Once, I was told to talk to the hand. Here's what it had to say today: "Perch are in very consistent bite at tide change decent grade of fish lost count" Yes, that's Gage's hand and report. From 50 pound bluefin to redtail surfperch in a week and still excited. The stoke is real. For those new to the report, Gage's weapon of choice for surfperch is more or less a Carolina rig with a Berkley Gulp! Sandworm in camo. 

     When the wind and water have allowed the rockfishing is pretty good, especially if you go a bit farther. Farther where? Well, the guys that are doing well aren't sharing GPS coordinates, but a few have admitted to taking more time to get to the spot and back than they spent fishing for limits. I know it's hard to believe, but it seems that the less a spot is fished the more likely the fish there will be friendly. Crazy, I know, but places nearer Point Reyes generally seem to be good choices and spots near Tomales Point and Bodega Head, not so much. Don't get me wrong, the local reefs have fish but you need to work harder for them. You can either hone your craft close to the harbor or trade gas for bites by going farther. I have a Costco card and a good working relationship with the guy managing the pumps there, so I'm going to go for it, weather permitting. 

     Water temperatures inside the bay are slowly creeping up and the first pelicans made an appearance here today, hopefully in anticipation of a flood of anchovies into the bay. A few halibut have been getting scratched up by Hog Island recently but warm water and the bay turning into anchovy soup should turn the scratch into a good bite. May starts on Saturday and by the end of it there should be should be a more consistent halibut bite, if not a good one.

      Crews are boarding the American Challenger again this week to finally finish their inspection of what petroleum may still be aboard. They had only inspected 7 of 11 tanks before. There is still a very slight chance that they might try to haul it off the rocks. Apparently some of the authorities are concerned that members of the public might want to board the derelict vessel and therefore endanger themselves. Who would do that? 

 

     Cameron wrote that last post while I was away. He didn't get it posted but I saw it on the computer this morning and hit publish. The final part of the tuna story is that, yes, Gage caught all the fish. In three days of fishing we boated one bluefin and lost three others, one at the rail (sorry, Eddie). Sometimes the fish don't bite. Captain Aliyar worked hard to try to find the fish but they wouldn't come out and play. I learned many things about fishing on this trip. The most interesting thing was when I started sizing up the fishermen, looking to see who was the guy with the least experience. There's always that one guy that doesn't know what he's doing that gets in the way and tangles everyone else. I'm looking at these guys and can't figure it out. Then I realize, crap, it's me. For the record, my tangles were few and minor and never cost anyone a fish. I did snag a kelp paddy and holler "Fresh one!" like a complete jackass, so, there you go. 

     CDFW released the final rules on salmon season, and in the San Francisco region (Pigeon Point to Point Arena) we officially open on June 26 and end on October 31. The minimum size is 20". At least by that time of year the fish should be getting closer to shore. 

A brief break in the wind was enough of a window to prove productive for at least one boat yesterday. Dimitri Fogal, on advice from Gage, discovered a temperature break across from Marshall in around 20 feet of water. The warmer water was a toasty 59° F and the bait was plentiful. He tacked back and forth across it repeatedly dragging a fluke with a green hoochie slid over the top behind a dodger. He was about to pack up and move on when this halibut heard that Gage's reputation as an information source was on the line if Dimitri didn't hook something pretty quick, so it took the bullet for Gage this time around. And cute as that fish is, it's one of the nicest halibut I've seen to date this season.

Otherwise the halibut front has been mostly quiet. More rumblings than anything else. The recent winds, besides keeping folks off the water, have slowed the water warming, likely postponing the proper start of the good halibut bite, and this week calls for more of it, certainly further offshore. Closer to shore, the wind may be lighter, but between the open water and pinpoint forecasts from NOAA, it is wise to be prepared for the worse of the two. Rockfish are certainly still to be had out there. Though we haven't launched too many boats in the last few days, I know of at least one boat that shot down to Abbott's for a quick limit yesterday, but if one were to try to replicate it over the next few days, they should be prepared for a windy ride home.

So, what exactly does Gage do while he's waiting for the wind to die and the bite to get livelier? Why, he thumbs a ride down to San Diego for another go on the Polaris Supreme with fish slaying regulars Ed Parsons, Steve Werlin, and Eddy Kim. Their quick trip resulted in boat limits of bluefin. Hopefully they left a couple out there for me and the rest of Polaris's next load, and hopefully I can pry my gear away from Gage long enough to hook a fish myself. 

      I heard a story from the the bay that included a few boats with halibut near Hog Island. Nobody has shown me a picture of said fish, nor has anyone catching such a fish discussed it with me, but I heard a story. "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story" is words of wisdom from my childhood and I will take them now, but the way the story was told, it could be true. 

     So enough good news. The whales out there that don't count (yet) towards closing Dungeness season (and possibly red crab as well) have had a rough week and at least four were found dead in the Bay Area a week a two or ago. At least two of them were found to have been hit by ships. One of those gray whales, washed up on Muir Beach, had a crab pot line tied to it post-mortem. Somebody wants to make sure that crabbers get a bad rap. Luckily for us, somebody smarter figured out what had happened and cleared it up. But just so you know, yes, they're out to get you. By definition, it isn't paranoia when they actually are out to get you. Who are they? In particular, the Center for Biological Diversity, or supporters thereof. Look, we all love whales. It seems that there are reasonable ways in which we can minimize the chances for whale entanglement while still enjoying the bounty of the sea. The guy that wrapped the line around the rotting whale needs to have his teeth fed to him. I'm not advocating violence. This is dietary advice. Somebody needs a mouth full of calcium.

   Here's report from 4/15: "Took my son to the landing for the first time for some crab snaring and fishing. Lots of people there for a weekday. Most people that came early in the morning had 3-5 keepers with lots of shakers. We stayed from 930am-200pm and wound up with 2 keepers, 2 shakers (for crabs), and catching a smelt on some shrimp. Crabbing seemed to pick up on the incoming tide. We will be back for more crab snaring!

-Mike Ergo"  The snarers have been doing pretty well this week. I actually had a legal sized female Dungeness crawl ashore at my feet on the tip of Tomales Point on Thursday evening. That would seem to indicate a reasonable number of crab. Snarers today were catching a range of zero to limits with most catches being much closer to zero than ten. Still, quite a few caught a couple or more. I'm guessing that few crab are migrating into the bay.

    Branden Mendoza sent in this report from today: "Hey Willy. Ocean was pretty rough today headed out at about 9am. Started at bird got 1 vermilion. Decided to make a run to elephant for a few more rockfish and 1 nice ling. Over all not a bad day considering the conditions" The weather was not very good today but if you didn't mind some salt spray and a beating the fish were there, as Branden noted. Rockfish continues to be the best way to have a seafood dinner here but I heard a story today of a few missed halibut bites near Hog, so that could start sooner than next month. Maybe not a lot sooner, but a little bit. 

 

     I have been reliably informed that the reason crabbing can continue with gray whales around is that the rules about entanglement only really apply to humpbacks, blues and leatherback turtles. So, as all you old dudes knew deep in your hearts, sucks to be gray.

   

       Rockcod continue to be the best bet around here, especially if you go a bit farther. These came from down below Elephant in about 120 feet of water. We only had the one launch today but I guess you can consider it a 100% success day.  

        I forgot to mention yesterday that a couple of boats of skilled halibut fishermen gave the bay a try on Wednesday. Water temps were on the coldish side and high boat had one bite that came off. The driver of that boat summed up the fishing by saying, "See you next month." It could start sooner but I agree that it likely won't get real interesting until mid-May. 

    Not a lot to report since the last posting. The best news is that the rockcod are still biting when you can get out to them. It's been a bit windy, so the days to get to them have been limited, but Joe Downing got a nice limit today about halfway down Ten Mile. Now, we can't all be Joe, so Gage came in with an evening trip report of eight rockcod for four fisherpersons at Bird and Elephant. It's not always true that farther is better, but Gage and Joe said that today it was. 

    The other half of the Gage report was that there's a LOT of gray whales in the outer bay. He had to go slow on his way out across the bar because he was afraid of a negative outcome whale encounter. The CDFW just concluded a whale survey and determined that there aren't enough in California waters to shut down the crab season. A state-wide Fleet Advisory is in effect. I'm not sure what that means but I guess gray whales aren't a species of interest. Or, as some have suggested, they want somebody, sport or commercial, to wrap a whale so they can just shut the whole thing down for three years. I don't believe that, but when I had to check my casts from shore this evening to avoid hitting two pairs of gray whale cows and calves within my (really short with a conventional reel) casting range I start to smell either conspiracy or incompetence. Neither smell good. Maybe gray whales are okay to wrap with rope? It's okay for ships to hit them, so I guess rope is no different. I realize that a lot of commercial fishermen are trying to make ends meet and are hoping to stay in the black during this winding down of the season. But if they keep fishing and wrap a whale or two they are going to lose a season or two. So will we. Sport fishermen will open and close with the commercial fleet next year. If they don't open, we don't open. Maybe pull your soaking gear if you still have it in the water. I mean, only if you like crabbing. Sometimes we need to look after our own best interests as regulators may have different interests.

