So, the crab report is mostly not good, as usual. Some guys got a few, a few others caught none, and a few less did okay to good. Let's just say it was mostly bad. No halibut that I heard of this weekend, and as far as I know, only the ospreys caught surfperch. They caught a lot, though. Too bad that it means the fish are out beyond casting (but not flying) range. The water is about as cold as it gets (record low water temps in San Diego!) so anything there is sluggish. The days are still getting longer and the water should be getting warmer. Fish are coming. Just not yet.

     I asked for a correction if my second-hand striper report from last week was wrong. No surprise, it was, so here's a correction from Tom Thornley: "

• The pile worms all had died in my refrigerator after keeping them there for two nights. They were limp and lifeless and really hard to keep on the hook.
• I was fishing for perch with a two hook leader and 3 oz. pyramid sinker and two #4 hooks. In my wildest dreams, not expecting to catch a striper so didn’t even try the lures.
• Just a few days before our fishing fanatic son, Gabriel Morgan Nelson, was killed in a tragic head on collision on River Road, he and I had made plans to go striper fishing at Dillon Beach. that next weekend. I have been surf fishing there for 40 years at Dillon and never caught a striper. He all but assured me that if we went the following weekend he guaranteed we would catch a striper. Gabe was a legendary fisherman in the Russian River and Northern coastal area.
• After our son died we were cleaning out his house and amongst about 3 dozen or so rods and reels (mainly fly fishing) were two surfcasting rods and spinning reels set aside by the door rigged with striper lures for that promised day of catching a striper at Dillon. Those two rods and reels were the only two items I wanted to keep forever to remind me of our son.
• When I went out to fish Thursday morning about 8:30AM I didn’t even look at the tide chart but the weather was calm so decided it would be worth a try. On my first cast the dead pile worms flew off my hooks  before they even hit the water. On the second cast I ran the hooks through them about a half dozen times hoping they would stay on the hooks and to my surprise, it worked. About 45 seconds later the striper took the bait. At first I thought it was a perch. I pulled the rod up to set the hook and the striper took off down the coast peeling out about 80’ of line. I slowly tightened the drag, waded out to my knees in the water and gently but persistently guided it to shore. It did take over 30 minutes. At one point the striper was about 100’ off shore and rolled its back up to the surface and I thought it was a seal going for my fish so I pulled back on the  rod pretty hard and was shocked to realize it was not a seal but was my fish.
• On your scales it weighed 20lbs. Later on before we cleaned it we weighed it and it was 24lbs and 38” long.
• The yellow note I am holding in the picture says “This one is for Gabe”
• The whole story gives me goosebumps every time I tell it. Gabe was somehow with me that day, a day I will never forget." The one thing that doesn't change is that it is still a huge fish from the surf.

    Another submission is from Charles Warner. Mr. Warner has a few valid concerns about the rivers and the fish we love in them. "I have written to the last four governors concerning the the elimination of natural salmon spawning on the American River.  I have fished the H street bar, on the American, starting when I was 12 years old and was able to wader fish safely.  I am presently 76 years old.  My farther constantly reminded me not to step in the spawning redds, and there were hundreds of redds on the bar all spring, summer, and fall.  Then the California aqueduct was constructed.  The state started to rotate releasing large amounts of water from the American, Feather, and the Sacramento rivers all spring, summer and fall to keep the brackish water below the Tracy pumps. They rotated the rivers every four weeks.  A salmon will only construct a redd in water which is conducive to the gestation of its eggs.  Imagine a salmon laying its eggs in an area and then having the River level raised or lowered which causes the eggs to either become too warm or too cold, thus stopping the gestation process.  No  more naturally spawned fish.  That’s what happened on the H Street bar. I haven’t seen a spawning redd on the bar for many years!!!  The schools of salmon in the ocean also became smaller over these years, which I witnessed during my salmon fishing out of both Lawsons and Bodega.

  It’s a shame that the State didn’t take the Corps of Engineers advice to build reservoirs along the west side of the California Aqueduct and to only pump water during high water periods filling those reservoirs and then moving that water south in the spring, summer, and fall.  The Corps told the state that this was necessary and that if they didn’t ,  every running fish in the Sacramento, San Joaquin River systems would become extinct!  Seems to be happening. Salmon, Strippers, and Shad all down!!!!"