I was hoping for a picture from here but need to post this photo from Fort Bragg as it's my only picture. Team Nursement took Trip Plumb out for some albacore fishing today and finished with 10 when their fish box was full. Smallest fish 30#, largest 40#. Not far out. 8 to 15 miles. Seems like they're there. Not here, now, and maybe not later, either, but maybe there will be a window here. Or, you could go to Fort Bragg and catch albacore. Probably don't wait. It's a wierd year and there's no expectations except for weirdness. 

     Halibut report here is bad. Lots of tiny sublegal fish. Not many keepers. Gage and I caught three keepers off of Dillon Beach on Thursday for a pound and a half of dead squid, 5 jack mackerel,  and 5 tiny anchovies. Two keepers on a swimbait and one on a live jack mackerel.  And many, many short bites. Lots of shorts, to be clear. 

    Best report I heard today was from the inside of the bar where a legal white sea bass was caught by the Wet Dream boys. Not huge but nice fish.  Lightning strike fish. Nice work boys. See you next year, and that's a hell of a finish this year. 

 

    Harvest Time harvested a big one yesterday. They scored a giant where others did not. The report:"Plugged the boat with one yesterday morning (all my problems are small boat problems).

66” fork length, 600’, at the canyon.

How many other sport boats were out there you ask?

Zip, zero, zilch, nicht, nein, nada!

Finished up with quick limits of quality rockfish at Cordell.

Harvest Time out." I read a couple of other reports from the same general time and area and they had no bites. So I'll share this. Steve Wisnewski was right time right place. Your experience may (and likely will) vary. Super job Steve. Thanks for the heads up. And nice job catching where others failed.

   Gage went down past the salmon line (38 02) and caught his salmon limit today in 70 feet of water.  I worked today, but did get out in the evening for a quick try. I caught my personal best halibut, 39#, on a whole dead squid in 76 feet of water. Not what I was trying for but I'll keep it. 

   There's a couple of photos from Gage's trip today. He caught his salmon and got a good great white shark show on his return. Not a bad day.

      Saturday ended up really windy, but before the wind hit a number of boats were able to get out. I only heard of one nice halibut caught (Nice job, Richard!) out of several trying for them, though. Today, only four boats launched here, but at least two of them caught halibut. One boat had a couple of keepers on the bar. The other boat limited off of Dillon Beach, their first time catching limits. Good for them! They also hooked and landed a salmon. That did not work out so well, as there was a warden here checking everybody and salmon is closed. Also, even when it is open, salmon can't be kept if caught on the hooks we usually use for halibut (barbed, trebles, etc. You know, the good ones). Just to complicate things, if you have a salmon on the boat (legal or otherwise) you have to fish by salmon tackle rules, barbless hooks if trolling, barbless circle hooks with no offset if drifting, and no more than one rod per fisherman. Salmon will reopen on September 1st but ONLY BELOW THE 38º 02" LINE. You can bring salmon ashore here and in Bodega Bay but you have to run 15 to 20 miles south to fish for them. If you go and catch a salmon below the line you may not fish north of the line while the salmon is aboard your vessel. Transit only. You probably already know this, but it bears repeating. 

    Just heard this evening that Mike Mack and Spinner caught three good halibut on Saturday. I apologize, gents. Today, nada. The fish gods are capricious.

    Here's a report from Sam Winglewich: "

Hi Willie and crew, 

This bit a purple/pearl swimbait at around the tide change.  I'm somewhat glad I got burned trying to catch anchovies for hours, otherwise it wouldn't have led to me getting a 35"er on a swimbait - the biggest I've ever caught inside of the bay.

 It was a pretty somber mood on the water today. Lots of helicopters, rescue boats, ranger trucks, everyone's looking for the two missing boaters. I was told by the FD to watch out for two men and a silver/grey canoe that went missing last night. Do you know any further information about the incident this weekend? 

- Sam Winglewich " Nice fish, Sam. Lures are more fun than bait when they work. I don't know much about the missing guys except for what I read. They found both men deceased. Supposedly they launched around midnight Saturday night. It was really windy Saturday night. They were wearing life jackets. 

 

     Kind of windy today but the halibut were biting. Lots of shorts, but in among them were some nice ones. Luckily we caught quite a few squid for bait by Buoy 02. The halibut liked them.  I caught an 18# and a 23# fish and Gage, of course, smoked me with a 26# and 29# fish. We fished 40 to 45 feet of water in the mouth of Tomales Bay. We got distracted early by some bird action at the mouth of Estero de San Antonio....

    Here's another group of birds off of Dillon Beach yesterday afternoon: 

   I think there may be some bait around. Maybe. That may even be a squid "suicide ball" under the pelicans and in the surf. Strange days, but would explain our success using squid for bait.

 

    It's a heck of a thing when lightning strikes you. If you heard thunder this morning, this is why. Paul Piazza of Graton caught this 28 pound white seabass while surf fishing. It bit a white fluke. Your results may vary. This is the second white seabass I've heard of caught from the shore here during my lifetime. It had a belly full of anchovies and was probably following a big school that slid into the bay earlier. That school is probably near Hog and has some salmon chasing it as well. 

    Gage was chasing the salmon this morning before work and he found his two to 22 pounds. There's some fish by the wreck but the bite slowed dramatically after Gage left. Maybe tomorrow will be better.