San Francisco Area Reports 3/18/06

[Wahoo!]

Pacific Ocean
Golden Gate: Funny thing happened Wednesday afternoon. It seems there
will be an April 1 salmon opener, after all. It's not clear whether it
derived from act of defiance or ignorance, but the Fish and Game issued
a news release Wednesday afternoon stating, in mostly certain terms,
that the recreational salmon season will open as scheduled on April 1.
The catch (and you knew there had to be one): The open season applies
only to state waters, meaning within 3 miles of the coast, between Point
Arena and Point Sur (no restriction below Point Sur). Now the hook: The
Pacific Fishery Management Council, with lordship-like guidance from
NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, is set to meet April 3-7 in
Sacramento, to finalize a salmon season based on the needs of the needy
Klamath River. At this meeting, PFMC/NMFS could slap down the Point
Arena-to-Point Sur state-waters opener. Which leaves this nugget of
hope: Even if the state-waters opener is stamped with "CLOSED," that
probably won't happen until late in the meetings, and the paperwork
probably wouldn't hit the DFG desks until the following Monday or
Tuesday, and with an additional 10-day administrative buffer, we'd still
be fishing until April 19 or so before word became law ... and good lord
we're desperate. But such is the situation. Here's what a state-waters
opener means locally and semi-locally:
Right out front: In truth, it probably doesn't mean much. Typical April
opener would see the fleet well outside of 3 miles, out toward the
islands and S Buoy and hugged up along the 40- and 50-fathom lines. With
all the freshwater pumping out the Gate, the immediate gulf isn't such a
great place to be if you're an ocean-hungry salmon. What does that
leave? The Marin coast? Slight chance of fish. Thornton Beach? A little
better. Pedro Point? Much better. Montara? Probably the best chance of
all. The critical factor -- besides, you know, like, salmon actually
being in the area -- is avoiding the curtains of jellyfish that tend to
populate the inshore water. Then again, it could be lights-out good.
Talking with two of the S.F. Bay Fleet skippers, the bygone years of
February and March openers yielded solid inshore fishing. Maybe this
April will be the same. Or, as one of the skips put it, "Do you want to
fish or not?"
Pillar Point: Traditionally, this is your hot spot for the opener, where
boats ply the food-rich ocean over Deep Reef. That's outside the legal
fishing line now, but even getting close might put salmon in the cooler.
We also have something solid to go with here. New Capt. Pete skipper
Dennis Baxter ran a whale-watching trip Sunday, into some truly
miserable weather. He got out about 2 miles past PP Buoy, toward the
30-fathom line, and his depth sounder showed the ocean stacked with hard
bait. The direct question, then, was can you catch salmon inside 3
miles? Baxter's answer: "If it was like Sunday, definitely."
Santa Cruz-Monterey: A quirk of the regs. here, according to Sonny
Arcoleo, owner of Chris's Sportfishing in Monterey, is that the state
water includes all of Monterey Bay, on a line from Point Sur to Santa
Cruz. Not able to verify that (PR guy from DFG didn't know), but if it's
true, then the season is game on. Arcoleo actually planned to send his
boats, weather pending, below Point Sur to fish the opener, anyway, but
now says it's business as usual.
With that, this caveat: There remains, right up until the moment before
you drop your line in the water on April 1, the very real possibility
that the feds can step in to stomp down this state-waters season. Keep
it in mind, as you plan your fishing life.