Rick Powers had a light load 12 anglers out on the New Sea Angler on Friday 9-5. They fished down at Pt Reyes and scored 12 limits of straight reds. All nice quality fish but no legal lings in the mix. The ocean has laid out like a mill pond and the forecast calls for great weather this weekend. Currently we are seeing just 4 knots at the Bodega Buoy, 7 knots at the SF buoy and west winds of 6 knots at Monterey with a 4 to 6 foot swell and an average period of 14 seconds. The forecast for Saturday and Sunday calls for west winds under 10 knots making for some ideal fishing weather.

The New Sea Angler hasn't been out since Monday due to lack of interest. They have trips planned this Friday through Sunday and we expect that limits will remain the rule on the New Sea Angler for the balance of the season. We are seeing lighter winds along the Bay Area Coast today Wednesday 9-3. This morning, winds were just 8 to 12 knots and have increased to 10 to 17 knots this afternoon. Currently (4:PM) at the weather buoys reports are as follows. Bodega Bay 15, San Francisco 17, Monterey Bay 10. Swell heights are averaging 6 feet with a 14 second period. The forecast calls for Thursday calls for NW winds 10 to 20 knots north of Pt Reyes and just 5 to 15 knots south of Pt Reyes. Friday and through the weekend looks to be dead calm. Even small boats should find easy fishing with the predicted calm weather.

 Rick on the New Sea Angler reported limits and calm winds last Friday and on Saturday they took limits in very breezy conditions fishing at Elephant Rock. Here on Labor Day the winds have dropped back to just 10 to 12 knots at the buoy after blowing at 25 to 30 the past two. Rockfish will remain the only excuse to venture out on the briny blue until the Dungeness crab season opens in early November.

Rick Powers on the New Sea Angler reported 18 limits of mostly coppers, browns and blacks fishing down at "the Wreck" at Pt Reyes on Thursday 8-28. Rick said that private boats are seeing some good action on the local reefs from Arch Rock to Ft Ross with today's calm weather and he saw some nice quality fish not only on his boat but the other six packs.
Currently out at the weather buoys we are seeing calm conditions and I wouldn't be surprised to see the weekend forecast downgraded. The 5: PM weather buoy data is as follows. Bodega Bay buoy calm with just 4 knots of NE breeze over a 7 foot swell. San Francisco is showing just 2 knots of north breeze over a 5 X 9 foot swell. HMB is still out of service. Monterey is reporting south winds of 4 knots over a 9 foot by 10 second swell. Whenever we see south winds behind a heat wave this nearly always means that fog is developing and pushing up along the coast. That said the forecast is still calling for high NW winds over the coastal marine waters this weekend. Keep an eye on the current buoy conditions and plan your trips accordingly. Larger boats may make it out but ???

Rick and Vince both have room all week and both always run a quality trip that is not cut short. Book with a quality operator who has your best fishing trip in mind not "lets catch limits of half pound blues and head to the bar early" as can be the case in any port. A  great way to judge any operation, in my opinion is the number of people they carry.  Look around through our pages and after 13 years you will find we have some of the best businesses supporting what we do here and us in return supporting them for the great job that they do for all of you and sharing their info. It's not a conspiracy, some are just better fishermen and businessmen and women and run a professional trip every day for their clients.

Our sponsors are knowledgeable, licensed captains, many with decades of experience who run quality trips on Coast Guard inspected boats. 707 875-3344

Rockfish Pressure Way Down
Fishing pressure is very light and it just makes this writer wonder if the PFMC and Department of Fish and Games "seasonal rockfish catch predictions" will be anywhere near their estimates? We lost this coming November of the rockfish season due to the "expected increase in rockfish harvest due to the salmon closure" but the reality is that we are seeing a huge decrease in fishing pressure in all coastal ports due to the salmon closure and the high price of fuel.
 It was only a couple of years ago that Fish and Game counted boat trailers and the time of day they were parked in a particular harbor to estimate fish harvest. True story..., they wouldn't  actually contact anglers but once a week. The rest of the time they would count private boat trailers and extrapolate those catch figures by the time of day that trailers were parked there. Isn't that scientific??? But that's our Fish & Games Department for you.
Here in 2008 they figured that no salmon season would = a 200% higher rockfish harvest which should be -ed from our overall rockfish season which couldn't be further from the truth. They should rerun their numbers but don't count on the PFMC or DFG doing that. Maybe they should try a formula like.... the price of gas to get to the coast @ $4.65 a gallon X the # of gallons that the average boats uses per day, - the 30 unfishable days of wind the past two months  - the lack of a salmon season due to mismanagement, + the price of their fishing license = A LOT LESS ROCKFISH BEING CAUGHT. For the past few seasons we would always hear that this species or that is being overfished and harvest limits  have been exceeded. This year wouldn't it be nice to hear the PFMC or F&G say "with the large reduction in fishing pressure we are going to extend the rockfish season through December" Don't hold your breath.

Upcoming Events:
USAFishing proudly supports the many fishery and wildlife organizations that benefit anglers and hunters throughout Northern California. Does your organization have an upcoming event? Contact us at fishsite@aol.com and we will gladly post the information on our reports pages.

If you are looking to stay on top of the action check out the Northern California Hotsheet  These in-depth fishing and weather reports covering all of Northern California are emailed direct to your desktop three evening per week. The Hotsheet is a major source of support for USAFishing and helps to maintain this website.

 

Albacore Sea Surface Temperature maps below: