Happy New Year! 2025 is over, for better or for worse. Gage and I had a pretty good year of fishing but it sure wasn't easy. Halibut was the main game here again last year and with no real salmon season to take the heat off of them, three years of abuse can be seen in the fish counts. Here's an average for the year of the fish per angler of the top eight halibut-catching charter boats in the bay area, according to Sportfishingreport.com:

2023   1.68

2024   1.36

2025    0.90

         That's a 19% drop in the second salmon closure year, a 35% drop in the third salmon closure year, and about a 46% drop over three seasons. That's with a reduction in the limit from three to two in early 2023.  I think that it's safe to assume that there's something like half the halibut numbers from 2022 in the shallow water we like to fish in. Deep water holds fish, but try catching them out in 100 to 200 feet. They're there, because the draggers catch them, but go blind drift ten miles of 150' of water over sand and tell me how many halibut you caught. It's a lot of area with some fish scattered around and not eating much because it is cold down there. As some of those deep water fish move into the shallows to spawn (or just warm up) we get a shot at them, so hope is not lost. Last year it seemed that Dillon Beach and the bar had the best numbers of fish, especially when the water was warm and the fish were moving around. Likely, many of these fish were moving in from some deeper location to enter the bay or shallows to spawn. I had my first experience with a male halibut trying to spawn on the female I'd hooked while I was trying to gaff her (sorry, dude, but right now she's just not that into you) on the bar this year. Gage had the same experience the same evening in a different boat. Definitely ladies arriving for business and guys hoping to party. There will be some fish this year, but it's going to be hard. Come on, salmon! Things are looking good for some kind of real(ish) salmon season this year, and the halibut need it. 

   Also, traps open tomorrow at 08:01 and the commercial guys aren't dropping quite yet due to a price "discussion" so I guess if you don't mind gale force winds you have a chance before they go. Good luck.

     I hope everybody had an excellent Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate near the solstice. The most important thing to note is that the days are now getting longer. As it gets colder, remember, summer is coming. Really, it is. The crabbing is still pretty good, not as good as it was, but when is it ever? Three more days for rockfish, as they close on the first. You may start dropping pots along with the commercial guys on Friday the 2nd at 8:01 AM. The storm took care of the upside down boat and nobody need or can tow it in now, as it is ashore and busted up. At least it has company in its final resting place. Wow, not much to say, but here's a link to Gage's video of the squid earlier this month. I've been asking for it since then. Enjoy the seven seconds. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/jF4K45CgvN0?si=ShOuLktOFQQYLIjA

 

     Only ten days left of rockfish season, so with today's calm (but damp) weather Sam Winglewich decided to give the rockies a try. His report: "Hi Willy, I think Cameron got some snapshots of my lingcod situation 12/20. If not, use image below.

Twins, both 26". They liked redrums. Stomachs full of jacksmelt. 

The first hour of my trip was me, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at balls of what I thought were schooling blues 10ft off the bottom. Turns out, it was all schooling-blues sized smelt. I foul hooked it on a Hopps No Eql. Stick with bouncing bottom, folks." Your picture was better, Sam. Nice fish. Those smelt work pretty good for lingcod, too. Keep checking those schools, though, because sometimes they are blues, and finding schoolies is its own reward. 

    Crabbing continued to be fairly decent in the bay with a few limits and a few other boats catching "plenty." Beach snaring wasn't awesome but there were some keepers coming in. Traps are officially okay starting January 2 at 8:01 AM PST. Commercial guys will be dropping traps then, too. CDFW threw the commercial guys a bone and gave them only a 40% reduction in traps instead of the recommended 50% gear reduction. A bone ain't a hole pork chop, but it ain't nothing, either. 

     The saga of the overturned boat from last Friday continues. After being towed and re-anchored off of Dillon Beach the boat started drifting north, probably hearing the siren song of the American Challenger wreck. That's where the boat from the October 16 rollover ended up. Misery loves company, I guess. But the owner of this current boat showed up today around noon and launched a 12-14' rigid inflatable boat to tow his boat back in. It didn't work as planned. Upside down boats tow very poorly. It took two hours to tow the boat a mile and a half and then they ran into the outgoing current. When your maximum speed is maybe 1 mph and the current is running against you at 2 mph, you're in trouble. The inverted boat was left anchored near buoy "TB" in the channel, so Tomales Bay boaters beware. A second rescue attempt may follow, weather permitting. 

      Eddie Kim has left the bay a few days back and he said he left a few keeper Dungeness for the rest of us. There may be more than a few, as he caught limits every day he tried, not quick but launching around 9:00 am and returning with his two to four limits of crab (his crew varied every day) between noon and 3:00PM. Those ten hoops spent more time going up and down than sitting still and bait was refreshed regularly. His crew always looked a bit tired at the end of the day. I offered to lend him my Scotty puller but he said he had plenty of pullers coming with him and fresh ones every day. We had a few other boats trying this week, only a few, but they had some crab as well. The shore snaring has been tough but people are still getting some keepers. I watched a lady reel in a pair of Dungeness yesterday morning in front of the store. I've seen a few cars parked by the tent sites and people walking over the dune trail to try on the oceanfront beach. Nobody shared any success with me but a I saw a couple of Facebook posts with crab piled up on the beach in that general location, so if you're not afraid of a little footwork it might be a good place to try. 

     Tomorrow the CDFW will issue a press release with the new crab rules. The recommendation for this area is that commercial guys should get to drop their pots starting at 8:01 AM on January 2 and start pulling at 12:01 AM on January 5. The recommendation is also that sport guys should be able to drop their crab traps starting at 8:01 AM on the 2nd. Usually the recommendation is adopted as suggested but we live in strange times. Stay tuned.

 

    Three people were plucked from the water off of Tomales Point today after their boat overturned. I don't know much more than that, except it looks like they were crabbing (buoys in photo one), the boat was between Tomales Point and Buoy 02 when the Sonoma County Sheriff's boat rescued the boaters, and the boat is now anchored, upside-down, off of Dillon Beach, as it was towed there by the National Park Service. A couple of interesting points: The Sheriff was motoring about and ready to help because there was a shark attack at Salmon Creek beach this morning. The surfer got bit on the hand and drove themselves to the hospital, so hopefully they're as okay as you can be after a GWS nibble. Other interesting (to me) point is that it is my understanding that when you engage in a tow of a vessel you become the responsible party. If you move the boat and then let it go, you are responsible for where the boat ends up. Maybe this doesn't apply to first responders, but it seems like it might, as the USCG only monitored the American Challenger as it drifted ashore instead of engaging it with a line or, God forbid, an anchor. I guess watching an environmental crime happen is cool, but trying to help could get you in trouble. Maybe the law should be modified, as trying seems better then watching, as the chances of you doing something helpful increases with you actually doing something. Anyways, I hope everybody involved are doing okay. The water is pretty cold and the East wind was brutal. 

     In other news, Eddie Kim and his rotating crew of crabbers have been limiting out inside the bay all week. Other people are catching, too, but as usual Eddie is working hard and consistent and trading squid for crab. Bay limits are hard but Eddie makes it look easy when you're watching from the beach. The tired guys getting off the boat after hand-pulling ten hoops in a continuous loop all day seem to indicate that it wasn't that easy. It worked, though.