It was a bit breezy today. Then it got downright windy. There were a some fish caught today, both salmon and halibut, but I didn't hear of limits, just the beatings from coming home against it. Luckily, people were kind enough to send in pictures of their limits from yesterday, a day in which I was lucky enough to scratch up one.

The first report I received was from Spaced Invader :"Got these yesterday at the slide .

65 feet of water down on the bottom 

Hoochie and flasher.... 

jigged up dozen chovys from all the bait on the surface and ran into the bay for 2 halibuts just north of hog... 

also had the enjoyment of getting a decent mud marlin to tow me around for 30 minutes or so." I'm unfamiliar with the decent mud marlin but I'm almost tempted to have you introduce me. Almost. I'll probably get the chance to make my own introduction. 

   Here's another guy that limited yesterday :"Hey Willy,

My son popped his cherry today. He landed two and lost a bigger one at the boat. Not a bad first outing for him in the ocean. I was a very proud dad. Caught these kings further north of Tomales.

AF FISH" Those fish may not have been caught here but we all like pictures of kids with fish.

Here's the finale :"Had my daughter along for good luck Thursday and it paid off.  Full day trolling Tomales Point to Kehoe and back yielded our family record, a 71 pound four-fish limit.  All on WMA (though we fished bait as well), all near the bottom in 60-80 feet.

There may be something yummier out there than smoked salmon bellies, but I don’t know what it is.

-Lorca Rossman" I'll throw in salmon collars as something as yummy. 71 pounds on a watermelon Apex seems like a lot. Better check that leader twice before it goes back in the brine.  

  Short post today as I went fishing and can only report what I saw and heard. There were boats fishing for salmon from at least Tomales Point down to the Keyholes. The Keyholes/Elephant fleet seemed pretty constant so I'm gonna guess it was the better bite. I chased a couple of limits I heard about to the Trees/Slide area and we caught a 24 pounder there in 55 feet of water. There's schools of anchovies being mauled throughout this entire area and I don't think you need to brave the fleet if you don't want to. We chased flipping 'chovies from 40 feet of water out to 120 feet. They were moving pretty fast, almost like something was chasing them. I did catch the one fish on an anchovy we caught out of one of those big schools. The best way to "match the hatch" is to use the actual bait they're eating, I'd think. I saw at least one caught mooching. 

     My wife, Nicki, with her 24 pounder. A beer in one hand and a fish in the other. That's how I met her. This fish bit a bait without a flasher.

    Here's a picture I forgot yesterday (sorry Joe). Joe Downing caught a limit yesterday with the largest going 22 pounds as I recall. Joe nailed another limit today but wasn't as interested in getting his picture taken with them. What kind of a season is it when people are disappointed with regular-sized limits? In a couple of hours? Joe was working the Keyholes, I believe.

     David Gonzales caught this 27 pounder today on the troll at the Trees. The bite there was slower today (even for the Eddie Kim) but there were still some fish picked up in the area.

    Gage took David Rocha and Sid Bruhn out fishing today and they caught their limits, including these 23 and 25 pound fish. The top picture is the fish from today's trip and the fish from last evening's trip that Gage took with his girlfriend, Amanda. Gage wisely let Amanda's father catch larger fish than his daughter. Good thinking, boy. 

    Yesterday I get the message from Shrimp Boat that "fishing is hard". Today he takes it all back:"Shrimp boat eked out some limits today, whoo hoo! Ignore anything I said yesterday about fishing being soul crushingly difficult, fishing is easy and awesome." There you have it, folks. It's easy and awesome. Except when it's not.

   After yesterday's slow day, and after somebody asked me why all of the people in the photos on here were holding fish, the editorial board and I decided to get some pictures of fishermen without fish and post them today. Sadly, it was not to be. That gag will have to wait. Eddie Kim returned to claim victory over all the creatures of the ocean and Doug. Well, maybe not Doug, but Eddie can put himself and Doug on the fish. The Trees was the location and 20, 24, 26 and 31 pounds were their weights. Not everybody clobbered them like this (not hardly) but it's nice to know it's possible for someone. Salmon were caught from Bird Rock down to Abbott's with the hot spot (as I was told) between Bird and McClure's, 60 to 90 feet of water. I didn't get any halibut reports from the bay today but there were a couple caught near Abbot's and on McClure's. I did see some damn nice rockfish from up above the Russian River, including an 11 pound vermilion. The state record is 14 pounds, 9 ounces, for the record, so damn nice fish, gentlemen.

