The crabbing has been pretty good for this time of year, as normally February is pretty dead for Dungeness. I haven't heard of anybody limiting inside the bay but boaters seem to be catching 3 to 15 keepers a day, depending on who you ask. Snare casters are generally catching dinner from shore, and a pair of guys last week caught 15 Dungies between them. The ocean water has salted back up and the surfperch have returned to the beach with a few of the regular surf fishermen doing very well over the weekend on redtails.
     April 13 is the official opening of salmon season here (Point Arena to Pigeon Point). The current regulations are here if you want to see them. The minimum size is 24 inches until April 30th, when the season closes. Don't worry, it will reopen on May 1st, but the final determination of the seasons duration will be made in April. It looks like it will probably run through October again. For a look at the current options see here.  Something to look forward to in the future is a push to restrict salmon fishing further to leave more salmon for the killer whales in Puget Sound. Since there aren't many Chinooks left in Washington they're looking at the Sacramento and Klamath fish as being important whale food. Probably the'll just end up removing some hydroelectric dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers (and replace them with CO2 generating power plants. I thought those were bad?) to make room for more salmon spawning habitat. Spawning habitat is good, but how about hatcheries? Grow a surplus? Make (relatively) clean power and salmon? I'm sure that's too easy.
   California halibut season is open year-round but the catching is generally limited to when the water is warmer (57º-65º). You can catch a halibut in colder water but you'll spend less time catching more fish in the right conditions. San Francisco and San Pablo Bays have many square miles of shallow water to soak up the sun and warm up sooner than Tomales Bay. They're catching a few halibut now but it will get much better in the coming weeks. The water in Tomales Bay is actually warm enough to be interesting (57º) right now. The salinity is low near Hog Island (21 PSU compared to a norm of about 31-33) but closer to normal near the mouth. The clam channel has had some early fish in the last few years and may hold some now. They probably won't bite, but they're probably there. Don't worry, though, spring is officially here, so the West wind will soon have the water chilled down to the forties.

   Gage tells me that it's kind of weird taking his own fish pictures. Since he normally holds his fish out to make them look bigger, doing them himself requires the opposite. This one is his personal best barred perch, caught yesterday on the beach. He also caught a few normal-sized ones, all on the incoming tide on Berkley Gulp! Sandworms. I guess that the fish like having actual saltwater instead of the muddy brackish stuff we had. I can't complain too much, as all that fresh water is supposed to be good for salmon smolts. I can't wait for the 2021 salmon season.
   Actually, this season looks pretty good. We might get April 6 through October if we are lucky. Here's what better informed people are saying about this year's season:" Good Salmon Forecast for 2019 Suggests Plentiful Fishing

Good rainfall two years ago pays off

Santa Rosa, CA  -- Today officials forecast 379,632 adult Sacramento Valley salmon are now in the ocean off the West Coast, compared to 229,400 a year ago at this time.  This suggests a return to relatively plentiful salmon fishing in 2019 is likely.  In the month ahead, officials with the Pacific Fisheries Management Council will use this forecast and other information to set times and areas open to both sport and commercial ocean salmon fishing for 2019. 

The reason for the uptick in this year’s salmon forecast is directly linked to the better Central Valley river conditions during the very wet spring of 2017.  Increased natural runoff from rivers in the Central Valley always boost salmon survival, as measured two years later when the fish return to spawn as adults. 

“We are looking forward to a good salmon fishing season this year,” said GGSA president John McManus. 

In addition to the Sacramento salmon forecasts, more salmon from other Central Valley rivers and hatcheries, as well as from the Klamath and other north coast rivers, will add to ocean numbers.

“We could see the best season since 2013, which was a really good one,” said GGSA director and publisher of USA Fishing.com Mike Aughney.  “Then as now, the good times came two years after really wet winters and springs in the Central Valley.  If water managers would leave more water in the rivers during some of the drier years, we’d always have more salmon.” 

Since baby salmon are considered one year old when they leave the Central Valley in the spring, and most return as three year old adults, you can always count on good fishing two years after lots of rain and snow.  (Yes, with this year’s rain and snow, 2021 should be a good year too!)

The less good news is that the number of adult salmon that returned to the Sacramento Valley to spawn in 2018 fell short of targets for the fourth year in a row.  After three years of missing the target, the National Marine Fisheries Service increased the so-called minimum escapement target from 122,000 to 151,000 fish in 2018.  They may do the same again this season which could result in a shortened season or some areas being closed.  These decisions will be made over the next month but no matter what, most expect good fishing once the season finally gets under way. 

