No salmon landed here for two days, then yesterday, one appears. Is this the fish that cracks open the door and allows a flood of hungry salmon to flood upon our shores? Probably not. Then again,....

     Here's the June calendar photo for the Gage-of-the-month club. Gage jumped aboard Kapulani Chong's boat along with Zack Showaker for a bit of salmon catching. He even caught one on a Redrum tube. I know that because Zack came in after they returned and bought out the rest of the Redrums (there weren't many left, to be fair)(more are ordered). Captain Jeff Haley limited on salmon as well. The bite, such as it was, was in the outer bay and didn't last long. Quite a few boats were working the area but not too many caught after the early bite. Let's hope the bite spreads. The halibut need a bit of the same treatment, as that bite has been dead for a couple of days.  

 

     Branden Mendoza sent this report: "This is a late report from Saturday. We fished in 235 feet of water just a little south of elephant rock. The 25lb salmon came on a crippled anchovy 60 feet down and the 15lb salmon came on a watermelon apex 67 feet down. Only two fish we got all day but we weren't complaining. " Thank goodness for this report, as there were no others. Sunday, no salmon. Monday, ditto. Thanks for the picture, Branden. I almost forgot what they look like. 

    There were a few halibut caught today, none for the scale, but fish. Aside from some rockfish, no catching happened. Maybe tomorrow? Let's hope. 

 

    Apologies to Swampy. My information, as I recalled it, was bad. "Hey Willy,

Wanted to share our success from our last trip. Brian Miller and I had a good day Tuesday and while Wednesday wasn’t as good we didn’t get skunked. Big fish was 36 and the little one shown was 28. Also had a 13 and 12 that day. Another great trip and it was good to see all the good folks down there. See you in a couple weeks.

Swampy" So Swampy did well. I only meant to express that the fishing is spotty. Nice damn job, Swampy and crew.

   I found a couple of fish like Swampy's small ones tonight. It was a double and they bit live jacksmelt.

   Here's a salmon report from Wednesday: "Caught one off Tomales point. Wednesday started great at seven am with what turned out to be our one and only. Great conditions. Fish came on blue hoochie 100’ otw in 140’ of water

Hunter smith" There were a few more caught from Bird to Elephant the past few days, mostly closer to shore then Hunter's fish, as well as a better bite in the 7 by 1 to 9 by 1 area.

      Richard Baratta sent over this: "Hey Willy,

Congratulations on your tuna quest. I went earlier this week on a one day on the San Diego and was able to get two they said one was 60 pounds( I ache, )But not as much as I would have if I didn’t get anything! Richard" This is true. In this case the physical pain will pass much quicker than the mental pain would.

 

   Sorry Mike Mack, but but we have a new leader on the big salmon board. Mike's 35 pound salmon has been surpassed by Vance Staplin's 42 pounder landed today. The tiny fish in Vance's left hand only weighed 29 pounds. Vance and crew fished from Bird down to at least Abbott's Lagoon from 40 to 70 feet of water and scratched out five fish in eight hours of fishing. It ain't a hot bite, but if you stumble over the right little school of fish you could be very happy. Or, you could be fishless and bitter like most of the fishermen today. Most fishermen caught no salmon today, but a few have been doing well over the last couple of days. Kapulani Chong and his grandfather, Rudy Ai (you have to love it when the rare person travels from Hawaii to here to go fishing. Maybe it was because of Captain Chong?) each landed 29 pound salmon yesterday. Mike Lincoln had two salmon in the twenty pound range yesterday. There are some fish, and they are big fish, but they ain't easy fish. The halibut fishing is just about the same situation. Swampy had four halibut to 35 pounds on Wednesday and then skunked on Thursday. 

 

    Gage and I just got back from a trip on the Pacific Queen out of Fisherman's Landing. It was a good trip and it killed my bluefin Jonah. Finally. Flylining rules.  

