Tom Treadway and family caught their limits of salmon (eight fish for four fishermen) just below the Head in ~250' of water. They could see the Bodega Buoy, so I'm thinking that they were near 15 by 5. That's a lot closer than 23 by 10. Nice work Treadways. Andrew's Deplorables had four for three fishermen at 22/23 by 10. We didn't have a lot of boats running out there for salmon today, so reports are scarce, but with the little info we have it seems that the game might be on again. Go salmon! The halibut were a bit slower in Marshall today. Lots of bites for most fishermen but not that many stuck. There's a few halibut entering the bay, it seems, so we may see action around Hog Island pick up (if anybody fishes there). The past few days have seen a few halibut caught from the shore on Sand Point. Only a few, but any seems like a lot. There were a few stripers caught today too, and not by Gage. The horror.

 

    What did Curly DiBella want for his birthday? Limits of salmon.  And that's what he and the rest of Andrew's Deplorables got today. They got a tip to try at 23 and 10, kinda off of Carmet in 260 feet of water. It worked. Keepers came from 60 pulls down to 145 feet on the wire. They were getting doubles when it really lit up.  That's when they thought, "You know who'd really like this?"

      Yes, Eddie Kim would, and he did. It didn't take long for two limits. Eddie may have given his friend from San Diego a false impression of how salmon fishing works. It often isn't easy and it sure hasn't been lately. There were a few others caught south of Bodega Head but the bite wasn't nearly as good. The halibut bite in the bay was still slow for keepers. 

 

 

    Many boats fished for halibut by Marshall today. A few caught up to four. Many caught zero. Some had one to three, but the zeroes were in the plurality. Hog Island had a worse record. So, just to confuse things, after no fish at Marshall, Hog, and points in between, Chris Lawson and Gina Kindlespire fished near Marker Five for two fish to 17 pounds. The big one was caught by Gina, as if you didn't already know. Both fish landed and three fish lost were all caught on Bigfoot Baits tube jigs. In the words of

 Mr. Lawson, " I'll be Goddamned. They work."

    Gage looks good with this fish, and it bit a Redrum tube jig, but I caught this one and he gaffed it. For a change. We were trying for stripers this evening and failed. This made the failure much easier to accept. On the salmon front, there's rumors of salmon just above the MPA. There's even thinner rumors of fish in close near McClure's. The fish should be here, and may be here, but some pretty good fishermen have struck out recently and I haven't seen the fish, so I'm not dropping everything and running. They'll be here soon, probably. Maybe. 

    The salmon fishing seemed slow on Tuesday but Wednesday really slowed down. The only local fish I heard about was this one. According to the Tomales Outlaw, "We were the only boat at 15x5 and this was the only salmon there as well." So, if you were thinking about heading out to that location, it is now empty. It's rumored that Mr. Outlaw may have rubbed Doug's belly but that's only a rumor. The salmon bite has been good far to the northwest on the 38º 32' line or so. Timber cove? Far. The salmon still aren't in the shallows but Gage says they're coming.

    Probably.

     With salmon fishing dead and halibut fishing only slightly better, Gage decided to take his visiting guest fishing for stripers. Over the last two days they caught six and missed twice as many bites. The largest weighed 31 pounds yesterday and 25+ today (released). Pieter of Redrum baits had a good time.

 

     Today's heroes (well, most days, really) were Eddie Kim and Doug Bagley.  As the salmon bite is still dead (deader than yesterday, even) the two salmon they caught (to 25 pounds) was two more than anybody else here today. Eddie has skills and Doug has luck, so I'm guessing that when Eddie wasn't running gear he was likely rubbing Doug's belly for luck. Probably almost started a fire. Whatever works. Doug's belly will likely get a workout in the next week, as the local bite has died completely. These fish were caught about five miles apart, not on some hot spot. A few boats got some at the Russian River and a few more caught even more even further north. Will it last? My guess (and it is only that) is that these deep water fish will continue their northern journey. Everything seems to be about a month late, so if that's true, salmon should appear in the shallows in the next two weeks. Unfortunately there's no law that they have to run the beach, so we shallow water guys may be screwed, but hope shines eternal.