    Speaking of regulator, it would appear that we are looking at a June 26 opener for salmon season in the Point Arena to Pigeon Point area. You can thank the commercial guys for not fighting over a fractional day of their allotment of salmon and giving it to us so we can open on a Saturday. That said, the rivers don't look like they're going to have any water in them this fall. They don't have much now. It looks like the season for three years from now will be no fishing for salmon like 2008-2009. That is not guaranteed, but know that a low number of salmon returning gets them declared "overfished". I just think it would be wrong for a declaration like that if they weren't actually overfished. It appears that they can die in the river or die in your boat this year. What are you going to do about it? Also, sucks to be a halibut in 2024. 

      The crabbing has been either pretty slow or pretty good, depending on who you ask. The boater report has varied from, on the high side, seven to twenty Dungeness, down to a lot of zeroes. There's not much middle ground. So, it seems that there's some crab to catch if you can work the right spot in the right way. Most of the catchers aren't talking but a couple mentioned Marker 5. To be fair, so did some of the non-catchers. A couple of feet of depth difference can be the game changer. Heck, 20 to 30 feet can make or break you. Work the gear often. Don't reset where you didn't catch. Crabbing where the crab aren't works just as well as fishing where the fish aren't. I've tried them both and they suck. Find 'em, them catch'em. 

   If you like wind you missed a fantastic weekend. I think a few trailer left here without paint after the sand blasting they took over the last couple of days. The kite boarders seemed happy at least. No halibut caught that I'm aware of and I don't think anybody stuck their nose out front for a rockfish. There was a boat sinking situation on Friday right in front of the webcam, so here's a video: friskypriests.com/sinking   The little Gregor Cameron is trying to pull out shipped enough water over the transom while backing up that he rolled over. The other boats waiting for pull outs came to his aid in an admirable fashion. If you're going to sink or roll a boat, my recommendation is to do it like this. He was a perfect gentlemen and after changing into dry clothes he came back around to thank everyone. Very nice fellow. I hope he's looking for a slightly larger boat, or art least redistributing the weight in the current vessel. 

    Here's a weekend report from Branden Mendoza: "Hey willy kinda late but we did decent on Saturday off elephant rock in about 150'. Lings didn't wanna bite to much. The crabs weren't very hungry either we tried 4 pots off Tomales in about 160' for 2 dungeness and a few reds." It looks like the lings didn't want to bite too little, either. Those are some nice vermilion in that pile, too. Unless you're one of the lucky or very skilled (the lucky will tell you they're skilled; the skilled guys say they got lucky) the crabbing has been pretty poor. Two look pretty good to me. I didn't even put any pots out on Thursday because I know where I am on the lucky/skilled line (even without dropping a pot I caught what I was gonna catch). I will revise the crab location guess for Rodney Johnson's pile of Dungeness on Saturday from the Outer Bay to "someplace on Ten Mile" due to a talk with a guy that knows Rodney and the Outer Bay far better than I.

   

 This evening Gage tried for surfperch and ended up with one keeper redtail and a couple of shorts. I tried for stripers and got in a lot of casting practice. At least the seaweed wasn't too bad. The water felt relatively warm.

    

   Rodney Johnson sent me this picture this afternoon. His text, "Another wonderful day  At Lawsons Landing thank you. Rodney.", while nice, didn't say where the fish or crab came from.. My guess is Elephant Reef for the fish and either the Keyholes (Kehoe) or the Outer Bay for the crab (I'm leaning strongly towards the latter). Either way, team Johnson clobbered them. They may still be cleaning critters.

