As far as techniques for Fort Bragg salmon, Thornton has been using the same technique for the past 18 years. "We troll an anchovy/hoochie set up behind a flasher and a 2 pound lead ball," he explained. "This allows us to cover a lot of water until we locate a school of fish. It's a very simple method and very effective."

If the coming season is anything like last year, anglers have a lot to look forward to. The month of February is typically slow for salmon in this area, but everyone was pleasantly surprised by the amount of action found on the opener last year. "We had a good shot of fish for the first couple weeks, then it dropped off a bit," said Thornton. "Overall, Fort Bragg produced some of the most consistent salmon fishing along the north coast last year."

While the salmon fishing was hit and miss at best off Santa Cruz, San Mateo and San Francisco last year, Fort Bragg produced steady action on near limits to limits of fish throughout much of the season. "We definitely had the most consistent bite last year and we also had some of the biggest fish I have ever seen in all my years of fishing this area," said Thornton. "The Lady Irma II ended up with 7 fish topping the 40 pound mark. Our biggest was just shy of 50 pounds. We also had an amazing number of 30 pound fish and countless 20's."

Water conditions are rated as fair at press time as is typical for this time of year. "We don't have that nice brown salmon water like we get in the summer, but there's plenty of food around and the fact that the rockfish guys are regularly catching salmon means we should be able to find some fish," explained Thornton.

The second of the salmon openers takes place Saturday, March 30, in all waters south of Pigeon Point (37 degrees 11'00"N. lat.). Landings within this zone include Santa Cruz, Monterey and Morro Bay. Boats out of Half Moon Bay may also make the run south if the weather cooperates. The trip down normally isn't a problem for the Half Moon Bay boats, but they often have to battle a strong northwest wind on the trip home.

The final salmon opener is Saturday, April 13 between Point Arena (38 degrees 57'30" N. lat.) and Pigeon Point. This covers the San Mateo, San Francisco and Bodega Bay areas. Look for the action to be in full swing by the time this opener rolls around.

In the mean time, rockfish action has been filling the void in all these areas. The Farallon Islands have been kicking out steady limits of rockfish and plenty of quality lingcod while Cordell Banks has been kicking out some of the biggest catches of lingcod in recent memory. The Monterey and Santa Cruz guys are also reporting excellent action on rockfish and lings.