The crabbing remains slow for most with a few guys occasionally doing very well. It would seem that there are small pockets of keeper Dungeness scattered about and finding one is key to success. The snarers are catching a few for dinner but nobody is bragging. 

     Most of you probably heard of the urchin diver that fell out of his boat last month and swam five miles to an oil rig that he climbed up to safety. If you haven't, here: https://www.independent.com/2022/02/02/urchin-diver-scott-thompson-survives-five-hour-swim-in-santa-barbara-channel/  He was lucky in that the water there was, maybe not warmer than here, but definitely less cold. After the wind we had this week our water temp is 48º according to Tim (no weather buoy so we send out Tim to check). It appears that a commercial crabber fishing alone fell out of his boat yesterday afternoon/evening into that cold water and he didn't make it. The boat was found at Elephant Rock and the fisherman's body was recovered about a mile and a half south of the boat. It sounds like he may have had a life jacket on (I could be and probably am wrong, but that's what I heard) but that cold water doesn't give you much time in it. Just the breeze off the water that last few days was giving me an ice cream headache (It's even worse when you have no hair). I'm not sure what the fix is. Fish with a buddy, probably. Barring that, have a waterproof handheld VHF and some flares in your pocket. And you're still probably screwed. Like Chef said in Apocalypse Now, "Never get out of the boat."

   For the last couple of days there have been quite a few crab limits coming in. Not just reds, mind you, but Dungeness. One boat yesterday caught three limits of reds and two limits of Dungeness in the bay. Two other boats yesterday and at least one today also had limits of Dungies. At least one couple today had their first boating adventure on the bay (the boat was new to them and this was their first time using it) and they caught fifteen Dungeness inside the bay. Even the snare crew on the beach are doing pretty well. Your results may differ, but it seems like there's a few crab around. When you consider that the norm for February is the worst crabbing of the year, these results are atypical. Yet nobody is complaining. Complaints may start when the trap season shuts down again, though.

"

California Department of Fish and Wildlife Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program Update

February 18, 2022

CDFW Director Bonham has completed an assessment of marine life entanglement risk for the recreational and commercial Dungeness crab fisheries under the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP). CDFW is issuing a statewide fleet advisory for the commercial Dungeness crab fishery due to a recent humpback whale entanglement, approximately 5 miles west of Cypress Point near Monterey Bay (Fishing Zone 4). The entanglement was first reported in late January involving heavy line from unknown fishing gear and CDFW is encouraging the commercial fleet and all mariners to be on the lookout for any entangled whale in this area and across California waters. If anyone sights an entangled whale, do not approach, or attempt to disentangle, but please immediately report it to the United States Coast Guard or call the Entanglement Reporting Hotline: 1-877-SOS-WHAL or 1-877-767-9425.    Based on recent surveys and historic migration patterns, overall entanglement risk remains low across California waters. CDFW is however issuing this Fleet Advisory for all fishing zones and reminds all in the commercial and recreational fisheries to implement best practices, as described in the Best Practices Guide.

" So the gear is not necessarily crab gear, so it counts less against crabbing. If they find the whale and it is Dungeness crab gear on it, well, our trap season will be over. I do hope the whale gets found and rope gets removed safely, I just also hope that it is someone else's rope. 

      This year's salmon season will be determined soon. The PFMC's Salmon Technical Team will be drafting their "Preseason Report I – Stock Abundance Analysis and Environmental Assessment Part 1 for 2022 Ocean Salmon Fishery Regulations" this week on the 22nd through the 25th. If you want to follow along at home, you can, here:  https://www.pcouncil.org/events/salmon-technical-team-work-session-february-22-25-2022/   Or you can wait for the good stuff at the Annual Salmon Information Meeting on March 2. That meeting will also be streamed. Infor about it can be found here, when they post it:https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean/Regulations/Salmon/Preseason

   In other CDFW news, the Fish and Game Commission readopted the emergency ban on hydraulic clam pumps (it looks like a real, final ban is coming. It is drafted but not in play, yet). It also adopted a new limit and season on California grunion. You are now limited to 30 tiny fish and you may collect them in April, May and June. So, thankfully, only the months you might find them on the beach here. The original petition asked for March through August as a closure and, I believe, a ten tiny fish limit, so hey, what do we have to complain about?  As a California sportsman I am learning to sate myself with the crumbs that tumble from their plate.