 The salmon's case of lockjaw seems to have improved very slightly today (that's what lockjaw is, right?) if secondhand reports are to be believed, or if you count fish lost. Several folks braved the intermittent fog wind that chopped up the water today, and some even hooked fish. My sources saw a few fish caught in the areas of the Keyholes and Trees, in relatively close to shore within 50-70'. Speaking of fish at the Trees:

Steve Cato took out local legend Bud Adams to show him how the crew of the Odyss boats 30 lb salmon. Bud seemed impressed. It was their only fish, losing another to a downrigger ball, but that was more action than anyone else I talked to today, and that's the kind of fish you want if you only get one. They were fishing the Trees reef trolling herring near the bottom; this one had a scratched up belly.

Halibut and stripers have both been picked up occasionally over the last few days, both from boat and by shore. The surf beach has put out both for some of our more persistent shore fishermen. They are understandably worried about getting crowded out of their spot, so out of respect I'll keep it vague. Just know that a lot of the techniques and gear that have been working for shore stripers this year are still working, in similar areas. I didn't get pictures to share, but the halibut I saw was around 20 lbs, and the grade on the stripers they've been getting have consistently been in the 15lb range. The picture below is of an 18 lb striper that came off the bar. On Sunday, the boat total was two stripers and three halibut. One halibut came on a dead herring, everything else on jacksmelt. Live bait was tricky to get ahold of, but worth the work, I'd say. Weather ought to be decent for the next couple days if the forecast holds up. The SW winds they're calling for always get me nervous, since the magnitude can always be much higher or lower than advertised, but I'm optimistic that there will at least be some very solid windows.

    There are slightly more than no salmon out there. This 25 pounder was caught by Ethan Warmkessel at the Trees today. He barely stayed in the boat, as the morning was kinda.....rough. Not the word he used, but you get the point. It calmed a bit later, I'm told. I did hear a rumor of a party boat catching salmon limits somewhere on Ten Mile in 60 feet of water today. It sounds too good to be true, but maybe....

    Who need salmon when you can catch 30 pound halibut? Not these guys. Jeremy Nichol of Auburn (and Scott, who is a good gaffer) caught this one on a live jacksmelt. The fish had scars from two earlier gaffing attempts, one you can see in the photo. The other was maybe a week old on gill plate of the colored side. So, these guys caught the fish that not only the rest of couldn't catch, we couldn't even get it in the boat when it was hooked. The rest of suck, I guess. 

     Ezra Rock caught the 18 pound halibut on the left. It, too, has an old gaff scar. More guys catching the fish you and I couldn't. Dillon Beatty caught a keeper and knows how to take a fish photo. It isn't how big your fish is, it's how big it looks. Ezra, your fish is impressive. Dillon, nice forced perspective. Gentlemen, nice fish. There weren't a lot caught out of here today, and most of the ones landed were barely keepers. Hopefully the salmon rumor is a fact. Otherwise the rockfish will be very unhappy.

 

    There's a rumor circulating among local salmon fishermen that there are no salmon to be caught out there. Why, that couldn't be farther from the truth:

    Doug Bagley caught this 25 pound salmon on Wednesday. It, and one other salmon that did not choose to enter the boat, was caught off of Bird Rock.

   David Gonzales landed this 28 pound salmon on Wednesday. He caught it (and lost another) at Buoy 02 (the "Tomales Whistle", even though it's a gong now). See? Two salmon were landed here in the last four days. That's not "no salmon", it's "almost no salmon", which is completely different. The fact that both of these guys lost a fish would seem to indicate that there as many as two other salmon out there. Go get 'em! There were a few other salmon caught during the past week, a couple in the outer bay, a few at the Keyholes, a few more from Tomales Point to Elephant. But not very many and very few in the same place two days running. The current thinking is that this slow salmon bite can't last and the fish will bite again soon. And I'll keep saying that until it's true.

    Thank goodness for halibut. While they aren't biting wide open, they are biting, and the halibut that recently entered the bay are still being caught between the Elk Fence and the bar. Gage and I tried for salmon yesterday for two hours, then gave up to reality to caught anchovies and jacksmelt at the Trees and took them into the bay. We finished with three halibut to eighteen pounds, one on a Bigfoot tube jig, one on a jacksmelt and one on an anchovy. We caught those across from the Landing. Our visit to the bar resulted in six short halibut. A neighboring boat doubled on stripers. Other boats caught halibut from Hog to the bar in the last couple of days, mostly around the low tide.