    The halibut bite was slightly less bad, as a few fish were caught back by Marshall. High boat that I spoke with (Miller Time) had three. Frank Green (my personal halibut hero) had two. Frank's boat should have had limits (it's Frank, for the love of God) so I'll declare halibut as "Slow".

   Here's the email I was expecting but not in a good way: "First time ever fishing Dillon Beach. Three keeper stripers in 30 min. Just north of the main beach in front of Kailua Way. Caught on tins during a bait run up the beach, right around the high slack tide last Sunday morning. I didn't have a scale or tape but the biggest was about 36". That's my size 13 shoe in the pictures for scale.

I'm out there frequently and haven't seen anyone casting for stripers before. Hopefully people know they're out there! My first West Coast strippers...

Chris" So there you go. It's that easy. Stripers are just washing up on the beach because nobody is fishing for them. Or...... Your timing was impeccable. For over three years the stripers have been mostly vacant. Now they're here. Live it up while you can.

 

    Yesterday was mostly awesome for salmon fishermen. There were guys returning, limited out, by noon. Double Trouble had 12 salmon in three hours of fishing, then caught limits of rockfish (they like cleaning fish, apparently). They were out farther than most (16 by 8) but some guys did well as close as 15 by 3. There were huge schools of anchovies that would black out the fishfinder for five minutes of trolling. That's a lot of tiny fish. I said "were" because today they were mostly gone. The fantastic bite of yesterday moved to off of the Russian River. One of the few boats that caught salmon today made the run up there for a salmon in the box and salmon fed to a sea lion. The question is, will they be there tomorrow? Or will they be someplace closer to Fort Bragg? The salmon bite really died in the afternoon yesterday and did not recover today. A few friends and I have a group text for fishing info. Today's texts read like a suicide note. It's not often that I'd rather be working than fishing, but today I didn't feel too bad about being on the beach.

     I got a text today from Joe Winn with these photos: "The halibut bite was tough this year but we have nothing to complain about, thanks again for the tray bait and numbers." The numbers were easier to get than the bait. We have a couple of dozen trays of anchovies left, and after that it looks like we'll be fishing herring, junk, or catching and killing anchovies. Joe's success is atypical, but Joe and his crew are fish killers, so not unexpected. Any three species day (not counting rockfish) is a pretty good day.

    Gage sent me a photo of an even luckier guy: "Dave from Santa Rosa. Mid-teen halibut from the surf on a Kastmaster" Beach halibut? That's bucket list. Nice job Dave. I'm jealous.

Mara Nursement and Rich Chapin followed a tip late in the day up to the Russian River and caught this salmon and lost another to a sea lion before having to run home.

      The forecast for today was pretty good. The reality was somewhat different. At the weather buoy this morning it was gusting into the 30's and the seas were 10 feet at 7 seconds. No bueno. Most of the boats that went out turned around and went in the bay for halibut.

    One of the top halibut boats today was driven by Ron Johnson, who sent this report: "Grant Rose had the hot stick today with a couple Butts in the teens." The boats that fished Marshall had 0 to 5 up to 28 inches long. Lots of shorts. There are a few fish between the bar and Hog, which, I believe, is where these fish came from. 

    A few boats did stick it out for salmon. The fish were biting out where it was roughest (how do they know?). Mike Mack had the best catch numbers here and he sent this picture and report: "Limits on 16-6 to 15-5. 260' fishing 70' to 150' hoochie and bait. 1 Spanish mackerel. Very sloppy out there today." If Mr. Mack is saying it was sloppy then the weather was probably closer to godawful. They lost more fish than they caught (everybody out there did. With the boats bucking around you were lucky to stay in the boat while fighting a fish, much less keep the fish on the line). Nice job, Mike. Way to earn them. 

