Cameron asked me how the fishing report was going. "What fishing report?" "Oh crap!" Life gets in the way of life. Anyhoo.... Crabbing in the bay continues to be slow with a few "best of..." moments. I spoke to a crabber today that had caught a personal best Dungeness in a snare from the beach. He said 9" and that's good enough for me. It was big. Another couple had five keepers a few days back. One boat today had 20 Dungeness at Marker 5 and White Gulch and worked their gear hard to get them. There's surely more sadness than greatness, but it sounds like there's a chance for greatness. And really, fishermen are gamblers at heart, so isn't that all we really need? A chance? 

      Speaking of chances, a few guys have tried for halibut in the bay here in the last week or so for no fish. But, this weather has got to be having a warming effect on the water in the last day or so. The last report (from a week ago) was 54.4ºF back by Inverness (48ºF at the Landing) but it only takes a couple of nice days to kick it up  a degree or two back there and 57º should be the spark to light the fire. Even if it's "too cold", warming water makes them feel good and they have a better chance to bite. The opposite happens when the water cools. Dropping from 62º to 60º can give them lockjaw. even though the water is still warm enough. I heard a rumor of sardines entering the bay in the last couple of days but I feel that it's too good to be true. I don't know about you, but I'm not that lucky.

     Rockfish opens on Thursday. The weather is supposed to be really nice, too. Good weather is indicative of the fact that neither salmon nor abalone will open here on that date. That aside, Harvest Time asked about whether deep or shallow would be better for the opener. My experience is that deep usually has a more consistent bite, but shallow is always more fun. Just because they're supposed to bite somewhere doesn't mean they will, so try where you want then to be, and if that sucks, go deep. Shallow water light tackle rockfish is like bass fishing at its best when it's good. Deep water isn't as fun but has a better chance for fish tacos. I, for one, like fish tacos. 

      Salmon opens South of Pigeon Point on April 3. Up here we'll have to wait a bit longer. It looks like the end of June will be our start. The weather the last few days makes it seem like the salmon should be in early (like 2012) but we are officially in a La Nina (ENSO negative) event in the Eastern Pacific, so cold and wind are likely to follow. There's a slightly better then even chance of the La Nina to fade by summer (ENSO neutral) in time for albacore to return. As the gas prices are rising, my crystal ball says chances are good for tuna. The higher the price of fuel the likelier the tuna will come. 

   So, I got distracted by steelhead. Sorry. It turns out that they're really fun to catch. They're like freshwater white seabass. I met Chris Brown while fishing a local creek and he offered to take me for a trip on the Eel. I caught this fish in the first five minutes. We saw probably a hundred more fish during the trip but they wouldn't bite. Well, one bit Gage's hook but the rocks had already had their way with the line and it broke off soon after the hookset. Please note my smile in the photo. I missed one other bite. I thought it was a great trip. The river is beautiful and we were the only boat on it. And I caught one and Gage didn't. Fantastic.

   The last time Gage tried for sand dabs he caught two. This time he took his buddy Danny for luck. It didn't work. Danny caught both fish as a double and that was it. The only reason Gage got to hold a fish for the picture is that Danny wisely didn't want to touch the slime eel. I don't blame him. They have next level mucus. Not Gage and Danny, the eels. Probably.

    Miller Park has been closed for boom retrieval but should be open by this weekend. There could be another closure if the American Challenger releases a hidden stash of oil or if there's an attempted recovery from the rocks. A recovery takes money that nobody is yet willing to fork out, so probably the launch will stay open. 

     In case you don't read the comments on here, (Why wouldn't you read the comments? These guys are more knowledgeable than me. Mostly.) here's Tracy's comment from a couple of days ago. If you like crabbing you should probably pay attention.  

"The California Fish and Game Commission sent out a 15-day notice which expires on March 22nd to provide the ‘limited’ opportunity for public comment on the proposed regulations concerning the recreational crab fishery. The information is included in PDF form at this link. https://fgc.ca.gov/Regulations/2020-New-and-Proposed You may have to copy and paste the link. (Look about a third way down the PDF page regarding crabbing)

Comments on the revisions to the proposed regulatory language and/or the revised economic impact analysis must be emailed to fgc@fgc.ca.gov or mailed to Melissa Miller-Henson, Executive Director, California Fish and Game Commission, P.O. Box 944209, Sacramento, California, 94244-2090, from March 5-March 22, 2021.

