Rejoice! The CDFW has spoken and traps are still legal here! For a little bit. Figure that by May it is rings again, but until then, traps are in! For more info, here's the announcement from CDFW:

Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program Update - Apr. 3, 2025

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton H. Bonham has assessed entanglement risk under the Risk Assessment Mitigation Program (RAMP) and announced the continuation of the 25% Gear Reduction in Fishing Zones 1-2 and implementation of a 30-fathom Depth Constraint. The Director also announced the continuation of the 50% Gear Reduction and the implementation of a 30-fathom Depth Constraint in Fishing Zone 3 and a Season Closure for the commercial fishery in Fishing Zones 4-6. The 30-fathom Depth Constraint and Season Closure will be effective April 15, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. A crab trap restriction for the recreational fishery in Fishing Zone 4 was also announced, effective April 15, 2025, at 6:00 pm. A Fleet Advisory will be maintained for all Fishing Zones for both the commercial and recreational fisheries. The next scheduled risk assessment is expected to occur on or around April 21, 2025. The full news release can be found at the CDFW News Room and for more information, please visit CDFW’s Whale Safe Fisheries webpage.

    So nothing changes here for us sporties. The commercials need to move their gear inside of the 180 foot line if they don't already have their gear there. They still only get to use half of their "permitted" gear. In Monterey (Area 4) they must quit traps and commercial fishing by April 15. So, if you crab around here with traps, rejoice! Next year's rules will be different and choices about seasons and gear will change, so don't get used to the current mess of rules as the rules will change by next Dungeness season. What are those rules? They haven't decided yet, so when they do I'll pass on the info.

   Good news? Only that a very confused Greater Tern flew around here for a bit today. I had been thinking this, and then it was mentioned in a thread on Coastside, so it must be true, but when the terns really show up there's anchovies or other small bait about for them to eat. Good for them, good for halibut, good for us. Here's to hoping that misguided fool of a bird was right. 

  Poor optimists. 

   

      Much like March 1st, the Northwest wind is blowing like mad today. Happy spring, everybody! And it's not just the wind that is making it spring; the pelicans are back. Or they were for a bit this afternoon, but the sight of pelicans diving on bait in the middle of the bay for a half an hour was enough to lift me out of my fishing funk. For a little bit, at least. Just seeing somebody catch fish elevates the spirit, even if the guy you're watching is way better than you'll ever be. At least it is the confirmation of possibility, and in the pelican's case, they don't live here when there's nothing to eat. Let's hope they stick around, because that should mean there's baitfish, and baitfish mean there's other things that eat baitfish. Like Alec Bennett, but also halibut and salmon that we probably won't be able to keep. They're coming. Soon. Not soon enough, but soon. 

    Crab reports have been sad. My cousin the commercial crabber had a 650 pound pull after better than a week's soak. That's a little better than a crab per pot per week. No bueno. He has a pretty good idea idea on where to put his traps, too. Better than me, for sure, but I don't make my living on the water, just my reason to live. Inside the bay the numbers have been similarly poor. A few are being caught by boaters and snarers but the reds are mostly what you see in the buckets. A very few are getting some decent numbers, but it's mostly grim. The clutch and molt should be ending soon and the crab should start showing up again. A sure way to tell that the crab are coming is the word from on high that traps around Monterey and commercial trap fishing to Point Arena will be ending probably around April 15, not because whales are present in Area 3 (us) but because they should be present by then. Should be is good science, right? Hey, I should be a millionaire. Some guys I went to school with are. Same science. Whatever. Summary: Crabbing sucks, it will get better but soon you'll have to use rings again. Not yet, but figure May.

   Deep rockfish are open this month. The weather doesn't look to good for the next few days but who knows? It could happen before the month's out. Maybe. 

     So the report: Slow. One of the locals has a few pots in the Outer Bay and has been averaging around five Dungeness per day of soaking. His last pull was thirteen crab for two days soaking, so maybe better?  It's probably fresh bait pulling more crab early in the soak, but one can dream. Maybe they're coming in! (Spoiler: They aren't, yet. Soonish they will, but the clutch is likely in session, and soon traps will likely be closed as the whales return with April showers.) Shore snarers are getting a few but far from limits. It is the seasonal slow time, but it should get better as we approach the end of the season in June. 

