Salmon fishing has been slow.  Luckily these folks didn't know it and went out off of Bird Rock on Monday and caught 3 to 29 pounds. Isiah Machado caught the big boy. With the nicer weather people are finding some salmon all over now, from the Russian River to at least Elephant Rock with most boat concentrating on the outer bay from Estero Americano to the outer buoy off Tomales Point (02).

    Felix Summers of Fair Oaks caught this pair of halibut to 22 pounds on jigs at the bar on Monday. Yesterday he and his significant other limited on 10 pounders on the bar using live jacksmelt. I think he's getting this halibut thing dialed...

   Dave from Rohnert Park caught this 26 pound striper on a Kastmaster on Monday afternoon. This was a fish of 10,000 casts. 

    Luke Alexander caught this 25 pound salmon yesterday, one of four landed on the Double Trouble on their troll from Elephant to Tomales Point in the afternoon. 

 

   Early report from the second opener: They're still biting. Lost one, shook a silver, missed a bite and landed one 12# keeper in outer bay in a half hour in the dirtiest water I could find. Bird was clear and empty of bait. Water bumpy but no gale yet.

    Later report: Four boats from here besides me went for salmon. One had six, one had 4 (limits), one had one, and one caught a couple shakers. Not red hot, but not bad. The weather was non-awesome but fishable in the morning.  The guy that limited stuck it out until the late bite started at 3 for his last fish but returned kinda wet. All in outer bay fighting the weeds. I heard a rumor of a bite by the Russian River as well. 

      It's obvious that salmon season reopens tomorrow.  For the uninitiated, the tell is that there's a gale warning.  The last gale warning was the last opener. Good times. On the plus side, the wind this year has been milder than predicted, at least early in the day, so opportunities may exist for the bold. It would be a shame if we didn't hit the quota before the end, and if the wind stops the water will boil, or nearly, and salmon won't be an option, or at least, a fun option. Fishing 300' on the wire is like working a Waldo in a nuclear reactor. Remote control fishing. It works, but it ain't like fishing 60' of water. Let's get them while we can.

    Halibut in the bay has been slowing as the water has been warming past happy temperatures. It's pushing 70 degrees in Marshall and that's too warm. Unless you're swimming, then cool. But halibut-wise, no bueno. 

Salmon reopens August 1st

 

        As I have nothing to report on here but wind, here's a report from Kelley Roy: "Willy, was a busy few days last week. Thursday in FB for albacore then on to Eureka for halibut with Steve Wiz and Dave Alexander.

 

Great trip"   Looks like a great trip to me, too. Now that salmon is over in Eureka they can concentrate on other things, and the other things are biting. Nice of you to let Dave catch the largest Pacific for your group. The albacore are officially biting at Fort Bragg and the tuna water is close, five miles or so, although some of the better catch numbers are coming from 12 to 25 miles out. That water extends down to where a trip from Bodega or Tomales Bays is doable (not with current weather) but far with the edge at 62 miles. I've  made that run before but driving to Fort Bragg seems like the more sensible option if you've got a roadworthy trailer. Otherwise, it's only July, so it seems likely that closer options should be available before the season passes us by. California halibut will have to do for us here until maybe salmon will reopen on Saturday. Probably only half of our local quota were taken during our 26 day season, so it seems likely that we'll get a reopener on the 1st of August. We should know by this afternoon, here.  Fort Bragg and Eureka may just have to stick with albacore and halibut, as their salmon catches were 73% and 77% of their much lower quotas.  UPDATE: We get August uncut for now. Fort Bragg gets August 1 to 9. Eureka gets to concentrate on albacore and halibut.

 

    Jim and Scott (or is it Scott and Jim?) Alexander, Larry Varela and Richard Tamagni trolled off of Dillon Beach on Thursday in the wind for these nice halibut. There were some other halibut caught on the bar but they weren't like these. Nice work, boys. It's probably no surprise that they went back there today. I didn't hear if they caught any more halibut, but...

     .... they did manage to catch this 53 pound white seabass. Richard Tamagni had to go home but the twins' dad Terry stepped in to help in this team effort. Excellent work, gentlemen. 

  Cameron sent me this photo with the cryptic message:"Margaret Morgan and Lee Gutierrez " A look at the big fish board says that Margaret Morgan of St. Helena caught a 24 pound halibut today, so I assume that this is her. So there were some halibut caught on this windy day, and I'll bet these folks are with St. Helena Appliance. They usually catch fish, and this seems to fit the bill. Nice fish, Margaret and Lee.