This report from "atfsac" was sent in on Wednesday night :"First drift of the year on Friday night rewarded two keepers those were the only bites. We came back Saturday morning and got a seventeen pounder in the first ten minutes and that was all she wrote we got out of there before low tide made us stay and USCG was checking boats at the ramp which left us circling waiting for the ramp to open for forty five minutes barely squeaked her into the trailer with a black stream of mud coming out of the tell tale on the motor. Decided to go to Frisco on Sunday for nine keepers  and Monday for another six. Not a bad first run of the year. The count is at eighteen. " The pictures above are the Tomales Bay fish. Here's the comparison shot.

 

All of those fish look pretty good to me. 

    Gage clobbered the surfperch this week but declined to provide a "hand" picture. At least there's fish in the surf. Possible grunion run the next couple of nights (grunion season is closed) so there may be a few stripers in the foam the next couple of evenings. The strong northwest winds are supposed to give us a break for a bit, so things should start looking really good for salmon before the wind comes back and wrecks it all, probably right around the 18th. Just a guess. I guess we'll have to go bluefin fishing. Looks like they caught a few out of Santa Cruz today and a Monterey whale watching boat filmed tuna boiling yesterday. Check out this video at about the 54 second mark.

   Geoff McNew sent over this photo and report from yesterday:"Caught on crow bars with herring at the 3 mile line off the trees, this last day of 24"" Also the last salmon fishing day until May 18. Nice work, Geoff. It looks like those fish just found the krill. Let's hope that they stick around for a while, even though a lot can change (and probably will) in the next three weeks.

     Nick Bauer found another halibut back by Hog Island yesterday. He's been getting a few back there. It's a far cry from the limits they're catching in San Francisco Bay but it's a lot more cozy. 

    You really never know what you'll catch when you're rockfishing. This halibut, caught by Kris Gaiero off of Tomales Point, weighed 15 pounds. I would recommend the bay over the reefs at the point for halibut, but, hey, you never know.  

    Dmitry Varakuta sent in this photo from last year with just about the prettiest salmon I've seen. It's not quite a lit up dorado, but it'll do. The couple of boats that went out looking for salmon today have returned with nothing but a few shorties hooked and released. Reports from south of us are that they're tearing 'em up down there. Our time will come, and when it does, the fish will be larger (and the minimum size will be smaller). 

    There's still a pretty good number of Dungeness crab out there. I actually had a live keeper get washed up on the beach at my feet while fishing for stripers in the surf yesterday evening. I'm not sure if that means there's a bunch of crab right off of the beach, but there's at least one. It looks like the sand crabs are molting, judging the number of shells on the beach, but if they are the stripers don't know about it. 

    Nick says you don't need to go looking for that halibut by Hog Island because he caught it. There may be another fish around, though, as he had a couple of other bites on his live jacksmelt. Looks like you don't have to go all the way back to catch, but I'd still think about Marshall and the Inverness flats. We're also getting to the time of year when might see a couple caught in the "clam channel," just down from the pier. I might even have to try it. 

    The crabbing has been slowish but the snares are still bringing in (usually) enough for dinner. There was a small group today using a drone to drop their snares farther out. I don't know if it helped but it looked cool. The weather has been pretty nice on the beach but outside has still been pretty sloppy. The water temp is a pretty good indicator of past wind and it is currently at 49.1º. Upwelling? Check.

    Now I wish that this was a picture from this year, but I've been forced to beg for old photos (The begging was before you sent your picture, Nick). This was sent in by Guy Kilburn of Vallejo with a note:"As you requested, here is a photo from August of last year of a nice fish caught just off Kehoe Beach.  These are the memories of fine fishing and flat water that keep us coming back. " It was nice to meet you, Guy, and I thank you for sharing your memory with the rest of us. If anyone else has a nice fish picture from this or last year, send it over to lawsonslanding@gmail.com with a note and I'll post it up for all 20 of us to see.

   Those salmon that were in 150 feet of water in front of Bird are somewhere else now. All it takes is me getting on the water to scare them off. There were some salmon caught in 260 to 300 feet of water from Bird Rock to above Bodega Head, anywhere from 40 to 160 feet down, depending on the report. Most hookups resulted in shorties but I heard about a few keepers and even one over 20 pounds. I had a very peaceful couple hours of trolling during which the fish were kind enough not to bother me. The weather was nice, even though the breeze when running gave me an ice cream headache from the 50º water temp. Hopefully we get a couple of more chances at the salmon before the season closes on May 1st. As far as that closure goes, here's the press release:"

2019 Ocean Salmon Seasons Finalized for the California Coast

April 18, 2019

King salmon caught off the San Francisco coastline.
CDFW photo

Ocean salmon anglers across the California coast will be able to spend more time on the water this year chasing after King Salmon (also known as Chinook Salmon). At its meeting this week in Rohnert Park, the Pacific Fishery Management Council finalized and adopted ocean salmon seasons beginning on or after May 1 through the remainder of the year.

Sport fisheries in the Klamath Management Zone will open from late May through early September. Fort Bragg and San Francisco areas are currently open; they will close for the first half of May, then reopen and continue through the end of October. The Monterey management area is open now and remains open through late August.

Despite an increase in fishing opportunity this year, ocean salmon season lengths were cut short in certain areas to limit harvest of Sacramento River fall Chinook, the main stock supporting California’s ocean fishery. Under the terms of the federal Salmon Fishery Management Plan, this stock has been classified as “overfished” following low returns of spawning adults in recent years. In an effort to hasten the rebuilding process, the Council made the decision to limit the fishery so that a greater number of adult fish return to the river to spawn this fall.

The 2019 recreational ocean salmon season dates for the California coast are as follows:

• In the Klamath Management Zone, which is the area between the Oregon/California border and Horse Mountain (40°05’00” N. latitude), the season will open May 25 and continue through September 2.
• The Fort Bragg and San Francisco areas, which extend from Horse Mountain to Point Arena (38°57’30” N. latitude) and Point Arena to Pigeon Point (37°11’00” N. latitude), respectively, opened April 13. Fishing will close on April 30, then reopen on May 18 and continue through October 31.
• The Monterey area between Pigeon Point and the U.S./Mexico border opened on April 6 and will continue through August 28.

The minimum size limit is 20 inches total length in all areas north of Point Arena. In the San Francisco area, the minimum size limit is 24 inches total length through April 30, then 20 inches total length thereafter. In the Monterey area the minimum size limit is 24 inches total length. The daily bag limit is two Chinook Salmon per day. No more than two daily bag limits may be possessed when on land. On a vessel in ocean waters, no person shall possess or bring ashore more than one daily bag limit. Retention of Coho Salmon (also known as Silver Salmon) is prohibited in all ocean fisheries off California.

In addition to protecting Sacramento River fall Chinook, the season dates and size limit restrictions in combination also serve to minimize impacts of the ocean salmon fishery on ESA-listed Sacramento River winter Chinook and California Coastal Chinook stocks, as required by federal law."

   For the guys rockfishing, 22" minimum on lingcod with a limit of one per person. North of Cape Mendocino they are allowed to keep two. It looks like it will change to two everywhere later in the season (Date to be determined). Until then, try to be gentle when returning your extra lings. Sticking your fingers in their gills isn't quite like sticking your fingers in someone's lungs, but it's close. Same goes for halibut and salmon. When possible, take the hook out while they're still in the water. Treat them right and you've got a chance to catch them again. Or even better, maybe I'll catch 'em.