El Gage with the picture in which his fish looked almost as large as he though it should. Just walk out to the beach and cast a couple of times, it's that easy. For him, maybe. This ten pound striper opened up the split ring on his Laser Green Shiner SP Minnow so after it he had to resort to throwing a Lucky Craft Surf Pointer and catching a few surfperch. I arrived soon after the striper got beached and was rewarded with  nothing. That's not completely true. I did get to hear the tale of the striper several times. Several. "There I was..."

I did receive a text about a sixteen pound salmon caught in 180 feet of water off of Elephant today. Ed Parsons caught it. It took all day. It ain't quite wide open. But if you're gonna go, that 160 to 200 feet of water from Bodega Head to Elephant (or maybe even a bit further South) is probably the best bet. You probably won't limit but you'll burn less fuel than running out to 300 feet. I have discovered that skunking close to home is preferable to skunking far away. Barely. It hurts a tiny bit less.

    Here's a detailed photo of the fish Gage and I caught today. My fish is on the left. It's hard to tell from this picture but mine was bigger. Actually, Gage got a tip about a hot bite yesterday so we ran out today to partake in the frenzy of fish-catching. I guess the rule about "radio fish" extends to "text fish" as well. We arrived a little late and watched the small fleet of boats already working the area troll off in random directions. There was scattered, dense balls of krill down at 180 to 250 feet (in 300 feet of water) and there may have been salmon feeding on them, but we arrived unprepared to go that deep. So we left. 

     Wednesday I tried live baiting halibut at Hog Island. No luck catching anchovies but the jacksmelt were plentiful. I missed a couple of bites from probable game fish, then I got in the groove catching bat rays. Ever double up on mud marlin while fishing light tackle? Alone? Well, I don't want to brag, but I have. You can have my place next time. I got one reel refilled with line and have one to go. I did get to witness the Carters put on a striper clinic and catch three to 24 pounds. Oddly, it didn't make me feel any better about my day. Yesterday evening I did get out for a single downwind tack by Marshall and caught one 25" halibut on a fluke with a purple haze hootchy over it. It was blowing from the South too hard for Gage (me too, really) so he went surf fishing for stripers. Gage caught over a dozen surfperch (returned) on a Laser Green Shiner SP Minnow. 

   Quick post as I'm going fishing. Miller Park will reopen on Monday, June 1. Lawson's Landing will remain closed as we would be authorized for day visits only and that wouldn't cover costs. The Health Orders get revised every two weeks so I guess we'll see what happens then.

    So, there's a few salmon out there. Not for me, but over the past couple of days I heard of some fish landed from 90 out to 210 feet of water from the Trees up to Bodega Head. It appeared to be an uphill current (running to the North) today which would theoretically indicate that the baitfish, and thus the salmon, would be stacked up on the Southern edges of the local reefs. All this clever local knowledge got me a big sack of nothing this morning. There are some anchovies out there and if you can locate them you will probably locate some hungry salmon. A few small schools of the tiny critters have found their way into Tomales Bay and may have led a few more halibut in. The few boats out on the bay fishing for halibut have been catching some but nothing like the photos and stories from San Francisco Bay. Out time will come here (I keep saying) but my guess is it will be little while longer. The last couple of years we had quite a few pelicans around working the 'chovies, and while we had a few pelicans a month ago they now seem to have found their food somewhere else. There's a lot of krill out front but there's a couple of good reasons you've never seen a pelican at the Red Lobster all-you-can-eat shrimp extravaganza. 

    My apologies if I got political last post, but when you've got a (metaphorical) pit bull chewing on your butt it is only natural that you comment on it. My family and I look forward to receiving some timing estimates and guidance toward safe reopening practices this week. Until we receive it I will continue my mental health regimen of alternating fishing and cheladas. And I'm almost out of cheladas.

