Not too many people heading out now. It's kind of peaceful. Swampy stopped by yesterday for a relatively peaceful fishing trip, except for these two fish that rudely interrupted his revery: "Evening Willy,

Today’s Report: The big boned lady may be warming up her pipes but it ain’t over yet.  Easy perch bait with a couple mackerel in the mix near pelican. Besides catching myself on my prop I got a couple eaters at 6 and 7 pounds. Great weather and another good trip to the bay. May have another trip in me, Swampy." Nice work, Swampy. I guess it ain't quite over. You can definitely hear a heavyset woman clearing her throat backstage, but she ain't singing yet. A diver tried the bar yesterday and saw zero halibut. Gage ended up with one and likely missed another bite. There's fish. Maybe not a lot, but not none, either. I don't know where Swampy caught his fish, but  Gage said Swampy was moving around a lot, looking. That sounds right, because most of the few people fishing for halibut haven't been doing well since the weekend.

    But Swampy's success got me to go this morning. Gage and I launched at 7:40 and crossed a peaky but not yet breaking bar to catch a quick 20 jacksmelt near the outer buoy. Inside the bay has been difficult for smelt, but outside is good if you can safely get there. There was some concern on our part, as easy bait usually means difficult catching, and vice versa. We went back to the bar and started in the head of the channel just inside from the shallowest parts, as those had now started to break. The tide was incoming, so we drifted away from danger, as one would. First drift, on the northern side of the channel, resulted in four missed bites. Gage and I had a quick conversation and determined that we suck. Three of the bites just took off running, and then.....nada. It seems difficult to me to not get a treble hook into an actively biting and running fish, but Gage and I figured out how to do it and repeat it. We went back for a second drift, but move a bit more south as a south breeze seemed to be pushing us more to the north. The breeze died, and we drifted the middle of the channel, and we had only one bite at the edge of the deep hole. But it stuck. One in the box. Back up for a third drift but this time, back to the northern edge of the channel. 

   Boom.

   We barely got lines in when Gage hooked the second halibut. It got gaffed and boxed, and maybe three minutes later, Gage is on again. Then his second rod takes off. That fish came off, but soon after I placed his rod back in the holder, one of my rods took off. Double! And then we were done. 9:00 AM. Four fish seven pounds to 14 pounds. But we still had about ten smelt. We started back in and saw Richard Porterfield trying to catch bait by Buoy 3. We hooked him up with our bait and pointed him at the bar. When I  saw him at noon I asked him how many? None for him, and he had to back to work, so he gave his bait to James Ludomila. A few minutes later I went to the Boathouse and saw James eating lunch. I think I called him dude when I yelled and told him to get out there! Tide change was listed at 12:20 and it was 12:15. The fish often bite at tide change. Guess what? James caught his limit in the next 45 minutes. Sorry for yelling, James, but I was excited. Like the Captain said on Hill Street Blues, "They're getting away out there." Well, he's right. And they won't last. Get 'em while you can. Supplies won't last.

    Tom Brodsky also fished last Thursday and sent over his opinion of the day last Friday: "Morning Williy.  Accurate report you had yesterday. We limited on rockfish again, than jiged McClure beach no halibut. Then tried for ling cod in front of the slide and the point, no luck.  Yes the bar was breaking when we came in and fished for halibut on the inside. 7 hook ups only landed 2. Another fun day in the ocean." Tom has been fishing jigs a lot for halibut, and I guess running only artificials is a good way to avoid sharks. Not perfect, bet better than bait. Nice work, Tom, and good job keeping the boat right side up on a day when going inverted seemed like more than a possibility.

    I've been mostly stuck in the office or elsewhere lately and missed out on talking to most of the fishermen, not that there were very many of those. Of the few I spoke to, and of the few second-hand reports I heard, it sounded as if Hog had a few fish scattered around, but it was better for halibut the closer to the mouth of the bay you got. One fellow caught a limit on Saturday and on Sunday just jigging on the bar. Others may not have had the same success. But it seems like the action, mostly is moving toward the mouth. This being almost October, it may be because the season is winding down. And winding down it likely is.  But it ain't over. Yet.

