Here's the picture missing from Mike Mack's report yesterday. Those stripers look pretty good to me. There were more caught today near Hog, along with a few halibut. Things are looking up.

   For those of you that, like me, had some doubts as to the identities of the baitfish in the bay, here's a couple of photos for you. Yup, I agree, herring aren't supposed to be here. The fish didn't get the message. Maybe all the cold water has the fish thinking they're somewhere further North? I don't know, but they're here now and the halibut and stripers are eating them. Actually, some of us here at the Landing ate some for dinner and I now understand the attraction the fish have for them. Tasty little devils.

     I don't get too many clamming pictures submitted, but here's an exception to the rule. Aylah got her first clam yesterday and it was about the biggest Washington I've seen. Knowing her clamming friends, this photo was possibly staged in a different location. Knowing Aylah, this is definitely her clam. The clamming on the islands for gapers has been very good as the clams are plentiful to the point of difficulty in digging up just one. While we all want to get a limit of trophy clams, sometimes digging one hole for three medium clams is okay too.

  

 

     This morning Gage told these guys to forget halibut and try for stripers instead. It appears that, at least in this case, one can be full of it and still be right. All three stripers (to 12.5 pounds) on live jacksmelt in 45 minutes around the turn of the tide, just South of Hog. A similar report from Mike Mack's first trip of the season. No pictures, but a good report: "1 ray 3 striper at hog live bait smelt and lots of herring. Nothing down south water 63° in back" Quite a few fishermen reporting catching herring in the bay this weekend. As there appears to be a tray bait shortage, I'm thinking I may need to spend a little time herring fishing very soon. I've never used a live herring for bait but the dead ones work pretty well. Live has to be even better. There's been a few terns working small schools of baitfish in the last couple of days and I wonder if it's the smaller herring they're eating. Whatever is going on, I'm just glad to see some fish come in.

 

     No reported halibut today, but it seems that the valley guys can't get away from the stripers. There's probably worse things. I heard of four caught around the turn of the tide near Hog Island today. That's a far cry from a red hot bite, but it's fish. The wind was pretty bad for a good part of the day today and made catching anything a victory. A few of the crabbers did okay in the bay today but to my knowledge nobody was throwing back keepers because they had too many. Less wind in the forecast tomorrow, so maybe we'll see a few more critters on the dinner platter tomorrow night. 

 

   So I whined about no halibut yesterday. Zach Liddle and his girlfriend weighed in an 18 pound halibut today. It ain't red hot, but there's fish being caught. Zach's fish bit a live (but probably unhappy) freshwater minnow he bought from Bodega Tackle. Another boat in the Hog Island area reported no fish for them but they caught an anchovy and a couple herring for bait and saw two halibut and a striper landed on other boats. The fish are coming and a few are already here, it seems. Terns were working the clam island on the incoming tide today which would indicate some smaller baitfish entering the bay. All this goes to show that whining gets results.

    Also today, a gentleman and his wife limited on Dungeness on a one hour soak with four pots in the Outer Bay near the Tomales Bay "TB" buoy. The story is that they threw back more keepers than they kept. Crab, like fish, move in schools, so those crab may have moved on before you get there, but it seems like a good place to drop gear. I'm hoping for a few "full pot" pictures for tomorrow.

    In response to the "no anchor" zone comment from the yesterday's whiny post, yes, there are many areas where anchoring is not allowed in order to protect the eelgrass. Here's a link to the map: https://nmsfarallones.blob.core.windows.net/farallones-prod/media/archive/eco/tomales/pdf/seagrass_maps.pdf    There's quite a bit of fishable area outside of the no-anchor zones that one could drop a "crappy anchor" for a slow drift. If you are trying to drift over the eelgrass to catch halibut you should probably try a different spot. Halibut are colored like sand and not grass for a pretty good reason. 

 

      So I gave the halibut a try this morning. Low tide (super low tide) so warmer water on the North end of the bay. The water color looked good but by water temp never got above 54º and I'm pretty sure that all my "missed bites" were imaginary. Maybe not, as cold water could have the fish short striking, but my scampi tails didn't look scarred up at all, so the evidence goes to imagination.  I tried by Hog, on the bar, and the clam channel down to Marker 5. Just jigging, no bait, but it felt like nobody was home. For me, at least. The wind pushing the boat into the bay against a fast current may have been a factor in the non-catching. For the record, the bar looked fishier than anywhere, but looks aren't everything.

