One boat went out for salmon today and returned with his limit. My understanding is that he was straight out (on the 15 line) and fishing 300 feet of water. No other fish landed that I heard about. The Dungeness crabbing has picked up a bit but it's still mostly females in the pots. Rockfish from boats opens tomorrow and the weather should be pretty good near the shore. There are signs that an El Niño will be in effect by late summer, so sharpen up your tuna hooks and get your reels serviced. Here's a video of fish I'll never catch to get you psyched: http://vimeo.com/59807927

Wind is the word, at least until the end of the week. Despite the wind,  few boats tried for halibut in the Marshall flats where they found all the conditions for halibut (59° to 61° water, many schools of bait including pinhead anchovies and sardines) but no actual halibut. There are even shiner perch, small jacksmelt and sardines being caught on our pier. With as many halibut as they're catching in San Francisco Bay it seems likely that a few should find their way here. I guess they don't know it, yet. For those of us craving a little white meat, take heart, because rockfish opens on Sunday. Also, those of us concerned about coming home empty handed from a salmon trip, take heart for the same reason. There were some decent Dungeness caught this weekend but lots of females in the bay.

From the sound of the radio there's still salmon scattered around out in 300' of water  and we might even see a few come in today. Unfortunately, the wind is supposed to blow hard over the weekend. A healthy marine ecosystem requires some wind-driven upwelling, I'm told, and it sounds like the ecosystem will be getting a vitamin shot over the next few days. Crabbing in the calmer waters of the bay has been slow for Dungeness but good for reds. Nobody has brought a halibut in yet but the sea lions have been seen eating a few. Maybe if someone went fishing for halibut... A few surfperch off of Dillon Beach but no big run right now.

Lance Seppi and Nick Bauer caught salmon to 15 pounds on the Due Regard today.  All told they hooked 7 fish in 57 degree water at 38.00 and 123.10 (or 0 and 10). Some of those were silvers, so look before netting. Purple haze hootchies worked but the biggest fish ate an anchovy in a watermelon UV VK head at 100 pulls with a 2# ball.

These familiar faces from yesterday caught three more salmon up to 26 pounds today. They found the fish further north, at 11 by 12, and caught on the green Krippled Anchovy at 120' OTW.

I'd like to thank Matt Stockwell, Mike Cordova, Scott Eastwood (all from the valley) and Bob Eastwood (from Texas) for getting me a picture of fish that aren't eels. The guys caught these salmon primarily around 38°01' and 123°10', I'm told. Early the fish were up high, 27' to 55' down, but by 10:30 they had to drop down 80' to 120', where they finished with a triple hook-up. Hot ticket was the chartreuse Krippled Anchovy with an anchovy behind a white dodger, although Kone Zones and cut plug herring put bodies in the box as well. Another boat came in earlier with his limit from 300' of water due west of Tomales Point, 60 feet down. He said it took longer to get there and back than to catch the fish.

We had one boat get out and give it a try last week on the one day you could, Thursday. They worked 300' of water from Elephant to Salmon Creek (38°10' to 38°20') for a grand total of two scratched baits. There were some fish caught in that area by other boats and some places with good signs (brownish water, birds, krill) scattered through the mostly 49°, cold, clear water. There's good weather forecast for this week and with a couple of days to calm down I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see some fish here on Tuesday. Dungeness action is slow. The ospreys are doing well on the surfperch but the shorecasters can't chuck their gear out far enough to reach the fish. No more Pacific Snake Eels on the beach, either.

The party boats out of Bodega caught salmon from Carmet north, but no salmon landed out of here this weekend. One boat tried on Saturday in the wind and came back wet, bruised and fishless. Today the water was smoother outside but the bar was breaking steady in the morning, so no getting out. Dungeness crabbing was slow in the bay. Today's "guess that fish" model was found this morning on Dillon Beach by Tom Carter.  It was 35" long and something had nibbled on his bum. Any guesses? Here's a few shots:

Ron Johnson caught his limit in a couple hours of fishing on Wednesday. His big one hit 20 pounds. Ron was fishing in 270 feet of water off of Bird Rock. Two other boats went out a little later and one of them ended up with a keeper. Yesterday's three boat effort ended with a fish apiece for two boats and three salmon to 19 pounds for Lance Seppi and Nick Bauer. The fish came on herring, 60' to 110' down in 300' of water.

Today, two boats went out and returned with no fish. Where the water was brown yesterday it's now clear and cold today. There are some other boats out looking but the radio sounds awfully morose. Crabbing is slowing down and many of the Dungeness in the outer bay are recent molts that are clean, pretty and nearly empty inside (kind of like a lot of Hollywood stars). There are a very few surfperch coming in but there's a few leopard shark biting down toward Marshall in Tomales Bay. The water is warming up back there so the sharks are pretty active. Lots of baitfish schooled up back there, too, but no halibut reports yet.