    The last I checked, these were the final options the PFMC came up with for salmon season this year. Only one is no season! The other two options have very limited seasons with short four day windows and a maximum number of fish allowed to be caught. The photo above shows the actual numbers and they're slightly different, but the important thing to know is that, if one of these two fishing options is approved there's a good chance that all the fish will be caught during the first window. 6500-7000 fish for the whole state in four days seems totally doable when there's a pent up desire to catch some of these fish that we've been having to let go. If the weather is good there will be hundreds of boats hitting the water at Santa Cruz, Moss Landing and Monterey and they will catch them all, as the fish usually haven't made it up here yet. But, early June usually sucks, so we have a chance at a second opening. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, though, a s I hear the chance for any season is 50:50 and secondly, there has never been a year in which sport guys fished and commercials sat it out, and the commercial offering is, well, crap. Ten fish per boat per week? I don't think any commercial could afford to do that, and if they did they'd need to high grade like heck just to break even. I don't think the commercials will go for it, and if they don't go fishing there's a good chance we won't go fishing. So, halibut and rockfish take it for the team again. Good luck, boys.

   On the rockfish subject, it appears that the PFMC has approved a plan to open up the deep water around Cordell Bank. It will become official when it becomes official, and that day might be a while. Someday we can fish around Cordell, and as someone that has fished at Cordell before (I'm old enough that it was legal....) it is awesome. Or was, at least, and after making a pass over it while trolling for bluefin last year my fishfinder says it looks super good now. Let's hope that we get to find out this year. 

    On the deep water rockfishing subject of "can I make it out there in my boat?", well, if you're not sure, then no. And if you've never been out there but you're totally sure, then no. Go with someone who has been before. Charter a trip on a six-pack or make a run with Rick on the New Sea Angler and see what it takes. The six-pack option would be closer to your situation, so probably that. Make sure of your forecast before you go and be prepared to bail and run home with nothing if the forecast goes south. The worst weather I was ever in was on the second day of a three day run of "winds light and variable to 5 knots" when the wind came up to 30 and 1 foot seas were breaking 15 to 20 feet high 25 miles out and I was in a 16 foot Whaler. The forecasts are usually right, but if things satrt looking questionable don't be an ass like me and stay. Run Home. I wish I had. I'd sleep a lot better with less nightmares. I saw the 20.5 foot boat in front of me broach twice in white water on the way in. I thought I was going to be picking bodies out of the water. Tom Gerbi and Bob King were making a small patch of calm water in their wake right behind the boat and I was staying in it until a breaker would come in from the port stern quarter and I'd back off (as they have the right of way). I thought I was dead. I didn't die, but pick your days better and give up and go home earlier. Or just go with a guy that knows.

    On surfperch, the wind that I have been whining about (and will whine about some more, I assure you) has actually done what it is supposed to do and not just added sand to the beach in front of the Boathouse but added some structure to the beach. I haven't heard any catching reports of surfperch but the structure in front of the beach looks good on the north end of Dillon Beach. You have to cast around a bunch of surfers, but there's bars a go-go there. Fish? Maybe not yet, but if you build it, they will come.

.

  Good news if you like wind, because we have it! We have so much fresh air that you can barely stand up. I realize that spring isn't officially here until March 20, but, hey, who are we kidding? On March 1 the northwest wind hit and has stayed (except for yesterday), which to me means spring. Spring sucks. Yes, tiny animals, longer days, colored eggs. I know, but here it also means wind, and the wind, well, blows. Having said that, it also tends to build up the beach that washed out over the winter, not just in front of the boathouse but even off of Dillon Beach proper, where all structures were removed by the huge swells this winter. No more bars or other high spots to concentrate fish. But the wind is blowing, and as much as I hate the wind I also appreciate it for building the beach and structure and for upwelling all those nutrients that the baitfish and baby salmon will be needing to survive. Yes, it is the very definition of a love/hate relationship. To be fair, the wind doesn't care what I think, so all the emotions are on my side of the equation. But hey, unofficially, happy spring!

