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