It appears to me that the salmon season options for Point Arena to Pigeon Point (the San Francisco area) for this year are:

ALTERNATIVE I

April 2 to May 31, July 1 to November 13

ALTERNATIVE II

April 2 to May 15, July 1 to October 31

ALTERNATIVE III

April 2 to 30, June 20 to September 30

In all three alternatives the minimum size is 24 inches through May 15, then goes to a 20 inch minimum. My very limited understanding is that the size limit is to save the spring run and the May-June season gap in our area is to minimize our catch of Klamath salmon and allow a bit of a season for our friends to the North. I personally don't have a problem with a closure during what is historically the windiest month of the year here. I know the Half Moon fleet are unhappy with missing June, and I'm sure that when we get the best weather we've ever had in June I will be just as disappointed. But I want every day in July and August and after the salmon fishing in the last few falls, I want some more of that good fishing, too. I like the shallow, nearshore stuff. I like catching more than anything, but catching fish in shallow is the best. There's no sounding in 20 feet of water. Anyways, the final season will be determined soon (and it may be a variation on these themes) but the one thing in common is that April 2 opener. 

   

    Eddie Kim read my post about the crabbing being horrible and mad a point of of coming up here to prove me wrong. Well done, sir. These three guys still look chipper in the this picture. After they got done picking all that crab they looked like they'd been fed through a chipper. Still, thirty legal male crab inside the bay by by noon is pretty impressive. I guess, like Westley, it's only mostly dead. Most everybody else is having far less luck. On the surf fishing scene, there were a few stripers landed today. At least one guy was carrying a limit back to his car and another fisherman caught his first striper ever. Like the crabbing, it is far from good, but there's possibilities. 

    In the absence of local halibut stories, here's this: "Hey Willy,

Thanks as always for the blog.  After a three skunks in the last few weeks trolling for halibut in Tomales Bay I broke down and headed to the big bay.  Hopefully the last couple of days are a sign of good things to come! No big fish but I did limit out in three hours yesterday.

Best regards 

John deRenzy" Nice job, John. Our good halibut fishing usually starts four to eight weeks after San Francisco Bay's good halibut fishing, so we're looking at probably sometime in late April to May. You can catch one now in the cold water; it is possible. It is just really, really unlikely.