   On the subject of beach fishing and structure, we don't have any. There have been some people trying. I didn't see any fish, but some of them kept coming back every few days, so I thought they must be catching something. Then they quit coming.... The fish will return, especially as the wind continues to build structure, but until then, here's a report from Branden Mendoza: "Hey Willy. Just wanted to give you a heads up. We've been out doing some surf perch fishing out on Doran beach. We've been using ghost shrimp from the mud flats. We've done ok. We got 6 Red tails 2 weeks ago 3 keepers 3 shorts. Went out last Saturday caught 6 but Red tails 1 keeper and 2 striped perch that we kept. The main reason for this report is we were walking past a group the was there before us and they and a 24 inch striper in the bucket that they caught on prawns. Thought it was some positive news and I share it. Thanks again for all the reports and updates. "  Fish of any kind sounds very impressive to me, Branden, but multiple fish are even better. Those perch are pretty tasty, especially fried up whole with a few slits in the skin....  wow. And saltwater striper is its own thing. Yes, I'm currently eating fish from my freezer of an unknown vintage, and the taste makes me think of, well, fresh fish. Because this stuff sucks. Come on halibut, and April, please give me a weather break on the right day because deep water rockfish opens April 1 and I need some fish that is actually good.

     The last two days every time I drove down our road I saw fishermen with surfperch. Well, fisherbirds. The ospreys are hammering the perch, possibly black or striped perch as they seemed awful dark from below. The problem with relying on ospreys for fish reports is that ospreys aren't limited to shore fishing for perch as we are. The fish they're catching could be from anywhere. Both blacks and striped perch prefer rocks and kelp, not sand, so I'm guessing the ospreys aren't working the shoreline here. Also, I wrote this part a couple of days ago and then fell asleep, and now, two days later, I haven't seen an osprey since. So, I guess there were some fish but you wouldn't have caught them anyhow, and now they're gone. Helpful, this is not, but illustrative of the ocean and nature in general, it is kinda okay. At worst, it's a story, and stories have been lacking, so....

   Crabbing, as usual, has been slow, but, as usual, a very few have done well. Yesterday almost everybody coming into the store had none, reds or Dungeness, but one guy in the afternoon came in and reported that he had limited out. His methods were not shared, only his success. So, as usual, the reports are probably not, but maybe? The outer bay has been slightly better and a couple of guys with traps out there have been limiting, but those limits come with several days soak on multiple pots. For a day trip guy, you'll probably catch a couple but numbers are hard.

    The results of the salmon meeting can be summed up pretty easily: No. It won't be decided until April, but if we didn't have enough fish forecast for last year and this year's forecast is even less, and the recent forecasts have been hopelessly optimistic (like, 2x), and even the PFMC admit that their models leave a lot of questions when confronted with reality, well, no. So, it ain't for sure, but if I was a betting man I wouldn't be loading up on salmon tackle for my tackle shop. And I didn't. Go halibut! And stripers! And rockfish! Deep water rockfish will open next month on the first. There's a chance that there will be a day or two in April that the weather is good enough to make the run to Rittenburg. It didn't happen on a day that I had off last year, but this is a new year. Good luck to us all!

    I post reports as they come in, so here I am, three weeks later, finally writing something. Fishing report? Not so much. Mostly a place keeper. But, while I'm here, a few things...

    Friends of the report have been doing okay, close to limits of Dungeness, in the outer bay in relatively shallow water. They've been servicing their traps at four to eight day intervals and there's been no "jumbos!" claim, just dinner. The commercial guys are getting about $8 a pound at the dock which is an economic indicator of two things: Market interest and availability of product. Low catch rates plus high demand equals a situation approaching (but not even close) to the chicken egg situation (ducks, be afraid). My guess is that the guys going home with crab are taking many that aren't commercial legal. That's fine, but we all dream for jumbos. It's the same work to clean a jumbo crab and a barely sport legal crab, and it's not no work; there's some effort. Is it worth it? Heck yes, but at the end of the job we all would like a larger pile of crab meat. So the big pile isn't happening, but crab is there for the catching and eating. Just bring something else to eat, too.