Hope you find this helpful. It’s important that we all have a voice!"

Thank you Tracy.

 

     Here's a nice shot of the proud vessel American Challenger. The nicest thing I've heard said about it is that "she was a wreck well before she hit the rocks." Still no numbers on how much fuel is aboard, only the suspicion that a bit is leaking out but natural processes are dealing with the small amount, or so we are told. There are still plans to pump the fuel out, and probably overly optimistic plans to drag the hulk off of the beach. Big winds and big swells Sunday and Monday probably won't make the holes in the hull any smaller. Maybe it'll make good abalone habitat.

   UPDATE: As of the 9:24 PM email, the USCG says that there is "no substantial threat of pollution onboard the American Challenger." Also, Miller Park is open for launching again. Tally-ho.

    James Ford of Dixon caught this 28 inch halibut at Hog Island today. He was drifting a dead anchovy while he waited to pull his crab traps. He caught a few jacksmelt to try for bait but they were too big to be useful. Water temp was 54º at Hog and reported to be 55º by Inverness. That's a bit on the cold side, but if the fish don't know better don't correct them. 

 

      It sounds like the American Challenger may not have much fuel in it but the contractors on site are going to pump what they can of it into a truck up on the bluff. It looks to be difficult but I wish them the best of luck. It's rumored that they might even try to float it off the rocks later, if things work out. We'll see. 

   The 2021 salmon season options are out. For the San Francisco area (Point Arena to Pigeon Point) the three options are:

June 28 to October 31

July 1 to October 24

June 24 to October 3

    These dates could still shift a bit but only a bit. At least it looks like we'll get salmon prime time in July and August. Monterey area pretty much gets a regular season, opening on April 3 and running into September. It may get crowded out there in April, May and June. Please try to maintain at least six feet between your boats and you probably better double mask.

      The American Challenger situation remains about the same. The boat is on the rocks between the esteros, not South of de San Antonio as reported. I trusted the official report, not realizing that I can see the wreck from my house. I can even see what appears to be the green tow line tucked up on deck on the starboard side. I would have thought a tow line that had accidentally parted would be drifting in the water, but I guess when it snapped the elastic nature of the fibers caused them to contract into a pile. The vessel appears to be full of water as it doesn't wiggle a bit when 12'+ seas roll over the deck. Probably diesel is slowly discharging from the fuel vent as water replaces it in the submerged tank, but nobody officially knows how much fuel is on board. Somebody thinks there must be a lot, though, as 15,000 feet (that's about 3 miles) of oil booms are being deployed around the oyster beds, from Tom's Point to near Miller Park. Miller is closed to the public as the oil response people are staging and launching there. There's an effort today to attempt to pump whatever fuel there is into another tank for disposal, but with swells hitting 18' at the Point Reyes buoy this morning recovery in the surf may be......difficult.

    A new addition to the Dillon Beach/Bodega Bay area is this lovely drag boat, the American Challenger. She was being towed on her way to points South (scrap?) by the Hunter, a tug. Hunter got a line in the wheel and a few hours later we got a vessel with possibly up to 7000 gallons of diesel on board in the rocks just South of Estero de San Antonio (Stemple Creek). There's been a reported sheen in the water but at least at the time of this picture being taken (don't know who took it but nice shot) (looks like this morning) the vessel was still mostly intact. Hopefully the task force assembled to deal with this can get the fuel gelled or pumped out tomorrow as the weather picks up with 11-12 foot swells forecast for Monday. If the American Challenger ends up cracking open like an egg and spilling her oily guts there, chances are good that a good portion will slide into Tomales Bay. Fingers crossed that tomorrow's six-foot seas are good enough for the job to get done.

