Not a whole lot going on along the coast with the current rockfish closure. Rick Powers will be running crab and dab trips through the winter. He has been seeing LIMITS of crabs on all his recent trips and loads have been light with up to 21 limits of crabs and all you want dab action. On his longer soaks Rick says they are seeing 3 to 6 crabs per pot. We will post updates as Rick gets out.
On Sunday 1-18 Rick reported 9 limits of crabs after working the 200 foot depths for 145 sand dabs and 156 white croakers (kingfish). Rick said the weather was great with less than 5 knots of wind though an 8 foot swell that made it a bit tough for anglers to hold bottom allowing the sand dabs to hook up. Rick has room all this week.
Sport crabbers are seeing an uptick in counts in the far outer bay and off Salmon Creek. Most of the commercial gear has been stacked and there is not much pressure in the 100 to 200 foot depth curve. Overall from the few reports I have been receiving most are reporting counts of 1 to 4 crabs for a one to two day soak.

Looking ahead we will have news from the PFMC in February and March on what to expect from this coming salmon season. Last year the Golden Gate Salmon Association pushed hard and got the majority of the hatchery fish trucked past the hazards in the Delta. If those fish found good feeding conditions in their first few weeks we should see a very high survival rate. We will know come April if we are seeing lots of shakers along the coast. Those fish should be legal size by the late summer and hopefully be providing good action to coast anglers this fall. Time will tell and EVERY salmon angler on the Central and North Coast should be thankful for the work that GGSA has done to get the State and Feds to truck those fish.
At the Golden Gate Salmon Ass.  BOD meeting this past week we were receiving some very bleak news regarding out migrating salmon in the upper Sac the past few months. F&W has several screw traps in the upper river that allow them to count the number of juveniles out migrating from the upper river. Due to the drought the number of juvenile winter run salmon is crashing with the run being only about 25% of the past few years. This could have a BIG impact on how our ocean salmon seasons are set in 2016 and 2017.
GGSA is fighting hard to ensure that salmon populations rebuild but this drought is having a huge effect on wild or naturally produced fish. They are at the forefront of getting several large habitat improvement projects done throughout the Central Valley. The recently completed work at Painters riffle is just one of MANY examples of what this great organization has accomplished.
What they need most RIGHT NOW is YOUR support. I encourage readers to become a member of GGSA and go to their dinners and support their efforts. Visit their website and learn more about what they have done (in the three short years since they have formed) and what they are looking to accomplish in the coming years to protect salmon and this incredible fishery. Golden Gate Salmon Association

Salmon Tease
While we are all waiting on the salmon opener, here is a great video from this past summer posted up by Pautzke Bait fishing with Gary Blasi. Gary with Full Throttle sportfishing has been brining all of his tray bait with the Pautzke's Fire Brine. In the video Gary shares a few secrets on how he brines his baits and rigs his terminal gear.
Warning: this video will cause salmon fever. Salmon fishing out of Eureka with Gary Blasi