Swampy heard my whining and came out for a visit. So far, one halibut. He's not picked up my habit of whining, nor should he, as one halibut is pretty good right now. I did hear of a couple on the bar a few days back, but this time of year any forays to the bar should be done with extreme trepidation, as we are in the season for sudden huge waves (Actually, the Tomales Bay bar is always ready for sudden huge waves, but even more so now). The rockfish bite has been a bit slowish which is not uncommon this time of year and especially not rare when the weather is this calm. Gage was able to knock out a limit of rockfish and lingcod today in front of Bird but the rockfish weren't quick to stick to the hooks. He limited on lings in 5 minutes, though. Apparently the large swimbaits from Pitbull work well. 

   Here's what's keeping your halibut and salmon safe from Eddie Kim. "Landed my biggest yet at 225lbs & 90lbs

Both caught on the Flat Fall" He is coming by tomorrow to drop off some pity bluefin to those of us that couldn't catch one on our trip. I'd be offended but then I wouldn't get any bluefin. So I'm shutting the heck up and accepting the pity fish. I'm pretty sure the pity will wash off with a little wasabi and soy sauce. Like the Temptations said, I ain't too proud to beg. 

     So I'm sitting here at home, lonely, with almost all my fishing connections gone. Eddie Kim has fallen into the long range crowd (The halibut and salmon are safe for now but bluefin are kinda screwed. San Diego has him now). I missed Swampy's week here. Even Mike Mack took a break. So the report is, not much is happening. There's a few halibut to be caught (more than if Eddie or Swampy were here) but not too many. Salmon exist out deep but only barely, with most catches being next year's fish and not many of them. There's stories of salmon in the Outer Bay but bedtime stories are generally for smaller people than those that read this blog. Things are slooooww. Dungeness for sport will open on schedule, it appears, for one last time this year on November 7. Next year, ? My suggestion? Get 'em while you can this year, 'cause next year's gonna suck. The whales are still here and next year we, like the commercials, operate on their schedule, not ours. Good times. 

   

     Here's a picture sent to me from Tom Carter on Sunday at 8:00 AM: "This 30 inch fat striper was just pulled out of the surf and caught on live blood worms," This is not the only striper caught on Dillon Beach this past week. There are a few (very few) nice stripers cruising the beach this fall.

   Scott Simpson sent over this report from last weekend: "Hi Willie, 

My son Derrick Simpson of Sacramento caught this 12# halibut Saturday 10/17 just north of hog. We were drifting over a 40 foot hole when it hit frozen herring. We were super excited because this was our 5th excursion in search of the elusive halibut. During the previous 4 attempts we hooked a ray and a shark, but couldn't  seem to find a halibut. We finally broke through and joined the halibut club.  Had a great time at Lawsons this week. " Glad you had a good time and glad you joined the halibut club. It'll get easier. The more you catch, the more you'll catch. Like any art, the more you practice it, the better you'll get. Starting off with a 12 pounder kinda starts you off down the road a bit. Nice fish, and nice job catching it.

    And then there's Swampy: "Hey Willy,

Sounds like y’all had a great trip with your boys. Loved the dorado video. Just a quick report from early last week. Three days fishing with my son, easy bait, nothing near 5. Hit the clam channel the last half day and ended up with two up to 12. Second one hand lined in due to faulty reel. May have one more trip in me this year.

Take Care, Swampy."  The fish are still there, Swampy. It ain't red hot, but there's fish to catch. Earlier this week the fish I heard about were on the outside edge of the bar. The past few days the swell has made that location harmful if not fatal. While I can't recommend the bar now, often the north part of the bay can be good when the bar has fish. There's lots of anchovies in the bay now and they're due to leave soon. They gotta go out the front when they go. The deep water  (275' or so) still has some salmon out off of the Head and I heard a rumor of some from the outer bay (off of Estero Americano) but it's all kinda sketchy this late in the season. Any salmon you catch now is a bonus salmon, but bonus salmon taste extra sweet, so....

 

     Here's a good report from Monday: "Got all these just north of the river in 250 ' 80-90 on the wire.lost two nice ones" I prefer catching reports to skunk reports (all reports are good information; happy reports are, not surprisingly, happier), so that makes this a good report, even if it's a bit late on the posting. As of now, there's salmon (some) being caught out in front of Bodega in about 250 feet of water. They're mostly not big but they're October salmon, so.... The weather turns on us tomorrow and is going to be doing a little of the rarer fall upwelling this week. 

