Gage's "official" pronouncement that the halibut season in Tomales Bay is on may be a little premature. These folks found four on their second day of looking, none the first. I heard of one other boat with a few. Mostly, halibut fishermen had nothing. Halibut are definitely more active in warmer water and Tomales Bay warms from back to front and from top to bottom, so farther in is probably the key to numbers but not size. I did hear today that there were quite a few schools of bait near Marshall/Marconi, although the fellow relating that story had no fish to show. Bait doesn't always mean predatory fish are around. But you gotta look. I heard of a couple of bites on live jacksmelt on the North side of Hog Island but no fish. Gage says he caught them all. 

   One fellow ventured outside today for limits of rockfish and a touch of mal de mer. 'Twas a good day for both, but mostly the second one. Our hero returned to the bay for limits of Dungeness with conical rings near Marker 5. Why conicals? Because the trap time has passed us by. Maybe this fall the traps will return to us. I don't think CDFW checks for whales during red crab only season, so I'm guessing that even if the whales leave early the trap ban won't. Don't get too upset; the whales won't be leaving early. Why do I say that? Some secret knowledge? Nope. Good old pessimism. It rarely lets me down.

   I have heard a few reports of a few scattered salmon between Tomales Point and Elephant Rock in 190 to 220 feet of water, 80 to 100 feet down on the wire. They're here, but not like they are down South of us. Patience. They're coming, and they're only getting bigger. 

  One other thing: The clam pump ban is longer an emergency rule but a law of the land, or it will be when it goes in to full effect. The California Fish and Game Commission approved it as law but it still needs to pass muster with the lawyers. I think that they have done a pretty good job of calling out what is okay and what isn't. Here's a bit of the legalese: "(c) Gear restrictions. It shall be unlawful to use anything other than the following hand-operated devices to take clams: spades, shovels, hoes, forks, rakes, devices that use suction to remove clams commonly known as slurp guns or clam guns, or rigid pipes used to prevent the collapse of holes when digging for clams. It shall be unlawful to use any other device to take clams, including any hydraulic pump or other devices capable of liquifying sand. It shall be unlawful to possess a hydraulic pump, or other device, capable of liquifying sand to aid in the harvest of clams anywhere clams may be taken. It shall be unlawful to possess any such unauthorized device, except in a their permanent residence, concurrently with any clam. No instrument capable of being used to dig clams may be possessed between one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise, on any beach of this state, except tools and implements used in the work of cleaning, repairing or maintaining such beach when possessed by a person authorized by appropriate authority to perform such work." So the classic tools are still okay.