Not a busy day at the Landing today. We had a grand total of four boats go out. One went for red crab. I didn't get a report but I have a good feeling that they did well. The boat that tried for salmon came in with none but lost five. These fish are hot and big this year (don't Google those terms together) and are easy to lose. Their bites were on straight bait, no flashers. The first boat that tried for halibut caught one North of Hog. I went out this evening and tried for salmon in the outer bay and hooked nothing but jellies. At sundown I dropped a jig on the bar and caught a 26" halibut, not big but not a skunk, either. So, final tally, more action on salmon, more fish on halibut today. But not much of either. 

   If you ever wondered what a Fogal looked like with a 42 pound salmon , here's your answer. Kevin sent me a few better pictures and this is my choice for showing it off. Now it looks like a 40+. 

    Now kids, don't try this at home. It can give you an overbite if you do it incorrectly. Luckily, John, here, knows what he's doing. I mean, if he's going fishing with Joe Winn he obviously knows where it's at. This is John's first limit of halibut all caught on the jig. Which jig? That I don't know, but I saw a small variety in Joe's boat. Classic bucktail jigs (Hair Raisers), swimbaits, Pitbull Killer Jigs, tubes, even P-Line Laser Minnows all work. Should you go all-in on jigs and forego bait? Probably not, but jigging kills time while you're waiting for a bait bite and sometimes, the only bites come on the jig. Plus, if you catch a halibut on a jig you will annoy all of your buddies with stories about the jig bite. Probably, John will be insufferable for the next week. Cool. He earned it. 

     Rumors of the mooching bite being effective are, apparently, true. "26lb and 19lb mooching the Trees Sat. Mooching was 8 to 1 on trolling" If you have a relatively small area of fish, drifting slowly through it would surely be better than trolling past. Offering these well-fed, sluggish hogs an after-dinner mint  looks like a winning proposition.

 

    Today was a short day for Joe Winn and his crew but a 17 pound halibut a nice future batch of fish tacos made the short day worthy.

   Ron Johnson has ahold of fish number three, a 22 pounder, against medical advice. Ron's back is what doctors describe as "messed up", but when he heard that the fish were biting he had to come out. I'm pretty sure I don't condone it, but I guarantee that I understand it. 

    Jerrie and Tom Carter got a mooching lesson today from Jerry Knedel. I'm going to have to get one of those, too, I think. Jerrie's fish weighed 28 pounds and Tom's weighed 32. Yeah, I know. I don't think Tom believed it, either. Both fish were caught just below the Trees. 

 

     Mike Lincoln hooked this 35 pounder North of the Trees in 80 feet of water, 45 feet on the wire. It bit a charteuse Krippled Anchovy behind a small flasher and was half of a double before it was a single again. 

     Chad McLaughlin caught this salmon (14 pounds, I think I heard?) in the Trees/McClure's area. He was fishing with Dimitri Fogal. The Fogal name was on the lips of many today, but unfortunately for Dimitri it was Kevin Fogal's name and the story of his 42 pound salmon. Kevin was fishing the same area and had quite the audience admiring him. I requested photos:

   I had three guys come in the store looking for purple haze hootchies because some guy with a huge salmon caught on one, so I'm guessing that was Kevin's weapon. 

    Nick Nichols sent over this report from yesterday: "Hey Willie, Nick here.

Went out of Westside yesterday with Scott. Got four nice fish.
10, 18, 21 and 23 lbs
From Bodega it was at the beginning of ten mile, 30-40 foot of water, 25-30 on the downrigger. Bite was early afternoon and was done by 3:00.
All on Spoon again. (My rod but that's a secret - haha)

Hope all is well.

Nick" Apparently Nick and Kevin share not just the knack for salmon killing but also the ability to share information on what is working for them. Thanks, gents. Also, when you see Scott Mason fishing in shorts it must be some pretty darn nice weather. 

    Here's a report from Mike Weese: "Hey Willy,

Hammered the fish on Friday. Caught 4 by the trees by 7:30.  27,25,24,17 pounds. We almost released the 17 lber calling it small. Not many boats out. Lots of action. Saturday was a different story in the same area. We caught 2 by 9:30. 28 lbs and 17. Lots of boats. The fish seemed to have moved south, but there were lots of boats hooking up early by the trees.