     Dungeness crab season is winding down. Commercials need to have their gear out of the water by June 1. This year we still get to finish on June 30, for what it's worth. Just be mindful of the fact that an entangled whale in sport or commercial gear will impact next year's season. And not in a good way. Don't forget, next year you will need a 3" x 5" red buoy attached to each regular, large buoy you have on your traps. I was talking to Tristan at the Outdoor Pro Shop in Cotati this afternoon and he thought they'd be getting their red buoys by mid-summer. I'm not hopeful that the season will open on time but I want to be ready nonetheless. For the record, the crabbing is slow now but a few Dungeness are being caught by the lucky or very skilled. 

   Aside from that, the wind sucks and I for one am ready for it to stop, or at least chill a bit a let the water warm up a little. Social media wants to keep reminding me of the fish I caught in the spring last year as opposed to this year, and honestly, social media can suck it. If I want to be reminded of now painful memories I have a wife to do that. I realize that the last few years were special with catching starting early and lasting longer. I started to think that this global warming thing was really working out well. Well, you can share in my disappointment over this year. I bought a bigger truck with appalling gas mileage last year (thanks, Prius and CAFE) and all I got was colder water. I was kinda hoping for yellowtail. What's funny is that they're catching kelp and sand bass and a few barracuda in Monterey Bay and the water there isn't much warmer than here. I'm betting that those fish feel cheated. So do I.

    So I was drifting too fast this morning. What should I have done? Here's a few tips:

Electric trolling motor. I brought one. They work great. Make sure your battery is charged. Mine wasn't. 

Parachute. I have a 6' cargo parachute that I usually bring along. A debris bag or bulk bag for hauling sand or rocks works well, also. Small drift 'chutes don't work when the wind is really blowing. They light look overkill. They're not.

Crappy anchor. When wind and current are going the same way the parachute doesn't work. An undersized anchor can slow you down to fish-catching speed. Those mushroom river anchors work well for this. I knew a guy that used a length of large chain on a rope to slow him down. 

Backtroll. This takes two to do it effectively. One guy drives the boat in reverse, going forward with the current and wind, while the other guy runs the gear. This allows you to fish an edge or weed line that you couldn't while blind drifting. It is very effective and a lot of work and will have the two of you yelling at each other in a couple of hours. It's awesome. Do it. Success heals most wounds.

      There was one boat that went crabbing today and they didn't have a crab report but a weather report, that being, "It sucked." We are back to the wind. Upwelling is happening. We had one person in an inflatable boat today learn that they are also deflatable and was forced to swim for it. There was an impressive amount of people and equipment that turned out to look for man in the water. There were planes, helicopters, boats, fire trucks, and even a Gage in a Klamath. The gentleman in question had already swam ashore by the time Gage (first man on the scene) drove by but that didn't prevent the whole episode of Rescue 911 from playing out. Thankfully, the guy was fine. The planes and helicopters were cool, though. Much appreciated on a blustery day. The HC-27J (I think) was cool. 

    An official announcement from CDFW: "

CDFW Works With Diverse Stakeholder Group to Manage Entanglement Risk in the Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery

Beginning in 2015, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has been working with a diverse coalition of commercial fishing representatives, environmental organizations, scientists and agency partners to reduce the risk of whale and sea turtle entanglements in commercial fishing gear used by the Dungeness crab fleet. CDFW’s recent management efforts under the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP), supported by the work of the Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, correlates with a drop in marine life entanglements from a high of 22 confirmed entanglements involving Humpback whales, Blue whales or Leatherback sea turtles in 2016 to zero confirmed entanglements this season.   Recent survey data indicate an increase in Humpback whales returning from their winter breeding grounds to California fishing grounds. In consideration of this and all available data and recommendations from staff, the Working Group and other stakeholders, CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham has assessed entanglement risk under the RAMP and announced the closure of the commercial Dungeness crab fishery statewide beginning at noon on June 1, 2021.   “It has been a very difficult year for many in our fishing communities and I recognize that every day of lost fishing further impacts families and small businesses,” said Director Bonham. “I acknowledge the sacrifices and resilience of California’s fishermen and women and look forward to continuing to work with the fleet and the Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group to minimize entanglement risk while maximizing opportunities.”   All commercial crab traps must be removed from the fishing grounds by the June 1 closure date. While this closure shortens the season by four weeks in the central management zone and six weeks in the northern management zone, the RAMP regulations are designed to minimize risk and provide for a long-term viable commercial fishery. In addition, Director Bonham has authorized the Lost and Abandoned Gear Program to begin removing commercial Dungeness crab traps left in the water after the close of the season on June 7, 2021 at 6 a.m.   The RAMP regulations anticipate continued fishing during any closure after April 1 with the use of authorized Alternative Gear types (for example, pop-up gear), which are approved based on criteria outlined in the RAMP regulation. At this time, there are no authorized Alternative Gears, but CDFW looks forward to working with gear developers and authorizing gear for use in future situations where risk is elevated.   Since late October 2020, CDFW has conducted 10 risk assessments to evaluate entanglement risk during the 2020-21 fishing season. While entanglements in any given year are likely due to a combination of human and environmental factors, CDFW is confident the programs it has developed with its partners will help continue the trend of decreasing entanglements. Improved ocean conditions, a high level of engagement by the commercial fishing fleet and regulatory changes have likely attributed to the reduction in entanglements. CDFW, the commercial Dungeness crab fleet and partners have been working through the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group to develop and implement measures to assess, manage and reduce risk of entanglement of whales and sea turtles protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. In addition to a draft Conservation Plan (currently in development) and RAMP regulations, these measures include development of a Best Practices Guide, implementation of a Standardized Gear Marking Program for trap gear fisheries, supporting alternative gear testing, implementation of a regulation limiting surface gear and a Lost or Abandoned Commercial Dungeness Crab Trap Retrieval Program.   For more information related to the risk assessment process, please visit CDFW’s Whale Safe Fisheries page or for more information on the Dungeness crab fishery, please visit www.wildlife.ca.gov/crab.

" 

    So, for the record, it appears that CDFW is trying to help, and, also for the record, it seems like it's working. We aren't commercial guys here (mostly) but this is your life next year, so here's a sneak preview.

    Gage got this report from a launch yesterday: "Nate Sam and Wes from Sac got these nice lings and a few undersize down near Pt Reyes. Lost a few too. Not many rockcod. On jigs." You can translate "not many" to "one". The rockfishing to the South has been tough. I don't want to rub salt in my own wounds, but no fish at 4 by 3 felt like the ocean was dead. Well, just dead to me, I guess. Luckily for these fellows and me, lingcod kinda don't care. Bite, no bite, they're probably gonna bite sooner or later. These are fish that try to eat fish larger than they are. Hunger is not a consideration in their eating. I guess lings are bored a lot. Thank goodness, because I like catching them and eating them. 

   No good crab stories, except for some folks that were crabbing yesterday and lost  two traps. What's good about that? This morning they looked for their traps with binoculars and found them. A quick launch and recovery and the "trap thieves" were denied. The worst "trap thief" is the bay and her currents and on this one she was denied. Not too many Dungeness for these folks. Today's crabbers ended up with six keeper Dungeness and some reds that were so big they looked like they might eat the keeper Dungeness. Yes, Dungies are better, but a mouthful of red crab claw is pretty damn good.

        Here's another Thursday report: "Hey Willy, so Beau and I tried our luck from bird rock to 10 mile and I got to say I have never moved so many times in one day but we did  manage 20 Dungeness and 11 rock cod .  And some weird sponge like thing Which I’m sure is a delicacy raw or deep-fried depending on your Longitude and latitude. Richard"  No, I've caught those before and I'm pretty sure that may be one of the few things that nobody eats. It's like living phlegm. Good work on the Dungeness.  The crabbing inside the bay has been pretty slow. Some of the crab have recently molted and are now pretty, soft and empty. They'll get back up to a decent weight for us sporties in a month or two. In the meantime, they all haven't molted.

 

     So the guys that come here every May and clobber the halibut spent five days here and, well, didn't. They did catch two on their last day. Generally, the guys on the three or four boats catch 20 to 40 halibut during their visit, but this year, by the last day they were pretty darned happy to catch these two. The fish had white spots when caught which I was told means that they just entered the bay. Again, I don't know that that's true but these fellows weren't catching any and then, some, so.... There's a few indications that the anchovies are on their way and my guess is that these halibut, like the pelicans and terns we've seen recently, are expecting the 'chovies to arrive shortly. You don't need anchovies for a good halibut bite but it sure helps.