   Dave Duncan sent over a recap of his fishing experience on the roughest day of last week:"Here is a photo of last Fridays 8 fish out side the 1st buoy. Done by 11:30. Tim Mortenson and two sons Daniel and Noah." Well done, everybody. Getting one in the boat during that slop would be victory enough but limits are way better.

   My editorial board also tells me I need to start a new blog for foolishly overloaded boats. I think there's still room here. Clearly, not in this boat, but on this page. This was sent over by the Coastodian:"Hi WIlly,

You can add this one to the pile if you like.

They all laughed when I suggested they need a bigger boat.

They stopped laughing when I explained that I am tired of my taxes going for rescues of people doing such things as this." At least a few of them have life jackets. It's important to float the bodies for recovery later. FYI, a person in the Fire Department recommended we tell people doing foolish things such as this to write their name on their arm with a Sharpie for easier corpse identification later. I have emptied some people out of overladen boats with that recommendation. Graphic and true. 

   I'm sure you've probably already seen it, but in case you haven't, this was sent to us:"I think I figured out the recent 'slow bite'. Both the halibut and salmon have realized they need to practice better social distancing! I found the attached photo on the 'Internet', not sure I believe it yet or not. A local Bass fisherman posted the photo.

anonymous " I think Gage caught one of those. At least he said he did. Fishermen.

    Here's a Saturday report: "Hey Willy,

Had to send you a pic for the “tiny boat syndrome” files. Lots of dangerously overloaded boats full of groups on Saturday because of the clam tide. Made me terribly nervous to watch. Lots of newbs in kayaks with shorts or sweats too. Only a matter of time before someone gets in trouble....again.

In our group of five kayaks, all of us hooked one halibut and three made it into the kill bag, with the other two lost near the boat. Tough day on Saturday, lots of traffic, bait was mostly scattered in small balls. Big fish was only 29”, but a healthy almost 11 pounder.

I don’t send a lot of reports because T Bay is already crowded enough, but I appreciate the postings you make and so I’ll throw a few in the mix once in a while. I’m sure I’ll run into Gage on Dillon one of these evenings chasing stripers too, maybe even get to meet you! 

Take care,

Norm" For your sake, I hope it's Gage. He's way more interesting. And yes, Tomales Bay can get pretty crowded at times. That's the number one complaint about this blog. I'm sure the same complaint can be made about Coastside, NorCal Kayak Anglers, social media, etc., but they spread out the woe. I actually don't think there's more people on the bay now (I remember more in the past, although some of that could be "good old days" syndrome) but it does seem like the people that are here cluster more. There used to be 15 to 50 boats fishing the bar in the afternoons and now you might see one or two. Anyhow, the cranky old man agrees with you about too many people (how many is too many? Sometimes it's two) and that there's a lot of people flirting with disaster without realizing it. Speaking of that, here's a video:


   There were fourteen or fifteen people in the boat. That's crazy. They weren't even salmon fishing, when having extra bodies on board can come in handy.
    Today's fishing report is mostly sad, unless you're a fish. The vast majority of boats came back with nada. Tim caught one salmon in the Outer Bay near Stemple Creek and there was a limit caught off of the Trees (next to several boats that caught nothing). There were a couple of other salmon taken, but even the folks that ran up to Duncan's Landing were fishless. There were some salmon and halibut caught on Ten Mile near Abbott's Lagoon, which I'm hoping is a sign of good things to come, but I'm not holding my breath. The water is warm, dark (maybe too dark? Is that a thing?) and full of bait, so if the fish aren't biting there must be some other factors at play.
   Here's another video. It's from yesterday off of Monterey and resulted in two bluefin in the boat with the larger about 170 pounds. I'll be watching this as I fall asleep in hopes of a good dream. Also, WARNING if you have littles or sensitive ears; there's a bit of rough language.

