The pier provided just enough crab to keep it interesting this weekend. The bay provided better but not great action for Dungeness. A few sport pots got dropped down on Ten Mile today, hopefully to get pulled (by the owner) on the salmon opener, so with luck there will be a good report there. We watched the National Park Service chase down and board a boat today, which reminds me, if you plan to fish the opener you should probably make sure your registration and safety gear is in order before some guys in an orange boat do the checking for you. Don't forget to check the dates on your flares (42 months from manufacture), your fire extinguisher is charged and the powder inside isn't packed down, and you have the correct number of life jackets. Nobody wants to spend a day in federal court.

There must have been a fresh wave of crab coming through the bay this week. A young man on the pier had seven keeper Dungeness by noon today (three on the overnight) and I saw several more Dungeness leaving the pier in buckets this afternoon. A couple of fellows caught 24 in two days across the bay. It's a lot better action than a few weeks ago. I heard a story that there were some surfperch caught up by the rocks north of the parking lot. Just a story, but the time is right.

Great weather this weekend but the crabbing was just OK. Actually, from the pier is wasn't quite OK, although the sea lion that came by today thought the eating was pretty good. Surf fishing conditions were great except that the only bites were the ones the ospreys were giving to the fish. The fishermen I talked to didn't even get a nibble.

While the pier is still just dribbling out a few keepers, the "marker 5 spot" across the bay kicked out a lot of keepers for the few boats that braved the wind this weekend. Today a boat with two fishermen caught two limits of Dungeness in 20' of water and had to throw back a few keepers. Nothing else to report.

News for this week: Salmon season opens on April 6 with a 24" minimum size and two fish limit. It closes again on the 30th and will likely reopen on May 1st with slightly different rules and possibly some other closure dates. They may close one day a week or close the season for a couple of weeks. For the record, if they close Thursdays I will be taking a different day off this summer.
In bivalve news, the State Department of Public Health tested the gaper clams (horsenecks) from the clam islands and found no evidence of PSP. They have found PSP in some of the critters further in the bay, and Washington and littleneck clams accumulate it quicker than the gapers (slower than mussels, though), so the gapers are officially the only ones OK to eat.
On the crab front, the Dungeness catching is slow for most, although a kayaker picked up 9 near the pier on Wednesday and another fisherman picked up 9 from three pots after a two day soak in front of Dillon Beach.

Still a few Dungeness coming in on the pier and anywhere from two crabs to two limits of crab caught across the bay in the "Marker 5 hole." Currently, there is a quarantine in effect on clams, mussels, and cockles in Marin County due to paralytic shellfish poisoning so plan your clamming trips for another time. We have collected a clam sample for testing by the State, so we should know for certain about our clams pretty soon.  Also, today the wind was really bad. After noon we refused to launch any boats due to the dangerous conditions. Several boats launched anyhow, safety and possible poisonous food notwithstanding. One of the boats ended up flipped over in the channel between Clam and Seal Islands. A true gentleman that was clamming nearby responded quickly and was able to rescue the boat operator. The too-small-of-boat was left behind. Upon his arrival back on the mainland the gentleman was called names by the person he saved and his group because he refused to retrieve the boat. For the record, sir, you saved the one guy's life twice and his two buddies' lives once because they weren't able to get back into their suicide craft.