    The obligatory hand picture. Gage says the surfperch were biting like mad Thursday. Today, not so much, but Thursday they were even hitting small swimbaits. The time is right for some stripers in the surf but as of yet it is perch only. There are a few anchovies in the bay, finally, as well as at least one thresher shark and a small gray whale. The thresher was kind enough to point out the anchovies by jumping in the same place a dozen times. Eventually even I get the message. Gage and I ended up with three halibut on the troll by Inverness.
    When will Lawson's Landing (and the rest of coastal Marin) open? That is a damn fine question. The current closure has no end date. As I understand it, industry representatives are consulting with each other to come up with safe operational methodologies to enable the reopening of different sectors. Put another way, there's a staring match between Sonoma and Marin Counties to see who can hold out longer. My money is on Marin. From some reports it sounds like Sonoma may blink first. Or, perhaps both counties are waiting for the inevitable tsunami of people headed for the coast on a hundred degree day to pour over the barriers so that they can say, "See, I knew this would happen! People can't be trusted! Double secret probation on the coast!" Yes, people are dying. But the vast, vast majority of them are over 65 and/or have additional comorbidities. Those people should be quarantined. For the record, that includes my wife (she isn't over 65, and don't say I said she was). Healthy people have died from the Covid-19, but now we're talking about the numbers of people that die from traffic accidents. That's why we all stopped driving cars, right? Wait, we didn't? We did allow people to keep driving with safety gear. Seat belts and air bags? Meet face masks and 6 foot spacing.
     There was a lovely article in The New York Times a few weeks ago showing the recent increased number of deaths compared to previous years and the point of the article was that there were more people dying from Covid-19 that are being recorded. The jackass that wrote the article apparently didn't think about the people that died from not going to the hospital due to Covid fear, or people that relapsed and drank themselves to death from no AA meetings, or people killed by their significant others because they've been locked in together too long, or suicides from failed businesses or stress, or any of a thousand crappy things I can't think of but were caused by the "cure." I'm not suggesting that we all strip naked and run backwards through a hot dog factory (I would never suggest that), only that we remove our heads from our lower gastrointestinal tracts and all go back to work. Life has risks. And I'm hoping to take a few of those in the coming weeks (besides the risks of going to three grocery stores just to get most of the things on my list). 

Gage caught a ten pound salmon today. The fish came in a flurry of action with  six fish biting in about 20 minutes, five of them hooked long enough to see them and two big enough to keep. You'll notice that Gage properly masked his fish as soon as he brought it aboard. He was out in front of Bird in 220 feet of water. It sounds like a second, over thirty pound salmon was caught out of Bodega Bay today.  There were a number of boats hooking doubles of salmon today. Most of the action took place in a couple of little spurts of action. Generally, that time was when I wasn't on the water (I went out twice and got skunked twice. At least I'm consistent). For all you guys champing at the bit to go fishing, just know you're not missing the really, really good stuff yet. You can see it coming, though. I have become aware that Marin County leadership is very cognizant of your desire to go fishing and/or otherwise use the launch ramps. The problem is that with almost everywhere closed any open ramp will likely be mobbed on the first good weather/bite day. Remember Westside launch in 2012 when the wide open salmon bite was right around the corner? Imagine that during the age of the coronavirus. Whether or not everybody is practicing their masked social distancing, 500 curtain wranglers will get their panties bunched and overwhelm the 911 system. Heads will roll, and some of those rolling heads may be yours and mine. I heard that today the Marin Sheriff, who had mostly been warning people that they would get ticketed for using the Marconi launch, actually started ticketing vehicles, two tickets for vehicles with a boat trailer. I also heard that the Sheriff had issued over 700 parking tickets in the last month. Neither the Sheriff nor the Parks Department are very pleased with the situation. If you have an idea of how to get the ramps open without causing a Charley foxtrot, these folks would like to know :https://www.marincountyparks.org/about-us/contact-us    

Please be respectful in your messages, but by all means let them know your feelings (within reason) as well.

