BY DAVE HURLEY
BODEGA BAY – The rockfish season deeper than 50 fathoms north of 36.00 latitude, near Point Lopez, ends on April 30 until deepwater windows from October 1 through 31 and December 1 through 31, but fishing is fantastic when the ocean allows. Out of Bodega Bay, Captain Rick Powers of Bodega Bay Sport Fishing made the 23-mile trek to Rittenburg Bank over the weekend, and after putting in 14 limits of rockfish and ling cod on Friday, he followed this up with 200 rockfish and 35 lings to 17 pounds on Saturday. He said, “We should have limited on the lings, but some of our group tired out after bringing up big bocaccio, canary, and vermilion rockfish. We have been filling the bait tank with sand dabs for the lingcod. They all left with heavy sacks.” Powers will once again be the lead boat for the Blessing of the Fleet during the annual Bodega Bay Fishermen’s Festival on May 4, but the third consecutive year of closure for the commercial ocean salmon season has limited the number of participating boats to a handful.
Further north out of Fort Bragg, Captain Tim Gillespie of All Aboard Adventures loaded up with a combined 30 limits of rockfish and Dungeness crab on Friday/Saturday. He said, “Our deep water is close to the harbor, but we don’t have much structure, so it is difficult to score the ling cod. Once we move into shallow water on May 1, our ling counts will climb. The crab are starting to get a little light so I will monitor the situation on our combination trips. After the clutch is complete, the crab will harden up again. Dungeness crab season in Mendocino County lasts until July 30.”
Out of San Francisco, Captain Ron Koyasako of Nautilus Excursions headed out this week on a private boat to the area north of Fanny Shoals, and they found quick limits of rockfish along with a healthy ling cod count using sand dabs. Captain Jon Yokomizo of the Sea Wolf out of Emeryville was out at Rittenburg from Thursday through Saturday with limits of rockfish and plenty of lings. The loaded up with 25 limits of rockfish and 32 lings on Saturday.
Out of Half Moon Bay, deep water is at least 20 miles from the harbor, but the Queen of Hearts was out on Saturday for 7 limits of quality rockfish. There are only a few days left in this window for deep water rockfishing, but it’s go time when the ocean says yes.