   So the fishing today was not too good for most. A couple of guys came in before noon with limits from the Outer Bay but almost everybody else that fished there (including Gage and myself) had nothing good to say about salmon catching. Boats that I spoke with ventured as far South as the Keyholes for very little success (up to one keeper). Best bet? The only guy that went North had limits for four guys and finished on a triple. He said he was off of Duncan's Landing, about halfway between Salon Creek and the Russian River. Didn't catch the depth but there will be boats there. Tomorrow it will likely be further North as it seems the fish are moving that way. There were a few halibut taken on the North side of Hog but other than that no flatfish that I heard of. The Jigger John, a man noted and named for his halibut jigging proficiency, could not get his halibut today but did limit on salmon and stripers. The striped ones came from the bar.

   Here's a couple of "How not to load your boat" photos as submitted by Cameron Vogler. This is too many.

    Here's a report from Mike Martin from Thursday:"Willie, went for a late trip last night (Thursday). Hit south end of McClures about 4:30. Landed this 18# at 6:00pm.  60ft. down in 80 ft. of water. Had just yanked the line off the downrigger release as we were going to make a move and after about 5 cranks he hit.  Saw 2 other fish landed same place, same time, same depth. Note the lack of Adipose fin. Hatchery fish? First hatchery fish for me if it is." Nice fish, Mike. As I understand it (them's weasel words to say I may be wrong) the hatcheries put RFID tags in 10-25% of their fish and cut the adipose fins off of the ones that get tagged. If a fish counter sees your fish you are supposed to surrender the head (where the tag is) to the counter. No fish head soup for you. So, yes, almost certainly that's a hatchery fish, and it represents only a tenth to a quarter of all hatchery fish. Your tax dollars at work. When was the last time you got something from the government? I mean, besides unemployment money or a PPP loan or roads or.... never mind.

    Here's another late (totally my fault. I need to read my email more often) report:"Afternoon Willy,

Made it down for some fishing and the halibut were tough to come by. Wednesday we didn’t get bit the whole day, thankfully Thursday we did a bit better getting 4 up to 12 pounds. Brian here caught is first Halibut from your bay in a long long time.

Thanks for the reports, Swampy." Sorry I missed you on your visit, Swampy. I saw that you were here but circumstances conspired against me. Nice fish, especially considering the fact that the halibut, and even worse, the baitfish, have decided to quite biting for the most part. Clearly, they all didn't get the memo, but what was easy a week ago has become quite difficult. Very nice job.

     Oh, how the mighty have fallen.When a man named and revered for his halibut jigging prowess is forced to resort to catching salmon, well, the halibut fishing is damned slow. The fact that his larger salmon weighed 27 pounds should in no way diminish his shame, nor should the fact that he caught his limit and returned by 10:30. Well, maybe we can let this one slide. This time.

     Team Alexander on the Double Trouble ended up with six fish to 23 pounds out of twelve hookups today. These fish came from the Outer Bay, as did Jigger John's. There have been fish caught from well above Bodega Head to the Keyholes in the last few days. Mostly in close, but out to 220 feet as well. Ten Mile is ready to go off with bait and warm water present but actual biting fish (both salmon and halibut) sadly lacking. They're coming. Partly because it's a historical fact, that the fish just generally show up there, but mostly because of sheer willpower making them appear. Trolling the Beach for mixed salmon and halibut is just about the best thing ever. Well, the best thing in 20 miles for sure. Those fish are coming because they need to for mental health's sake. After the windy cooldown at the end of this week the water will warm up again and at that time the fish will appear on the sands of Ten Mile. Probably. So maybe on the 3rd to 5th of August. Maybe.

