Now I don't want to startle anyone, but I caught this striper in the surf. It was a keeper but not by much so I let him go. It's been two years since I last caught one on the beach, so when kit bit I almost didn't remember what to do Almost. For the record, a three ounce Hopkins No Equal Spoon will cast a long way and catches fish, too. Gage and I also fished some live bait by Hog Island for one keeper halibut this afternoon. It should be good and tender after the chewing it got from a friendly harbor seal. We had a hard time making bait for halibut, as the jacksmelt didn't want to play today. We caught four in 40 minutes. The one that caught was a bit over three inches long. Small bait, small fish, they say. Gage also brought some grass shrimp he caught earlier and tried fishing a blob of them for halibut halibut and striper. We still don't know if grass shrimp catches those, but leopard sharks seem to love them. A lot. 

    I received a note from Brad Stompe about Sunday fishing: "Willy,

 

Lots of fish food off Bodega Head to 10 Mile Beach out to 300’ but little sign of salmon.  Water temp was a pleasant 57 degrees which should get the plankton growing and help brown up the clear green water out there.  Four hours of salmon trolling never produced a bump.  Being the first time out in quite awhile I really wanted to come home with dinner so switched to rockfish.  My usual spots near Elephant were only producing small fish so it took some searching to find a honey hole, but I did and came back with a limit.  Back at Bodega I asked around about salmon and it was skunks all around."  Well, as I like to say when I strike out on salmon and bring home rockfish instead, "Fresh rockcod is better than salmon any day." Sometimes I think it's actually true. Way to save the day, and may you be sick of eating fresh salmon by the season's end.