Mike on the FisherKing"  Sorry about all of the boats. What kind of year are you having when you're considering releasing a 17 pounder, thinking that you could do better? The fishing does seem to be more consistent down on the beach and you've got to love that bouncing the sandy bottom, not knowing if you'll catch a salmon or a halibut. The sand bottom is also hugely more forgiving than the rocks at the Trees. There must piles of cannon balls down there. Nice job, Mike. Now Gage and I feel like slackers for taking so long to catch our limits on Thursday. 

    Speaking of trolling the beach for a mixed bag, Mike Mack sent a report: "4 kings today no toads but caught 23lb halibut on the lawsons scale. South of elephant. Beautiful day to be on the ocean perfect weather and fishing. Many thanks for awesome place to fish out of." The Trees was too crowded for Mike, so he hit the beach. I'm thinking it was a good call. 

 

 

    Alec is a good fisherman. Great? Working on it. Aren't we all? Even the great ones learn every trip. One thing Alec has learned is that if the fish are biting you'd better get out there. The great ones can make fish bite that don't want to. The rest of us (like Alec) are forced to catch them when they want to bite. And when they want to bite, get out there and fish. Repeat. Today, our Shrimp Boat captain landed a 53 pound limit between 8:00 and 9:00 AM. He launched at 7:00 and was visibly twitching as the boat was launching. Somebody has got it bad, and somebody has learned the importance of the bite. Any blacksmith will tell you to strike that iron when it's hot, and Alec has noticed a red glow around around the Trees. For him, at least. 

    John Rosasco must have heard of Alec's 53 pound limit and thought, "I can do better." He was right. His 38 and 20 pound salmon add up to a 58 pound limit. He had to wait until Alec left until he caught a fish, but apparently patience is a virtue. Duly noted. Nice fish. Sorry that I dropped your salmon after weighing it. It appears that I have a weight limit and John's fish exceeded it. There were other salmon caught today near the Trees and further South on McClure's and possibly Abbott's again. The bite is slowing and probably won't be as good tomorrow but the quality is such that one fish should cover you. 

    The bay has had a recent influx of halibut. The fishing still ain't good but there's more options. There was a boat with five halibut today that spent most of his day fishing near Hog. Another boat had three. There's some fish, but these guys normally get more, so it's only better than it has been. 

    

   

 

    Maybe it is Gage. No, I can't allow myself to believe it. I do believe that we are incredibly lucky. This morning he and I caught our limits of salmon weighing 21, 26, 27 and 30 pounds, by 8:10 AM. The first fish hit the deck at 7:10. We fished just below the Trees in 70 to 95 feet of water. When we arrived there were pelicans, Murres, and seagulls all feeding on squid and anchovies. The anchovies were flipping at the surface and it looked like squalls of rain were moving through. By 8:00 there were only a handful of Murres and seagulls left. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that it may be an early bite. All out fish bit purple haze hootchies behind flashers at 25 to 30 pulls on a 2 pound ball at 1 to 1.5 knots (according to the fishfinder they were 50 to 60 feet down). Other boats that arrived early-ish were rewarded as well. 

   Alec Bennett on the Shrimp Boat had other things to do today (responsible things, probably) but couldn't handle his wildly vibrating phone with pictures of fish only right there.  He ended up with these two to 25 pounds and learned another important lesson about checking your leader for nicks between fish. All his action was between 10:00 and 11:00 AM, so there's hope for those that like to sleep in.  Jerry Knedel also caught his limit there, as well as Sean Bottomley.

    Sean Bottomley switched to mooching to catch three of his four (he had a guest). Also mooching nearby was Marina Tweed, who landed a 42 pounder, her personal best. The water was super dark and weedy, so mooching is probably the smarter method. If it catches monsters like this (and apparently, it does) it may be worth consideration. Nice job, Marina. I'll bet it took you for a stroll around the boat a few times. The Trees was not the only bite today. Abbott's had limits for at least a few of the intrepid fishermen that ignored the NWS Zone forecast and bet on the pinpoint. Pinpoint 1, Zone 0. I'll bet that there were more bites than that going off up here today. It appears that a fresh batch of salmon is moving through on their way to the river. Of our four, two had orange flesh and bellies full of squid and anchovies and two had ruby red flesh and less in their stomachs. Our guess? Some new fish came into the area and started feeding and that kickstarted the others that had been sitting there on the bottom thinking about how they shouldn't swim after a meal. Why would full fish bite? FOMO. When you suffer from Fear Of Missing Out, that's your reptile brain pulling your strings. 

