The First Open Season in Years Comes With a Catch
For the first time since 2023, both sport and commercial salmon fishing will be legal in California waters this spring. After years of closures that squeezed anglers and devastated commercial fishing operations up and down the coast, the news landed like a breath of fresh air for fishermen in places like Santa Cruz County. But anyone expecting salmon to suddenly flood back into fish markets and bait shops should pump the brakes — this reopening is tightly controlled, and the window could slam shut faster than most people realize.
The recreational season kicks off on April 11 in ocean waters south of Pigeon Point, which sits roughly 30 miles north of Santa Cruz. The commercial season is scheduled to follow in mid-May, with the exact date and full set of rules to be finalized around April 12. It marks the first full commercial opening since the Pacific Fishery Management Council shut things down in 2023 due to dangerously low salmon stock numbers. The recreational fishery had a small, limited run in 2025 after being completely dark in both 2023 and 2024.
The Numbers That Changed Everything
The reason any of this is happening comes down to one thing: the fish came back. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, salmon populations in the region have more than doubled compared to last year's estimates. That kind of rebound is significant enough that officials felt comfortable reopening the fishery, at least on a limited basis.
Marci Yaremko, who represents California on the Pacific Fishery Management Council, put it plainly. "Salmon stocks have recovered to the point that sport and commercial ocean fisheries can be offered this year," she said. She also pointed to a new management approach as part of why this season is structured the way it is. "This recovery, plus a new management strategy of regional harvest guidelines, will help to ensure anglers in all areas of the state have an opportunity to participate in the fishery, independent of catch accrued in another area," Yaremko said.
That last part matters more than it might seem at first read. In the past, a big catch in one region could effectively close out the season for fishermen hundreds of miles away. The new regional approach is designed to give guys across the state a fair shot, regardless of what's happening up or down the coastline.
How Tight Are the Restrictions?
On the sport fishing side, anglers are looking at seven days a week of access — which sounds generous — but with a hard cap of two fish per person per day. The season is officially on the books through August, but there's a total statewide limit of 21,000 salmon sitting over the whole thing. Once that number gets hit, the season is done, full stop. No exceptions, no extensions.
History suggests that number could evaporate fast. In 2025, the sport fishing limit that year was set at 7,500 fish, and recreational fishermen blew past it during the very first weekend of the season. That effectively shut things down for the rest of the summer. With the cap now set at 21,000, there's more room to breathe, but if word gets out and the boats show up in force, a few weeks of heavy fishing could end things before most people even thought to go out.
The state's stated reason for keeping the restrictions in place is straightforward — they want enough adult fish making it back to spawning grounds and hatcheries this fall to keep the cycle going. A short, productive spring season does nobody any good if it wipes out next year's run before it starts.
Commercial Fishing: Still a Gray Area
On the commercial side, things are less settled. The Pacific Fishery Management Council is weighing three different options for how the season gets structured, and a decision isn't expected until around April 12, with whatever rules they land on taking effect by May 16.
One of the options on the table would open waters in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas — which includes Santa Cruz County — during May, June, and August, with a September close south of Pigeon Point. A stricter alternative would limit commercial activity almost entirely to waters north of Mendocino, which would lock out a huge portion of the state's fishing fleet. The third option falls somewhere in between. Professional fishermen are watching this decision closely because it will determine whether the season is worth rigging up the boats for at all.
The Real Problem Nobody Is Talking About
Ian Cole runs Ocean2Table, a Santa Cruz-based operation that works directly with small, responsible fishing outfits across California. He distributes sustainable fish and produce and has a front-row seat to what years of closures have done to the commercial fishing community in the state. His take on the reopening is mixed at best.
The excitement about salmon returning is real. But Cole points to something that gets lost in the headlines — a lot of the boats in California's salmon fleet are old, and keeping them running costs serious money. Installing the gear needed for salmon fishing isn't cheap, and doing all of that for what might amount to a few weeks of work before the season hits its limit is a tough sell for a lot of operators.
"It's difficult to make business decisions around such a short season after being closed for years," Cole said. That kind of uncertainty, year after year, wears people out. And the longer things stay complicated and unpredictable, the more experienced fishermen walk away from it entirely. Boats get sold or retired. Knowledge gets lost.
"We're watching the knowledge on how to fish for salmon disappear," Cole said. That's not a throwaway line. There's a practical craft to salmon fishing — understanding the currents, reading the water, knowing where the fish are likely to be at different points in the season. When experienced hands leave the industry and aren't replaced, that institutional knowledge doesn't get passed down. If salmon populations continue to recover and the state opens broader seasons in the years ahead, there may simply not be enough skilled commercial fishermen left to take full advantage of it.
Cole still plans to work with small independent fishers this spring and offer California salmon to his customers through Ocean2Table. But he's being realistic about what this season actually represents. "It's the time of year to savor the little bit of California salmon you're going to get," he said.
What This Means for the Guy Who Just Wants to Go Fishing
For recreational anglers who have been watching the closures drag on for the better part of four years, April 11 is circled on the calendar. The two-fish daily limit is workable, and seven-day-a-week access means weekend warriors and guys who can only get out occasionally both have a real shot.
The smart move is to get out early in the season before the 21,000-fish ceiling gets approached. Once officials start tracking the numbers and reports come in from up and down the coast, it won't take long for fishing forums and local tackle shops to start buzzing about how close the season is to closing. Anyone who waits until June or July to make a plan might find themselves locked out again, same as 2025.
For those who want to eat California salmon rather than catch it themselves, the answer is to look for local distributors and fish markets with direct relationships to small fishing operations. Cole and outfits like his are the pipeline for that product, and when the commercial season is this short and restricted, supply will be limited. The fish that do hit the market will be fresh and worth seeking out — California salmon taken from cold Pacific waters during a brief, controlled season is about as good as it gets.
A Cautious Kind of Optimism
The big picture here is that the California salmon fishery is showing real signs of life after a rough stretch. A population that more than doubled in a single year is not a small thing — it suggests the closures and conservation measures have had their intended effect, and that the ecosystem has enough stability to support at least a modest return to fishing.
But the state and federal managers overseeing this are clearly determined not to squander the recovery by letting things get out of hand immediately. The 21,000-fish cap, the regional harvest guidelines, and the cautious approach to the commercial season all point to a fisheries management strategy that's trying to extend this recovery rather than ride it hard and burn it out.
Whether that approach satisfies fishermen who have lost years of income, or anglers who have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a chance to get back on the water, is another question. The reality is that this spring's season is something — but it isn't a return to normal. Normal, if it comes back at all, is still a few good years down the road.
For now, the boats are getting ready, the gear is going back on, and sometime around mid-April, salmon will start coming over the rails again on the California coast. For a lot of people who make their living on the water, or who simply love the sport, that's enough.
