Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The ocean still had a bit of a lump today so only a few boats went out. No salmon that I heard about. A few halibut, the keepers from around Hog Island, shorties from Marshall. The forecast is good for Wed-Thurs if you can believe the weatherman. The water temp has cooled down to 51 degrees but given a few days without wind (we should be so lucky) the feeling is the salmon should make another appearance. It probably wouldn't hurt the halibut fishing either.

Monday, July 30, 2007

The wind blew offshore today, making it unpleasant at best on the ocean. Most boats stayed in the bay for a few halibut. Cold water made for slow fishing. By this evening the weather was beautiful, so even though the weatherman is calling for wind maybe we'll get lucky and still get some inshore fishing in.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Wind again today and it's predicted to blow through Tuesday. One salmon from 300' and he earned it (gusts to 30 knots, seas 9' at 7 seconds). Halibut still coming in, bar and Hog Island, nice fish but not alot of them. Way less sharks at least. Rockfish was ok Saturday but few boats ventured out today.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Attention salmon fans: boats are returning with limits from 300' of water due west of Tomales Point (that's in the area of 13 and 10 ). Many small fish with some better ones mixed in.

Friday, July 27, 2007

The salmon are back, not biting like pirahna, but back. The average was probably around a fish per boat. Mr. King and Mr. Gerbi had 3 fish from the deep water (lots of bait out there) and lesser numbers came from the beach. Halibut slowed a bit, but so did the sharks, so it kind of evened out. Rockfish was good today but some fisherman had to switch from jigs to bait to make it happen.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

The wind eased up today and a few boats went out for salmon but no luck.Halibut on the bar and biting jacksmelt.Dogfish sharks are thick. Bring lots of bait and rigs, you'll need them. We sifted through 25+ sharks to get 3 halibut totalling 65#.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A few more halibut today despite the wind. More wind for the forecast period, that is, through Saturday, if the meteorologists are right. Too much of this wind could slow down the halibut bite. Nathan and Willy will be trying for flatfish tomorrow and hoping the bite lasts a bit longer. Report tomorrow.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Very few salmon landed last weekend, heard of a small bite at the north end of Ten Mile but that's it. Halibut on the bar. Mike Gibson of Lodi caught a 64# limit of halibut on Sunday. Today it's windy and the bar looks like it wants to break but there are boats out fishing it.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Let's talk halibut since there were so few salmon the last two days. Halibut made a good showing on the bar the last few days, mostly live bait, some jigging. Be there and ready for the turn of the tide or don't bother going. Congratulations to Rich Sheldon who caught a 34# salmon on 10-Mile when no one else could. The rest of the salmon (what few there were) came out deep, 180-360' of water, 100-250' down. Decent lingcod from the Point Reyes area, none weighed over 20# but quite a few 8-14# fish. Dogfish shark ruining the fishing on the beach and, for those interested, I saw a Lawson's rental boat loaded with leopard shark today.

Friday, July 20, 2007

The wind chased most of the boats off of the water early yesterday with most boats getiing 0-1 salmon on the beach. There was less bait in the shallows, no birds, just sharks. There are reports of salmon out at 300'and the New Sea Angler limiting in 120' of water off Abbots Lagoon. The forecast for Saturday is for 5-15 knots of wind so there should be a good fleet to find them.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Sorry I'm late but I had fish to clean, 7 salmon, 14 rockcod. Salmon, legal to 41# halfway down 10-mile beach. Today the bait was not in the shallows and the poats were blown off the water by noon but yesterday most boats had fish with many fish lost due to their size. I personally almost ran out of lures to throw at them, I guess my knots need work, but I only caught sharks on bait. Lots of bait out in 100-150' of water, let's hope it moves in again.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007



Salmon at the Keyholes, 70' of water, 35' down. So far today we've weighed a 35#, a 37# and a 44# king along with some in the 20's all caught there. Those of you who get the day off, I'll see you on the water tomorrow.
Monday was windy and no one left the bay, so no salmon report. A sevengill (or cow)shark weighing over 150# was caught in the bay. Today the wind is down so boats are heading out. Report later.
Monday was windy so no one went outside the bay. The only fish weighed in was a 150+# sevengill (or cow)shark caught in the bay on a salmon belly. Boats are heading out today so we should have a report later.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Congratulations to Lance Seppi. Quite a few large salmon were brought in yesterday but Lance's 42# king topped them all. A gentleman on Saturday came in with a fish he said weighed 45.7# on his scale but it was to late to go on our scale, so Lance holds title to largest weighed in by Lawson's Landing this season. Watch out Lance, the season is still young. While the 45# fish came from 100' down in 300' of water most of the fish landed Sunday were caught inshore, from 25' to 120' of water, from Tomales Point to just below the Keyholes. Halibut fishing was slow in the bay but now that the water is warming up they should really start moving in. Shiner perch for halibut bait are being caught on the pier so halibut should be showing on the bar as well.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Well, the final numbers for today weren't as good as they had seemed earlier. A few guys limited out early but most folks were lucky to scratch up a couple. There was a good morning bite at the Keyholes in 60 to 100 feet of water (depending on who was telling the story) but the bite didn't last. A few halibut came off of the north end of Ten Mile and some others from around Hog. Rockfishing was tough due to a strong current.

Morning update

Friday's fishing was OK with a few boats limiting out but most people getting a few. The salmon bit is still best around 300' of water but nice fish were caught in as close as 100'. At 300' the fish are coming at 100' down, they're feeding on large sardines and are biting anchovies, sardines and, of course, watermelon Apex. Dogfish shark are a nuisance but aren't hitting lures as much as they like the bait. A 30# halibut was caught at the Keyholes on a live sardine and there were some taken by Hog Island. In the last half-hour three boats have already returned with limits of salmon, so the bite is still on.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

The salmon bite is on!

The water finally laid down and the salmon started biting! The most consistent bite has been around the 50 fathom (300 foot) line. On Wednesday the 11th the fleet extended from below Point Reyes to off of Bodega Head, easily 20 miles long, and four miles wide where I ran through it. Almost everybody caught fish and many boats were throwing back legal fish trying to find a trophy. Today the bite slowed a bit, but everyone who went out past 200' of water had fish. The fish seem to have spread out from the area where they were found on Monday and it may indicate the school is spreading out. A salmon was caught in the mouth of the bay (along with a halibut) and Tom McHale of Dillon Beach caught a 37# salmon in 30' of water on 10 Mile Beach. Tom won't say exactly where he caught it, but it bit a watermelon Krippled Anchovie. Some halibut are being caught in Tomales Bay, mostly around Hog Island and a few on the bar. Nobody's limiting out on halibut yet but the average size is good and it only takes one 20# flatty to make your day.