     Chris P Fish sent over this picture with a Tomales Bay halibut report: "Hi Willy,

It was a slow day, hardly anyone fishing in the bay.  I started at Inverness and worked my way to Marshall, water was 61-62 back there. Tried 4-5 hours drifting 4 live smelt. Moved up to Hog Island right when the tide started to change around 1230. Caught a 24.5" on the least lively smelt I had left in 18' of water. Fished there one hour then headed in. Water was just above 60 at the bottom of that low tide at Hog. Bait was very scarce.  I think once bait enters the bay it will be game on.

Chris" Nice fish, Chris. I'm sure it's not as big as you'd like (are they, ever?) but considering how many halibut are being caught in the bay right now it's a damn good fish. The water temps are encouraging for sure. It sounds like the anchovies have been hibernating like tiny winter bears offshore in 300+ feet of water, just waiting for conditions to get favorable again. It seems like the water needs to warm up a bit to lure them in closer, then cool off to send a batch of them into the balmy waters of the bay. This stretch of warm weather might have done the trick and woke them up. Soon after I know, you'll know.

    This is the obligatory Gage's hand picture. He'd like to report that, yes, there are a few surfperch out on the beach. It wasn't great but he caught a half-dozen and had a bunch of bites that didn't stick. All bites/fish from the North end of the beach to about the midpoint of the beach.

     Crab results from our unscientific tester ran 0 for the three Abbott's pots and 20 from the three pots in the Outer Bay. Other crabber's results there weren't as good. One fellow had 11 crab for seven pots in the Outer Bay today. Not bad, but not what he'd come to expect from the length of soak, either. Pirates, maybe, but the last pirates made his nose look funny and today it looked okay, so I don't know. Unscientific tester did have a good rockfish day again in 220 feet of water.

      The water was still wicked frigid yesterday and only 50º F when I launched at low tide. The warm weather should have an effect on the water further back and further in. Very soon we should see some halibut victory shots. I'm hoping for tomorrow, as a few very talented fishermen are giving it a shot. There are a few sardines in the bay mixed with the jacksmelt which could make live bait time very interesting. Well, if nothing else it should make catching live bait more entertaining.

      I will leave you with a couple of quotes that pissed me off when I first read them but have come to haunt me as their truthiness seeped in to my brain. I was once a member of the "North American Fishing Club" and received their magazine. Two articles written by, I think, Larry Dahlberg included the lines, "the fish are where they are, not where you think they are", and, "when trolling, the only one fishing is the guy driving the boat." The first line seemed stupid. Duh. The second line seemed wrong to a guy that was riding in the trolled boat. But as I've gained experience I've learned that the duh is on me. A lot of successful fishing is obvious but we can't see it through the lens of our egos. Here's a Willy quote for you that's blatantly obvious to all that read it but will not be followed by most (or even me a lot of the time)"Fish where the fish are." Link that with the first Dahlberg quote and follow it and you could be one of those very few guys that kill it on a regular basis. One of my many problems is that I keep fishing where I expect the fish to be (due to my vast knowledge and experience. Phhttthhh). Often, the fish don't realize where they're supposed to be. Stupid fish. Retraining the fish is probably slightly harder than getting me to maintain on open mind, so I'm working on the mind thing. I recommend the latter for yourself. The killers out there are thinking more like fish than like fishermen. 

   Happy rockfish season! Well, not for this ling or many others of his ilk, but happy for fisherpersons that have been waiting for a reason to get on the water. The local bite was a bit slow in the shallows but the deeper you went the bitier they were (likely a function of the pretty bright moon last night). You didn't need to go super deep (although you can now go to 300 feet of water as defined in 50 CFR Part 660, Subpart C) as the folks I'm familiar with caught their limits in 90 to 120 feet of water. My Pitbull Tackle gift box from Christmas came in handy today for limits of rockfish and lings. In particular, the 2 oz. Deadeye Jig in Sardine was heavily abused by the fish today. Things got a little tougher when the afternoon breeze picked up and it was hard to maintain bottom contact with the light gear, but that's what reverse gear was invented for. The weather looks good for this weekend and we left a lot of fish for the rest of you.

    On the crabbing front, not too much has changed. Snarers had a few on the beach in front of the Boathouse but most of the crabbers were there more for the weather than the crab. On the ocean, and unscientific test was performed by a friend that dropped three pots in the Outer Bay and three on Ten Mile at the Towers. The Towers pots had a total of two crab at the end of the day while the closer pots had twelve. I guess there's a reason why there's been commercial boats and crab gear in the Outer Bay. It ain't red hot but it sucks less than everywhere else.