Halibut fishing on Tomales Bay is the best it has been all year. It ain't the best ever, but it's pretty damn good for the very few boats out there trying for them. The two boats from here had two fish each and lost more than they caught by x2 or more. They saw a total of one other boat that was diving for halibut (no fish speared, one spotted, no sharks). Effort seems minimal. Results seem close to maximal. One boat today missed six bites, all screamers, so they're not sipping them down, they want the smelt bad. Who doesn't?

   In theory, salmon should fire up down on the beach soon. Theory isn't law, but odds are good before the end of the season. I am hoping to partake when the time is right. 

    Here's the kind of report I hope for every year: "Hey Willy,

James Rice and myself came from Sacramento on Sunday and were lucky enough to come across a couple albacore (pics attached) around 38-04 x 123-47. Hope the right kind of water hangs around for a bit. 

Best, 

Nate Baker"  Nice work, gents. Break out the bacon and toothpicks. That ain't far, at least not when you've been running 50+ nautical miles for albies for the last eight years. Those numbers are about 37 nautical miles from home. It's too bad (but not unexpected) that the water seems to be fading away to the west. We will need to run farther for a chance at even less fish. But it's a chance, and given the opportunity I hope to take it. Along with a shot at albacore, bluefin are again gracing the coastal waters of central California. Morro Bay to Fort Bragg are seeing some big fish landed on MadMacs and trolled live mackerel. There's a few at the Bodega Canyon and outside of Cordell, from the stories, but catching them ain't easy. 

     Salmon is still dead, so I hear, but a commercial fisherman friend of a commercial fisherman friend says that conditions are such that he believes a second run of fish is on its way to the river and may pass by here before the end of the season. Our season, at least. Fingers crossed, we may have a season in October. A catching season, that is, not just a fishing season. At least the halibut and rockcod are still here and pretty bitey.
 

     Yet again, I forgot to check my email before posting last night. I neglected to include this report: "16-lb.and 1-13lb. Halibut at hog drifting smelt. Fished bird,trees,keyholes,ten mile,estuary. No salmon beautiful day on the water."  Thanks, Mike Mack and Spinner. Today they had one 18 pounder (I checked my email) on the bar. Salmon are good, but when life gives you halibut, you take them. As salmon seem to be playing it pretty coy, halibut and rockfish is the deal, unless you want run offshore. I heard that the tuna run today ran more towards dorado than albacore with quite a few skunks in the mix as well. It's still a pretty good deal for a chance at a few dorado here rather than drive to San Diego or LA for a shot at them. Let's hope the fish and water stick around a while, even though the length of day says it won't.

   The big halibut today didn't break the 30 pound mark but Stuart Johnson caught this nice 27 pounder which is better if you're actually eating it instead of bragging about it. Nice fish, Stuart. 

 

 

    Spaced Invader sent me this picture today: "Got 2 off the bar with my dad.

He was pumped!!

Anyways not much to get excited about, but some dinner to be had." Those look pretty good to me. I'm kinda excited just looking at the picture. Your dad is right to be pumped. There were quite few other halibut caught today, from the bar back to Hog. Not too many big ones (although Mike Mack's pair were in the teens) with the vast majority running 7 to 10 pounds or so. Most fish on live bait with a few jig fish thrown in. Speaking of jig fish....

    ....Captain of Shrimp Boat and pretty good guy Alec Bennett caught this 30 pound halibut on the bar on a Bigfoot Tube Jig about 7:00PM tonight. He caught it within 100 feet of where I jigged up a 23" halibut an hour before. I guess I should have used mine for live bait, because this one could have eaten it. Nice job, Alec. Catching a 30+ pound halibut in Tomales Bay is a rarity, at least during most of my lifetime. I've had, let's see..... two halibut 30+ pounds in the boat, ever. It seems like there's a few around lately. Maybe I have a shot at one... Yeah, I know, probably not.

   What I like about this report is that I get to share my opinions and guestimates about stuff. I mentioned that the 37 pound halibut had a scar that looked to like it was inflicted by a gaff or spear. In my opinion, it likely was. Can I prove it? Nope. It could have been something else entirely that caused the damage. Same for the other halibut I saw this year with scars (a total of four). The wounds looked anthropomorphic in origin to me. but human stuff is what I know best (I'm a human). I look for what I think I recognize. I don't know what could make scars like that, but I bet there's a bunch of stuff that ain't human that could. Halibut live in the world of tooth and claw, as Jack London described it. It does seem like the halibut are running smaller, on average, which also concerns me, but that's subjective, not empirical evidence. So, throw out my observations. The CDFW is already working on new regulations for halibut. We'll see what their evidence tells them to do.

   Speaking of new regulations, rockfish gets interesting next year. I'll post a link to the proposed new regulations soon, but know that next year shallow fishing will be limited more than the deep fishing you haven't been haven't been able to do for 20 years. Yay?

