No salmon out in front but apparently there's a spectacular bite near the Farallones. I heard a story of a guy limiting out in less than ten minutes. That's too easy for me to want to go. Also, it's too close to being an albacore run. It's windy again and supposed to stay that way for a bit. No halibut caught out of here this weekend. Some surfperch and some crab, lots of clams, and that's about it.

Joe and Carl Downing dug up another big geoduck yesterday. The girls are smiling now, but soon enough a new generation of Downings will be sent into the hole to fetch the clams. Here's a close-up of the 5.5 pound clam:

Strangely, no comment from the Downing family an where they keep finding these geoducks.

The forecast calls for less wind for the next couple of days, so perhaps someone will get out and find a salmon or two. If not, there's still halibut in the bay and surfperch (rubberlips and calicos along with a few walleyes) out in the surf. This 12 pound halibut was caught south of Hog Island in 20 feet of water on a drifted dead squid. The perch are still biting on the pier at slack tide so using live bait is an option for tomorrow. 

A wise fisherman once told me that when you can catch shiner perch from the pier then there are halibut on the bar. Well, the perch are there, as are jacksmelt, topsmelt, herring and sardines. A second halibut was caught yesterday, so there may be some truth to that rule.

I found out this morning that yesterday's halibut was caught off of Dillon Beach on dead bait and weighed about 18 pounds. Also, two guys on the pier caught limits of Dungeness. The other folks on the pier didn't do as well, but we now know that it is possible. So far today the wind isn't too bad, but it is still early in the day.

The first halibut landed at Lawson's Landing was caught today. There are still a few Dungeness coming in from the pier and a few more from the bay. Other than that, it has been windy and it is expected to continue to be windy, except for a bit later in the week when it will be really, really windy.

Great kite flying weather forecast for this week. Unfortunately the fishing weather is not so good, with the possible exception of a fleeting window on Thursday. There have been salmon caught in as little as 130 feet of water out to 330 feet of water. The common thread to many of the success stories seems to be trolling bait 100 feet down. Sometimes the fish are higher early but as the sun starts lighting up that crystal clear water the fish move deeper. The best spot was probably the deepest, 330 feet due west. The offshore fish are eating krill and the inshore fish have been feeding on larval crab and needlefish. Dungeness action is slow. Surfperch fishing is pretty good at times if you happen to be in the right spot.

Today the deeper waters had salmon for the especially skilled or lucky. For the rest, not so much. One boat landed a 13 pounder and lost another fish in 130 feet of water off of Bird Rock. It was a good day for the abalone divers but not so good for the crabbers, some of which caught dinner and some of which had bare pots.

There were some salmon to be had yesterday out in 300+ feet of water. Unfortunately, now that they've been found the wind is blowing and is supposed to continue to blow until Saturday, when the search begins again. The crabbing remains acceptable in the bay and slower in the outer bay. No swell for a few days, so the diving should be good this weekend.

Pretty slow crabbing in the outer bay with numbers ranging from 8 Dungeness on a four hour soak to none in three days. Inside the bay is actually better, on average, than outside. Even the pier has some fair action around slack tide. Salmon action is fleeting, even though the krill have pushed all the way in to the beach. There were man-sized balls of krill on the bar yesterday but the only things eating them were gulls, needlefish and my sons (who are having me toast some up tonight for their dinner). The water is flat but clear, good for diving and fishing but bad for catching.

Ron Johnson caught a limit of salmon today in the vicinity of 38 16 and 123 15. So did Dennis Carter. Many other fish were taken in the same general area if the VHF is to be believed. There were a few taken off of Elephant Rock in 170 feet of water too. The Dungeness action in the outer bay was good enough for dinner for the guys that soaked their pots while they were salmon fishing. The south wind has kicked up on the beach and is supposed to blow out tomorrow's chances to fish but after that it's back to good fishing weather (I hope).

The newly flattened water had a few salmon biting today. The fish came from out deep, 240 to 270 feet of water. Too bad they aren't as close as they were 10 days ago, but as nice as the weather was today I'm not sure that the extra distance was a bad thing. The water is cold and clear after the blow which isn't great for the fishing but made the diving nice today. It isn't too often that you can spot abalone from the surface in 16 feet of water at Tomales Point. The crabs are still holding out for now, not great numbers but OK.