The Northern California Council of Federation of Fly Fishers and Pacific Coast Flyrodders at the February Fish and Game Commission in Sacramento, proposed that the current regulations be changed to “catch and release only” after September 1 or until river flows reach at least 400 cfs. The Commission didn’t make any decision on the issue, since it was brought up during the public comment section of the meeting and not as a scheduled agenda item. However, the proposal may be scheduled as an agenda item in an upcoming meeting.

For decades, the Smith River has been known not only for the state’s largest steelhead, but also for some of California’s biggest and most beautiful king salmon. Fly fishermen, lure tossers and bait anglers catch numerous salmon on the Smith every year, but the conservation groups believe that the low water fall snagging problem poses an increasing threat to the run’s existence.

“This illegal snagging must be stopped and presents a severe threat to the survival of the fall run of Chinook in the Smith River,” said Benjamin R. Taylor of the Pacific Coast Flyrodders. “The 400 cfs benchmark is the same now used to open the river to angling each season. I ask that emergency action be taken on this proposal in order to close take during 2006 and subsequent low flow closure periods.”

He also requested the Commission to direct the DFG to increase its regulation of enforcement activities, particularly during the low flow periods.

Taylor, an angler who has fished the river for over 40 years, outlined the increasing pressure that the snaggers have put on the wild salmon fishery of the lower Smith, one of the state’s last pristine, undammed rivers. Beginning each October, chinook salmon enter the lower tidal pools of the river to begin their fall spawning migration. They come and go with the tides until the rainfall and higher flows allow them to ascend the river.

“It is during these low water periods that these fish are most vulnerable – particularly to those anglers who use certain techniques to snag these fish illegally. And those who intentionally snag salmon almost always kill them – often taking several fish in the same day.”

Taylor said the majority of snaggers working in the lower Smith use spoons and other lures to snag the fish in the back, fins, head and anywhere the hooks will stick.

On one lower river pool, the Sand Hole, Taylor claimed that he witnessed over 125 people snag and take away 20 salmon in one day. He and his fishing buddies made many phone calls to notify local Fish and Game personnel and Park authorities of the situation.

“Officials were present at the pool on a few weekends and made some arrests, but hardly ever appeared on weekdays. They told us they did not have the staff to police the Sand Hole at all times. As a result, the slaughter continued for as long as the salmon remained in the pool,” he stated.

Taylor said many snaggers target the killing of female chinooks to obtain their roe for bait. “One person found six female chinook in the bushes, stripped of eggs and left to rot by their killers – their roe being more important for bait than their flesh to eat. We estimate that at least five hundred to over 1000 adult fish were snagged and killed illegally – and all within a three to four week period.”

Chuck Bucaria, a representative of the Northern California Federation of Fly Fishers, added, “we don’t want to remove the capability of anglers to fish during the low flow period. We just want to see a no-kill regulation that will discourage snagging.”

However, Fish and Game Commissioners questioned the effectiveness – and appropriateness – of restricting legal anglers to catch and release fishing when the lack of proper enforcement of the regulations was the problem.

“I would hate to take away from the legal anglers their ability to keep salmon,” said Bob Hattoy, the newly elected vice-president of the Commission. “The problem is that the fish are being taken illegally. Criminal activity is what’s going on.”

Since the National Park Service and DFG enforcement staff are severely understaffed, Hattoy suggested that the anglers might form a type of community watch group to put peer pressure upon anglers to stop snagging.

Taylor said this wasn’t advisable. “This is a very rough group we’re dealing with,” he said. “We’ve tried talking to them. You’re literally taking your life into your hands by trying to convince them to stop snagging salmon.”

At press time, members of the groups were planning to meet with the Smith River Advisory Council, as well as networking with County Supervisors, guides and other locals regarding the proposed regulation change, according to Patt Wardlaw, founder of the Pacific Coast Flyrodders, a group of 60 anglers that fly fish for salmon and steelhead on the Smith and Chetco rivers.

“The problem with the snagging began five years ago when the bottom of the river changed and the Sand Hole became accessible to shore anglers,” noted Wardlaw. “There are plenty of bank anglers that fair-hook their fish. However, there is a group of cutthroats that regularly snags the fish.”’

“If we get catch and release fishing, it’s a lot better than closing the lower 3 miles of river to fishing,” he added. “The last thing we want to do is to close the entire stretch of river - this would be disastrous to the local economy, including fishing guides, motels and other businesses.”

The lower Smith River above the cattle crossing was completely closed to fishing during fall low flow periods from 1982 to 1997. The two groups proposing the regulation change were instrumental in opening the lower river up to Rowdy Creek to fishing during low water periods in recent years, according to Bucaria.

No current population estimates of the Smith River salmon run are available from the DFG or other agencies. “The salmon run is healthy, but I wouldn’t call it robust,” said Jim Waldvogel, fishery biologist and chair of the Smith River Advisory Council. “It’s holding its own and doing OK.”

“The problem with the catch and release proposal is that people who fish at the river mouth, where there isn’t a snagging problem, want to continue be able to keep salmon,” he stated. “And I doubt if the DFG would want to restrict fishing to catch and release on just one area of the river, the Sand Hole.”

Waldvogel suggested finding funds for creel census workers as a solution, since law enforcement staff is so overextended. “If creel census workers were out on the river at the Sand Hole every day, it would probably eliminate 80 percent of the snagging problem,” said Waldvogel.

As on many other rivers, the balance between protecting salmon and steelhead populations from poaching while maintaining public fishing access and the ability of legal anglers to keep fish is a delicate one. The Smith and other coastal rivers have relatively small salmon runs compared to the larger systems like the Sacramento and Klamath rivers, so protecting wild fish from snagging on a pristine watershed like the Smith is a big conservation issue on the North Coast that must be dealt with.

More articles by Dan Bacher