   This year's salmon season looks like it's going to be a lot like last year's salmon season. The seasonn won't be determined until mid-April, but forecasts will be released on Thursday. Returns to the rivers have already been shared by the PFMC and they aren't awesome. In the Sac system, as expected, returns to the one river it counts (the Sac proper) were appalling yet again. Everybody else killed it. Trucked fish lived and river fish died. I'm sure that there's no significance to that similarly appalling correlation. How could just the difference of going down a river make that much of a change? Maybe it's the lack of water. And that's water that ain't coming back. You can fight it, but you ain't gonna win unless you're Elon. Money talks, and if you're reading this, well, might as well shut up. Adults are talking about water. We need to get more trucked, factory fish, fin clipped, because the fight for water in the river has been lost. No matter what your politics are, when Gavin and Trump can agree on a thing like draining the river, well, that thing is a done deal. Done. Stick a fork in it. Let's figure out another way to go fishing, because natural born fish are goners. Also, when guys that are so different can agree on something so contentious, how different are they?

   Since halibut seems likely to be the main menu item yet again this season, I guess we should speak about them for a moment. The halibut bite in Tomales Bay seems to follow San Francisco Bay's bite by six to eight weeks. So far, it sounds like the bite hasn't started in SFB, so ... maybe later. For those new to the early season fishery, the farther back the better when it starts, as the bay warms from back to front, and warmth is the key for biters. Halibut can be in super cold water but they tend to bite when it's warm and they're happy, so... Simple math: Fish when they bite and you'll catch more. They're coming.  Just not yet. But just know that I'm feening for a fish hard, so when it happens I and then you will know.

 

     Here's a drone-produced photo of the things making a bit of noise around here for the last month, These sea lions have been chasing herring in and around the bay, and they talk a lot while they're doing it. Last summer when the sardines came into the bay the sea lions also made an appearance en masse. I will be trying to pay more attention to distant barking. These guys were photographed on January 21 at the Sand Point. They were chasing herring, as expected. I am aware of only a few attempts at herring in Tomales Bay this season but not aware of any success, other than these sea lions. Were these herring coming or going? At this point, probably leaving the bay but anything goes, it seems. Just because herring did most of their spawning in the past between Christmas and the end of January doesn't mean that it's still so. But it's probably mostly so. 

    Crabbing has been kinda okay for the guys with lots of pots soaking in the outer bay. A three to seven day soak seems to help on the numbers. There have been limits but no high grading. Inside the bay has been tough, as heavy tides and loads of fresh water have made the crabbing slow. In both cases there haven't been a whole lot of takers. From shore the snarers have mostly been blown and washed out by more weather than crab. It looks like a few breaks in the weather this week, so maybe better numbers? Time will tell.

    A hopeful report for future salmon follows. It appears that this year is probably a no for salmon again, but maybe later? We'll see: "

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: California Department of Fish and Wildlife <cdfw@public.govdelivery.com>

Date: Thu, Feb 6, 2025, 4:28 PM

Subject: CDFW Partners with DWR and Fishing Industry to Diversify Salmon Hatchery Release Strategies

To: <wvogler@gmail.com>

CDFW recently released more than a million fall-run Chinook salmon fry into the Feather River

View as a web page  /  share

at top a lake, mountains in background with field of flowers in foreground and the CDFW logo and CDFW News at bottom

Feb. 6, 2025

Media Contacts:

Jay Rowan, CDFW Fisheries Branch Chief

Steve Gonzalez, CDFW Communications, (916) 804-1714

Fry fall-run Chinook salmon in the American River. 

CDFW Partners with DWR and Fishing Industry to Diversify Salmon Hatchery Release Strategies

In a collaborative effort to increase the sustainability of California's salmon populations, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has partnered with the Department of Water Resources (DWR), as well as ocean and inland fishing groups to continue a pilot project aimed at diversifying salmon hatchery release strategies.

