It looks like a little bit of Mexico came home with the fishermen. Chris Starbird found this little finescale triggerfish in his oyster racks by Marshall. He brought it back for its photo op, then returned it to the water.

  In other news, Dungeness season opens this Saturday. The forecast for the season is so-so. There are quite a few just under the sport size limit in the bay (5.75") which probably means we will have a good finish on the season, after the spring molt and growth cycle. If you do come out this weekend we have mackerel and good squid but no chicken or fish heads.

  Also, some folks want to close the south end of the bay to duck hunters. For those of you interested in signing a quick petition against closure, here's a link.

Nothing to report on here. Nice water but nobody is fishing. I went out yesterday for a while and the only other boat I saw was the shark taggers. I tried for squid and halibut and caught neither, although there were a few small balls of squid getting driven to the surface in 100 feet of water off of McLure's Beach. I couldn't catch any but the gulls had a feast. So, here's some pictures of people you may know that are actually catching fish:

Here's Mike Garello with a beautiful dorado.

Mike Allen shows off one of his yellowtail.

The Dillon Beach Tuna Club is back out on the Shogun and here's some of the pictures from yesterday. Looks like Steve Towne finally caught that wahoo he dreamed of.

Steve Werlin shows off one of the nice dorado they got into.

Ed Parsons with a very nice yellowfin tuna.

Here's Lance Seppi starting an ahi sashimi pile. Now get that line back in the water!

You can follow their adventure at: http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=31&Itemid=26 

No catching to report for this weekend. No fishing, even. But, I did talk to a fellow that saw something of interest while trolling for albacore a couple of weeks ago. About 10 miles south of Cordell Banks he saw some birds eating something so he trolled over. The birds took off as he got close and he saw that they had been pecking on what looked like a squid head (minus arms and the body) a little larger than his fist. Sounds like Humboldt squid to me. Maybe the New Sea Angler will be running some squid and crab combos this winter.

Divers did well on the bar today with at least 12 halibut speared for 6 or 7 divers. Two boats went out for albacore with totals of 2 and 6. Unfortunately it looks like wind for tomorrow.

The past few days have produced a few halibut for the few boats that have gone out. The bar has been spotty with fish there one day and gone the next. Hog Island has been a bit steadier although still not red hot. Live bait has been taking the halibut that aren't being speared. There are a few sardines in the eel grass beds by Hog but large jacksmelt is the more likely catch. Good luck catching smaller jacksmelt as the large ones outnumber the small ones by ten to one. The rockfishing has been good. Supposedly there's a few salmon out there but nobody has brought one in here in a few weeks. I did hear a report of someone from Bodega Bay mooching up 52 and 60 pound sea bass off of Tomales Point recently. I did not hear how, which seems like the most important piece of information.

Not too much to report until today, when at least a half dozen halibut were taken on the bar. Five of those were speared, not hooked, but still, at least there's some fish out there. I did hear that some boats out of Bodega Bay put the hurt on the albacore yesterday at around 48 and 25. Too bad for all of us that the weather is supposed to change for the worse.

I got to go fishing yesterday and had a very good day. After a biteless morning on the bar I tried across the bay from the Landing where I got bit every drift but couldn't seem to stick the halibut. I finally landed a 23 pound halibut and this 40 pound white sea bass and had six more fish on that came unbuttoned. Probably my bait were too big for the other fish to take them properly, but I think I might try foot-long jacksmelt again. One item of note: both this sea bass and the one from Saturday had stomachs plugged with squid. There are no squid in the bay. Are these fish commuting? 

Gage Vogler caught this 20 pound halibut on Sunday night just after sundown while drifting a live jacksmelt across the bay from the Landing. Chris Wall (of Saturday's white sea bass) caught a halibut yesterday while jigging on the bar. He was waiting for Steve Werlin to spear a halibut but Steve saw nothing to shoot until he got back in the boat. Chris discovered the boat didn't have a functional net once he got the halibut to the boat and ended up hooking it through the gills with a hay hook to pull the fish on board. This is how nicknames get started. "Hay Hook" tried again today but didn't get bit.

Shawn Gallagher and his dive buddy shot these three halibut on the bar on Saturday. The warmer water has finally sent in the 'buts.

Jules Douglas caught this nice 20 pound halibut on the bar yesterday while jigging a white scampi. That scampi caught two flatties yesterday. There were a few other halibut taken on the bar yesterday and a few others from Ten Mile. There were a few salmon caught in the Trees/Bird area but no wide open bite.

The highlight yesterday was a 41 pound white sea bass taken on a white bucktail jig on the bar by Chris Wall of Dillon Beach. Also taken on the bar were at least seven halibut by hook and line. The halibut came on live jacksmelt, live squid, and at least two halibut took dead squid. Ten Mile Beach and McLure's had some halibut as well. There's another school of spawning squid off of the north end of McLures's in 90 feet of water. Find the birds, then find the school on the bottom and you will catch as many as you want. Seems like there might be a sea bass there. At the other end of the spectrum was the albacore fishing, or should I say, albacore catching. The one boat that left from here for tuna came back with no fish and said he heard over the radio of one caught. At least the water was flat.

Howard Law of Marysville caught this 28 pound albacore while fishing with Jeff Norton. Not too many albacore came in today, so catching a big one was even better. Boat totals from the Landing ran 0, 0, 1, 2, and high boat, 3. The boat with 2 fished at 42 and 24 in greenish, cooler water. The pictured tuna came from warm, blue water. I didn't hear of any salmon today but there were at least five halibut caught on the bar. Today's rockfishermen came home with limits of nice blacks and blues. They were fishing somewhere below Elephant.

Doug Morrill of Novato and Mike Raley of San Rafael teamed up for this 35 pound trophy salmon today. Doug reeled it in on Mike's rod. It bit a green RSK in 40 feet of water in front of Bird Rock. A group of divers shot 7 halibut to 22 pounds on the bar today. They had 54 degree water and 8 feet of visibility. The fog will return tonight and stay for a while, so we should see the tuna numbers start coming up if the weather stays good. There is a group of boats planning on running out on Friday morning. The warm water is less than 30 miles out. The last numbers I heard with good numbers of fish were 37 53 and 123 35.

The end of the day numbers were pretty grim. High boat was one albacore. Those that stayed inshore brought home nothing. It was a spectacular day on the water. I guess sometimes you can have good fishing or good catching but not both.

Yesterday's albacore run came back fishless. A full moon and clear skies likely contributed to the tuna not wanting to eat. The fog is expected to return soon, so perhaps we can expect the fish to bite again as well. Two halibut were speared on the bar today and at least one more was caught by a fisherman. Visibility was about 5 feet. There's a pretty bad red tide from shore to 20 miles out. It looks like bad tomato soup. Let's hope that it doesn't mess with the abalone.