Just a quick note- a couple of crabbers in a boat picked up 11 Dungeness yesterday and 11 more today over near marker 5. Slow on the pier but there are a few schools of jacksmelt passing by so there's at least something to catch. There were a few sharks caught in the surf but no perch yet.

Everything is pretty slow except for the wind. A few crab from the pier, a few more from the bay, and no perch from the beach that I have heard about. The only good news I have at the moment is that, according to a commercial crabber, the water out in 300+ feet was brown and "krilly" with a couple of places that the birds were working. It looks very good out there if there's a salmon opener on the 6th of April.

A few Dungeness off of the pier this week but the catching is far from wide open. Across the bay by number 5 the catch was better but not great. I heard numbers from 0 to 20 Dungeness caught, but the average was around 6 per boat. The National Park Service was out checking boats today. At least one crabber was told his crab were undersized at less than 7 inches. A second ranger did eventually correct him and a ticket was not written, but it reminds me to strongly suggest to you to bring a copy of the current regulations with you. It can be used to remind you (and others) of what the rules are. Yes, a ticket for sub-seven inch crab would get tossed out of court, after you took a day off work to fight it.

Attention abalone divers and rock pickers: The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is going to cut the take of abalone starting in 2014. They are allowing public input as to how they do it until the end of the month. Here's the link to the survey: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/abalonesurvey/ It's like the old stories of child punishment where Pa sends the boy out to cut a switch for whuppin' his backside.

Pretty much the same situation this week. There are a few Dungeness being caught on the pier and decent numbers coming from boaters in the bay. As usual, the best catching is around slack tide and the worst in the afternoon when the current is boiling out of the bay. According to usafishing.com, the New Sea Angler released a couple of salmon that were hooked on sabikis while sand dab fishing last weekend. That sounds pretty encouraging for this year's salmon season. The Fish and Game Commission will decide if there will be a salmon season in April on March 6 and on the rest of the year's salmon fishing seasons on April 17-18.

Yesterday saw a fresh batch of Dungeness pass by the pier. At least one crabber had 5 by 9:00 AM. The fresh Dungeness were present in other parts of the bay as well. This report from yesterday was submitted by the F/V SturgeUrge: We launched from Miller Park Ramp about 9:30AM and crabbed between Marker 5 and Lawson's Landing. Half limits for two, with lots of females and lots of dungees just a 1/16" under. 

Yesterday a pair of folks worked the marker 5 area for a limit. Today another boat soaked 6 pots in the outer bay for 6 and a half hours for a limit of Dungeness. Both boaters said there were many more females than males.