 

     The bar today was not the bar of yesterday. Today after the tide turned it was breaking all the way across some of the time. "Some of the time" is about the most dangerous because you can be fooled into thinking you can make it. Gage and I were able to get across before the tide changed, catch our jacksmelt and return to inside the breakers. For the hour or so around the tide change we caught two halibut and hooked at least six sharks. The couple of sharks that we got to see were 4 to 6 foot spiny dogfish. The others cut the leader pretty quick. Before we ran out of bait and leaders we finally caught one more halibut around 1130. So it ain't that good and it's more than a little scary. It is officially fall.

 

    Swampy stopped in yesterday. His report: "Hey Willy, one day trip today with three in the boat to 12 pounds. I worked on my net game today for Al. Easy perch bait but didn’t start catching till 2:30. I did release a 21 3/4 inch one at least.

See you soon, Swampy" When Swampy says "See you soon," it's kind of a threat if you're a halibut. Thankfully, my eyes are one to a side, so no threat. A bit of Swampy's mojo is surrounding himself with other halibut killers. Taking good fishermen fishing almost always makes you look good. Al is a killer, as evidenced by Swampy's net work. He's a nice guy if you're not a fish. Nice work, gents. 

     

    Tom Brodsky and his buddy caught their rockfish today, then tried a few spots for halibut before stopping on the bar. They quickly hooked five, landing four, with the four they landed coming in quick doubles. All on Bigfoot jigs. I thought it might be a good idea to try fishing the bar this evening after work. Go figure, it worked. I caught a 15+ pounder on a live jacksmelt, and as I was just finishing roping it in to the boat (it helps to keep them from jumping back in) my jig rod in the holder went off. A sequential double for me. The water has warmed up, the wind is on its way to cool it off, but before that gets here we have a couple of days of really good halibut fishing, it seems. To the bar!*

* while supplies last

   Tom Brodsky saw my report and sent this photo to prove his fishing superiority. well done, gents. Now, go to bed. And sleep.

 

   I received this photo from Howard Law on Friday night. "Got this today between hog and Marshall." Nice thresher, Howard. I'm told that there's a heck of a story with this fish, but I missed Howard on Saturday to get it. As threshers are power and maneuverability incarnate, I'm betting there was yelling and almost getting spooled and tangles and maybe some hard feelings between the folks on board. That's a good day of fishing. This was not the only thresher in the bay recently. There's quite a few patrolling the anchovy schools back by Marshall. They taste pretty good, but holy crap, they are like a bottle rocket with a broken stick, fast and random. And awesome.  Good on you and your fishing team, Howard, as they ain't easy to land, but you did it.

   Swampy fished here on Thursday and Friday. His report: "Afternoon Willy,

Came down for the good weather and huge tides. Alright, maybe not the huge tides. 3 halibut first day and 3 halibut and a striper on the second to 18 pounds. Easy perch/anchovy bait near pelican and spent a few hours near hog for nothing. Took your advice and moved around to find the fish north of hog.

See y’all soon, Swampy" The water got pretty cold last week, but there were still a few spots of fish that continued to bite, even in the cold water. Swampy found them. Yesterday and today that good spot was on the bar. The water wasn't that warm, still, but fish were biting for a few people. Nice work, Swampy and crew. 

    Mike Mack and Spinner caught these yesterday. As I have been remiss on my duties as a fishing reporter, they felt the need to send over this photo to get me to post. Well, it worked. These were caught on live jacksmelt by Hog . Nice fish, gents.

    Kerry Apgar may have retired from the Landing a couple of years back, but she still enjoys sending me pictures of Paul Boley with fish I can't catch. Here's one from yesterday, with the message: "Today, Anchovies Tomales bay" Thanks, Kerry. This one looks like it was probably a keeper, and most of the white sea bass inside the bay have short, but not by much. Happiness starts at 28 inches. Thank you, Kerry, and it is nice to see Mr. Boley again. I hope that next year Kerry inundates us with photos of Paul with lots and lots of salmon. He's the man to catch them, if they let him.

    These fish are much smaller than the usual fish the Mike Mack and Spinner catch, but these were caught in the wrong place which makes them very interesting. The are saury, and they are normally found way offshore with the albacore in warm, clear water. Gage and I saw sauries jumping by the weather buoy on Thursday in clear but 52^ water. Soon thereafter a small school of bluefin boiled nearby as well. Pretty cool, but these two sauries were caught on a sabiki while fishing for jacksmelt in 60 feet of water in front of Bird Rock. Sauries aren't supposed to be there. Think the bluefin are there, too? It seems unlikely, but at this point, who knows? It's only unlikely, not impossible.