In spite of the relatively rosy 2019 forecasts, the entire Central Valley is still recovering from the last great drought which greatly reduced salmon in various Central Valley tributaries.  A few years of good returns to help rebuild the natural spawning stocks is welcome news. 

“Drought could revisit us almost anytime, in fact it’s probably just a matter of when.  We need to build and fortify in the good years so we don’t get wiped out again in the bad,” said GGSA secretary Dick Pool.  “That’s why GGSA is working overtime to get salmon recovery, habitat improvements, and hatchery improvements on the new governor’s radar.”

Over diversion of the Central Valley rivers in years with less rainfall is a major reason for declines in the salmon population.  The State Water Resources Control Board is currently trying to rebalance how water is shared in the Central Valley.  GGSA is working to make sure the needs of salmon are heard in this process.

The Golden Gate Salmon Association (www.goldengatesalmon.org) is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational salmon fisherman, businesses, restaurants and chefs, a native tribe, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on salmon. GGSA’s mission is to restore California salmon for their economic, recreational, commercial, environmental, cultural and health values

Currently, California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in annual economic activity in a normal season. The industry employs tens of thousands of people from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon. This is a huge economic bloc made up of commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen (fresh and salt water), fish processors, marinas, coastal communities, equipment manufacturers, tackle shops and marine stores, the hotel and food industry, tribes, and the salmon fishing industry at large.  Salmon are a keystone species that reflect the health of both their fresh and salt water environments."

   First, a recent report from Zack Jessee:"Went out crabbing in Tomales over the 16-17 and had decent luck. Tried out some new cone shaped crab traps I just recently acquired and soaked at night to hit a slower tide. We were able to grind out a 2 man limit of dungeness and kept some monster rock crab as well. They all tasted great! The new traps fished really really well, but were a real pain to get crabs out. Sadly lost one trap to the sea. Thanks for the continual updates!" The bay is hard on traps, even on a slower tide. Good job on the limits. Crabbing has been pretty slow but it looks like you've got the grinding figured out.
    Surfperch fishing has been mostly slow. The storms keep erasing the holes the perch like. These storms aren't supposed to bring much swell, so by this weekend there may be some surfperch catching to do. The rain will probably not help the leopard shark fishing from shore but might make the deep holes in the bay good places to try from a boat.
    This year's salmon season won't be determined until April. What we get for a season depends partly upon what they expect for this year and partly on how many showed up last year. Not enough fish returned last year  (105,000 out of a minimum of 151,000) which is bad, as salmon will continue to be considered "overfished".  What did show up was a lot of two-year-old fish, indicating an expected ocean abundance of over 400,000 kings for this season. These would be the salmon that were spawned during the heavy rain winter of 2016-2017. Go figure, more water means more fish. With luck that will translate into more opportunities and more success for this year.

Gage has reconnoitered a new couple of holes in the area bracketed by the gatehouse and the first few campsites and he likes what he sees. While I unfortunately do not have a hand for a size comparison, I'm assured the good perch were 10-12 inches, with mediocre amounts. The swell made the going tough, but rest assured, Gage's prowess carried him through, though he insists that better weather would've improved his numbers. He was hoping to land stripers, as it is getting to be that time again but he was disappointed. On the subject of weather, it's been deteriorating fast, with higher swells yet on the horizon. Conditions should improve by Tuesday if the forecast holds. 

Crab snares are slowly but steadily pulling in Dungeness for those braving the intermittent rain. No one went out in a boat today to try the bay and I hope no one tries until the weather lies down. So, I don't have a fresh bay report for you.

Had one special request for Gage's preferred recipe for perch. It's worth nothing that he's pretty big on catch and release, but the few he holds onto are typically large. Per Gage: "I would scale, gut, and take off the head and then either pan fry in butter or bread it first." Feel free to comment your favorite if you've got one.

  Gage's hand tells me that the perch are here. Not big ones, but he found quite a few fish in a hole near the rocks. They're liking the Berkley sandworms.
   I received an email about Bob King:"Hey Willy
Here’s to Robert! Talked to him a few years ago and I listened to his story, at first I thought it was just an old man telling a story.  first time I had met him, and then I realized what a fool I had for venturing out without the proper gear. Scared me straight up.
Richard from Sacramento " Yes, when possible let someone else's mistakes help you correct your own. A float coat, a safety line and a waterproof VHF handheld radio with GPS seem like good things to have for a solo fisherman. I almost fell out of a trolling boat while albacore fishing solo years ago. I teetered on the rail and luckily fell into the boat instead of over the side. Just the memory makes me queasy and my palms sweat. At least with a second person you have someone to get you (or at least kill the engine). Plus, halfsies on gas.