) meaningful mitigation to lessen project impacts on the environment, (6) an acceptable response to comments, and (7) substantial evidence to support conclusions of no significant environmental or ratepayer impacts.    The lawsuit asks the court to vacate and set aside approval of the Monterey Plus Amendments and the environmental impact report and suspend all activities pursuant to the project until the Department has complied with all requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act and other applicable laws. It further asks the court to void the Kern Water Bank Exchange Agreement as an unconstitutional gift of a public asset and seeks a return to state ownership of the Kern Water Bank, a return of all of the ill-gotten gains from private use of the Kern Water Bank, and a prohibition of the Kern Water Bank Authority’s use of the Kern Water Bank. Specifically, the Center's lawsuit seeks to vacate: 1. Article 18(a) of the Monterey Plus Amendments. The original Article 18(a) required that, in times of drought, deliveries to agricultural users would be reduced before deliveries to urban users would be cut. This was known as the “urban preference.” As a matter of state policy and the California Water Code, during shortages, drinking water for people and water supplies for most of California’s industrial economy was superior to water used to grow surplus nonfood crops in the desert. The Monterey Plus Amendments change that to ensure that agricultural contractors, representing a small fraction of the California economy, would receive as much water during droughts as the South Coast, which comprises more than half of the state’s population and economy. For urban Southern California, this change results in serious water shortages and increased water rates. Our lawsuit seeks to vacate the revised Article 18(a) and to reestablish the urban preference to protect people and California’s economy during our recurring droughts. 2. Article 18(b) of the Monterey Plus Amendments. The State Water Project was planned to deliver supplies of as many as 4.23 million acre-feet of water, much of it imported from North Coast streams (the Eel, Van Duzen, Klamath, and Smith rivers). These rivers were declared wild and scenic in the 1970s and off limits to the State Water Project. As a result, the State Water Project was only partially built and has only been able to reliably deliver less than half the originally promised, contracted amounts of water. The original Article 18(b) provided for a permanent reduction in water deliveries in the event the entire State Water Project was not fully built out. Even though the Project has never been completed, the Monterey Plus Amendments eliminate this provision, thus allowing water contractors to continue to include and rely upon “paper water” in their contracts. This change results in a reliance on interruptible paper water for permanent crops and urban expansion. Our suit seeks to reverse the modified Article 18(b) in order to preserve the state’s ability to bring unrealistic promises of water into balance with reliable water yields. 3. Article 21 of the Monterey Plus Amendments. The original Article 21 addressed the sale of “surplus” water and prohibited the delivery of such water for purposes that would require a reliable and sustained delivery of water such as to homes, factories, businesses, and permanent crops. The Monterey Plus Amendments eliminate these restrictions and have made available the delivery of “interruptible water” to permanent development whenever the normal supplies had been made. This not only eliminates the safeguard against establishing economies based on unreliable water supplies — it also allows the massive increase in State Water Project Delta export pumping after 2000, triggering the collapse of Delta fisheries. For example, State Water Project exports increased from an average of 993,686 acre-feet in the 1970s to 1,925,758 acre-feet in the 1980s to 2,011,369 acre-feet in the 1990s to a whopping 3,078,838 between 2000 and 2006. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the water supplier to agencies throughout the South Coast, gambled when it gave up its “urban preference” in hopes of securing even larger amounts of “surplus” water. In wetter years, the District was successful, but it never received more than 200,000 acre-feet from Article 21 in a single year, whereas in 2005, agricultural contractors received 531,000 acre-feet through Article 21. These deliveries of “surplus” water triggered Delta fisheries declines. Subsequent federal biological opinions under the Endangered Species Act to protect salmon, steelhead and Delta smelt, as well as court rulings on those biological opinions slammed the door on this gambit. Consequently, during the last drought, the District and its customer agencies were faced with water shortages and had to increase rates for water it delivered, which were in turn passed on to consumers and rate payers. These increased exports from the Delta estuary during critical periods wreaked havoc on endangered fish species and California’s commercially valuable fall Chinook salmon runs. They also increased dependence upon interruptible water supplies. The lawsuit seeks to void the revised Article 21 and limit the use of interruptible sources of water to purposes that can withstand inevitable water shortages. 4. Transfer of the Kern Water Bank. In 1987, the District established the Kern Water Bank as a “State Water Project conservation facility” that was integrated into the overall State Water Project operations as part of the State Water Resource Development System. In 1995, the California Department of Water Resources transferred ownership — on an interim basis, pending final approval of the first Monterey Amendments — of the Kern Water Bank to agricultural contractors, including the Kern County Water Agency, in exchange for 45,000 acre-feet of paper water — i.e., water that the Kern County Water Agency had never received and for which the agency was required to pay as part of State Water Project construction. In other words, the Kern County Water Agency received property worth many millions of dollars in exchange for something it had never received and which reduced the agency’s payments to the State Water Project at the same time. The very next day, The Kern County Water Agency transferred ownership in the water bank to the Kern Water Bank Authority, a privately controlled joint powers authority. Although still operated by the Kern Water Bank Authority, this transfer is subject to final approval of the Monterey Plus Amendments.   The transfer of the Kern Water Bank to private parties violated the California Constitution and Water Code, among other provisions that prohibit the gift of state assets to private parties. The Center’s lawsuit seeks to void the transfer and recover all ill-gotten profits from the private use of public assets.   * See http://www.c-win.org/monterey-plus-agreement.html and http://www.c-win.org/monterey-amendments-state-water-project-contracts.html Upcoming Events: USAFishing proudly supports the many fishery and wildlife organizations that benefit anglers and hunters throughout Northern California. Does your organization have an upcoming event? Contact us at fishsite@aol.com and we will gladly post the information on our reports pages. California Waterfowl 2010 Dinners and Youth Events Calendar