 

    Kaitlyn Simpson caught this 22 pound salmon today. The salmon bite was slower and farther out (where the wind was stronger) but there were still a few fish caught closer in. Nobody really tried in close, so it can't be confirmed that there is or is not salmon in the shallows. By the calendar they're here. But somebody needs to fish in close and find out. And then tell. The inshore is vacant. 

    Dave Prater caught a limit of halibut to 24 pounds. I don't know where he caught them but they don't look like Marshall fish. I will ask him tomorrow. * Question sort of answered. Not Marshall but not saying, either.

    

  Trip Plumb sent me this report: "Wednesday was great. 4 in  1.5 hours. 22 lbs" He and Rich Chapin killed 'em. These guys know a bit about salmon catching. 

     My day was spent on the water so I didn't get many fish stories. I can say that Gage caught this 22 pounder today at 38º 15' by 123º 05' (yes, 15 by 5). In fact, our boat limited for three people by 11:00. We had two fish in the box by 10:00, then the bite started for us. Outside of us the bite started earlier, but Eddie Kim and our boat only started getting multiple hook-ups after 10:00. But after 10:00 you wouldn't want to fall in the water as the salmon were biting everything. Even.... 

   .... tube jigs that I was throwing. After losing my fish in a double, I grabbed my jig rod and cast it out as we started trolling again. I lost my first hookup on the jig but landed this one. Gage is right. The salmon will bite tube jigs and when they do.....it's awesome. This one was on a box stock RedRum tube and so was my other hit and miss, but Chris Brown got a big one to the boat (and then it broke his leader) on one of his jigs. 

    The Kims have been hurting the fish. Eddie, Harry and Lincoln Kim limited out just after us (we had a one fish lead when the bite started). They smacked them yesterday, too. Today, most salmon boats limited. They're here.

    This is not one of the salmon boats, but it is an overloaded vessel. These guys were going clamming last week and I grabbed a photo because, damn. As far as I know, they lived. Serendipity. 

 

    Alec Bennett caught these salmon by 9:00 AM. In his earliest fishing days, our Alec wasn't known for his early rising. The late Bob King was kind enough to take Alec fishing and was, let's say disappointed, that Alec was late to go fishing. A lot. Bob was not the only late one. Now Alec is up early and waiting, visibly twitching, on his fishing partners. Karma is a bitch. Landing a 15 and 24 pounder by yourself in a couple of hours fishing is not. Go Alec, and by extension, go Bob.

    The next best fish today was landed by Jim Alexander. The (Evil?) twins landed twelve salmon yesterday by noon, but today were not able to limit, mainly due to lost fish, and that due to a combination of energetic fish and rough water. Tomorrow will be rougher, as it is my day off. Surf's up!

    The salmon guys that went early had a bumpy ride but limited early. The salmon guys that went later caught fish but didn't limit, at least the guys from here. The best action was up by 38º 15' by 123º 05' (15 by 5) but there were pockets of fish scattered around. At least one salmon was landed in 105' of water, so Tomales Outlaw's prediction may come true. Halibut? The twins caught a bunch by Marshall a few days ago and a buddy did well there yesterday, but today the boats I spoke with had zero to one halibut. It ain't good, but there's possibilities. 

 

    As you may have heard by now, the salmon bite got really, really good here. It's still out there a ways, today at 15 and 5 or so (with other bites at 15 and 6, 14 by 3, 13 by 3, etc. There's a few hungry fish around and if you find them it is happiness) but everything is moving. Tomorrow the locations (and the weather) will be different. Unless it isn't. Unpredictability is the only predictable thing. But some guys did very well. Here's a few of their stories:

    Evil Twins, featuring the Alexander twins and Larry Varela plus special guests, landed limits of twelve salmon and were home in about three hours today. They didn't have Gage to lay on their fish for a picture, but that's probably better, in my opinion. Nothing over 20 pounds but most of the fish weighed 18 to 19 pounds. Yesterday these guys trolled up 14 (for five guys) halibut in the bay. They may be killers. Two days of fishing the salt this season and they are one fish away from perfect limits.