    On the halibut front. they're still biting. After dropping off our salmon at the Landing (thank you for the borrowed ice chest, Tim) we popped out to Buoy "02" for a dozen anchovies. After a pleasant bout of bat ray action on the bar we retired to Gage's spot from yesterday. The fish were still there (less of them; Gage caught a few) and we ended up landing two before noon. I lost a personal best of three. One I saw. We missed another three bites. The two we landed sucked the little anchovies deep. My guess is the ones we didn't catch were little, as they couldn't gobble the bait as easily as the larger ones, and also because of the sour grapes rule. We saw a couple of others caught. We left a kayaker in charge of our lucky crab pot that most of our bites came by. If you read this, please let me know if you caught there. I'm looking for redemption by proxy. Gage gave me a pretty hard stink eye after that third fish on-and-off. 

 

   The big salmon from McClure's yesterday does (or did) exist. Ira McKern landed this 41.3 pound king on a green RSK in 50 feet of water. Your mileage may (will almost surely) vary. That is a pig, though. 

   Here's a picture of a Saturday fish I lost in my email. "My  friend Beau caught this salmon yesterday off of bird rock with George on the SandyAnne 

Richard"  Thank you for the picture, Richard. So there are a few salmon being caught. Today there were some fish caught down on the beach. It sounded like Abbott's or the first Parking lot. A few guys did well. That is a kind of typical statement, I guess, but that statement is also kind of typical of fishing in general. Whether the fish stay there or decide to bite tomorrow is anybody's guess. Tomales Point to Elephant has had just enough fish caught there for us to know that there is still a possibility of catching a salmon there, just not a good possibility. But like Lloyd Christmas said, "So you're telling me there's a chance. Yeah!"

   Well, this just firms it up. Now there's no more halibut left in the bay. Gage caught these halibut right by Hog Island in about 20 minutes. It took him over two hours of fishing to find the school and get his first bite, but he quickly kept going back over the spot with biting fish. Incredibly, he landed three and lost two others. So, there's at least two other halibut in the bay. These halibut liked live anchovies. Gage caught his bait just outside of the mouth of the bay but other people today caught some 'chovies near the yellow buoy, so options exist. Either some fresh fish moved in or Gage can catch the fish that nobody else can. I have to believe in the fresh fish theory. I think, from his smile, that he believes the other.

 

   I caught these two halibut this evening between 7:00 and 7:20. They bit live anchovies on the bar. I also heard of two other boats landing two halibut each in the afternoon near Hog, so maybe I'm not that special. Okay, the fact is, I'm not that special. Honestly, I'm probably prouder of catching the three anchovies than the halibut as the anchovies were harder to get. I should have got a picture. Oh, and you know how sometimes people say, "I caught some anchovies but I didn't use them because they were too small,"? These halibut didn't realize that the bait was too small. Stupid fish. In other news, I heard of a large salmon caught on McClure's today (hoping for confirmation) but other than that and one other halibut caught possibly at the bar, the day belonged to rockfish. Again. Go team rockcod!
 

 Well, what can you say for today except for, "Thank God for rockfish." Generally I try to save that sentiment for rockcod fried in McCormick's English Style Fish and Chips batter (If you haven't tried it, don't. Not trying it is like not trying crack.). As rockfish were all that was landed here today, I guess we should all be thankful for them. I heard of no halibut or salmon, but I did hear of a boat that landed a huge fish off of Dillon Beach that was white and took two guys to lift the net back into the boat. That fish could have been a halibut, striper or WSB. The boat that caught it left after landing it. Oh wait, was that a secret? Secrets are probably hard to keep when you're making them in front of a small town. Small towns have no secrets. They pretend, but no. The boat left immediately after landing the fish which seems like WSB but really means nothing. I trolled Dillon Beach this evening for a grand total of one bushel of eelgrass and no fish. There is a lot of bait there but nothing eating them that I could see.