First salmon of the season at Lawson's Landing today (to be fair, not a lot of competition). This 15 pounder bit a white hootchy behind an 11" Hot Spot flasher at 20 pulls (30 feet down on the fishfinder). We were in a small fleet of 20 boats in ~160 feet of water in front of Bird Rock. We had one other bite during our four hours of trolling and Gage's fish wasn't quite big enough. The water was cold but had a touch of color (brownish-green) and there was scattered bait. We watched a small thresher shark attempt several times and finally succeed at bashing an injured anchovy  on the surface with its tail. If Gage can get the video to upload I'll post it. It was pretty cool to watch. Two bites in four hours is far from the bite we all want, but 160 feet of water in front of Bird is close enough to be real interesting. Probably not interesting enough to want to get a ticket and go court (you'll probably win, eventually, but how much is your time worth?) but worth watching. Good times are coming. Or at least, pretty good masked times are. 

   There's been a few other halibut caught in the bay. None of the ones I have heard about have been large or even medium, but for those of you that are fans of veal (with no boxes) or you're not allowed to live near schools, the fishing near Marconi is pretty good.

Picture or it didn't happen. Looks like it happened. Gentlemen (and other gentlepersons), it may be game on. Perhaps not full on, catching 'em on bare hooks game on, but game on nonetheless. Gage, who has a fantastic social media network (the boy must teach me) showed me some photos of big halibut and white seabass from San Francisco Bay in the last week. While we're pretty proud of our 22.5" to 26" hog halibut from Tomales Bay, we're also trying to figure out if out boat trailers are sufficient to the task of trailering down to Black Point. Pictures of 50#+ seabass will make you do that. At first I was happy to discover that Gage wasn't staring lustfully at hot naked women photos on his phone. Now I realize it was much worse. Big fish seem more attainable but the fact is they often cost as much time and money as women. So do boats (that's why they're named for women. Ignore your boat or your woman and see what happens)(Tip: It ain't good and will likely cost you money).

When we will Lawson's Landing be open for launching, camping, etc? That's a damned good question. As I understand it, our county is gathering together a number of groups of people representing different industries in order to build industry-specific committees to develop plans for safely re-opening the county. If that sounds like the county is trying to delay the opening by throwing the choices to a committee (the camel has been described as a horse built by committee) you probably aren't wrong. Marin County is pretty cool with the Coastal Commission giving them the right to restrict coastal access. You have a lot of Constitutional rights (which seem to be getting ignored for the greater good, probably) but coastal access ain't one of them. That's the Coastal Act in California, and the Coastal Commission are the keepers of the Act. I'm probably wrong, but it seems to me that the powers that be may need to be reminded that the physical and mental health of many Californians is dependent upon their access to the outdoors. Some of that important access is to the ocean. Don't do it for me. I've got some savings and sooner or later my unemployment will come through(probably). I've got coastal access, though. I think that it can be shared in a responsible way that limits any viral transmission ( at least no more than any Target, Walmart or grocery store). I'm kinda getting used to the day drinking and thumb warming I'm doing but I'm okay with going back to evening fishing trips and drinking after sundown if we can go back to some semblance of normal. I would do that for you (well, we'll have to see about the day drinking. Cheladas are pretty damn good.)

Stuff happened this weekend but I'm only aware of a tiny bit of it. Most importantly, on Sunday a couple of salmon were caught in 250 feet of water off of Bird. The water is cold and clear and devoid of most life, but, there's a few salmon out there. Weight in the lowest double digits. The fish came shallow on the wire, 40ish feet. The two fish I heard of are a good sign but not indicative of a wide open bite. But hey, there's a few fish around. If this wind stays away for a week or more then booyah, fish in the Outer Bay. Get excited then. Don't worry, I'll let you know in a poorly worded, even more poorly spelled post.

