April has arrived and with it, everything takes a back seat to the king. It may not be the best month for fishing and foraging on the coast, but it's the month where things start heating up (literally and figuratively). But before we go there, hopefully everyone has seen my new show on the Whole Foods, Dark Rye website! If not, check it out:

The Curious Adventures of Kirk Lombard

Also, I've decided to cut back on my Pillar Point Mussel/Clam tours and will only be offering one per month. April 25th, is almost sold out and May 25th will sell out shortly thereafter so you might want to sign up soon! (see link below).

To reserve a spot click here:

Mega Low Tide Tour

And here's a cool movie about plankton, on the Ted Talks site, that I just did the voice over for:

And now that that's done! Let's get down to brass hooks:

Let's face it. For SF Bay, April is the month where everything begins. It may not be the best month for fishing and foraging on the coast, but it's the month where things start heating up (literally and figuratively). As the herring depart til next winter, huge schools of jacksmelt and top smelt (see last month's update for descriptions of the different smelt or smelt-like species), anchovy, sardine and mackerel (hopefully) invade the local waters. Not coincidentally, large predatory fish start showing up in substantial numbers. For us that means this guy:

And this guy:

The beauty of these species is that they can both be caught from shore, on very similar (if not the same) tackle. As I have explained numerous times here: the 5/8 or 3/4 oz hair raiser with white rubber worm are the standard. Also, being that they are commonly caught from piers and jetties, if all you ever want to do is fish halibut and striper you can fish public piers and never have to buy a license! Go to Gus' Discount Tackle and ask Stephanie what's been working. Small to medium Swimbaits seem to work a little better for halibut (it's all about the wiggle). But of course live bait is the best. And since none of the live bait receivers are open yet, you'll need to catch your own. (If you are a new arrival here, check out the "Archives" tab on this page and look at March. Lots of stuff on shiner perch there).

I dunno. I am guilty of waffling on the issue of striped bass edibility. I've always been a big fan of striper as a food fish. But the recent health department study indicates that bay stripers are a tad high in all the bad things. Nevertheless, I fish for bass and I eat bass. (Relying on the shaky "something's gotta kill ya," justification). I do not however eat bass from SF Bay. And the spots where I tend to catch them are a good 20-40 miles outside the city. Not sure if it makes any difference. Just saying, that's what I do.

1. Mussel season is about to close. The quarantine goes into effect on May 1st, so as far as mussels are concerned, this is your last month. And yes, the mussel closure is enforced by Fish and Game. I would like to make a recommendation. Give Pillar Point a rest. It's getting way over-harvested. There are so many other places to get mussels! It's time for mussel pickers to spread out a little and stop slamming the same location over and over again. I can think of several awesome beds inside San Francisco (but, happily, not in the bay). The thing is, everyone thinks that the mussel beds at Pillar Point are the nearest ones to the city and that's just flat wrong. Rocky shore line folks. Anywhere there is rocky shoreline. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the Bay Area should be able to figure this out. In the mean time I hope people take my suggestion and leave the Pillar Pt. mussel beds alone. Also, if you're based in San Jose there are closer (and cleaner) mussel beds than the ones at Pillar Pt. Just look at Hwy 1, on google maps!

2. As of April 1st, surf perch is closed inside SF Bay. It re-opens August 1st.

3. Abalone season begins April 1st.

4. Salmon begins April 7th

5. Minus tides:

As per usual April brings some awesome minus tides. The lowest tides being a -1.1 on Sun April 8th, 07:16 (at the Gate). And a -1.2 on Monday April 9th, 08:07 (at the Gate).

If you do nothing else this year as re: accessing coastal resources, I hope that when presented with the option of buying farmed Atlantic salmon or fresh locally caught California salmon at the market, you all dig deep in your pockets and make the right choice. Everyone is predicting a monster Ca. salmon year in 2012. Ocean abundance is conservatively estimated at well over 800,000 Sacramento fish and even bigger numbers are estimated for the Klamath. There will be party boats leaving from Fishermen's Wharf, Emeryville, Sausalito and Berkeley. There will probably be a few boats out of HMB. There will be troll caught California king salmon in all the good fish markets.

After two consecutive closed seasons (2008, 2009) it is nothing short of a miracle that our salmon have come back to us. Thanks to decent rains, closed fisheries and some tighter controls over water distribution, we finally have salmon stocks to feel happy about.

And remember, salmon is nature's miracle protein. High in all the good things like omega threes, and yet, despite being very high on the food chain, surprisingly low in mercury and other toxins. That's how it works out when you've got a mixed diet, a short life cycle and an active existence.

One thing to keep in mind. April is a notoriously difficult month for catching king salmon. For one thing, the seas can be quite rough this time of year. For another, the fish are typically further off shore and more spread out than they are in July and August. So if you have a limited budget for salmon this year, or a small boat, or not much time to devote to fishing... you might want to wait till a little later in the season... I'm just saying.

I've been fielding quite a few e-mails of late concerning sardines and mackerel. Yes, both species do come into SF Bay, as they did 3 years ago in huge numbers. But they aren't as predictable as other forage fishes and may go 3 to 6 years without any kind of significant SF Bay runs.

If you are bound and determined to get your sardine/mackerel buzz on, I suggest heading south. Nearshore sardine and mackerel abundance increases drastically with every mile south of SF. Last year I caught a very large number of sardines in April and May from a kayak in Santa Cruz (but really June, July and August are the best months). Just follow the pelicans and fish a medium sized unbaited Sabiki, like this:

Okay. I think that's going to do it for April. Got one foot out the door even as I write this. Anyway... hope to see you at, in, or near the water!

Till next month...

Kirk-out