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.