    There are halibut in the bay, not big ones, but keepers are always welcome on my boat. The Gage and I gave it a shot on Sunday evening for three keepers (and one 22ish" fish returned) so there's a few fish out there. Heck, I even caught one. Gage was concerned as he had no recollection of one of my rods bouncing in that manner. Once I convinced him that I had a fish on his worry eased. Different colored hootchies caught them all. 

    Here's another short post but not a bad one. Richard James sent me an email saying, "Hi WIlly,

Can you please put the word out on your fishing report?

This is from Jason Olivotti, Marin County Parks Chief Ranger.

He said he has tried to email you in the past, but it never seems to get through.

I told him I’d try.

Black Point  - OPEN

thanks."

That was the good news. The bad news in the subject line was "Miller Park (Nicks) and Marconi Boat ramps are closed".  That was all the information I got, so I don't know any specific rules regarding the Black Point ramp. However, I would imagine that the rules would be much like Sonoma County's  in that you need to be a Marin resident. I think the powers that be may be allowing for some places for people to go in a reasonable manner so that we don't all just say "screw it!" and swarm everything. It is a step in the right direction and if we all behave like gentlemen (or gentlewomen)(gentlepersons?) we can maybe expect another bone to be thrown to us.

   I just logged in to post this and  I see that  Cap'n Al beat me to it. As he is better informed, I'll give his words their own spot at the top of the page:

"Al – wanted to give you the good news that Westside boat launch will be available tomorrow for boat launch by sunrise.

Here is information you can share with other boaters and I appreciate you spreading the word and encouraging everyone to be patient and respectful when it gets busy out there launching in the mornings. Good luck on the water and hope the salmon are biting!



The signed health order is attached and more info below on questions we expect about the change.



-Bert

Is fishing allowed under the parks closure order?



Coastal fishing

A change to the April 19 parks closure order allows park managers to open Bodega Bay boat launches for recreational fishing beginning May 8. The intent is to allow residents to gather fish as a food source.

· The Westside Regional Park boat launch and Spud Point and Mason's Marinas are open. The launches at Doran Regional Park and the Sport Fishing Center are closed.

· Boat occupants are limited to household members and those sheltering in place together. Camping and group gatherings are not allowed.

· Fish cleaning stations are closed.

· Portable restrooms and handwashing stations are available. (Permanent restrooms are closed.)

· The Westside boat cleaning station is open.

Fishing at other parks

The parks closure order also allows fishing from shore at inland parks where permitted. Inland boat launches are not open. Inland parks must be reached by walking or biking from your home unless you arrange for disabled parking access with your parks department. Fishers must wear facial coverings when they are within 6 feet of other park users.



Why is recreational fishing allowed while the coastal parks are closed to other users?

The intent is to let Sonoma County residents use a specific park facility to fish for food. Sonoma County’s health officer has determined the use of a boat launch poses a lower risk for crowding and community virus transmission than a broader reopening of coastal parks. Boat occupants must be members of the same household or those sheltering in place together. Fishers are not allowed to use coastal parks for any other recreational use."

Please try not to overwhelm Westside. The fishing (at least for salmon) isn't that good right now. But hey, game on! 

Also, thanks to Tony Alcocer and Ed Parsons for cluing me in.

    The water out front is cold and clear and to the best of my knowledge held no salmon for the boats that were able to get out there in the last couple of days. There were salmon caught further south out of the Gate and some of them were damn nice fish for so early in the season. The rockcod took a bit of a beating as dreams of fresh local salmon turned to the reality of fresh rockfish (not a bad substitute). The water inside Tomales Bay continues to warm up as does the halibut fishing. It ain't great yet but there's a little better action every week. Gage picked up one back by Marshall on Saturday and there were several others caught by the few other boats around Hog. The anchovies have yet to flow into the bay and bring in some fresh flatfish but the pelicans and Gage are all watching very intently for it to happen.

    Since I have no photos of salmon from this year, how about these, submitted by Michael Kelly: "Last year fishing off the head"  Someday....