A few boats caught halibut today and a few others didn't. Josiah, here, didn't worry about that and just put bodies in the boat. The slightly larger halibut weighed 16.5 pounds. It's been hard to catch bait which makes it hard to catch halibut, but Josiah caught his bait, put them on the hooks, and reeled up the fish. I think I need to take Josiah fishing. Or, maybe, I need Josiah to take me fishing.

   Brandon aught this 25 pound halibut on the Tomales bar today. My understanding is that it bit within a couple minutes of the captain saying "There's no fish here." Perhaps a plaque with that saying should be mounted on the boat. 

   Who figured out the stripers were biting? These guys (and company). Today's take on the boat was four. They had eight yesterday. The fisherman on the left got shut out for two days but caught the first two today. The man on the right kinda didn't need any more but still managed a couple. His largest of the week ran 25 pounds and he caught a 17.5 pound halibut while casting off the beach on Thursday. This group comes out here for a week every year and usually show us something new while they fill their ice chests. The last couple of years were a little rough for them, but I think they redeemed themselves this year. I realize that a lot of valley guys aren't impressed by stripers, but we don't get that many. I'm somewhere close to twenty or more trips for a striper bite in the surf. This camp is leaving tomorrow with, I think, somewhere north of thirty stripers and none less than ten pounds. The bite is kind of petering out but the next full moon is coming and I just got a new jar of blackened fish seasoning. 

    There were a few boats that went out for salmon today. Ultimately, success was equivalent to distance ran. The guys that ran to the weather buoy area limited or ran out of bait (four trays!) just shy of limits. The guys that stayed inside of 220 feet had a few bites but no fish in the box. In between was in between. The salmon seem to be following my albacore rule for gas prices. Albacore leading indicator: The higher the gas price the likelier there will be a good albacore bite someplace far away. So far, this year looks awesome for many long runs.