Cameron sent me this picture today with the note, "34 and 22". A glance at the bragging board, later, let me know that this is Adam Evans of Santa Rosa with a 34 and 22 pound halibut. A 56 pound limit was kind of a big deal back when the limit was three fish, but two? A 28 pound average? Pretty fricking badass. I don't know what bait he was using, but I seem to recall some Santa Rosa Evenses using live jacksmelts and doing well recently, so.....

     When I was checking the board for the last fish I saw Cannon Brunkhorst's name. A quick stop at Instagram and I found this. Fish to 28 pounds. I think we know who caught the big one. The guy with the biggest smile.

     Cameron wanted to fish this evening, so after looking at the weather forecast showing wind for the next four days, I said yes. We went out and caught bait pretty quickly, even though there weren't nearly as many squid around as there had been. We went to Dillon Beach, proper, as Gage caught a couple of nice halibut there this morning. Of course, Gage was there again with his wife and two buddies. 

They had just landed a mixed double of a halibut and a striper. Seemed legit. We made a drift alongside them and then they went home. We made another drift for no bites. Then we moved over and tried a different drift. At the end of the drift, a striper on a Redrum. Repeat end of drift, and another striper on the same jig, 21 pounds. Repeat again, no stripers, scary close, so pull the live bait to go home, and Cameron says he's got a fish on. One ten pound halibut on a live squid. I love a bloody boat.

   So, squid showed up last weekend. That, more than anything, is what brought the halibut in from the deep. Halibut fishing in Northern California has been mostly crappy this year, as three hard years of no salmon have done their worst for the halibut. Inside the bays has been tough fishing (even tougher to be a halibut). So I welcome the squid. Bring in the fish. And be easy to catch, and taste good if I don't catch my target fish. Problem is, I worry that if I mention squid here, squid boats will arrive and hoover them up. So I try not to mention numbers or locations of squid. As  you can see, somebody did. Well, good for them. Squid is the commercial fishery that generates the most income in California. Their price per pound is kinda low, compared to what we pay at the store for it, but they catch a lot of pounds. Anyhow, as these pictures show, the squid, like Elvis before them, have left the building. Or mostly. There's some stragglers. But they're harder to catch now, and the pull of easy meals has likely diminished the refill halibut from the deep coming in to eat. Get 'em while you can.

 

    I received this photo from Gage yesterday. His note:" Pat (not pictured) from Sac with a 18 lb halibut caught on dead anchovy on the bar". So dead bait worked. And, Pat doesn't want his picture taken. Both items are good information, for different reasons. Nice fish, invisible Pat, and well pictured, fish models.

     About 1:00 PM today these gentlemen boated up for a photo op. Their "smallest" fish went 14 pounds and the big boy hung at 27 pounds. The big one was caught by Sebastian Evans of Santa Rosa. All of these fish pictured here bit live jacksmelt. Live bait had a bit of a pause in its parade of success, but the parade is back on, it seems. As it should be. Nice damn work, boys. Way to ignore all of the negative reports and just catch. You make it seem like halibut is en fuego here. Well, if it is, it's only because halibut fishing everywhere else in California sucks worse. Both can be true.

   Here's the report from Austin Muir: "Hey Willy, 

My dad and I went crabbing on Monday 06/22 for Father’s Day weekend, we didn’t have high expectations because of your reports, also it being end of season. Thought we could get enough for dinner for ourselves while camping and we’d be happy (along with our scallops I surprised him with). After 3 1/2 hours, and lots of heavy heavy pulls of undersized crab, we settled with 19 really good looking keepers by 12:30pm. Launched at 8am. We figured we’d save that last crab for the boys that may go out this week! As always, the fish gods blessed us. And maybe the 20 years of constant learning/experience may have helped. But we will never know. 

My dad has been bringing me here since I was a baby, and some of mine & my brother’s best memories have been made on the water launching from Lawson’s. Thanks for everything. 

Sincerely, 

The Muir boys - aka the deplorable’s" Very nice, Austin! The crabbing has been, in a word, bad. 19 keepers is pretty awesome. Keep being deplorable, I guess. It's working.

    While there are still halibut and stripers being caught near Hog Island, the mouth of the bay went off over the weekend. The fish are coming in. Today there were a few boats that limited out by noon, and a couple that limited in an hour or two. Live baitfish was not the ticket, for once, nor were the tube baits that have been pretty consistent killers. Nope, it was good old white bucktail jigs, or "Hair Raiser(Razer?)s". People may not appreciate the classics, but it's good to see that someone does. 