   Vance Staplin holds the only salmon landed at Lawson's Landing today. He and Ron Johnson trolled it up at Kehoe in 30 feet of water. It was their only salmon bite. There were a few salmon landed in the fleet but it wasn't too many. Rockcod took a bit of a beating today as the salmon really didn't want to play. In case you (foolishly) don't read the comments, here's one from today: "Caught one 15lb at McClures on Apex near bottom. Not a lot of catching today but handful of boats had one fish. Radio 30lb caught at tomales buoy. Lots of squid at top of ten mile. A afternoon bite between tomales buoy and the Estero with decent bait marked in area. Beats working or sitting at home sideline" Well said, Unknown. On the halibut side, well, not much happened. The couple of guys that tried for them didn't have any success. I've heard murmurs that would seem to indicate that there's more fish around than you hear about, and I believe that those murmurs are true. However, it would only seem to indicate that guys in the know are catching difficult fish and the rest of us, well, aren't. That's hardly news. 

   Here's the picture missing from yesterday's report. "Peter Kim and family with their 21 lb salmon caught at bird 75 otw 80  ft water" Peter's GPS must be blacked out in front of Bird with all of the trolling track lines. That fish is a result of skill and persistence. 

 

    No pictures today. There were four salmon landed that I heard of. Mike Lincoln, Peter Kim, Mike Miller and Jake Showaker had a salmon a piece on board today. Mike Miller and Jake Showaker had bonus halibut. There were also rockfish (there's always rockfish when the salmon is slow). I heard of a few fish caught North of the Head as well, but nobody from here went there. All of the few fish caught were, again, between Tomales Point and Elephant, and three of them for sure were Trees to the Point. As the water starts to warm again, one hopes that the anchovies return to the inshore. The fish to North should start to really trickle in on their way to the Sacramento River system and baitfish in close could help to pull some of those fish in range of us. For the most part, the easy part of the fishing season is over (my favorite part!) and now starts the real grind with occasional bursts of awesome, if things go well. I heard of one 30" halibut from the bay today. Not spectacular, but not nothing either. Swampy left us a few.

    Here's a photo from yesterday that made me happy. Tim was back out on the water with Christine in Stinky. I may not have caught any fish yesterday, but all was right was right with the world again, anyhow.

    Today's report was better for salmon, not as good for halibut. A lot of zeroes again, but Miller Time had a salmon again, Peter Kim and Curly DiBella had two salmon ( 22 and 20 pounds, respectively) before 8:30 AM, and Jake Showaker caught two, lost two. All action was in the usual places, between McClure's Beach and Tomales Point in 60 to 90 feet of water. It ain't red hot, but there's some fish around and a very, very few of them are biting quite nonchalantly. The best thing to be said for the salmon fishing was that it was better than the halibut fishing today. I heard of no halibut, but then again, Swampy didn't fish today. Coincidence? I think not.

      First, the good news: "Evening Willy,

Wednesday was a tough bite. One fish for 3 poles. Today was a better day. 6 fish to 20 pounds. You saw where we were, south of Bodega, North of The Gate. See ya next time. 

Thanks,

Swampy" Oh, I saw you. I doubt that my stopping there would have helped. Gage and I caught the opposite of this picture. First, we went outside and skunked for salmon. Then we headed for the bay so we could get our halibut skunk on. Hopefully that's out of the way now. The salmon fishing has been funny (not ha ha funny, strange funny)with some guys catching them one day and not the next. We had been pretty damned lucky to avoid the striped smelly kitty so far this year but our time has finally come. We have good company today. There were salmon caught today, not boatloads for sure, but a few guys got some nice fish. I heard that Miller Time caught one. He and Swampy had both had a bit of a hard time earlier but it looks like things are back where they belong. When I told Gage that Swampy and Miller caught today he replied "Good for them those are they guys I rooted for." I was a little disappointed that he hadn't been rooting for us, but otherwise I agree with his sentiment. "If not us, them." There were definitely other salmon caught out there today but they way boats were running back and forth I'm guessing that it was pretty spotty for most. Good on ya' if you got 'em. Don't feel bad if you didn't. 

   Also, just saw this: Looks like they're marlin fishing off of Oregon now.