    So, speaking of boating accidents, I should mention last weekend's harrowing rescue that occurred here. At about 5:40 PM the Landing phone rang and the gentleman on the line reported that he needed to be rescued as he was "stuck on the island." The wind was howling pretty bad, and as it was a low tide, I figured that the boys and I would need to get the boat from the house and go get people off of the island as their boat wasn't working. It's not my job, but hey, good karma. Gage got the binoculars out and scanned the clam islands, quickly discovering that there was nobody on them. We walked out on the beach a bit further and looked to Tom's Point where we found the stranded clammers ashore on the mainland about a quarter mile from the Landing. I suggested to the clammers that they walk back. I was told that the water was too deep. I looked through the binoculars again.  They were sill on the mud flats on Tom's Point. I suggested that instead of walking in a straight line towards the Landing that they should try just walking on the sandy beach. I was told that it was too deep. An argument ensued. At one time I told them that they were still in the contiguous portion of the continent of North America. Ultimately, I think I said I word that I'm not proud of (but probably use too much) and hung up on them. If you can't walk your butt out of trouble, I can't help you. Ten minutes later I get a call from the local fire captain. The 911 system had been activated. 

     I grabbed some warmer clothes and Gage and I headed down toward the end of the seawall. While on the way I saw a helicopter arrive over Tom's Point. Then the Landing phone rang again. The clammers. "Excuse me, can you tell me the phone number for the U.S. Coast Guard?" 

    "Do you see the helicopter circling over your head?" I asked.

     "Yes."

     "They're here for you. You called 911, right?"

     "Oh, yes. Thank you!" Click. Holy crap. If you're that ignorant maybe you do need to be rescued.

    By the time I arrived at the seawall, where the Fire Department's resources had gathered, Cameron had texted me. He had walked down to Tom's Point and was with the "victims." I called him. Said Cameron, "I told them I walked here from Lawson's Landing. They asked how many hours it took. I told them ten minutes. They didn't believe me I guess, and climbed up to the house with the lights on."

      As some of the firemen were driving off to Tom's Point, Gage and I decided to walk down there, too. We met Cameron there, examined the clammers' boat for a bit, and then walked back. A few minutes after we arrived back at the Landing the first Fire Department vehicles arrived at the house on Tom's Point to "rescue" the "victims." 

      What did we learn here? I don't think the people that needed a lesson learned anything. They came back the next day and recovered their boat which they had abandoned. A lesson missed was the difference between "inconvenienced" and "in danger." Please note that they're spelled differently, sound different when spoken, and hold completely different meanings in the dictionary. One requires Emergency Medical Services, while the other requires, at most, a taxi. In this case, two feet would do. People, if you can't turn your head, witness the beach THAT IS RIGHT THERE, and walk your butt to safety, maybe Darwin's law should apply.

    My wife says I have an anger problem.

 Gage's buddy Casey from Humbug Outdoors Fishing caught three Dungeness while snare fishing from shore yesterday afternoon/this morning, so there's a few Dungeness left after the two guys Casey talked to yesterday afternoon left with their limits of Dungeness. The shore crabbing hasn't been very good lately, but a fresh batch of crab must have moved in (or those guys were very, very skilled). Kinda crappy weather for the weekend so the beach probably won't be too crowded. 

    Speaking of guys with Youtube channels, friend of report Chris Pfish caught a halibut in San Francisco Bay last week. There have been quite a few early season halibut coming from the big bay in the last couple of weeks. I've heard of one keeper from Tomales Bay in the last couple of months, but that should change soon. Tomales Bay catching usually starts four to six weeks after SF and usually goes back to front as the water warms. Gage and I caught four on a trip back to Inverness on April 16 last year, so catching may start even sooner, especially without fresh water to chase them out of the shallows.

   The salmon forecast for this season is for about 277,000 fish. That's only 200,000 salmon less than last year. The start of the salmon season has been changed to TBD. There will likely be a season of some kind in the San  Francisco zone (our friends further North will likely suffer a worse season than us) but the dates and particulars have yet to be determined. Rockfish will open on April 1 out to a line approximating 300 feet of depth. While I'd like to hook a salmon, fresh rockcod sounds pretty good, too. The fact that they're generally catchable when the weather doesn't suck makes fish tacos even more of a soon-to-be.