Please note that this is Joe Winn's hand, not Gage's hand. "Hey Willie, happy new year. 

Just a little fishing report. The family needed our ocean fix and managed to rent a few cabins up by the store. 

Fished Saturday and Sunday. Struggled Saturday, only landed 4 small perch and one tiny halibut but at low tide Saturday found a little structure just south of the day beach. Went back Sunday morning at high tide and had a blast. Non stop action and lots of dinner plate size perch. " So they do exist. 

    The probable clam pump ban will be decided on February 10. The topic on the agenda is this : "Recreational clam, sand crab, and shrimp gear emergency Discuss and consider adopting emergency regulations to prohibit use of hydraulic pump gear for recreational take of clams, including clarifying amendments to apply the same gear restriction for sand crab and shrimp. (Amend sections 29.20 and 29.80, Title 14, CCR)" So they're looking at banning pumps for ghost shrimp as well. Ghost shrimp, as you well know, make great bait and it would suck to have to dig them up with shovels. Since the water pumps being used too effectively for clamming are a two-man (or more) operation, I think that asking for one-man pumps to be acceptable is reasonable. Public input is being accepted and can be sent here: fgc@fgc.ca.gov On your subject line include that your email is about item 20 for the Feb. 10 meeting of the Fish and Game Commission. It may not help but it sure can't hurt. 

UPDATE: This was noticed by someone and I have it on the QT that shrimp/clam guns (one man operation without a hose attached) are not being targeted. A note in support of this probably still helps.

    One of our frequently pictured fishermen passed away last night. I guess he really couldn't wait for salmon season to open. "Willy, last evening the Landing lost its biggest fan.  After 15 yrs, 9 months Louie moved on to better fishing grounds. He made many friends in his years there." 

 

      Our entry gate security cameras recorded this photo of a CDFW warden leaving the property with a couple of nice looking stainless steel crab pots in the back of his truck, along with an ice chest. I don't know the story behind this, but one wonders what will get your pots seized. The traps look well-made, so I assume that they have the required escape rings. No GO ID numbers on the buoy? Somebody else's GO ID numbers on the buoy? Or maybe the problem lies with the contents of the ice chest. A bunch of small crab? The way the crabbing has been it sure wasn't over limits of keepers. While I'd like to think a "pot pirate" got caught I think a bunch of shorties is the likeliest answer. 

    As mentioned, the crabbing is pretty slow. A few of the shore snaring crew here are having fairly consistent short crab action with an occasional keeper, but mostly there's more casting than catching. Gage's run as a greenhorn commercial crab deckhand has begun and ended. A weak first pull of the gear devolved to less than half the catch on the second run of the traps, ending the need for a bait boy. At least the desire for fresh crab and their lack of numbers have caught up with the price and the crabbers might actually get paid for their time on the water.

    Nothing in the way of fish going on here. There's been an on/off herring spawn in Tiburon over the weekend. At least we have rockfish reopening on April 1st and salmon scheduled to open on April 3. Of course, the final decision on salmon will be hashed out over the next few months with information posted here: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean/Regulations/Salmon/preseason
 

      Do you hear all that splashing? That's the sound of hundreds of commercial crab pots hitting the water. There's not an abundance of crab and the price isn't very good, but at least the crabbers get to go to work. The presence of whales in the area delayed the season from a November 15th opener to a December 23rd start, then the issues on price slid the start back to today. While a forecast of not many crab would usually raise the price, the lack of crab feeds, closed restaurants and a tanking live market in Asia have cut demand. 

     I tried a little striper fishing in the surf on Saturday during the low tide. The seaweed catching was good but no fish bites. The beach conditions were not good, at least on the south half of Dillon Beach. The big swells erased almost all of the structure (points, bars, channels) that I would normally key on. From the high tide line to water's edge at low tide was 100 to 200 yards of gradually sloping sand. There's a couple of places that might hold fish at high tide near the point but mid to low water looked awful.

     This weekend we had a significant turnout of Fish and Wildlife wardens. They were primarily checking clammers but I did see a couple of nice stainless steel crab pots in the back of one truck. On Saturday I was told by a warden that the restrictions on using water pumps for clamming would be going into effect very soon. I then received this email from the Coastodian yesterday: "Hi Willy,

Are you aware that the CDFW plans to prohibit the use of pumps to take clams?

At the last CFGC meeting I was told that an emergency ruling would be put in place in February (exact date unclear) banning their use.
A permanent ban will be put in place in the future prior to the emergency ban expiring.

I’ll ask those at CFGC/CDFW how they plan to promulgate this big change so that people can plan accordingly.

Perhaps you could let folks know they need to find their shovels and clam tubes and leave the pump at home in the near future." The current warning to not eat sport-caught shellfish from Marin County didn't seem to slow down the clamming but this pump ban might.

 

   FYI, here's a map of the 50 fathom line for rockfishing. Remember, the depth limit for fishing isn't the actual depth, it is the shoreward side of a line of waypoints listed in the Federal Register. My points here are pretty close but not dead on. If you'd like to make your own cheat sheet, here's the list for Point Arena to Pigeon Point:

(98) 38°57.50′ N. lat., 123°51.10′ W. long.;

(99) 38°55.13′ N. lat., 123°51.14′ W. long.;

(100) 38°28.58′ N. lat., 123°22.84′ W. long.;

(101) 38°14.60′ N. lat., 123°09.92′ W. long.;

(102) 38°01.84′ N. lat., 123°09.75′ W. long.;

(103) 38°00.00′ N. lat., 123°09.25′ W. long.;

(104) 37°55.24′ N. lat., 123°08.30′ W. long.;

(105) 37°52.06′ N. lat., 123°09.19′ W. long.;

(106) 37°50.21′ N. lat., 123°14.90′ W. long.;

(107) 37°45.57′ N. lat., 123°9.46′ W. long.;

(108) 37°11.00′ N. lat., 122°31.67′ W. long.;