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.