 

     Debbi Sanders caught this 13 pound halibut today, her first. It was caught by Marker 7 on a live jacksmelt. The weather was good early today when this fish was caught , but the South wind blew hard for most of the middle of the day. Conditions in the bay were bad and in the ocean, abusive. Still, a few hardy souls ventured out. Swampy picked up a halibut in the bay today, and Peter Kim caught a 15-ish pound salmon near Bird in 80 feet of water, 70 feet down on a straight stuck anchovy. Peter had a couple of others on earlier in the day that didn't make it to the boat, so there's apparently a few fish still in the area. The water is cold (52º or so) and fairly green and clear (too clear for good salmon trolling in the shallows but not clear enough for halibut divers, I hear) with a bit of bait sticking to the bottom in the usual places. The South wind is supposed to remain with us for a while. I, personally, look forward to that as I haven't taken a beating from that direction for something like a two weeks. I'm overdue, for this season. Tomorrow's my day, so I'll put in my mouthguard and see you out there.

 

 

       There's nothing like a good Northwest wind to limit the catch. These are the only game fish we've seen here for two days. "Tanner and Ken Young from Lockford CA with 2 nice fish at hog back drifting with bullheads" No fish for these guys yesterday with a fast drift and dead bait. Today, after a talk with Gage, they fished live bait and ran the engine in and out of gear to slow the boat, and look what happened. Nice work, gents. 

       Here's a report with a message: "Willy,

Wasn’t sure how to contact you. I read the fishing report often and I thought maybe some of the readers (any divers out there?) might want to know of a close encounter with a large GWS on the bar today. I was diving in about 15ft of water inside the bar and had a 15ft female come in a little to close for comfort (6ft away) and give me the stink eye. She did a slow cruise in front of me and as she disappeared into the vis started to turn a little bit back towards me. Yelled to my dive partner, we both jumped back in the boat, and decided to call it a day. It’s probably long gone by now, but for the divers that may read your blog I thought they might like to know. Anybody who dives out there knows they are around, and have probably been close to them before without knowing. But in poor visibility it’s the last thing I actually wanted to see coming towards me. Only way to get over it is to jump back in, so once the next good report comes in I’ll be back out there! Divers, be safe. Fisherman, stay in your boat. And Willy, keep up the great reports!
Cheers,

-Frequent Diver" When the mighty beast is close enough for you to tell it's a she, you're too close. The fact that you were calm enough to look for claspers makes you a cool-headed badass. I'm pretty sure my vision would have been obscured by the brown cloud I would automatically generate in that situation (it ain't ink) as well as tears of fear and a flop sweat of nervous perspiration. Glad you're okay and, other halibut divers, you knew that they were there, and now you know they are there. Also, did you notice that Frequent Diver didn't mention how many halibut he and his buddy had speared? Fishermen have been catching a few there, but I'm thinking that spearing halibut may be more complicated for a bit when you keep jerking your head up to look at shadows of kelp, or baitfish, or nothing at all because the bogeyman is in your head. It's hard to be the lion and the gazelle.

    Here's a picture of all the salmon caught here today. Peter Kim and his son caught two to 25 pounds at Bird Rock today. Peter has been inviting me to go out with him and show him how it's done but I'm thinking I might go out with him and learn how it's done. Peter has a far better track record than I. My record is longer, no doubt, but he has a heck of a lot less zeroes in his history. This Kim family are all serious trouble if you're a fish. We had one successful halibut boat today with at least three fish. I was told that they could only catch two anchovies but both of the live baits caught halibut and jigs caught as well. You can tell when you you're in the second half of the season when the bait gets harder to catch than the halibut. We had nine launches today and those are the only fish I heard of. Sloooww fishing but the wind is blowing now and forecast to blow pretty hard for a few days. I guess we'll shake up the Etch-A-Sketch and see what things look like later this week.

       Chris Thorton of Granite Bay caught this 37 pounder, the largest landed here today. He was fishing with Robert Rath. Robert had two salmon in the boat today and tied for high salmon numbers with a Kim brother (Peter). A few others had one salmon and quite a few had none. The salmon remain fickle and seemingly choose their dinner at random (unless it's your offer they bite. Then it's skill). A lot of good fishermen are coming up empty on many trips this year. I'm not naming names, but for many, many fishermen 2021 is humbling. The fact that 30+ pound toads (tyees) lurk out there makes it twice as frustrating. The only sorta redeeming factor is that most of the salmon went way North (they recently passed or are currently passing Fort Bragg) and as their 'nads start to itch they will be turning back South and passing by us again, hopefully on an inshore track. We could see some jumbos trickle by here on their way back to riverine disappointment through the end of the season. Or not. Fish are weird.

