So the Gage got invited to ride along with Rick Powers on a scientific research trip to Cordell Banks last Thursday. The mission was to collect some yellowtail and chilipepper rockfish with eggs. Mission successful, with many other "wrong" fish returned via descender device. Gage's bottom line report: "There's a lot of fish there." That's good news, because twenty years ago when they closed it to fishing there weren't any to be seen on the fish finder. You could still catch some fish but it wasn't the blackout-the-meter, can't-reach-the-bottom situation of the past or the present. You can already see the spillover of recovering deepwater rockfish appearing in the shallows. I've seen widows, bocaccio and yelloweye in 160 feet of water in the last five years and it used to be (in the 1980's) rare to see a yellowtail or olive rockfish near the shore, shallower than 250 feet of water. Perhaps some deeper water sites could be opened, even if on a limited basis, to relieve some of the pressure on the shallow rockfish. Cordell will surely never be re-opened to the rest of us but the Football, Rittenburg Bank and Fanny Shoals would sure be nice options to visit.
   Gage spent a bit of time in the New Sea Angler's wheelhouse and is very happy to report that there were schools of anchovies "all the way out and all the way back." This bodes well for salmon fishing this year but may predict sadness for the salmon smolts hitting the ocean this spring as it may be too much competition for krill. Time will tell.
   Here's a (sorry, previous week's) report from Mike Martin :"Just read your report about the crabbing in the outer bay. On Monday after pulling our last pots from 200’ for the year, when we got back to the dock, a couple guys in a Zodiac showed us 2 limits, and they threw a few back, after a 4 hour soak. They were in 50’ about a mile south of Doran beach(Estero?). Could have been luck and being in the right place at the right time but just passing it along.

Mike"