Matt Kimura sent over this report last night: "Hey Willie,

I was crabbing off Carmet in 100’ doing pretty well until I found this guy in my trap.  She brought in two clam shells with eggs with her.  As delicious as she would have been, I released her.  Matt" It's probably good for her that she brought pictures of her children. I have eaten a bit of octopus and would likely be doing a lot of ethical algebra on this one. Luckily for her, a crab net is not a specifically legal method of take for octopus, so I would have let her go as well. With shaking hands. Shaky, moral and legal hands. It seems like there were more octopus caught this year than usual, usual being me hearing about less than one a year. I heard of several caught this year. What's that mean? As far as I can tell, it means there's more octopuses (octopi?) around.

     Crabbing is the same, not that good unless you're in a good spot, then, well, you know. That spot seems to be north of Bodega, but a few can still be found in the outer bay, and to a lesser extent, inside Tomales. The Tomales Bay bite has been better near Hog than near the mouth lately but neither is very good. A few guys are doing well but most of the rest of us are scratching out a few if we're lucky.

     On the fishing front, rockfish are biting well and will continue to bite well after the season closes at the end of the month. This is your last chance for shallow rockfish until the end of the month. After that the shallows won't be open until July 15. The lingcod are in the shallows now, 40 to 70 feet, so find some structure and you have a good shot at them with a swimbait. Even better shot with live bait (nothing looks more like a live fish than a live fish).