   And finally, this:"https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=198970&inline" That's the CDFW's tally of last season's fishing in the ocean, by the numbers. The most interesting thing to me was that halibut and perch fishing got combined into the same group and had an average of about nine ounces of fish caught per fishing trip. I did pretty well last year, so I feel kinda bad about the folks shifting the numbers to below one pound per trip. The average return on a tuna trip is 42 pounds. I only landed one 12 pounder for nine days trying, so I guess I helped to balance out Eddie Kim's pile of bluefin. This year will be different (I hope I get a bigger one. Let's go 14#!).  

     On Monday Richard Baratta sent me these pictures and the message, :"Pssss….. Willy The crabs are in Bodega Bay and no one is there."  I didn't post this because I thought it might be secret. Today I saw these pictures on Coastside Fishing Club and figured I could share. It sounds as though he caught three limits of Dungeness in less than four hours in two pulls of eight pots. No water depth or lat/long provided, but my guess would be he was somewhere in the middle of the bay as the north and south ends have quite a few buoys and, from what I hear, much less crab. Nice job, Richard.

   It's been a while since we had a photo of Gage's hand with a surfperch in it. Now we have one, and the picture is mostly hand. Padre Ron had a couple of nice perch bite shrimp yesterday afternoon on the north end of the beach, so larger models do exist. Perhaps Gage should save this picture for his Tinder profile. That fish does make his hand seem large. 

   And if you haven't heard yet, :

 

CDFW to Host Virtual Public Meeting on Ocean Salmon Fisheries

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) will hold its annual Salmon Information Meeting via webinar on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The public meeting will feature the outlook for this year’s sport and commercial ocean salmon fisheries, in addition to a review of last year’s salmon fisheries and spawning escapement.   Stakeholders are encouraged to provide input on potential fishing seasons to a panel of fishery managers, scientists and industry representatives who will be directly involved in the upcoming Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meetings in March and April.   The 2022 Salmon Information Meeting marks the beginning of a two-month long public process used to develop annual sport and commercial ocean salmon fishing regulations. The process involves collaborative negotiations between West Coast states, federal agencies, tribal co-managers, and stakeholders interested in salmon fishery management and conservation.   Public input will help California representatives develop a range of recommended season alternatives at the March 8-14 PFMC meeting. Final season regulations will be adopted at the PFMC’s April 6-13 meeting.   Meeting details, handouts and instructions on how to join the webinar will be published on CDFW’s Ocean Salmon webpage in advance of the event.

 

 

       The crabbing is, still, mostly slow, although a few guys in the bay are getting some decent numbers. I have seen a few crab shells in the campground that would suggest (in a at least one case, scream) that maybe a few of the crab being landed and eaten are not quite ready yet, legally-wise. We had a pretty serious low tide last weekend and the warden wrote several tickets but most were for short crab, not clams. Today Gage and I put three conicals in the outer bay while we fished the bar and ended up with three keeper Dungeness. None were commercial sized but there were several that were close but not quite. A couple were painfully close. Soon, though, the molt is coming. 

   For our bar fishing today we did not catch (nor expect to catch) a halibut but we did get four sand sole. We missed a couple of other bites and I lost one that I should have set the hook on.  All bites in 18 to 30 feet of water on the outside of the bar and most of the bites on the turn of the tide. They do look a bit like halibut, I guess, but in the next photo you will see a clear difference.

   Sand sole have long tendrils on their frill fin over their head, like this. California halibut do not. The sand sole today ate squid and a Berkley Gulp! Sandworm. We neglected to bring along any frozen anchovies and likely our numbers suffered for it, but the small flatfish seemed to enjoy all of our dead bait offerings. By the way, they are tasty.