As part of a broader initiative to expand salmon hatchery release strategies, CDFW recently released more than a million fall-run Chinook salmon fry into the Feather River. These salmon fry are released shortly after hatching, which mimic the same life stage in the wild when they would swim up out of the gravel. Typically, fall-run Chinook salmon released from the hatchery are about six months old and 3.5- to 4-inches in length. This technique was first introduced at the American River at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery in 2023.

This marks the second fry release in the Feather River this year, bringing the total number of fry released to approximately 1.8 million. These releases are in addition to the Feather River Hatchery’s typical target of 6 million smolts (a young salmon that is ready to migrate from freshwater to the ocean, usually around 6 months old) as well as the additional 3.5 million smolts and sub-smolts CDFW aims to produce at the Feather River Hatchery in 2025.

"This pilot project underscores the importance of collaboration between state agencies and the fishing community as we adapt to the challenges posed by climate change," said Jay Rowan, Fisheries Branch Chief. "By diversifying hatchery release strategies, we aim to boost salmon populations while ensuring more fish are available for both harvest and conservation efforts."

Due to the small size of salmon at the fry stage, traditional tagging methods such as coded wire tags cannot be used to track these fish. Instead, the performance of these releases will be monitored using Parental Based Tagging (PBT). This innovative approach involves collecting genetic data from the parent salmon at the time of spawning at the hatchery. The genetic information will then be used to identify and track the offspring when they return to the river, helping to assess the success of the fry releases.

“Our organization has long been an advocate of adopting genetic PBT for fisheries management,” said James Stone, Executive Director of the NorCal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association. “Adaptive salmon management is the future of improving and sustaining our fishery, which is needed now more than ever. PBT provides flexibility in hatchery operation and release strategies to maximize juvenile salmon production, including the promotion of natural spawning. We are pleased to partner with the department on the implementation of this new technology and commend them for taking this next step.”

The fry release project is being conducted in coordination with DWR, which owns the Feather River Hatchery, and with input from both commercial and recreational salmon fishing groups.

“On behalf of the California salmon fleet, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Association (PCFFA) is committed to restoring our fleet’s ability to harvest California salmon and feed California communities. Diversified release strategies offer the best opportunity for a cohort’s success by mimicking natural systems, allowing fish to learn to be fish sooner. This approach provides hope that bold and decisive actions can strengthen population health, enhance genetic diversity, and contribute to the long-term resilience of salmon stocks," said George Bradshaw PCFFA President. “We appreciate CDFW’s collaboration with the industry to address the salmon crisis by increasing hatchery production and implementing diversified early life stage release strategies. Reintroducing fry releases not only expands production capacity but also takes advantage of early in-river conditions that benefit fish health.”   

Diversifying hatchery release strategies is a key element of the California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier, Future, a statewide initiative aimed at ensuring the resilience of salmon populations amid impacts of climate change. In addition to the Feather River releases, similar pilot studies are also underway at the Nimbus Hatchery on the American River, further expanding the scope of the project.

The pilot studies are expected to provide valuable data that will shape future hatchery release strategies, ultimately helping to bolster salmon populations and improve their chances for survival in the wild.

For more information on this project and other salmon conservation efforts, visit the CDFW website at www.wildlife.ca.gov."

    I apologize for the late report. This report came in on Monday night, but life occupied me to the point that you only get to hear about now. Again, sorry. 

  George Homenko sent this report, as well as this video. Nice work, George, and even better video. "A quick crabbing report.

Went out on Monday because the forecast looked pretty good.  The mouth was pretty flat and what wind there was from the south soon died down.  I was using traps baited with chicken legs in about 60-70 feet of water.  Set a line parallel to the beach off a mile or so North of the "TB" buoy.  Poor at first but found a better spot and reset my pots around it.  Had a limit of 10 in about 90 minutes.  No jumbos a couple OKs and a bunch of just barely. 

Noticed that when I ate a couple that night they just didn't have that dinginess taste we all like so much.  Got some a week ago or so and didn't notice any flavor discrepancies with them.  Could be the clutching or molting? 

Anyway, all days fishing are good as long as you make back home.