    The wind kept most boats off the water today and of the few that went out I only got halibut reports. Those reports weren't good. Best results on the halibut front that I heard about was two fish. Those two fish came from three hard-earned jacksmelt. The next best report was one halibut and after that a couple of naughts. There was one gentleman that stopped in on his way back to Miller with a tale of nine-foot waves and four limits of salmon off of Tomales Point in 60 feet of water. All fish in the teens to the mid-twenties. It appears that while the wind knocked a couple degrees off of the water temperature it may not have knocked out the salmon bite. Just as well, as the Outer Bay was starting a good impression of a red tide. The good weather forecast for this week, if it comes true, will likely also predict a serious further darkening of the waters. Hopefully the Goldilocks abalone don't take another hit from it, but I need poor lighting for my terminal tackle to seem appealing to discriminating fishies, so I'm kind of okay with it. I heard a few albacore were caught out of Fort Bragg (that's still the name, right?) last Sunday, so maybe in a another month down here. Bayside Marine in Santa Cruz reports bluefin sightings there, so who knows?

  Here's a yesterday photo. The Shrimp Boat plus Doug limited early at the Trees. Your results may differ, as there were quite a few boats in the same area unable to duplicate what they were witnessing. ZI am not positve about what was used but I'm pretty sure (knowing the captain) that VK heads and anchovies were likely involved. Speaking of VK heads,

...we limited out twice today with most of the fish caught on VK heads, no flashers. We went out with three people, limited, came back in, picked up three people from a broke-down boat and eventually limited with them. The first six and last six fish each came in a hour. The three and a half hours in between were brutal, watching every other boat hook fish while we couldn't buy a bite. The only humor we had was watching Eddy Kim lose his net over the side and eventually gaff his fish. It turns out I enjoy a good drama. I heard applause from several boats in the area, so I'm not the only one. We had one barely keeper and the rest ran from 12 to 25 pounds. Where did this happen, you may ask? Outer bay, just inside Buoy 02 (The whistle to us old farts, even though it's a bell now). Apparently everybody else's gear looks way better than mine because we only caught when we were the only boat around. We called in a select a few and then couldn't catch until they limited and left. Just like at the singles bar, when all the better looking ones were gone it was game on for Willy.

  Teo Lally caught this 23 pound salmon right out from under me. Be careful who you tell about your hot bite. He looks like a nice guy, but... Honestly, he is a good kid, but I'm thinking twice about telling Eddie Parsons about a good bite when Teo is in town. It has been a year since Teo last fished the salt but I hear he worked that fish like a boss.

   Eddie Kim shows off the fish (23 pounds) that tossed his net over the side. You gotta like a guy that laughs at himself and learns from his mistakes. Eddie was whooping it up as he gaffed that bigger fish. He's been meaning to practice his gaffing, anyhow. What a fantastic opportunity with appropriate incentives. It was the last day of his stay here and he finished with not only a bang but with a laugh.

    I guess now we have scary boat reports reports as well as fishing reports:"In case part of your retirement planning includes a coffee table book of f****d boaters of Tomales Bay.  Not all of them put in at Lawsons...see photos

Your highly modified "Klamath" boat was putting in at Nick's on Tuesday. He had removed most of his modifications..but was have motor trouble with one of his 'twins'.

One the subject of fishing..all those halibut caught last week were the dumb ones. Its been a slow few days. Any idea when some more dumb fish are going to move in?

Anonymous.." I have a couple of hopes. There's a lot of bait in the Outer Bay and some will likely enter the bay (bringing in other fish?) if the water cools some. Wind tomorrow, so maybe soon? Also, separately, the halibut bite seemed to peak around the weakest of tides on the quarter moon. So maybe next week will be better. Let that be your bay halibut report, by the way. Slow. When Jigger John, a man not only known for but in fact named for his halibut jigging proficiency, gives up and goes salmon fishing, the halibut bite is slow. Yes, he was Trolling John today. Caught his limit, though, in the Outer Bay. Also, please don't do what is shown in these three photos. As a man who has sunk a boat, let me say from experience, don't. The only good that can come from it is knowledge and I will share that freely.