      Since we're talking about good reports, here's another, this one from Thursday the 15th: "Hey Willy,

Beautiful day out on the bay today with my son Paolo and good friend Rick. Paolo was rewarded with a buck tail jig caught striper off Pelican Point. No halibut for us today and had the whole bay almost to ourselves.

Andrew Forchini" You gotta love those jig fish. There's something to be said for enticing a fish to bite a goofy-looking chunk of steel, lead, and hair. Nice fish, and way to save the day, Paolo. 

      

   My reports are late, this time because I went on a fishing trip with Gage and Cameron. While we didn't catch what we wanted to (we never have yet) we had a great time on the Polaris Supreme. I have been wanting to try fishing a surface iron since I first heard of it and it was awesome. Thanks to Monkey the deckhand/co-captain for the coaching. I have never seen fish bite like the dorado did. 

 

   So I get this picture at about 10:30 this morning from the Shrimp Boat. "Woninnabox! And just had another hookup. 225 off bird, lots of bird action" Soon after, another text: "Two Inna box! Last was 23 inches but I'll take it! Tim has 2 also" So, bottom line, no halibut.

   Tim also ended up with limits, even though he took Steve Werlin. I'm sorry, I mean in spite of taking Steve. No, I mean, ... well, they know what I mean. They also caught their salmon limits in less than an hour out in 225' of water, 140' down. Their fish weren't huge, but hey, it's good action in October. We don't need big ones.

    So Harvest Time sent me a couple of pictures at 2:30 this afternoon: "Lingcod limit on one drop", "And a 25# king" and finally "Salmon was taken 15 minutes ago 220' off bird, 100 pulls, watermelon apex, no flasher." I guess some guys can catch the big ones after all. Maybe the big ones were waiting for the little ones to leave. Whatever the reason, that's a good day of fishing. But the main takeaway for today is: no halibut.

     Josh Feagin caught this 16 pound striper in the surf yesterday. He was using a Kastmaster pretty close to Sand Point.

   Lorca Rossman sent in this report yesterday :"Decided to give it a try today and was rewarded with my first October salmon.  Fished from bird to Elephant for limits of jellies as well as 18 and 24lb salmon.  Fish came on herring near the bottom in dark brown water, 90 and 60'.  Few radio fish, scattered in the same general area." I don't know how many jellies are in a limit but I'm pretty sure it's more than I want to catch. It's nice to see salmon tails sticking out of the box in October. Well done, sir.

     Swampy fished three days this week and sent over this report: "Afternoon Willy,

Halibut fishing has slowed a bit down there. Managed one a day till yesterday when we boated 3 to 15 #s. Bait was easy near pelican and we even caught a handful of mackerel. While fishing near 5 Brian (who caught and released a good silver Sunday)  pointed out a Bald Eagle chasing a seagull off of Toms point. I don’t think I have ever seen one down there. For the record it got away minus a couple feathers. Also saw a sunfish in the bay, kinda neat.

Till next time, Swampy"  I'm glad to see you found a flat fish without your name it on it. There were some other halibut caught in the bay, a few around Hog but most of the "action" was nearer the mouth of the bay. Nobody knocked 'em dead but most people had a fish in the boat. On the Dungeness crab front the domoic acid testing has checked about half the ports and so far all tests have come back clean except for one crab off of Duxbury and even he wasn't too filthy (46ppm with a warning level of 30ppm). We have gotten to go crabbing before with dirtier tests, so it looks like maybe the DA won't be the reason we don't get to go crabbing. I'm sure someone can find a different reason.

 

 

     Aside from Spaced Invader's limit of salmon there's not much to report. A solo limit before noon in October is still a pretty damn good report, though. I received two texts with photos. "Elephant 118' 70' OTW straight bait" and "Second fish came off the slide 80' 60'Otw straight bait herring". I believe that one other fish was lost by Invader at Elephant. There's a few fish out there. From the halibut report today, there's probably more salmon than halibut around. I heard of a halibut caught by Hog but not much more than that. 

     Yesterday Mike Miller and his brother found another, larger salmon. This one was caught in 150 feet of water off of the Trees near a huge bunch of working pelicans. So this must be the last salmon, then.

    No, wait, these must be the last salmon? Today Miller Time limited on salmon, catching them from Bird Rock down to the Keyholes. So I'm probably going to kill it by saying this, but looks like it ain't over yet. At least, not for Mike Miller and crew. 

    Dougie B. sent me this photo with the note :"Corcina 12 lbs First fish ever" I don't know how or where it was caught but it's about 12 pounds larger than the ones Gage and I caught while jigging for flatties today. Our four bites were not as good as Corcina's fish.