I need to check my email more often. Mike Mack sent me this report on Sunday: "2 halibut around hog on the outgoing tide 1 -7lb. 1-10lb. Few anchovies caught smelt ,shiners. Shiners caught the halibut. No hits on big smelt." As slow as the halibut fishing has been, this is like getting half limits in July. Very well done, gents.

   This picture is from today. Mike Miller swears that it's a salmon, and I can't disagree. The seemingly rare fish bit in 90 feet of water at the Keyholes. He said a nearby commercial boat landed four salmon for the day.  So, salmon fishing isn't dead, it's only mostly dead. Mike also picked up a halibut on McClure's. 

   In other news, the first results of domoic acid testing in Dungeness crab are in. Good news! The samples from Bodega Head and Point Reyes were below the action level. Only 15 more sets of samples to worry about. And whales. And turtles. Thank goodness there's nothing else to worry about. 

 

     Eddie Kim took his friends Craig and Chris out for halibut yesterday. "Really windy today blowing up to 20kts + worked the bait and scraped 3 Hali up to 15 lbs. before getting off by 1pm. " The only thing higher than the wind the last couple of days was the surf. It was definitely up, though.

     Here's the Coast Guard practicing on the Tomales Bar on Friday, courtesy of Wrybread. A couple of guys flipped their boat and ended up on the rocks near Stemple Creek/Estero de San Antonio Friday night and are pretty lucky to be alive. While there were some halibut caught in the bay over the last week it wasn't that good. I think the Coast Guard had more fun. They definitely had more fun than anyone that went salmon fishing. There have been rumors of a fish or two in the outer bay but I haven't seen any bodies. 

     On the Dungeness crab front, new rules are coming. You can get a sneak preview here. The proposed adoption date is December 9, 2020, so I think that means they will go into effect at the beginning of next year. A short summary is that you will need an additional Recreational Crab Trap Validation on your license ($2.25) and an additional "marker buoy" (3" x 5" red buoy) trailing the main buoy by no more than three feet to indicate that it's a trap (a picture of Admiral Ackbar is optional). You can't run more than ten of your traps but you can run an additional ten of somebody else's gear with their written permission. You have to run your gear "at intervals not to exceed nine days".  And if there's too many whales or turtles around the season could be delayed or closed entirely. I may switch to ring nets.   

 

   Mike Mack sent over a short report from the weekend: "30 anchovies sat no halibut 1 fat silver after release he took off fast. Sun 10 baits no halibut plenty rockfish bit the jig 90 to 110 in front of bird." Mike is doing us all a solid here. If I had been paying attention to the time I would have been warning folks fishing in the bay that the silvers (coho) were due to enter the bay. Luckily for us all, Mike realized what he had hooked and not only did the right thing (let it go), he also did the right thing (warned the rest of us). I'm sure he would have let it go anyhow, since he was halibut fishing and likely didn't have the correct (salmon, therefore barbless circle) hook tied on. Mike also notes that the rockfish were friendly while the halibut were not. There were a few halibut caught over the weekend and this week but not a whole bunch. The anchovies are starting to move out of the bay which could indicate the end is near for good halibut fishing. Soon you'll either have to be good or lucky, which leaves me out. The forecast for the end of the week through Saturday is kind of indicative that the weather may be changing as well, with 20 to 30 knots of wind and 9 to 12 foot seas on the agenda. It's supposed to smooth out after, for a day or two, but it appears that the season is winding down. There will still be a lot of good days and maybe even another tuna run or two if the weather allows, but the days are growing shorter and Dungeness season will upon us soon. On that note, no testing yet from CDPH, but fingers crossed for clean crab. 

 

     Sooo.... Halibut slowed down. A lot. You can still catch them, but it got a lot harder. Not as hard as catching bait, but pretty hard. Catching bait, now there's a man's game. The Eddie Kim spent 2 and 1/2 hours on Thursday to catch eight baits (Five anchovies and three shiners). Eddie has got the mojo, but that mojo wasn't working on them. 