     Mike Lincoln also had his second day on the water here today. His big one weighed 22 pounds. Well done, Mike.

    I still don't get tired of seeing members of the old "10 dog" camp catching lots of big fish. That's what they did, and that's what they still do. Ron Johnson and Mike Miller landed these 23 and 24 pound salmon around 14 and 3 today. They aren't too upset about missing the fleet fishing to their northwest.

    Margo Cooper caught the largest fish landed here today, a 25 pound halibut that ate a live bait south of Hog. Not the place one would expect a large fish, yet still it was there. It's good that the fish don't read this report and find out where they're not supposed to be.

   Here's my fish from the evening of the 18th. It took about 45 minutes to catch a 22 and a 15 pounder at 14 by 3. Eighty feet down on the flasher/hootchie combo. It took longer to drive around the campground, bragging, than it did to catch them. Done. I woke up and finished writing. Good night.

 

     No shallow water salmon yet again today (will somebody please tell them they're overdue?) but there were a few caught in seriously rough water. Dangerous, even. Not the fish, the weather. The Keilman crew caught two. I didn't get the Mack report but they were there and aren't afraid of rough water, so I imagine that they may have had a fish or two. I'm hoping that the lack of fish means that some of the fish pushed in towards the beach, but there's no evidence of that being so. Still, Mr. Keilman and the rest of us can dream.

    Here's Luis Osorio with his 22 pound halibut caught south of Hog Island on a jig today. It was Luis's first jig halibut and perhaps his first halibut ever. If that is true, then Luis peaked early. There were two other halibut on the boat but none as impressive.

    Mitch Hamilton sent in a report from Saturday: "Hi Willy, Mitch Hamilton here, had a pretty good day in the bay today with 3 keepers, 2-shorts, and 2-lost at the boat. Finally got grandson number 2 on the board with the 2 he caught today. All fish caught around Hog island." Nice fish, and nice job. Watch out for grandson number 2; looks like he's a natural fish-catcher. 

    Jesse Keilman and crew came here to catch salmon in shallow water. It is that time and they should be here, but they aren't. So when Jesse asked where to go this morning, I told him 16 by 6 to 17 by 7. During the past week, it seemed that people fishing this area did well. It is difficult to imagine Jesse and company's disappointment when they limited to 25 pounds before noon in 270 feet of water. I agree with Jesse, too deep, but, as Jesse reminded me, one makes do with what one has. Have you ever caught so many fish that the weight in the boat causes the propeller hub to spin? Me neither, but Jesse has. First world problems, eh? Too many fish caught in a manner you don't approve of. I'm working on my sympathy but I just can't can't seem to well up a tear. Your story ain't Old Yeller, Jesse.

      There were a few halibut caught today by Hog Island down to Marshall. Not many, but a few. Jake Showaker caught a striper on the troll near Marshall, along with a couple of halibut. There's not much else to report.

 

    Things were pretty good this week, for salmon fishermen at least. Halibut? Not so much. Stripers? If you're looking for white meat, may I suggest rockfish? Even the rockfish had a slow day in the shallows, but deeper they were the only consistent catch. Salmon was best further northwest, with the best close bite up near "the fence," the south end of the "No Fishing" MPA. There's been salmon caught in 200'+ of water almost everywhere but only a few here and there except for that more consistent "fence" bite.

    The Coastodian sent in a report about Miller Park and salmon: "Hi Willy,

The boats, boom, trucks etc at miller park are there just in case things go south during an attempt to pull the challenger towards shore in order to chop it up.

They have pulled on it with a 100 tons of force and only budged it a few feet.

They have several hundred gallons of oily water in 1-2 fuel tanks to pump out and a couple other tanks with possibly as many as 3500 gallons of fuel or fuely water in them. They are not guaranteed to get access to those mystery tanks.

So the crew at miller is there just in case.

That is what I learned on a call yesterday while plowing the water off the head in 270’, eventually finding this nice salmon.

