Kenny Priest

The rains that fell in early November were a godsend for our late-fall salmon runs. The increased flows allowed some of the salmon milling in the estuaries and lower sections of the rivers to get to their spawning grounds. But just as quickly as the rain fell, it stopped. Now, nearly a month later, additional rain is finally filling our...
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In a press release issued Monday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife will lift the recreational crab trap restriction in fishing zones 1 and 2, which run from the California/Oregon border south to Point Arena, on Nov. 28 at 9 a.m. In the meantime, recreational crabbers that take Dungeness crab by other methods, including hoop nets and crab snares, are...
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Despite some pretty drastic changes to the sport crab fishing regulations, jumbo crabs in good numbers are now starting to fill the hoops and rings of sport anglers. Between rough ocean conditions and a steep learning curve on how the new hoops and rings fish best, the sport season started a little on the slow side. But now anglers are...
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The season’s first big storms hit the North Coast over the weekend and the Smith and Chetco both kicked out good numbers of kings. Both rivers have been loaded with kings in their lower sections for quite some time, and when the rivers finally rose, they were on the move. On Saturday, the Smith turned muddy, forcing anglers to wait...
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One of the most popular fisheries on the North Coast will commence Saturday, on time, albeit with a few temporary regulation changes. Due to presence of humpback and blue whales and the potential for entanglement from trap gear, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife restricted the recreational take of Dungeness crab using crab traps statewide. However, the recreational take...
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In a press release issued last week, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife projected the Upper Trinity River fall-run Chinook salmon quota would have been met as of 11:59 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21. This triggered the closure of the adult fall-run Chinook salmon fishery on the Trinity River from the Old Lewiston Bridge to the State Route 299 West...
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