On the salmon front, the hake fishing out in 300 FOW is spectacular! A wise commercial fisherman once told me that if you get in the hake, use the small ones for bait. The other hake would rather not eat them and the salmon love them. But, they count as groundfish, so this only works legally inside of the set of waypoints designating the 240 foot curve in the Code of Federal Regulations . Outside, in 300 feet , it would be illegal. A hake is about the last thing you would want a ticket for. What if someone found out? How embarrassing Other than a failed deepwater salmon run I haven't heard much. Hopefully the salmon are still biting closer to the Russian River in the 240-300 foot range. 

On the plus side, Gage tells me that the rockfish are biting like piranha off of Tomales Point and Bird. IO cannot personally confirm as I didn't fish there but I did help Gage clean a few of his rockfish. His depth was 80 to180 feet. 

 

   These properly masked marauders caught their limits of salmon to 17 pounds today. Beth and Peter Honebein (guess who caught the 17 pounder? Yup, not Peter) worked out to 300 feet of water (FOW)  and down 170' on the wire (OTW) up north of Bodega Head. They used small anchovies (tiny, truly) for bait and had more hookups than misses, unlike their trip a few days back when the fish wouldn't stick. Was it the size of the bait? Only the fish know, but for sure the fish will bite small baits (check their stomach contents; all sizes welcome). I've caught salmon on three inch anchovies and I'm not that good a fisherman. I just didn't know that fish wouldn't bite baits that small, and luckily, neither did the fish.

  So yesterday the halibut bit really well. Ah, yesterday. Yesterday was so good that the Beatles wrote a song about it. Today? Today many of the halibut fishermen came in with limits......of rockfish. Well, you can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find,.... I gotta quit listening to the oldies station. Anyhow, the halibut didn't want to bite today for the guys that fished from here. There were a couple caught north of Hog but it was far from a good day. Maybe tomorrow?

 A quick one today- no salmon landed here that I heard of but the halibut in the bay took a beating. A regular landed a personal best and others with live bait did well, too. The guys I talked to were on this side of Hog Island but there were fish taken all over, eventually. It was a slow start. Anchovies, of course. Those dependable little bits of halibut catching goodness are scheduled to leave pretty soon, but nobody knows their schedule except for them. Get 'em while the getting is good because sooner rather than later the getting will be all over. 

     Eddie Kim caught these halibut yesterday near Hog. He said it was where he figured Swampy had been fishing during his stay here. We have no way of knowing that it's the case, but it seems likely that this pair of 17 pounders should have Swampy's name on them. Live anchovies, for those playing along at home.

     Bruce Loukonen sent this report, and while this report is not from here, we all like to see fish pictures, so...:"Jeremy Jamie Bruce trip to Albion on Labor Day 60 fish with 5 lingcod"  That's a lot of large, dead fish, Bruce. The size of those vermilion kind of makes me want to make the run. Almost. Well done.

    Mike Mack sent me report from today: "John 2 Mike 2 late afternoon bite picked up after tide started moving 4 good eaters." Well, Mike, I can see from the photo who caught the larger ones. That's all right, them smaller ones are better eaters. Live anchovies and candy bar jacksmelt were the weapons of choice today. With the thick smoke/fog most fishermen didn't want to or just plain couldn't leave the bay. That's just good sense when you can't see more than a couple hundred yards. There's a few guys running around out there on the "big ocean, small boats" theory, blazing around at full bore when they can't see the bow of their own boat. Staying in the bay seems safer to me, too. However, some folks ventured out (most after the smog had lifted) and caught a few salmon. There was a radio report of one off of Bird in 60 feet of water, but better than that, Beth and Peter Honebein caught three keepers and had numerous hits that didn't stick (two trays of bait's worth) north of Bodega Head out in the deep. Sorry, all I remember is the 16.5 north line. Since the fish up that way have been coming in 240 to 300 feet of water and down deep, I'd try letting out all my cable in 260 feet of water and hoping for the best with an Apex. But I've been spoiled by shallow salmon and my views on deep water fishing may be tainted.

