
Fall Salmon Opener Yields Salmon Limits,
Fishing for Rockfish Open at All Depths
SAN FRANCISCO – The Marin County Coast was the hot spot for the four day fall ocean salmon season that ran from September 4 to September 7 from Point Reyes to Point Sur.
Cat Kaiser, Vice President of Operations and Engagement for the Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA), shared her experiences fishing during the limited opportunity to target salmon this year.
“I fished 3 of the 4 days of the season,” Kaiser said. “Thursday was spent working to help restore these amazing creatures, but being on the water and seeing so many friends out there was the best!”
“As happy as I was to share the opener with everyone out there working hard, doing what we love, and feeling grateful for the chance to fish when we can, it was also a bittersweet reminder of just how precious this resource is and what our fishery could and should be,” stated Kaiser.
“A few scattered days are not a true ‘season,’ and having zero days for the commercial fleet is truly heartbreaking. As the new Vice President of Operations and Engagement for GSSA, I do solemnly swear to work every day toward bringing back a strong, healthy salmon fishery for California,” she added.
Kaiser said she was honored to kick off day one “with my passionate and hard-working friends, Unforgettable Fishing Adventures, and of course my salmon sister Annie Nagel for an episode of Angler West TV.” They departed for the fishing grounds out of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.
The 6 people fishing aboard the boat, along with the two crew members, landed 16 salmon, full limits, while trolling with anchovies off Double Point with Captain Virginia Salvador.
“Annie caught the largest fish, a solid 20 pounds,” said Kaiser. “I caught my limit of salmon weighing around 12 pounds each. It was wild going out of the Golden Gate that morning with all those boats to take advantage of the limited season.”
The next trip on Saturday was a GSSA all ladies trip aboard the New Captain Pete out of Half Moon Bay. This trip featured Captain Melinda Dodds and an all-female crew including Maddie Day, who just got her captain’s license, and Meghan Fox.
The fishing had slowed down from its fast pace on Saturday, but the girls landed a 27 lb. king and other hard-fighting Chinooks.
“The great part was that the girls kept great attitudes and energy despite the slower fishing this day and we snacked on delicious food. We had a dance party during a whale show on a flat calm ocean in the sun. We fished in tank tops and Grundens,” Cat noted.
Before this trip, the Anglerettes Fishing Club in San Diego donated stickers, mini-tackle boxes and Fish Fiemd Hair ties scrunchies in cool travel bags with the logo, “Support your local Anglette.”
“It was all about women supporting women from SoCal to NorCal,” Kaiser noted.
The third day was another all-girls trip with 7 women, Captain Virginia Salvador of Unforgettable Fishing Adventures and the deckhand, Brian. Two of the girls, Amanda Brannon and Rosalie, caught their first-ever salmon on this fishing adventure.
“Then the fishing was really slow for hours,” she said. “Most people were struggling. Then I dropped a new bait down at 18 pulls and five seconds hooked the hardest fighting salmon I have ever caught,” she continued.
“It was 25 pounds on the scale, but it felt like a much bigger fish. I got it to the boat at least five times before it took off on another run. It was the most I ever had to finesse a salmon in,” Kaiser explained.
“The 25 pounder was the Hail Mary big fish we needed. After that fishing slowed down again. We did catch a lingcod weighing about 14 pounds while trolling on Sunday along the beach,” she said.
“I was really happy to see women captains and crew following their dreams working hard while creating a happy peaceful vibe through lights out moments to the slowest times," she said. “The vibe was great both times.”
Now that the four day fall salmon season, is over, anglers aboard private and party boats are fishing the Marin County Coast for lingcod and rockfish.
Boats are catching limits of rockfish, along with good numbers of lingcod. And anglers now will have increased opportunities to catch lingcod and rockfish off the Marin County Coast and throughout the rest of the state’s coastal and offshore waters.
On August 14, 2025, the California Fish and Game Commission adopted emergency changes to the state’s groundfish regulations so that recreational ocean fisheries are no longer constrained by quillback rockfish (Sebastes maliger). Fishing opportunities in northern and central California were reduced in 2023 due to low estimated quillback rockfish abundance:
“A new stock assessment completed earlier this summer indicates it is no longer necessary to restrict groundfish fishing to specific depths north of Point Conception in order to avoid quillback rockfish, allowing anglers to take advantage of expansions to open fishing areas. The Commission acted to rapidly change the regulations to allow additional opportunities before summer’s end,” according to the announcement from the CDFW.
Over the last few years, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) collaborated with federal partners, fishing groups, and anglers to gather data and improve scientific knowledge of quillback rockfish off California. The information was crucial in informing the new stock assessment, which indicates the stock is at a healthy level and not overfished.
This finding reverses results from a 2021 stock assessment which relied on very limited data from the California stock. Retention of quillback rockfish, however, remains prohibited in all waters statewide until recommendations for sport and commercial fishery catch limits are developed for California quillback rockfish in conjunction with those for other nearshore groundfish species.
“This action is the result of hard work by a lot of people,” said Tim Klassen, an appointed advisory member for the groundfish sport fishery and a charter boat captain in Eureka. “The Commission and CDFW moved quickly to implement these changes and worked collaboratively with fishermen to achieve a result that protects our fisheries and the people that depend on them. This is what good fishery management looks like.”
With restored access to all-depth fishing for northern and central California, a sub-bag limit for canary rockfish (Sebastes pinniger) is necessary to keep catches within the federal California recreational harvest guideline for this species.
Therefore, a new two fish sub-bag limit will apply for canary rockfish, statewide. Additionally, vermilion (Sebastes miniatus) and sunset rockfish (Sebastes crocotulus) will be managed together as a species complex, meaning that they are considered the same species for regulatory purposes (e.g., sub-bag limit) due to their nearly indistinguishable appearance.
These changes are intended to roll back restrictions that were put into place to avoid quillback rockfish, which are very rarely seen south of Point Conception.
Anglers should review the Summary of Recreational Groundfish Regulations page for the most up-to-date information before going fishing. If anglers encounter a quillback rockfish, CDFW strongly encourages using a descending device to return it to depth. When fishing in ocean waters from a vessel a landing net is always required, and when fishing for or possessing groundfish, a descending device is required to be carried aboard.