San Francisco Area Reports 11/10/05

[Wahoo!]

Pacific Ocean
Golden Gate: Can't begin to tell you the futility of the last two weeks
of the salmon season, the one obligatory trip after another of one or
three fish for a small boatload of mildly disillusioned, ocean-wobbled
anglers, eventually driving their way back to Modesto or wherever the
hell with nothing good on the mind. And we can't begin to tell you what
a joy it was/is to know that the salmon boats were back into the fish
Wednesday. Only four big boats had the business to burn the fuel, and
who knows if they were expecting much. But they motored to the familiar
green can, dropped 'em in, and the rest is scores: 18 to 27 for 13 on
the Wacky Jacky, 15 to 26 for 14 on the New El Dorado III, 13 to 25 for
12 on the Salty Lady, and eight salmon for 20 anglers on the Outer
Limits.
They say it was gorgeous out there, all light breeze or no breeze, the
sun looking down between clouds. There was bait everywhere, down deep
and on the surface and everywhere in between, just piles and piles of
anchovy and sardine. The murres murred, seagulls screamed, pelicans
pierced the ocean with a crash, and through it all, the boats fished,
charter or private, just pleased to be out there on a day in November,
still chasing salmon. That the fish bit was an added bonus, or maybe
justification. There are four of these days left. If you can make the
weekend, do it. Sunday, the season goes down with the sun. And winter
lasts way too long.
Crab dip: Of course, there's another draw in Water Town. Before the
commercial fleet starts in and before the truly foul weather and before
it gets too difficult to much consider, there are crab to haul. These
are the easy times, your crab salad days (wow, sorry about that one),
when the whole of the ocean floor seems blanketed in Dungeness, all of
them fighting to get into baited pots. Hyperbole? Maybe just a little,
but when you haul up 19, 24, 27 in a pot, it's tough to think otherwise.
So we don't. We just run out there, find our pots, pull on some gloves,
and get to hauling. If the days allow, and most have, you can add
rockfshing or some salmon trolling to the mix. Speaking of: Emeryville
(510-654-6040) and Berkeley (510-849-2727) sport-fishing centers offer
crab-rockfish combo trips, daily. The deal here is you pay to get on
(you need a reservation, as the boats nearly always are full), you help
with the pot hauling in some way, and then you fill a burlap sack with
rockfish and a couple of lingcod. Tough fishing? No. And that, dear
miscreants and malcontents, is the point.