San Francisco Area Reports 11/17/05

[Wahoo!]

Pacific Ocean
Golden Gate: Pots stacked, fuel tanks topped off, facial hair properly
grown, the commercial crabbers still were waiting to go Wednesday. Just
like they were Tuesday. At a meeting Wednesday, a confidential source
(well, Lapper from the New Capt. Pete) tells us the fleet had an offer
of $1.65 a pound, which was progress but still a dime below the $1.75
they're looking for. The Bodega Bay chapter of the fleet already had an
offer for $1.75, but, brothers in pinchered arms that they are, were
holding out until the S.F. and Pillar Point boats had their price, too.
That's the last we heard.
On the water, actually crabbing and fishing, the sport fleet had the
coast to itself for another day. They pulled pots, they caught rockfish
and lingcod. Oh, they had a fine time. The "diablo" wind blew itself
out, down through gaps in the headlands, and the ocean settled to a
smooth line of diminishing swells. Sky was blue, air was warm. If you
had to pick one, this was it. On the C Gull II and the New Seeker and
New Salmon Queen, party boats out of Emeryville, the take was what the
take has been: absurdly easy limits of rockfish and heavy Dungeness in
the box as fast as the pots could be hauled up. It was one more
gloriously self-fish day. Maybe the last.
A couple particulars: Jay Yokomizo, playing second skip on the C Gull
II, said they're averaging 20 Dungeness a pot, with the low being eight
and the high about 30, with their strings staggered between 140 and 180
feet, somewhere between Rocky Point and the islands. The rockfish are
coming up in clouds under the boat after the lines go down, with most
caught 15 to 50 feet down. Below that, you're out of them. Except when
you drop to the bottom for lingcod. There, though, the action slows. The
C Gull II made one drift just for lingcod Wednesday, caught one.
Other places: Two six-pack charters left from Will's Bait and Tackle in
Bodega Bay on Wednesday. Both ran for their pot strings between Carmet
and the mouth of the Russian River, both boxed quick limits, both went
on to fill out their daily quota with rockfish and lingcod from off
Shelter Cove and Fort Ross ... Out of Pillar Point, big boats like the
Huli Cat have been completing their crab-rockfish combo trips in just a
few hours. As it is, the run is just 2 1/2 miles to the crab pot, then
back in a mile or so for the rockfish and lingcod. And then you're done.
Wednesday, the Queen of Hearts, content just to work the rocks and reefs
for rockfish, thoroughly worked the water between San Gregorio and
Pigeon Point for 220 rockfish and five lings to 8 pounds for 26 anglers.