The name of the game in Monterey Bay remains “Crabs ‘N Dabs.” Chris’ Fishing Trips out of Monterey is reporting nothing but limits of Dungeness crab from both the Caroline and the Check Mate every day. On the weekends, this year’s regulations allow for a 10-crab limit on charter boats, up fro a limit of six in years past. Each of the trips also provide clients with as many sandabs as they may want to keep, usually 20-30 each.

Because of the domoic acid situation earlier this winter, commercial crabbing remains closed. This opens up a lot of area for sport crabbers. It’s no wonder that limits are the rule. A few Santa Cruz private crabbers are transiting the Santa Cruz Harbor mouth safely on the quest for crab. Most are releasing twice as many crab per post as they keep for limits. And, the quality of Dungeness is very high right now. Big, firm and meaty.

The Santa Cruz harbor mouth remains shoaled though boats have been able to get out and back by timing the tides and keeping a close eye on the swell. Harbor officials warn any mariners to “use extreme caution and their best judgment” while transiting the harbor mouth. They continue to dredge as aggressively as possible but face steady competition from weather and sea conditions as well as equipment problems. A few rescues by the Harbor Patrol have been necessary as kayaks or powerboats broached or swamped at the harbor mouth recently, but no serious injuries or fatalities have occurred.

March is the month that everyone gets ready for April salmon season opener. Last year we enjoyed a relatively “normal” season after a few years of restrictive salmon fishing. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council in collaboration with western states fish and wildlife departments has forecast roughly a 300,000 Sacramento River adult fall run king salmon for this year. This number is about half of previous years’ forecasts of 600,000. Exacerbating the situation, Klamath River forecasts are dismally low. Meetings and conversations are occurring now and will continue through the month of March to determine what the ocean and freshwater salmon seasons will look like for both sport and commercial anglers. Restrictions could include season length, size and/or bag limits.

Long-time commercial angler Niko von Broembsen from Half Moon Bay attended the Santa Rosa PFMC meeting Wednesday. Von Broembsen reports, “There will probably some sort of a season but not like last year. We've been hit by a double whammy. Firstly managers cooked the winter run eggs two years in a row destroying most of them. To be fair unprecedented low water levels led to failures of the engineered systems to provide cool water to the eggs at Shasta.” He continues, “Now comes the double part of the whammy...The Klamath. Horrible returns. There were many theories as to why, but the fact remains, it was bad and will impact opportunity north of Arena. Many in the commercial fleet believe those fish ended up in hake trawls.”

“Also discussed at length was missing 300 000 fish from last year. Managers said they either over estimated last year's stock or they died somehow. Many in the commercial believe something different. They are still out there. With historically high ocean temperatures, the fish had to stay deep (cold water) and couldn't or didn't want to go up into a hot dry river. From time to time we are forced to troll for salmon at depths of 450 feet. Last year we had to push the limits of what is possible, going as deep as 540 feet and that is what it took to get to them. We could see fish deeper, but just couldn't get to them. With surface temperatures 10° above normal, it stands to reason they stayed there.“

As of today, we have received nothing to indicate recreational salmon season won’t open as usual on the first Saturday of April. Meetings continue through that month though, and final season regs take effect in May, 2016.