    It turns out that UPS now delivers halibut! Not really. This 18 pounder was caught today across from the Landing. Live jacksmelt. It fought like a 25 pounder. This is the only fish weighed in here today. 

      Yesterday's hero (let's be honest; he's my hero every day) was Jake Showaker who put the boat over a 22 and 24 pound salmon. Jake was fishing between Bird and the Tomales whistle (which isn't a whistle any more but we still call it that. Buoy "02" I believe) and beating the rocks with his downrigger balls. Someone was watching him....

    ....and that someone was Mike Sandrock. He caught a 23 pounder today (the one missing from Jake's spread) in Jake's shadow, thumping rocks to the tune of a downrigger ball lost. Expensive, but he caught when many others were not catching. Good job, Mike. Thanks for proving that they still exist. The moon is fading and the fog is coming, so we will likely get a bite this week, but as today was Mike's last day to fish before going home his decision to risk gear for fish was, in my opinion, a good one. It worked. Also, I sell gear, so...

     That gear caught these fish yesterday. We had a double on stripers after a half-hour of casting with no bites. One got off at the net but the other found its way aboard. The halibut weighed 16 pounds and bit a perfectly-sized jacksmelt. How big is perfect? It depends on the size of the fish, but in this case a six inch  smelt fit the fish's mouth perfectly.

    Randy Albracht caught his personal best halibut today, a 22 pounder. He caught it in the outer bay while trolling for salmon. Mike Sandrock caught a salmon on the same tack moments before. No fish for them before or after, but they caught the fish where nobody else was catching. This was the only salmon caught that I heard of today. There were a few halibut caught today. An acknowledged killer of halibut had one and Miller Time ended up with five on live bait, I heard. The tides made it difficult, as they and the wind were ripping most of the day.

    Gage took his buddy Alex out fishing tonight. The wind was howling and they were dodging kite surfers, but somehow before I could get my boat launched I got pictures of a halibut and a striper. And Alex. 

 I  was able to catch a couple of jacksmelt and convert them into a pair of halibut. We had to idle the boat in reverse the whole time so we wouldn't sail away in the wind. There's fish out there if you slow the boat down.

Here's Miller Time's halibut. 

    So, that awesome nearshore salmon bite died. There was a some action first thing today but after that it got hard to catch. There were a few caught by the Tomales outer buoy (02) around midday, but other than that it was pretty quiet after the first few hours of daylight. If the full moon theory is correct then the fish should bite early and late. It could be, as the fish bit early today but nobody was out there to try the evening bite, so... We got these two salmon before 8:30 at the Trees and bailed by 11:00 after a triple of short lingcod sent us away. We tried inside the bay for halibut and lo and behold, we found a school.  

      Gage says the fish are close. Close enough to catch a slam in two hours, even. Fish weights from left to right are 11, 20, 21 and 26.5 pounds. Combined that's still not as big as Gage's head. Salmon bit in 60 feet of water at Tomales Point. 

     The shallow water bite was good enough for me to catch a 21 and 24 pound salmon tonight. It happened within a half-hour. I almost know how Gage feels, now. 

    Miller Time worked the shallows for limits of large salmon. These look to be the largest average limits landed here this year. There may have been faster limits, but not too many larger limits.

   The Marstons landed a couple of nice salmon in the shallow water today. The fish weren't jumping in the boat but there were some to be caught with some effort.

    The Johnson family caught one around today with the smallest fish about 20 pounds and the largest 30 pounds. That's some serious half-limits.

    Shrimp Boat limited on salmon by early afternoon and then took out a buddy for a second limit this evening. Largest fish weighed in at 24 pounds. There are a lot of fish out there and we need to catch as many as we can as there isn't enough water in the river to float as many fish as there are in the ocean.

    Not the biggest fish of the day, but the most important one. This was a first halibut moment: "Andrew Vara from Sac with a 10 lbs halibut from the bar live smelt" Andrew, I'd like to tell you that they get easier after the first one, but that ain't always true, so... Nice fish. There were a couple of halibut fom the bar today, not red hot, but lots more than there has been. I guess 61º water will do that. Well, it'll do it better than 48º water.