    Sorry, I didn't catch the names of this fishing crew, but the striper weighed 17 pounds and bit a sand crab in the surf. The intent was surfperch but everybody seemed okay with the alternate. Excellent fish, and nice work landing it on surfperch gear. They are easy to lose that way. On the bay halibut front, most of the reports were bad with bad equaling zero fish. One boat landed five, though. No pictures and no on-the-record comment, but my understanding is that he fished all over, from the bar to South of Hog. There are a few fish, apparently, but persistence, mobility and finesse are necessary to catch many of them. Lesson? Do many drifts, don't repeat drifts that don't produce, and when the bite is slow, size your terminal tackle down.

   Here's a photo and report from earlier this week: "Caught this 35#  beast off elephant the other day. Took me 35 minutes to land. Fishing solo .Note size 14 boot as perspective. 14 LB  test with little Loomis steelhead rod. Plug cut herring.  So tell me Oh Great One, I’m using a two hook setup. Guy on the dock said nix . Checked the regs and it says 2 hooks N of Pt. Conception are a going thang. Am I flouting the rules? I bow before your knowledge .

Peter Prunuske"  I'm tearing up. You bow before my knowledge? My ignorance is legendary. But, I can say, two hooks are totally legal for salmon and when trolled need not even be affiliated with the same lure or bait if you can figure out a way to do that. " No more than two single-point, single-shank barbless hooks shall be used, and no more than one rod per angler when fishing for salmon or fishing from a boat with salmon on board" The only distance rule is invoked when mooching when a 5" limit between your barbless circle hooks is the law. Guy on the dock is wrong. He probably also thinks gaffing salmon is illegal. He should read a book. Nice fish, and notice: No adipose fin. That's a chipped hatchery fish. I've heard that hatchery fish don't get big, but apparently nobody told your big-boned friend.

   Here's a report from Branden Mendoza from today: "Hey Willy. Trolled around today just north of elephant rock managed 1 keeper one lost. Our keeper was 32lbs gilled and gutted. Overall great day. Got it in 72ft of water 70ft on the wire with crippled anchovy. "I would totally say that that qualifies as a one-fish great day, absolutely. It sounds like rocks were pounded today, successfully. Nice job. It is way easier to lose gear  than catch fish by doing that. You've done at least one of those things (but I bet you did both.  We rock pounders don't buy gear so much as rent it). 

     To my knowledge (and my knowledge is limited, especially today) this would be the largest fish landed at the Landing today. Chris Brown's salmon weighed 36 pounds. Gage's fish went 22. Those were the only salmon on the boat today. We danced with the fleet today between the North end of McClure's Beach and Tomales Point in 55 to 80 feet of water. My downrigger balls are turning mushroom-shaped from pounding rocks. 

    Overall, it seemed pretty slow today. How slow was it? Eddie Kim came in with only two fish for two fishermen. The big one weighed 26 pounds and Eddie and Reverend Ron put on quite a show in the middle of many boats in a team effort to land it. Eddie will tell you that it was a grind today. He also sent me a photo to illustrate where he's catching the fish.

   This is Eddie Kim's new downrigger ball. In three days of fishing his shiny new ball now looks like he's been using it to hammer crooked nails into very hard wood. Not to worry, though, this kind of fishing will eventually lead to the weight having a new home on the bottom of the sea. It sure beats being skunked, though. 

   I didn't get any halibut reports today except for hearing of one from the bar. There were three guys diving there this afternoon but I don't know if they had victory or just a long view of sand. 

 

   Big fish of the day goes to Eddie Kim with his 30 pounder, his largest of the season. He and Doug limited again with all their fish coming between 10:30 and 2:30. Steve Werlin was in before 1:00 with his and another fisherman's limits of salmon plus a halibut. Miller Time had had for fish as well. After that, the numbers dropped with a couple of boats with three fish (Marisa Kay, Odyss)and a few others with ones. The guys without fish just didn't want to clean their boats. It was a typical day for this season with some guys catching and others, not. Some very talented fishermen went home with no fish today. What's up with the fish this year? I don't know, and if I did you wouldn't read it on a free blog, that's for sure.