 

     So, it turns out that there were fish caught yesterday besides the ones in my boat. Who knew? Well, for one, Swampy:"Evening Willy, 

Nice job on the tuna today! Those were some serious hogs! Thanks for taking Eddy out, that left more Halibut for me. Today’s report is limits to 20. The lack of wind kind of hurt the drift but the halibut are there." Today was not as good for Swampy but he still had some fish in the box. For the record, Swampy catching fish is only indicative that there are fish there. It doesn't mean you or I will catch any.

     Another report from yesterday, courtesy of Peter Honebein: "Willy, Took the full 80-90’ tour yesterday from T Point to 10 mile. One scratched bait at trees, and another at 10 mile, where squid was still hanging out (no squid balls). After catching some rockfish, we then resumed north at elephant landing a 13lb salmon within a minute of setting first line. All hits/hookups were ~10-15 feet off bottom. Didn’t see any significant bait except for squid. Salmon had anchovies in belly. Nice albacore you got!

Pete"  So you don't have to go deep north of Bodega Head for salmon. It helps to, though. While I'd rather catch one like Pete, the guys filling the coolers have been working the deep from Carmet to the Russian River in 250 to 300 feet of water. Just put out all of your downrigger cable and hope for the best. Sorry, I just hate that deep water fishing, but it's probably because I have yet to do much deep water catching. 

   Here's a report I've been waiting for: "Hey Willy! Its been awhile. I hope all is well with you and the crew. Congrats on your big Tuna score yesterday! 

You told me my time would come, although I almost gave up after getting skunked for so long. 

I finally pulled one north of Dillon Beach on a kayak voyage with my girl Yesenia last weekend. Caught it on a little neck popper from the shore. It was pretty cool to see him jump up like a prehistoric serpent when he grabbed the hook.

I know its not the biggest, but it's my 1st, so I'm happy!" You should be happy. Dillon Beach is not the premiere location for successful striper fishing, so catching one is a major victory. Well done, Robbie. And on a popper, too. Extra well done. You'll be seeing that in your dreams for a while. 

 

     So Gage and I asked ourselves, " Who's got a lot of energy and a positive attitude and needs to have both of those things beaten out of him by a 60 mile boat ride?" That's right, Eddie Kim. It didn't work, though. We just brought back a sore, energetic, somewhat bloody, and happy Eddie Kim. We fished around 38º 42' by 124º 7' in almost 58º water. We had three singles (one got off) and one double. All landed fish on a way, way back silver and black cedar plug (2) and Sumo Buddha daisy chain in zucchini (2). The fish were full of critters from the deep scattering layer including a small longnose lancetfish. It would appear that the bulk of the feeding may be occurring a bit deeper. At least the fish were on the large side with the largest weighing 26 pounds gutted. And now, Eddie Kim may not be tired, but I am. Good night.

    Margo Cooper of Roseville caught this 28 pound striper today. We're all pretty happy she didn't get pulled over the side by the fish. It was the only bite of the day for her and her husband but they both seemed pretty happy even so. The fish bit a live anchovy as the Coopers were unable to catch any jacksmelt for bait. There weren't many halibut caught today except for Swampy's boat, but that is to be expected. The salmon bite at Carmet completely died today. It could come back tomorrow or the fish could have moved and unfortunately, there's only one way to find out. It's possible the salmon were waiting for sunrise today but that never really happened.