   On the salmon front, most guys were working the offshore, 260'+ water today, and most of them caught keepers. Quite a few had limits. Most were running their gear pretty deep, 120 to 180 feet OTW, but one boat landed keepers (kings) from 237' to 30'. Most boats had silver issues, even those that worked in close to the beach. There were some salmon caught in 50 to 120 feet of water today, and some of those salmon were the right kind. So far as I heard, best results were still from 15 by 6 and higher numbers, (16 by 7, 21 by 10, you get it) but there are fish on the beach. Thank the fish gods. 

 

 

    Here's a late report (my fault) from Lou Zanardi about Friday's fishing: "Hi Willy,  yesterdays bite was pretty slow but Joe Withers and Wyatt Zanardi didn't mind the wait as they managed to hook and land this double which turned out to be the only legal fish of the day.   Many silvers and shorty's were returned to swim with the whales." After this season, "Silvers and Shorties" would be the name of my cow-punk themed Primus cover band if I were musically inclined. Everybody has had their days of nothing but cohos and next year's keepers. It's especially great when you can't find tray anchovies (I heard Bodega Tackle may have scored a few) and the wrong kind of salmon keep gobbling up the last of your stash. At least you guys had your double.

    Tom Brodsky and John Bresnahan limited on Saturday at approximately 14 by 6. The bite there didn't last through Sunday but it lasted long enough for these guys to get 'em. 

    Here's on on-the-water report from Rokefin from yesterday: "Hey Willy

Started 14/8 had several hits in a flurry and landed this salmon around mid teens. Caught a few shorts.  Made our way north and landed another low teen salmon. Had a double silver hookup and a couple scratched baits so still grinding it out.

2 in box" I'm not sure how he and Herman Rinkel finished but two salmon by mid-day was probably a lot better than what a lot of guys were doing. I believe that Shrimp Boat had limits as well as a few other boats, but a lot of guys had trouble scoring even one. A common feature of the catchers was going deep on the wire, 180' to 220" on the wire or more. You'd better have some Spectra on your reel to keep them hooked at that depth. No stretch.

    On another note, this week's lovely weather let the water warm up to halibut happiness level and a batch of fresh volunteers have entered the bay. From the bar to Pelican Point there are some very nice halibut being caught and even more lost. I heard a long-time halibut fisherman call last weekend "the most frustrating fishing I've done in the last few years," and he's fished for bluefin with me, so he knows frustrated. The trick to sticking them when they bite? I don't know, as I'm having the same problem, but I did seem to keep more connected with smaller baits. Not all of them, but one 15 pounder on the bar last night. 

 

    Tom and Jerrie Carter thought that mixed bag report yesterday looked pretty good, so they caught one, too. "Tom had to take Jerri out today so she could show us what kind of halibut we're supposed to be catching this time of year. 2 halibut and 1 striper on the bar, one of each at the sand point. All on smelt. Biggest halibut ran 18.5 and 19 lbs. Tom would like it known that his had the extra half pound." Cameron sent me this report but it sounds like a lie if Tom's was larger. I mean, it's not like it's impossible for Tom to catch a fish larger than Jerrie; it's just super unlikely. Black swan. Cameron should know better than to send me lies.

   Cameron and Kerry sent another report: "John Cooper 28lb striper. Kastmaster at Sand Point by boat." Not sure what else Mr. Cooper caught, but even if there was nothing else, it looks like he had a pretty good day. 

   Speaking of multi-species trips, today we had a 2022 Tomales Slam, too. We caught two stripers first thing (one, bleeding, kept) then ran out to 15 and 7 where the birds and whales were feeding. The salmon were feeding too, for a bit. We caught two and lost a third, then the birds and whales (and seemingly, the salmon) left as well. After almost two hours without a bite, we bailed. In the mouth of the bay we found six more stripers (released) and a halibut. Gage and I doubled at one point. It sounded like the salmon bite died for most guys around the same time. Hopefully this salmon bite shutdown ends tomorrow.

    Before the bite died, Shrimp Boat connected to two salmon at 15 by 7 as well. May they bite for you tomorrow as well, for all our sakes.

   Cameron does more than send me fishing reports. Tonight we went out and tried for stripers and halibut. The Redrums provided, and he and I (Cameron first) caught stripers about 14 pounds each. It turns out that catching fish with your kids is fun. Who knew?