Lots of cool whale action in close to the head, tall spouts visible from a long way off." Thanks for the info and nice fish.

    Gage and I got out yesterday morning for a little bit before the wind hit and ocean turned from nervous to downright scary. We got a little less than two hours of fishing time in at 16 and 7 for two fish landed and one more lost. The weeds were appalling there on Thursday and after ten minutes of trolling through them Gage blew up and said we had to leave. I caved, and as he started to reel up one line the other line went off with as fish. "Dammit!" said Gage, "Now we have to stay." And we did, until we were thrown out.  There's fish out there but the wind will likely shake things up. Hopefully some of that shaking will bring a few fish to the shallows. 

    

   

   Cannon Brunkhorst has been unseated as the "big salmon guy" at Lawson's Landing in 2022. Mike Mack caught this 35 pounder today to unseat the king. He and Curly DiBella fought a sea lion to get this fish in the boat. They didn't want the federally protected marine mammal to ingest the hook (that would be bad for the sea lion)(it wasn't good for the salmon, was it?) so they chased it and got the salmon back. Three times the sea lion had this fish in its jaws. When a lion grabs your fish, it ain't over. Get. It. Back. For the marine mammal's sake. And yours. Nice fricking job, guys. You looked tired, Mike. How tired was Mike? He was back well before 4:45. If you know Mike, that's near whupped. The guys fished in the area of 12 by 5 to 15 by 6. 

    

   From Branden Mendoza: "Hey Willie we were out yesterday. Found some fish early. Lost some good ones but still manged to pickup 3 fishing around bodega head. 245 feet of water we fished 200 feet on the wire most of the day but caught the last 1 at 100 feet down"  No numbers but Branden puts himself in a fairly definable area. Nice fish, Branden. Not everybody caught a fish out there.

   In the bay there's been a few halibut caught. Nice sized fish, just not many of them. Better sized from Hog to the mouth of the bay, but the cold water at high tide has slowed the bite on the highs near the mouth. There's a few stripers on the beach but I can't catch one. Guys are seeing them boil but not really bite. I need biters. The surf is mostly frustrating.

   Catching up. Here's picture from last Wednesday. As I recall, these fellows limited out in not much more than and hour. That feat became hard to duplicate post-Thursday. The wind has spread the fish out a bit, so you need to work for them again. If you were already working for them, now you need to work harder. These fish came from about 240 feet of water west of Tomales Point. Many fish did, way back then. They've moved out mostly deeper (~280 feet of water) and down deeper (~120 feet on the wire). 

     You're not wrong, that is an Eddie Kim sighting! He received a birthday gift of a limit of salmon over 20 pounds. Peter Kim helped.

   Robert Rath took out a crew for limits on Friday morning. No giants but lots of nice fish. The weather was not nice but very fishable (at least downhill). They had a good day yesterday and five salmon today (also a good day, it just involved less fish cleaning). 

    My apologies for the scant and late reports. I have been busy but away from the launch. Then fishing after work. Then dinner. Then sleeping with a laptop in my lap (how appropriate) after I fall asleep while writing. I stink at this, apparently, but I am trying.

     We had a weather window for a few days here and the fish were biting, so we've been working days and fishing into the evening (I guess that makes my wife a weather widow?). Gotta strike while that iron is hot. It turns out that after you turn 50 it gets harder to burn the candle at both ends. I'm comforted by the fact that Gage is complaining even more than I. Then again, he did reel in more fish. Even so, I've been leaving out some facts and reports because I've been a zombie. I'm still a zombie, but here goes, with apologies.

   John Derenzy sent in this report yesterday: "Hi Willy,

I managed to catch my first limit of Tomales Bay halibut yesterday trolling frozen herring between Marconi’s launch and Marshall.  I also released a couple of shakers and broke off my only decent fish with a really crappy attempt at a net job.  I want to catch some of these bigger fish I see you post pictures of but the last time I went near the bar in a kayak was a nasty swim and the closest I’d like to get to drowning.  Happy fishing thanks for the blog!

