What's up? I hope you had a good Christmas or whatever solstice holiday you're in to. The days are getting longer now! No fimbulwinter for you! Hopefully not for me, either. Dungeness continue to be caught inside the bay and out, although getting out has been hard (read: impossible) for a bit with swells over 15 feet shutting down the mouth of the bay. For the next week the forecast doesn't look much better between the swell and the wind. It looks like the rockfish will be safe for a few months. We have a few more weeks of crabbing without the use of traps, at least that many, but the commercials haven't started dropping pots en masse yet, so if the weather gives us an unpredicted break it might be worth quick run to Salmon Creek. 

    Brad Stompe sent over a report from last Thursday. My apologies for the late post but there have been a few things going on and I get easily distracted. "Hey willie,

I was fishing out of Bodega on Thursday and heard the call from Coast Guard about the capsized boat.  Good on ya for stopping and helping that poor soul out.  I'm mostly fishing the coast in my Grady 228 these days, but still have my trusty 17' Montauk that I have spent many hours in off the Sonoma and Marin coast.  Fortunately I have yet to swamp it, but I always believed that it would float a little higher above the water line than what was shown in your pictures.  I'm curious to know what size Whaler that was and do you think the hull was already water logged.

That off shore wind was a challenge for us trying to get a straight up pull on our rings and hoops, but we did manage 3 limits of decent crabs and then scooted up to Ft. Ross Reef for a couple limits of medium rockfish (no lings damn it) before heading back to beat the minus tide at the boat ramp.

I always enjoy reading your reports and depend on them as a source of information for that area.  I wish you tight lines and a safe and productive new year.

Regards,

Brad Stompe

Battled ship grey Grady 228 "Mary Frances"" It was a 13 foot Whaler with a 50hp motor. Unsinkable and unrollable are two different things.