This evening I took the wife out for her first salmon of the season. It wasn't big. Gage took out a couple of buddies and ended up with three salmon to 23 pounds. Bird to the Trees, 80 to 110 feet of water. There was another bite earlier between 160 and 200 feet of water off of Bird. There's a few salmon scattered all around in the shallows. Clumped, really. You're either in them or you're totally not. It's kinda like fishing.

  Here's a yesterday picture of Shrimp Boat Alec with his limit to 23 pounds by 9:00 AM. Look at his expression. Even he can't believe it. To top it off, he took Cameron out for his limit to 22 pounds. Why won't he take me?

  This is Rich Chapin demonstrating how to properly show off a large salmon. It doesn't really matter how many you've caught in your past, every nice fish you catch in the present is still a joy. This fish came from, I think 200 feet of water. Off Bird? Sorry, wasn't paying close enough attention. Sleep deprivation will do that.

    Here's a Saturday report from Cliff Whitmore:"Hello Willy, here are two that did not get away from us. Trolling on the south side of Hog along with the flotilla of boats and kayaks Saturday morning. Stayed on the outside of them. Lost one at the boat and missed a couple of good take downs. Take care!"

 Whine and ye shall receive. I asked for surf  striper pictures. Sean McCarthy sent this one:"Threw a metal spoon out where birds where diving didn’t take long! 26”. Right out in front at Dillon. Must be my lucky shorts! Thanks for the great reports!" Those are great shorts.

    

  Mike Mack and crew put the hurt on the salmon last Sunday. 

Amanda Rocha went fishing with the Gage yesterday and caught her first two salmon, 16 and 22 pounds. The fishing has been pretty good on Gage's boat lately. 

 These fish came from off of Bodega Head. It was wide open for these guys. Wyatt and Lou's big fish weighed 18 pounds on our scale and they were done relatively quickly. For a lot of guys it wasn't wide open. Welcome to fishing! Sometimes it sucks.

   These guys went to Ten Mile. They nailed them, catching limits of salmon. On the way back their outdrive grenaded. In a bad way. Sometimes. even when it's good, fishing sucks. Eddie Parsons towed them in, so obviously, he doesn't suck. Today.

  These guys didn't even go out until almost 4:00 PM and they were still back by 7:00 with these three fish. They look like nice guys, but obviously, for a stunt like that, they suck. They actually are nice guys, but dudes, this is hurtful. I am simultaneously happy for you and jealous. Mostly the second thing. I don't have a location on where these fish were caught but it couldn't be far from the mouth of Tomales Bay. I heard about a few more stripers caught in the surf on Dillon Beach today. It's not too surprising with the anchovies moving past like they are. Last year the 'chovies didn't play ball but this year they decided to scroll past the beach. Well, good for those of you that caught the stripers. As one that didn't (that little one I let go hardly counts) I'd like to see pictures of your fish. Send them to lawsonslanding@gmail.com . 

Captain Kyle and Jersey John of Healdsburg came by to (correctly) show off their white seabass. They had been trolling for halibut by Marshall and ended up with these critters instead. They didn't seem disappointed. These came as as a double hookup but after that the WSB went back to lockjaw status. They bit anchovies behind flashers (I think; It was a busy day) and the slightly larger one weighed 13 pounds. These guys probably should have bought lottery tickets instead, but then they would have won millions of dollars instead of getting their pictures on this prestigious blog. I think they chose wisely. 

After a bit of a warm-up yesterday with one salmon in the box, Paul Page correctly called in Tony Roa to assist him in putting multiple fish in the box. Good call, Paul. These fish were caught on the edge of the fleet working Bodega Head. The bite there wasn't as good for everybody (it really never is) but most fishermen picked up one or more on the troll. The hot bait/lure? Everybody I spoke with had a different method, so I'm thinking you should go with whatever has worked for you before. You're likelier to catch with something you have faith in since you'll work it better and fish it longer. 

