It’s getting warmer in California and it’s starting to become good fishing weather.

Lately, California has been dealing with extremely bipolar weather. The weather at the start of the year consisted of lots of rain and very windy/cold temperatures. Weather in fishing is a very important deal. When the weather is cold and the water temperature is colder, the fish tend to slow down, and generally need less food to support themselves. In warmer waters, they are much more active, and as a result, need significantly more food to survive.

Now the weather is warming up and fish are biting, but there’s one problem. Fish that are known in the California Central Valley area like stripers, bass catfish, and trout are getting caught and are noticeably skinny. Fishermen all over the Central Valley are noticing it. Over time fish will gain weight and become bigger, but it will take some time.

According to Joseph Townsend (11), when he went on a fishing tournament recently, “The bite was good at the tournament, but compared to the past years, it was weak. The bite has not been on lately for this year.”

According to an app called Fish Brain, it reports that most fish caught in the area are between six to eight pounds.  Other fishermen can agree with Townsend the fish are just skinnier. Another challenge is that many fishing spots has flooded. But many are hopeful that as the season progresses, the bite will get better and the spots will start to dry up.

A local fishermen Brandon Flores of Chowchilla said, “Yeah the first spot I went to last weekend and it was the first day of the season for me was flooded. It looked like we were in the Bayou. It was terrible. It ruined my bass pond and the environment around it.”

All the rains have caused some rivers to flood and take ponds with it too. Drought and climate change problems have been past issues effecting fishing over the years. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife have also banned fishing for salmon along the California coast and ocean due to a decrease in salmon population. Salmon fishing business was warned that “hard times are a coming” according to CBS Sacramento in their Salmon article. This has only happen two times in history; this time it was due to the salmon population plummeting.

But with all of these restrictions, there are also other fish to catch like bass, catfish, and stripers which are free game and have no restrictions other then the size of them and whether or not you have a fishing license. Even though the fish are a tad bit skinnier right now, if you give it time, the fish will start to bulk up.

Time will tell what fishing looks like by the end of the year. Until then, keep fishing and relaxing.