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.