I did a video of me and my boat, single handing some crab. You don't have to mention it.   I have always loved Tomales Bay.  Many years ago my father would drop me off at Nick's with a small aluminum boat and an outboard when I was 14.  I would camp on Hog Island and eat clams by myself.  He would come back and get me in a day or two.  That was back when Hog had trees on it.  I'm 76 now.  https://youtu.be/5AWRiGxTOdA

Thanks for your reports.

Capt George"  Again, nice work. The crabbing now is almost as slow as it will get.. It cant get too much slower, but it will, a bit, and then start to improve. A bit. Statistically, it will improve and peak at the end of June. Maybe. The critters don't always obey their own rules. Be that as it may, there's a few crab around, and you could even catch one if you're lucky. George knows a few things, so he may get a few more. 

     The only other report I have is from one boat today that went chasing herring. He saw a lot of fish marking at the surface from Hog to Marshall. All schools that bit were jacksmelt. The others? Maybe herring, but herring hardly ever bite when they're getting ready to spawn, and the fish didn't bite, so maybe herring? Not biting is hardly an indicator, If it is, I have fished in a lot of spawning herring. 

   

   

 I got this report yesterday. Steve Brott reports, "Hello Willie,

Steve Brott here with a report.
New Years found me once again on the beach casting for the elusive striper which never materialized.
A young man named Liam came by wearing wader, pulling a wagon full of fishing poles, snares, etc.
He was very patient, but before my very eyes this young man snared a limit of legal dungies in rather short order.
I went over and introduced myself and told him he was the luckiest crabber on the beach that weekend, so i took his picture.
Turns out it was his first time ever to the beach.
He had a great time and I personally enjoyed watching him do his thing.
Thanks Willie, Kristi and i will be back the second week of February."  Thanks for the info, Steve, and good job, Liam. It seems that most of the crab snarers like the beach in front of the store, and that's fine, but the crab can be anywhere. Sometimes the crab are where it requires a little bit of walking. Go Liam. I hope you had a nice walk. And dinner. And probably another dinner. 

   Mr. Brott was looking for stripers here, and I haven't heard of any caught here for a while, but I did hear of a sighting of a feeding school in the surf below Oceana Marin, the fancy houses to the north of Dillon Beach proper. The guy that spotted them is familiar with stripers, so I believe. Also, there's herring moving in and out of the bay, and schooling baitfish tend to draw eating stripers. You can hear sea lions barking at all hours, another indicator of herring activity at the mouth. A third indicator would be that the same witness of the stripers also saw a school of herring getting ready to spawn near the shore where he was gathering cockles. His exact location was not given to me, as he was successfully gathering cockles, and as there aren't too many good beaches for cockles, guys that successfully get cockles don't share locations. See the rules for Fight Club. The fish didn't bite sabikis, but that is normal for spawning herring. After they spawn they can think about food again. Learn to throw a net, Ed. 

    Crabbing is still the same, okay for an experienced few and pretty slow for the rest (except Liam). This is that time of year when the bite should be slowing and approaching its slowest time. Crabs have started molting and some of them are clutching (mating) for sure, and soft skinned crab can't eat even if they wanted to. Patience. Wjem the crab return, all those crab that were just short will be keepers, and there were a lot of short "clickers".  Here's to the passage of time. 

      The crabbing inside Tomales Bay has been bad, but as usual, a few people have figured out how to catch a few. Our local expert, Tim, has been catching a little better than half-limits in a few hours just this side of Marker 5. Those crab were mostly barely legal and kind of ugly,  but they were legal eaters, so... Outside the bay you will be competing with professional crabbers, and while there are crab, there ain't many. Your location needs to be very particular for success, and the successful guys are very correctly not sharing their locations with me. From shore, the crab snare guys have been trying very hard. A few have done pretty well. A young man this weekend had four in a day. Most of the snarers are working inside the bay, even though there's less people and sometimes more crab from the ocean-front beach. Often times a little walk will improve your chances.

      Not much that I've heard of here about fishing. There's been a few guys trying for surfperch but nom reports filtering back on success. Usually this time of year has a few stripers showing up in the surf, but again, I haven't heard of any and haven't had a chance to try myself. I did hear of a guy with a bucket of stripers at Doran Beach, which tracks, as I've heard that Doran has more stripers than Dillon, but Dillon has a larger average size. Bigger don't matter if they aren't biting, so you might try Bodega's option.

