California · Salmon (Chinook, and Coho, Pink, Chum, Sockeye)
Can you keep a salmon (chinook, and coho, pink, chum, sockeye) in California?
We can't tell you — and neither can the agency, cleanly
ocean waters, statewide
Status unclearOcean salmon season in California is not one rule but a running series of them: four coastal sub-areas, each with its own open-date windows that change repeatedly through the 2026 season and already carry provisional dates reaching into April 2027, each with its own harvest-guideline quota that can trigger an early in-season closure announced by NMFS, and a size limit that itself changes between 20 and 24 inches depending on the sub-area and the date. Coho salmon may not be taken at all, at any time. CDFW's own guidance is to call the ocean salmon hotline (800-662-9825) or check wildlife.ca.gov/oceansalmon before fishing — not to rely on a fixed table. Publishing a single size or bag number here would misstate a rule that is deliberately variable by design.
Nothing is stated here because there is no single current answer — check the NMFS ocean salmon hotline or CDFW's website for your specific sub-area and date before fishing. Coho salmon (silver salmon) may never be kept, in any area, at any time.
What we left out on purpose
- California caps total daily finfish possession at 20 fish in combination across all species, with no more than 10 of any one species, unless a species is specifically exempted or given its own higher or lower number (as most species on this page are). This general cap has no field in the schema and is noted on the species it actually binds.
- The Rockfish, Cabezon and Greenling complex and lingcod are open or closed depending on which of five coastal Groundfish Management Zones (Northern, Mendocino, San Francisco, Central, Southern) an angler is fishing and at what depth. Each zone runs its own season and Rockfish Conservation Area depth-boundary calendar, updated separately by CDFW and subject to in-season change. This site does not report on any specific California ocean location, so the size and bag limits are published as statewide figures with the zone/depth dependency named in the note rather than modelled as five separate regions.
- Ocean salmon is carried as unsettled rather than guessed. The 2026 regulations already publish four geographic sub-areas with distinct date windows, harvest-guideline quotas that can close a sub-area early, and size limits that shift between 20 and 24 inches by area and date — and the same table already lists provisional 2027 season-opening dates. No fixed number would be honest here.
- Dungeness crab, spiny lobster, abalone, clams, mussels, scallops, shrimp and other invertebrates are covered by CDFW in separate summary tables. This silo is finfish only, matching every other state on this site.
- Giant sea bass allows 2 per angler per trip specifically when fishing south of the U.S.–Mexico border under a valid Mexican fishing permit — an exception about a different country's waters, not California's, and not carried as a California rule.
- This site reports on one California water, Lake Tahoe, which is freshwater. California's separate freshwater sport fishing regulations (trout, kokanee, bass and other inland species) are not covered by this page, which follows the state's own Ocean Sport Fishing Regulations booklet.
Other species in California
- California halibut
- Pacific halibut
- Striped bass
- White seabass
- Yellowtail
- Pacific bonito
- California barracuda
- Kelp, barred sand and spotted sand bass
- California sheephead
- California scorpionfish (sculpin)
- Leopard shark
- Shortfin mako, thresher and blue shark
- Sixgill and sevengill shark
- Soupfin shark
- White shark (great white)
- Swordfish (broadbill)
- Marlin (black, blue and striped)
- Albacore tuna
- Bluefin tuna
- Tuna, other (including bigeye and yellowfin)
- White sturgeon
- Green sturgeon
- California grunion
- Redtail surfperch
- Surfperch, other species
- Pacific herring
- Groupers, other than broomtail and gulf grouper
- Gulf and broomtail grouper
- Garibaldi
- Giant sea bass (black sea bass)
- Rockfish, cabezon and greenling (RCG complex)
- Lingcod
- Bronzespotted rockfish
- Cowcod
- Quillback rockfish
- Yelloweye rockfish
Where to try today
- Lake Tahoe 6/10 · Decent