Sacramento River salmon fishing opener decent
The Sacramento River's short 46-day salmon fishing season kicked off on Monday, with the expected decent but unspectacular results. For anglers fishing and launching out of Irvine Finch, the ratio was about one fish for every three boats.

One of the lucky anglers at Irvine Finch was Ed Watson of Chico, who landed a nice 30-pound king salmon while fishing with local guide Chuck Smith of River Run Guide Service. "We had a great day, the river was gorgeous", observed Smith. "We caught the big one and also a smaller jack at the pontoon hole, using a plain silver K15 Luhr Jensen Kwikfish with no bait."

Smith added, "There are plenty of fish in the river, you just have to work the water right. We'll be out here every day of the season that the weather allows."

Dave Sullivan of Orland was not so lucky. "We hooked a couple of salmon, but lost them", lamented Sullivan. "The ones we did hook hit on a chartreuse/silver K15 Kwikfish, but roe did not work at all."

During mid-day, Sullivan's 18-year old daughter Christina grew bored with salmon fishing, and tossed out a large 10-inch Storm Kickin' Minnow swimbait that closely replicates a rainbow trout. She managed to hook a very large striped bass that came off before being boated.

Further downstream at Ord Ferry, DFG warden Chad Alexander reported that fishing seemed a little better. "I checked 12 boats at Ord Ferry today", said Alexander. "Five of them had one fish for the boat, another five had limits, and only two boats got skunked."

Interestingly, Alexander and DFG Lt. Sam Castillo are part of several warden teams that are working with a three-person film crew from the National Geographic Channel. The crew is filming a special on California game wardens that will be broadcast on NatGeo-TV in five or six months.