    These two photos are from my cousin, Chris Lawson, who took his commercial boat down to Sausalito today to haul it out. The pictures were taken at 11:00 AM. I realize it looked this way over most of California today, but damn. <Insert your reference to the Revelation of Saint John here>

 

 No real report today, as we launched zero boats. Tomorrow should be different. The main reason for this post is to inform Sucka-fish and anybody else interested that I'll probably be making an albacore run on Thursday from Tomales Bay. I hear a few boats are headed out tomorrow and a few more on Thursday. The run looks to be 50+ miles to the Northwest. The water is moving this way but breaking up, so waiting for this spot of water to get closer may not work. Sucka-fish, if you are interested, email me at lawsonslanding@gmail.com. Just be aware all, that 50 miles is far and even farther when you have to run home against the South wind. Gage called it "stupid far" and he's probably right.

 

    Austin and Bennett caught these 12 and 16 pound halibut on the bar today with the help of this masked man. His help and the help of the live baits that gave their lives so valiantly in the face of overwhelming odds. I don't know what kind of live baits but I suspect it was anchovies or possibly jacksmelt. I do know the location: The bar. Yes, as incredible as it sounds, there are halibut beyond Hog Island.

    No salmon were landed here today, saving me the effort of having to come up with something sort of clever to say about them or the fishermen. What a relief. But, word of a smoking salmon bite off of Carmet in 200 to 260 feet of water (I heard both numbers) and down 140+ feet has me worried that I may need to be clever again tomorrow. Then again, the fish are moving around a lot right now, so I may not have to smarten up. Here's and observation from our friendly Anonymous Commercial:"A commercial got a few fish yesterday at 30 fathoms. He had tried the rocks and the beach for nothing. The good news for your guys is they were not too deep, maybe 60 to 80 feet from the surface. The bad news, they were  probably moving and who knows how far down they will be tomorrow. Should still be stragglers coming down for the rest of the month, just have to find them." The conventional wisdom is that shallow fish are moving through and deeper fish are feeding. Maybe those Carmet fish will be around for a bit. Only one way to find out, and it requires a downrigger.

    Here's a picture of the high boat for Lawson's Landing today. Tony Roa and Paul Page caught these salmon, one at Elephant, one at the Towers, in 80 to 110 feet of water, mooching, near the surface.  "Near the surface" is probably indicative of fish on the move, headed toward the river."High boat" means these guys had more salmon than anybody else we talked to. Next best was a barely legal fish. Next best after that was one that didn't stick. The current salmon fishing situation would have to improve a lot to be considered slow. We have entered the late season, when luck has a stronger effect. Now you have to be doing the right thing at the right time in the right place and be lucky, luckier than normal lucky. My advice? Fish straight bait close to the bottom over the reefs in 50 to 80 feet of water. Oh, yeah: and be lucky.

   The bright point is the halibut fishing. Just kidding. I didn't hear of any legal halibut caught today. I'm sure that there were a few caught somewhere, but when nobody you spoke with had any you kind of lose hope. Tomorrow's another day. Things will change. Maybe even for the better. 

 

     Here's my one submitted fish report: "Willy

Very slow fishing so far this weekend....did pick up a few rocks - arm extension makes him look pretty meaty." Truly, the phrase "thank God for rockcod" was rarely truer than this weekend. It looks like Rokefin has a pretty decent black rockfish there. It's too bad for the rockies that they taste so good. 

    I gotta check my email before I post. I missed this report from yesterday; "Caught these 2 today. The smaller one weighed 22lbs and the bigger was 32lbs. Got the smaller 1 in 150 feet of water off elephant at 60 feet on the wire. The bigger came off bird in 70 feet of water at 70 feet on the wire. Added 1 rockfish too." Well done, gentlemen. It sounds like you covered a bit of water to get them.

    Here's the pictures of all the fish I saw come in here the last couple of days. Don't squint too hard; there's nothing to see here. The halibut in the bay sounded very slow and the salmon were nonexistent yesterday. Today I heard of a couple actually landed and more than a few hooked and lost (It's been said that 'tis better to have hooked and lost than never hooked at all, but I don't know that it's true) so there were a few salmon out there, just none too eager to jump into the boat. If boat count is to be trusted then the water in front of Bird may have had a couple of fish. That said, never trust boat count. The best fish are the ones you find yourself. 

