Friday, August 15, 2014

The salmon are still biting from Tomales Point down to the Keyholes in 50 to 90 feet of water. It's not a red hot bite most of the time, but every so often a few boats will get into them heavy for a few minutes and the fleet will descend upon the area. After the bite slows down the fleet breaks up and runs off to the next "hot spot". For the past few weeks the locations of those "hot spots" seem to be consistently at Tomales Point, Bird Rock, the Trees, northern McClure's Beach, Elephant Rock, and the Keyholes in 50 to 80 feet of water. There's bait all through there, mostly squid and shortbelly rockfish. The mooching and trolling are both working (or not working- depends on who you ask) so go with whichever one in which you have more confidence. I must have seen fifty salmon caught around me on Thursday while I mooched off of McClure's. All I did was fatten them up. Finally we switched to trolling and caught two. These are late season fish with soft mouths and a strong opinion about your bait. If it's not right, they'll let you know. Halibut are still getting caught by Hog Island and a few from McClure's in 50 to 70 feet of water. Neither place would rate as good. Another white shark was seen breaching off of Bird Rock today, apparently trying to get noticed for Shark Week.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Willy,
I was thinking about coming down next friday and try for another halibut, can I still catch shiners off the pier? Will you be there at 6am?

Only asking because I am not sure how long those shiners hang around

-Scott from Auburn

Anonymous said...

saw lots of shiner perch being jigged up off the pier today.

Willy Vogler said...

The shiners should be here as long as the water stays warm enough and the halibut are active. So, through September for sure and possibly into November. Our hours switch back to 7am opening after Labor Day.

Anonymous said...

thanks, see you friday

-scott

Anonymous said...

what do they jig to catch the shiners?

Willy Vogler said...

Sabiki rigs around size 8 to 14. The number one seller here (and catcher, no coincidence) is the size 12 Owner Pink Skin Fish Catchers. The work well without bait and even better with a little shrimp.