John"  Nice work John. May I suggest gaffing your obviously keeper halibut? A gaff is way easier to use one-handed. It takes a little practice but works really well when fishing solo. Just like golf, you swing through. The blood is a bonus, although maybe not on a kayak.... Also, you gotta pick your days for the bar. On the right day it's a pond. The murderous days you fish elsewhere. 

  Before I go further, there was a question as to the numbers. Generally, the numbers that people may give over the radio or in this report work this way. The fish we caught today were at 38º13.8'  and 123º 03.5'. As everything above Point Reyes (on the 38º latitude line) is above 38º, we drop the 38 as it is redundant. Same for anything over 123º. So our numbers today were 13 and 3. It puts you within a mile. If you are using decimal degrees like Google Maps likes, divide the number by 60 (13 minutes divided by 60 minutes gives you a decimal fraction: 38.21666667º by 123.0500000º). Or, change the settings on your GPS to reflect what everybody else is using. Plus, it sounds saltier, and that is reason enough. 

    I don't have any information to go with this picture, but I know a Cannon Brunkhorst when I see one. Gage hears Cannon's footsteps behind him. The Doghouse (with Cannon aboard) was running in with limits (for four? Five?) as I was running out this morning. I had to deliver a cat to the vet at 8:00 AM so I didn't get to go early. I wasn't even going to go as the forecast called for wind later in the day and, as I would be in my Montauk and don't like to get the **** kicked out of me, I figured halibut in the bay would be my thing today. Gage called me at 9:00 freaking out because he needed more lead balls and bait. "We can't get the lines in before they're bit!!!" First world problems. I decided to go. I caught my limit in about ten minutes but released the second fish, thinking I could do better, then second-guessing myself as I went for over twenty minutes without a bite. It turns out that the salmon won't bite when a fish is already on the hook. Once the sablefish was released the salmon bite continued and the sablefish (black cod) incident was the only time I went for more than 5 minutes without a bite. My fish weren't big but they were damned friendly. The fishing was almost as insane as Gage.

    Speaking of Gage, there's talk of a calendar. We're trying to find a format big enough for his ego. So far, no go. Today's fish weighed in at up to 23 pounds. It took a little over an hour to get them as there were a lot of silvers and lost fish. The bigger ones came from near a pod of actively lunge-feeding humpbacks where large salmon could be seen leaping from the water next to the whales as pelicans and murres fed aggressively. This would be the 13.8 by 3.5 numbers. Everything is moving more or less northwest, though, and pretty quickly, so tomorrow? It was the fishiest conditions I can remember seeing and the fish responded accordingly. The 15 pound halibut was caught on the bar on a jig. I heard of a few more stripers caught on the bar today, too. The owner of Redrum baits and his buddy Jesse had caught and released five when I was going out and I believe that they landed a few others after. Wind for the next few days, which sucks. But at least I can get to bed at a reasonable hour. 

   Gage took the boat out for half limits of salmon to 27 pounds at 12 by 6, then came back to the Tomales bar for stripers and a halibut. 

   Today, team Aceves limited with their largest fish weighing 23 and 24 pounds. When your limits average over 10 pounds you've had a good day.

    Tom Brodsky and John Bresnahan clobbered them today with limits to 21 pounds. Not quite the clobbering that the Aceves issued, but pretty damn good. We won't talk about yesterday...

 

    Branden Mendoza sent another report: "Late report from Monday. We were off the weather bouy in 375 feet of water fishing 205 feet on the wire. Picked up four salmon in 4hrs. Released 6 cohos as well. Lots of bait. Salmon bellies were full of anchovies and krill. We got ours on a great crippled anchovy no flasher and a watermelon spoon with a red flasher." Nice fish, Branden. We love salmon on this report. 

        The Coastodian sent me a couple of pictures without many details except that they limited today and there were many whales. 

    Look at that smug bastard. He caught a halibut larger than Gage's. That's how you get smug. The halibut weighed 24 pounds. The smug weighed more.