Slooow this week. The Swampy report: "Evening,

Spent Tuesday all day trying to catch bait. Ended up with 13 whole baits of various grades. Got my Dad out for a lot of drifts on Wednesday with him catching one short and a couple missed bites. Great year again and waterfowl better watch out. Thanks for another great year at your little bay.

Swampy " That means the halibut fishing in the bay is bad. If Swampy ain't catching the rest of us are kinda belly up. I can confirm that I couldn't catch in the bay. At least you had some sun on your stay, Swampy. Look for the bright spots. And ducks.

   Gage found the bonito yesterday. On his way to Point Reyes to try for salmon he found birds working at 38 08 by 123 00. He was only able to get two lines in before he hooked up on both. He limited with his ten fish and the boat running with him landed six bonito on salmon gear, losing about as many. Gage used albacore gear, both feathers and Rapalas, trolled at 5 to 7 knots, and his largest fish weighed 13# gutted. 

    I had a morning meeting so I didn't launch until after 1:30. No bites on the bar for me but I caught one halibut in 45 feet of water by Tomales Point on a Redrum jig, probably not coincidence that it was the turn of the tide. No more bites for me. I started running down to where Gage had caught his bonito but it was almost 3:00 so I stopped in 150 feet of water off the Trees and trolled two lines northwest. Off Tomales Point fifteen minutes later I saw a boil next to the boat and maybe ten seconds later my Rapala got bit. One bonito later I went home as I had no ice. If you can find feeding birds there seems to be lots of bonito. If you can't there's a few scattered about. Water temperature was 54 to 56 degrees. 

 

     Swampy sent over this report Wednesday evening: "Evening,

Came down for a quick trip, I was net boy today. Shiner and big eye perch bait worked great at the bar till it got too nasty. Ended up with 3 to 18 pounds for a good day.



Looking for at least one more trip before duck season.

Swampy" I had always been told that those walleye perch were no good for halibut but my experience has been similar to yours, Swampy. I just wish that I could catch them reliably. Actually, I wish that I could catch any bait reliably. Nice work on the fish (including the baitfish). Those halibut will likely stick around a bit longer. I didn't hear of any other fish but that could be due more to a lack of fishermen than a lack of fish. 

 

    Gage sent me this report today:" 

The Goligowski’s with their two halibut from across the bay, to 20 lbs" Nice work Goligowskis! They were just planning on drifting some dead anchovies and not trying for any live bait. Well done. Only other news is that Mike Mack and Spinner limited on salmon again on Sunday.

    I have been informed now, after first posting, that of the three boats that launched from here today, all caught two halibut. Ed Parsons limited by himself and the other boat caught a pair. The Goligowski's 20 pounder was by far the largest, though.

 

      Here's a report from yesterday from Swampy's second day of fishing: "Gave it the old college try today but didn’t get any Bluefin. Ended up with 3 butts to 15 pounds. Al did a great job with the net. Caught a few shakers with most caught on the bar. See y’all next week.

Swampy" I guess Al's good netting means Swampy did the hooking. Team effort. Good work, gents. Today there were a few more halibut caught with Team Porterfield catching four on the bar. Mike Mack and Spinner made the run down to Point Reyes and the open salmon area and caught their limits of salmon in about an hour. The year is winding down but it ain't over yet. Then again, neither is the wind. 

 

    These aren't bluefin, which is what Gage and I were looking for yesterday. We trolled about ten miles south from the edge of the shelf just below Rittenburg, then turned back toward Noonday Rock and as we came up onto the shelf below Fanny Shoal we saw some birds feeding in 450 feet of water. We hooked up on both MadMacs on bonito, then stopped and threw jigs at them for 45 minutes. We kept ten and released at least as many. They ran about eight to ten pounds gutted and gilled. We then ran about two miles out back over the edge to try for bluefin again and immediately hooked another bonito, so we called it a day as reeling in MadMacs from 450' out for bonito you're going to release anyway isn't fun. Stopped at Fanny for a few rockfish for dinner. The limit on bonito is 10 over 24" fork length but ten was more than plenty for the two of us. They bit everything we threw at them, metal jigs, surface iron, RedRum tube, etc., and they pull hard. The lights out bonito were at 37º 46' by 123º 12'.

    A report from way closer to home yesterday from Swampy: "Afternoon,

Been a while since we have been down but got into them today. Al and I were done by 1:00 with good fish. Tough bait but little shiners work. Will hit them again tomorrow. On the bar." That's the best report on halibut since last weekend. Mostly it's been sadness. Lots of anchovies in the bay but I've only heard of a few halibut and a thresher shark by Hog. There's been a few shiners on the bottom right at the yellow buoy but those anchovies might work on the bar too if you can catch any big enough to support your hook.