    I didn't see these, but Shrimp Boat sent me these pics from today. They started out by catching anchovies by the yellow buoy. They made three drifts in different spots before getting their first bite, then repeated the good drift for a total of three (only two worth photos, apparently). The picture looks like White Gulch, but your results may vary. 

     Ron Johnson did not need his good luck charm today. This salmon weighed 28 pounds and was caught off of McClure's. There were fish caught from the north end of Ten Mile to Tomales Point (and maybe a few at Estero Americano, but it sounded like more bait than fish today) with peaks of action at Bird/Trees and Elephant. It seemed like the fish were scattered about in small schools and it's possible the "hot" spots were places where more boats were, hence more catching there. 

   Gage and I went looking for a Toadzilla today but weren't able to keep most of them attached. We went 3 for 7 on salmon in front of Bird in 60 to 80 feet of water. We had two doubles and watched all but one of our hits on the fishfinder. The salmon looked like schools of rockcod today. Our largest fish weighed almost 20 pounds and Gage caught all the rest. I discovered that Gage curses more than his mother when a fish releases itself. I blushed. One on straight bait, one on bait with a dodger, and one on a hootchy/flasher combo, plus at least one lost on each. Straight bait was at 20 feet and everything else was 45 to 60 feet down, mostly 50. We watched several other fish get caught around us between 7:30 and 11:00 AM. Some were exciting (Lou Zanardi and the gentleman in the black boat. I wish I had a good camera. Such drama!). The halibut came from pausing on the bar for a quick jigging effort. It worked. It looks like a bit of wind for the next few days but maybe not too bad on the beach. Maybe. 

   First boat back today was piloted by Chris Wall. He and his one man crew had four hookups and (I heard) three fish, including this 32 pound salmon. He was close to Tomales Point judging by his short duration on the water but I don't know a definitive location. I do know that this was the largest salmon on the bragging board for a couple of hours today.

   You can't tell, but Lou Zanardi is smiling under the mask. He would be smiling large enough to see if the fish weighed over 25 pounds, but a 24 pounder still gets a pretty good smile from from Lou. I know he's smiling because he says so. Lou didn't smile earlier in the day when the first three fish released themselves. Those three and the one he landed were caught at Elephant/Keyholes. He tried Abbott's midday for no bites. 

   Shrimp Boat caught the largest of the year so far today with this 36 pound gutted salmon. It doesn't look as large as he somehow fit it into a 48 quart ice chest. This is after an attempt to straighten it out. Good for eating, not for photos. At 36 pounds with no innards this fish was pushing hard at 40 pounds in the round. No info on location but I have another picture with better size reference and a possible location for good photo analysis experts:

  This photo was received with the one word message :"Toadzilla!" That's fair, but apparently somebody on channel 9 today claimed a salmon weighing 75 pounds and measuring 54 inches long. That would be Godzilla, as the current state record is a mere 65 pounds or so. This photo is impressive, but I want to see the the picture of Mothra's sworn enemy.

 

     I received this picture and note from Ron Johnson this evening :"My Lucky Charm fished with me today." Now I've heard Terry Fogal called many things, but this has to be a first. It looks to be true, however, as these guys caught some damn nice fish, the largest three weighing 20, 23 and 24 pounds. The smallest doesn't look very small. Yesterday was a rough one for Mr. Johnson, both weather- and salmon-wise, but today was a little better on the weather and way better on the salmon. The two gentlemen fished a bit north of Abbott's in 70ish feet of water. 

   There was loads of bait at the Keyholes/Elephant and in the outer bay, plus quite a bit more scattered around Bird Rock and the Trees, just not too many salmon biting there today. Tomorrow? These fish have tails and they tend to use them. I haven't heard much on the halibut front, so my choice would be salmon tomorrow, with a good chance I'd stop short on feeding birds. At least for a few minutes.