     Cameron and I went out this evening after work for the turn of the high tide. Earlier today the reports were that there was lots of bait and feeding fish. When we arrived the water was at it's coldest temp of the day and no bait was to be found. We scouted around but saw nothing on the meter. Then we made a drift over the bar, from 35 feet of water outside the bar to 30 feet of water on the inside. No bites or sign. Well, Gage and I caught a halibut and missed two other bites trolling P-Line Predator Minnows on the bar on Thursday, and there was almost no seaweed drifting about, so I talked Cameron into a couple of passes with the broken-backs. Forty minutes later we had 14 and 18 pound halibuts in the boat. If you can keep the weeds off, the Predators work. Unfortunately, almost all the time there's too much weeds. Almost all the time. 

    Yesterday Gage took Amanda out for her first trip of the year and she almost made the big fish board ahead of him. Their only bite that stuck (on a white bucktail, of course) was this 18 pound halibut. You can tell Gage gaffed it because he hit the center of mass. He learned to shoot before he learned to gaff. Good thing he learned to gaff, too, because he's got to do a lot of it if he's bringing Amanda out to fish. 

     I'm afraid that in all the hustle and bustle of the busy weekend we did not get this gentleman's name yesterday. We do know that his ling cod weighed 25 (26?) pounds. That's a nice ling, no matter who caught it. Good work, nameless sir. 

    

     I believe that I mentioned that the crabbing sucked, but if i didn't, well, it did. Outside the bay has been a lost cause and inside you might catch one. That's the most I heard of this weekend. One.  No bueno. The reds weren't even very good. Well, at least salmon are coming! You don't even need a rule book to see when the season starts, as the forecast shows wind starting about the time our season should start. Seems legit. 
 

 

   The only report I have is from Brad Stompe: "Hey Willy,

Headed offshore for some deep-water rock fish Monday and was not disappointed.  We picked up 3 limits of quality rockfish and 3 limits of ling cod to 16 lbs.  Most of the lings were caught on sanddabs, though we had some hit iron too.  We were greeted by two CAF&W fish checkers and one warden upon return to Bodega harbor.  It was a pleasant encounter, but we were thoroughly checked for everything fish related.  I mention this as a reminder to those that have a productive day on the rockfish grounds with multiple people on board.  Keep close track of your fish count and then double check.

On a different note, I would like to give a shout out to the Vogler table at the recent Golden State Salmon Association dinner.  There were some very generous donations made and a good deal of raffle winnings going to the table.  For those of you reading this that are not members, please consider joining.  It is only $35 and they work very hard at advocating for the salmon we all so dearly love to pursue.

Regards,

Brad Stompe" Thanks for the report, Brad, and thanks for the nice words. We love salmon fishing, so we figure that if you want to throw your money at something, throw it at something you love. Nice job on the rockfish. It has been very slow for the rockies in shallow water.

   There have been a few stripers and halibut on the bar, more striper than halibut. The good striper fishing requires getting close to the breakers. A gentleman yesterday almost found himself in the break. If you're not sure, sit it out. The halibut bite has been slow but there's keepers being caught from Pelican Point to the bar. South of Pelican is the land of shorties and sharks and not much else. Dungeness crabbing mostly sucks. A few guys are catching a few in the bay but only a few. Outside is a desert. Usually the crabbing picks up at the end of the season but not this year.

Other things to be found on the bar are marlin, or should I say, the Marlin, the one of the CDFW patrol boats. And if you think they're out and about a lot now, wait until next week. 

     Here's a report I missed from Sunday. According to John Wertz, "Hey Willy,

We spent 10 hours chasing rockfish and Lings  from Bird Rock to north of the closed areas today with Jigs,(lost a few [as is usual], squid, and prayers. We only boated two brown rockfish. We heard of one 24” Lingcod caught off of Bird Rock in shallow water. Boats were moving around as if to say “We’re not having any luck here.  Let’s move.” Beautiful conditions today and as I always say; “It could have been worse; I could have been working.”" I'm glad you feel that way. My worst days fishing are when I'm sitting there, not catching, thinking that I could be painting my house. I guess John is still happy. Good for you, John, that's probably a healthier mental state than I maintain. If it makes you feel any better, John, from all the reports I heard from over the weekend, the rockfishing was really slow for everyone that didn't run offshore for the deep water. The deeps were good, but the shallows were belly up. Actually, John is probably mentally well enough to not feel schadenfreude, but for the rest of you fishermen that didn't do well on the rockfish over the weekend, you had good company.

\    Trisha Cumbra caught this eleven pound halibut yesterday near Marker 5. It bit a live jacksmelt. Trisha has been trying for this fish for a while and it finally happened. I'll bet it tasted pretty darn good.