Larry Rogers caught this 28 pound salmon today, also on the edge of the fleet at Bodega Head (two guys probably don't make a pattern, but?). I don't know what it bit but I do know Larry had a bit reeling to after the initial hookup. The hook came out right at the net. Those of you that lost a few fish today (Cough, Bartons, cough) notice the hooked jaws of this salmon. That soft, curved flesh sheds hooks like my head sheds hair. Well, not that bad. Clearly the hooks will sometimes still stick. But these fish bros that have the river on their mind get tougher to get into the net. The forecast looks good for the next several days and the water is warming and getting a touch of color near the shore. There will be fish caught in less than 100 feet of water in the next few days but possibly a red tide by next weekend if the wind doesn't blow for a day or two. All the wind we've had has pushed up a lot of nutrients from the deep, but let it warm up well and the plants and animals will bloom. There will likely still be fish under the muck. It just won't look like it.

Eddie Kim and his rotating cast of family and friends (and Doug, apparently) smacked them again today. Eddie's father assisted in the take of four halibut to 21 pounds and he caught the first striper on Eddie's boat. Now that he's broken the ice, I'm sure Eddie will be able to catch his own. Probably.

Sorry, Gage, I forgot this picture yesterday. Amanda Rocha shamed her boyfriend yet again by catching more and bigger fish than he. This was definitely a Gage-gaffed fish as identified by the "center-of-mass" gaff shot. This technique was shown to him by his father. It's not where you really want to gaff them as you waste a bit of meat, but then again, it gets them in the boat. Nice job, Amanda, but maybe let the Gage get one sometime. In other halibut news, most halibut fishermen today did pretty well but the "back-bay" bite seems to have slowed. Fish caught nearer the mouth mostly have the white spots possibly indicating fresh ocean fish. Most of the anchovies seem to be centered around Hog Island and the halibut seem to heading that way to eat. Catching live bait seems harder that catching the halibut since a small live bait has a short life expectancy on the bottom. The anchovies know this and are understandably nervous. Quiet seems to be key. Splashes and other loud noises are scary when everything is trying to eat you. The Owner #12 or #14 pink "shrimp skin" sabikis seem to work best.

The salmon bite off of Bodega Head today slowed in inverse proportion to the increase in the number of boats fishing there. What I mean to say is that the bite slowed down and there were more boats there. There's about a half-knot current running North which is probably contributing to the bait and fish collecting on the South end of Bodega Reef. This could also mean two other things: 1. There may be fish and bait on the South sides of Elephant reef and Bird reef. 2. Some of that bait and fish may be moving North. Just some things to consider tomorrow. 

    

The halibut were snapping again today, most particularly between Pelican Point and Number 5. These fish came from the Fiver. Eddie Kim took Doug out top show him how large halibut are caught. Doug watched and learned. Eddie had 20 and 27 pounders today. Quite a few boats did well in the area described, although most did not have fish of this caliber. The anchovies were hard to catch for the most part, even though there were quite a few splashing around the surface. They were serious teases today. On my boat, after a failed salmon mission we returned to the bay and started trying for bait at about 10:00. After finally catching three 'chovies I dropped a live bait over the side at 10:30. By 10:35 we had two halibut in the box. By 1:00 PM we had our limits but the bait was the limiting factor. 

So I couldn't catch any salmon out front in 230 feet. Luckily these guys didn't go there. 17 and 7 off of the Head worked well for these men among men. Team Alexander limited out on salmon, as well as several other boats working the same area. Here's the report I got from the fella actually working the launch today "Alexanders limited on salmon. All in afternoon, off the head within the commercial fleet. 30-80' depth. Straight bait. Lots of guys tried salmon, and I kept hearing "lost 1." The head had whales, porpoises, some bait, everywhere else had an odd salmon hit here and there, with few, if any, landings. Bay put out quite a few halibut, plus some striper."

And then, from the files of "you wish", photos from Alaska:"Hello Willy,

   Cliff Whitmore here, aka High Times Fishing. Had to show you these from the Cook Inlet Alaska from last week. First time after the Pacific Butts and was spoiled. I will be looking for their cousins this Saturday out in Tomales. See you early Saturday. Never too much fishing,,,or hunting."Don't be too disappointed, Cliff. Our flattened fishies aren't even close. But, they're here and catchable, so there's hope for them.