Here's a good halibut picture from Noah and Nancy Raggio: "Hi Willy. Mom and I went in search of Halibut on Tuesday of this week. Found several schools of anchovies but they were more interested in getting away from us then getting on the hook. Put some time in and caught smelt for the live well. Mom lowered a lively one down into the deep channel just south of the number 10 marker near the yellow buoy. This heavy, 33 inch beauty swallowed the smelt and proceeded to pull down hard on the rod. We had several other takedowns during the day but they somehow evaded our double hook set ups. What a great Halibut season this has been. Mom and I both agree that Tomales Bay is one of our favorite places on earth." Thanks for the report and thank you for confirming that the halibut are still biting. We've had very few boats going out which makes for very little to report. From what I hear the salmon is about as slow as it gets but I did see a bunch of birds and whales working a couple acres of bait at 38º 18' by 123º 08' in about 300 feet of water off of Bodega Head on my way in from tuna fishing. No confirmed salmon in there but that area has been fairly consistent for a few fish this year.
    Some of the domoic acid testing results are in and it's good and bad. So far the tests have occurred at Bodega Bay, Half Moon Bay, Monterey and Morro Bay. All of the crabs have been good except for two crabs from Bodega Head area. Point Reyes, Russian River and Salt Point had all good crab. The two "bad" crab were at 43 and 58 parts per million (30 ppm being the action level) so they're close to being okay. My guess is that we will open on time with a possible "clean before cook" order from the Health Department. Commercial season will probably open on the 15th but may have a "blackout" area around Bodega Head. It sounds like their season will close for sure on April 1st to minimize whale interaction with their crab gear so they will be pushing hard for the season to open on time. Of course, how full the crab are and what the buyers are willing to pay will could also set their opener back. So complicated. For sure, though, all of us "sporties" should be replacing our rotten cottons and making sure that our GOID numbers are still legible on our buoys.

Late update:

    These three guys wanted to let us all know that, yes, the halibut are biting. Not bad for a couple of hours' work. They didn't say where they went but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't far. It was around the bottom of the tide.