The Myth of the Breeze

soapy waters

For a month or so each year, frothy, soapy water spills from a small Dam feed­ing water to the Sacra­mento River. Just out­side of the tiny town of Knight’s Land­ing, this loca­tion is sur­rounded by agri­cul­tural lands, and boasts a pop­u­lar fish­ing spot and boat launch. I trav­eled there twice (once on my birth­day) to learn about the soap skim­ming along the top of the water, build­ing up onto the sides of boats and rocks, headed South­east­ward with the Sacramento.

Ike and Bea fish along the Sacra­mento, just upstream from the open dam. They are tak­ing advan­tage of this year’s short Salmon sea­son, run­ning from Novem­ber 1 to Dece­me­ber 31 from this point of the river and north. Salmon sea­son has been closed all year due to record low salmon counts, and many anglers are eager to catch their one salmon per per­son limit. While scop­ing out the fish­ing site, an older man and his young son wres­tled a large salmon out of the waters (a busted net meant they almost lost their catch). The first he’d caught in 17 years.

Ask­ing Bea about the foam, she says it is only around this time of year. “The old timers,” she remarks, “say that the foam is from the salmon. You know the fish are around if the foam is around.

My hands are tired of typ­ing. More soon…