       We did try for halibut for one drift this morning. Only one. No bites, and we ran for rockfish. Mostly it wasn't much better for us. In about three hours we caught about half-limits of rockfish down off Ten Mile in a place where you can normally limit in an hour or so. So we ran down to 4 by 3 (the reef four miles from Point Reyes and three miles from Ten Mile) where we were shut out. No bites. There was a super krill line at 100 to 130 feet down, though. So, being only a few miles from Point Reyes we ran the rest of the way. As you can see from Gage's smile, there's really nothing like bouncing a swimbait off of a rock and into the mouth of a hungry 15 pound lingcod. The last four trips we caught nothing but nausea in the slop at the Point but today the lings were happy. The UV hot squid 8" Pitbull Hot Tail was Gage's weapon of choice today. Other notes from Point Reyes: The rocks were covered in pink bird crap from the Common Murres covering them. The crap was pink from all the krill they've been eating. The last couple of days we haven't had the Northwest wind and the tiny break has already allowed the water to brown up a bit. If the wind ever quits for a longer stretch we'll be in good shape for a productive season. Of course, the wind blows tomorrow, so we're not really missing out on those closed salmon yet. But soon....

     This halibut was caught this morning on a dead anchovy fished between Hog Island and the weather buoy. I also heard of a few caught today back by Marconi (Marshall). Cameron, Gage and I gave the halibut a try on Thursday, trolling from Marconi back to seven feet of water off of Inverness for a grand total catch of about 200 moon jellyfish and 500 pounds of that slimy, stringy algae that fouls up your swivels. The water was 60º but seemed devoid of any baitfish until we trolled back up to Heart's Desire Beach where there were schools of baitfish but not biting fish for us. There's a few fish around, as a few guys are catching a couple, but it ain't good. I guess if you're tired of dodging boats in San Francisco bay the relative peacefulness of Tomales Bay might look pretty appealing, and from my experience this week, peaceful and cold were the two operative words. Oh, and windy. Three operative words. 

      Crabbing has been pretty slow with most people catching one or two but nobody leaving here recently has been preparing for a crab feed unless they bought some somewhere. The Bay Area dead whale count has increased to nine (seven grays, a fin and a sperm) with the few confirmed causes of death so far being ships but "entanglement" is always listed as a possibility or likelihood for the undetermined deaths in the press releases. Luckily for us and the gray whales, the grays are no longer endangered. They are currently declining in number (a 24% drop since 2016) but they did the same thing in 1999-2000 and rebounded to higher numbers by 2015, so it is theorized that this may be a normal population fluctuation. The fact that sport and commercial crabbing occurred throughout that time would seem to indicate that crabbing has a negligible influence on Gray whales.

 

     If wind-driven upwelling is good for the fish, then wow, we are gonna have a lot of fish! I think, though, that at some point the ocean is supposed to calm down for a bit and warm enough to life to bloom in the nutrient-rich water. Right now the ocean here is a Vichyssoise incapable of feeding anything. The Bodega Bay weather buoy drifted off into oblivion last January (no date arranged yet for a replacement) but the Point Reyes waverider shows that the water temp has dropped from 52.5º F to a not-so-balmy 49.3º F today. I guess the current takes that cold soup South where it can warm up and feed things like plankton, krill, pelagic red crab and all the things that eat them. I just hope that there's enough food out here for the salmon smolts that are hitting the ocean soon. 

     There are a couple of wayward pelicans around now, so if you believe that the birds know what's going on in the ocean better than we do (I have strong suspicion that it's true) at least a couple of them think the anchovies are coming. It's only a couple, though, so I don't anticipate anchovies for another week or three. These are the pelican optimists and optimists are often disappointed. 

   The whale show in the Outer Bay has been really good with lots of spouting and spy-hopping. The CDFW has issued an advisory to the commercial guys to limit their traps to 180 feet of water or less in California waters North of the Sonoma/Mendocino County line starting on the 10th. The rest of the state needs to continue following best practices for whale safe fishing. This is a sneak peek at next year's Dungeness season for us. And God help us all if they determine that the Mexican gear stuck on the gray whale calf (it appeared, tangled, at the California border) is actually crab gear. The round buoy trailing the whale would indicate that it is not from here, but since California can't dictate what happens in Mexico (the war on drugs worked, right?) it seems likely that regardless of whose gear is tied up on that poor baby whale our regulations may change yet again. What we can't change elsewhere we will try to fix here.

    So, the crabbing in the bay has been sloooow. There were a few boats that caught a few over the weekend but even most of them said that the weather was too windy for even decent crabbing. It is likely that the low number of keeper Dungeness in the bay may have contributed to the low number of retained crabs as well. Shore snarers are still getting a few but times are hard for most crabbers.