 

     The first boat back today was Eddie Kim and Doug Bagley with their limits. All four fish on straight anchovies near the bottom between Bird and Tomales Point in 60ish feet. There were a lot of boats fishing in that area today and the vast majority did not do as well. Doug thinks that it is his luck that makes the salmon bite but I think there may be a little Kim magic involved as well. The largest of their fish weighed 26 pounds. We didn't weigh the smallest.

      Second boat to return was the Shrimp Boat. Ethan Brook's larger fish weighed in at 25.5 pounds. They were fishing close enough to Eddie Kim to photograph him fighting fish. 

     Ralph Ham caught this 20 pound salmon out in the fleet of boats that ran from Bird to well North of the Tomales Buoy (02). There were acres of boiling anchovies out there, many of which found their way into Tomales Bay. This could lead to some good halibut fishing if the halibut decided to follow them in, but at this point of my failed predictions this year, I'll just guess that probably nothing will come of it. Best case, it'll be easier to catch your live bait. 

     It's not that there's no halibut, there's just not that many. "Hi Willy,

Your blue lawsons landing “bite me” hooded sweatshirt was my lucky charm today, as well as the 10” live jacksmelt.
Later,

Andrew Forchini" I wondered where my sweatshirt went. No wonder I can't catch. I'll bet the smelt and Andrew had more to do with catching the halibut than the sweatshirt did. 

     The Shrimp Boat was first to return today and they brought a salmon with them. They left after most boats had launched, dropped in, five minutes later hooked this 20 pound salmon, twenty minutes later landed it, and came in, because it was ROUGH. Supposedly, "Wind from the South, fish shut their mouth," but today a few decided to bite, even though the South wind howled. The Landing recorded gusts to 24 knots at 2:30 this afternoon and it was worse out at sea. Everybody returning today seemed real happy to be back, fish or not, but the guys with fish seemed happier. 

   Like this guy. Jigger John (Troller John today) caught his limit to 26 pounds today. He fished from Bird to Tomales Point in 60 feet of water and was trolling at over five knots by his second fish, not because he thought that was a good idea but because he couldn't go any slower with the wind pushing him. Luckily, Apexes fish well at almost planing speed. 

    Eddie Parsons was fishing near Trolling John and didn't catch as many fish but seemed okay with his single 33 pound salmon. I probably wouldn't have thrown it back, either. To hook a fish today was hard. To land a fish today was way hard. To do it by yourself was really hard and required a bit of luck. To catch a limit by yourself? You should have bought a lottery ticket. Nah, money is overrated. Fish stories last forever (or they seem to by the fourth or fifth time around). 

   Halibut sucked. In other halibut news, there will be a Zoom meeting about the California halibut fishery on Thursday, August 12. A little info:

 Exploring Scaled Management for the California Halibut Fishery Three-Part Public Webinar 

Webinar #1: Focused Discussion for the Recreational Sector Thursday, August 12, 2021 | 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM PDT 

Join webinar here (Optional) Phone 1-669-900-6833 | Webinar ID 251 221 9359 Zoom will be used for this webinar series. Please join 5-10 minutes early to ensure you are able to join. Visit the Zoom Help Center for support and https://zoom.us/support/download to download Zoom. For troubleshooting support during the webinar, email Avery at avery@strategicearth.com. 

Webinar #1 Goals 

• Engage with California’s ocean community members interested in learning about and becoming involved in CDFW’s scaled management process for California halibut. 

• Provide the opportunity for webinar participants to engage in a focused discussion about the California halibut recreational fishery with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and others interested in the recreational fishery to explore shared priorities and concerns for the long-term sustainability of the species, ecosystem, and fishing community. 

• Develop an understanding of CDFW’s current priorities for assessing and managing California halibut across sectors and statewide as part of implementing the 2018 Marine Life Management Act (MLMA) Master Plan for Fisheries. 

• Share next steps to design a science-based, stakeholder-involved scaled management process for California halibut that reflects the needs of the fishery and priorities of the ocean community

The entire informational is here: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=193705