      Rockfish, it seems, will open again in April, but only out very deep (over 300') at a time when the weather is generally against you even leaving the bay. But there might be a window. By May we go back to inside of 120' until October. As nearshore fish stocks have never really recovered from earlier closures forcing shallow fishing only, well, good luck. Best bets for success then will be going with the pros. Salmon? Let's talk about halibut. That season will happen, as no fresh water is required for their reproduction. They have been hit hard the last couple of years, and this year, well, the hits keep on coming. They should start here about four to six weeks after things get interesting in San Francisco Bay. Likely late April in the way back bay. We had a great time last year trolling bait, hootchies and Predator minnows back there. Lots of action, and the bites on the Predators were just plain fun, as that ain't the norm. My guess is that the halibut bite here should start around the time my wife starts walking again, as that is my hope, as then I can go fishing.... Good luck to the rest of you before then, but after that, watch out for me.

     

     Sorry for the lack of reports but I was away. Most of our tackle in the store comes via Big Rock Sports which is one of the larger wholesalers for independent sporting goods shops. They have a big sale show once a year and Cameron, my wife, Nicki and myself went off to the show in Nashville on the 4th. On the night of the 5th my wife fell and broke her leg, requiring surgery. It took until yesterday morning to get back home. Good times. At least I like country music and whiskey. But it seems that I didn't miss to much besides some very nice weather. Crabbing has been meh. There's a few in the bay and possibly even less in the outer bay. The commercial fishermen have been diffusing out of the Point Reyes/Farallones pocket looking for the next batch of crab and mostly finding just a few. It sounds like the average has been two to four keepers per pot on a two day soak. No bueno, but $6.00 per pound at the dock will keep them fishing. That high of a price is meant to keep them fishing, as there is still a demand but not much supply. Points north open today, so supply to the market may increase, but as of now there's commercial gear all over, including the outer bay. The Tomales Outlaw gave the outer bay a try yesterday and after a one-hour soak he had.....two keepers. He left most of his gear out and pulled again today for a total of.....four keepers. His pots may not have been in the best spots,  but 24 hours later for less than one crab per pot seems kinda slow. Bummer that rockfish season in still months away. 

   Nice weather here, though.

   Did you hear all the splashing this morning, around 8:00 AM? That was both sport and commercial pots finally splashing in the drink for their very delayed trap seasons. Finally! Now let's see if that does any better.. Generally, the crabbing is better before the commercials start, as less competition means more for those actually crabbing. The crabbing pre-commercial wasn't awesome, so trap results, to my mind, should be similar. A longer soak doesn't guarantee crab. You can't catch what isn't there. Gage is working a week or so with my cousin, Chris, on his crab boat. According to the Gage (and so Chris), pretty much every commercial crab pot locally is soaking between San Francisco and Point Reyes. Everybody was corking everybody, and mostly nobody was trying to (only mostly). You can almost walk on the crab buoys from Point Reyes to the Farallones. Don't try it, it's only almost. Just know that my cousin, that guy that bets his living on knowing things about crab and fish, is not expecting a long functional season. He expects a season open through March or April but most of the catching (as is done most years) all happens in the first few weeks. The price for crab, I hear, is very good. The only time the buyers want to pay is when they don't expect anybody to catch, so we must assume that the guys that know, know it sucks. And when it opens up north the price will drop, even though the crab wight be a bit light (not heavy with meat). I saw a picture from a New Year's Eve crab trip to the outer bay with a female Dungeness loaded with eggs. Bad sign for the now, as the clutch (the spawn and molt) is bad for catching and eating. Good for the future, as we all want to eat crab then.  Rockfish, as much as it was a season, is done until April, I believe, when it will open deep, even though you mostly won't be able to go there during April, as the weather mostly sucks. Well good for those rockfish. I'll see them in October, with a vengeance.

      Almost forgot. Happy New Year! May all of your good experiences outweigh your disappointments this year. Last year I was lucky enough to experience such a thing, and I hope you get to do the same. Buena suerte!