     

    Swampy and crew had a good day on Tuesday. "Evening Willy,

Had a great couple days fishing, always good to get down there with some nice weather. Tues was a good day with limits although nothing big came over the rails. Weds was MUCH slower with one keeper and a couple shorts boated. Bait wasn’t too tough to find which was nice.

Saw that you put Fast Eddy on a real nice fish. Can’t wait to see the size on that one.

Swampy."  So here's the picture of Swampy's damn good day. Nine halibut is a day well played. He caught all these fish in one pretty small place. The next day he caught only one there. It looked like the spot was fished out. But then....

 

   Gage, Eddie Kim and I tried Swampy's spot today at the turn of the tide and landed four halibut in two hours. We missed another four strikes. Of the four fish landed, Gage and I landed three that were legal and not much bigger. Eddie Kim, however, landed a 37 pounder. I'd like you to note the excellent gaff job, where I went over the top (and out of my comfort zone) to stick it through the guts. Also, note the scar from old spear or gaff wound. There are very few old halibut without human-inflicted wounds, it seems, and it begs the question, are there so few halibut that we hook almost all the young ones and only the few scarred escapees remain? That's scarier than Eddie Kim if you're a fish. Nah, I just said that to be theatrical. To a fish, nothing is scarier than Eddie Kim.

     Some of that warm water from Fort Bragg slid down here. Gage tried yesterday and caught nothing. About half the boats out there did the same. The other half caught albacore, yellowfin, bigeye, and a marlin. Mostly albacore, but still. 38º 23' by 123º 55' was the center of the area of most of the effort, successful and otherwise. The water seems to be sliding further south, so a look before running would be a good idea.

 

    Tom Brodsky didn't try for salmon yesterday and stuck with halibut, for the most part. "Hey Willy, 

6 halibut for two of us,  nothing too big,  got 3 on the jig, 3 on live bait. The two lings caught on Bigfoot jigs on the Point, while I was making bait. Half on the outer bar, half inside sand point."  Today, Swampy and crew landed three limits of halibut and missed as many bites, all on live bait. Tomorrow a few boats will be heading out to the warm water about 30 miles out to try for albacore. Might as well, as slow as the salmon has been.

     Tom Brodsky sent in a report yesterday: "Halibut are still biting right at the change of the tide. Not bad for a few rookies. Lost a few at the boat and missed some other bites. on jigs and had dead bait bitten half a couple times. We also trolled from the Bodega buoy back to the day beach, not many weeds no salmon. 4 came off the bar out front, 1 on the inside " Nice work, Tom and crew. There were several boats with no fish over the weekend, but at least two boats on Friday caught two limits of halibut each, most of them by Hog Island. Catching bait was hard, but catching halibut wasn't for our two successful boats. Tom and crew didn't try for liveys and just got jiggy with them. Their jigs were Bigfoot Baits and Redrum tube jigs. They weren't quite as effective as the live baits but they work way better than the bait you can't catch. Today the weather was so rough that even Mike Mack sat it out. Maybe if there were a few salmon caught in the last few days he would have chanced it, but big wind and no fish make Mike a beach guy, and rightly so.

 

   So, when I said that the halibut fishing is slow, I neglected to mention that it is only mostly slow. Gage and I caught two limits of halibut today, two on live jacksmelt (the only two that I could catch in four hour's of fishing), four on jigs, five of them on the turn of the tide. Tim Woerner caught a halibut, lost a halibut, missed a halibut bite, and caught a striper, all on a tube jig. Miller Time trolled on Ten Mile up to Elephant for salmon with no bites but found a mess of jacksmelt that they were able to convert into a pair of large halibut. So, salmon sucks, today. But halibut, booyah. At least today.

 

  So, there was a thresher hooked from the beach on Tuesday. I heard another was hooked and lost from a kayak on Wednesday, too. Today Gage and I saw one jump off of Dillon Beach but none caught that we heard of. 

   We had one boat go fishing from here in the last two days and all they caught was a rockcod. The salmon fishing is way slow, post-wind. So Gage jumped in with Tom Brodsky for an albacore trip in Fort Bragg today and they ended up with 22 albacore and one dorado. No giants landed by them but they heard of quite a few on the radio. Wind for the rest of the week, it looks like.

   In light of the fact that there has been no other local fish to report, I was sent this photo today: "Ken Sousa somewhere in Alaska thanks Ron White" I think I heard it was the Tsiu river. That's a lot of fish, and a lot more than are being caught here, now. But it ain't over here, not yet. We did have a gentleman hook four thresher sharks from the beach in front of the boathouse yesterday. He landed zero, but Gage and I saw the last one jump a couple of times before it broke off. It looked to be 20 to 30 pounds. We're working on video of it, as it should have been on the webcam.

 

    It turns out that, had I read my email on time, I'd have learned that Mike Mack and crew caught five salmon just south of McClure's on Saturday. That's old news, though. Sunday, the boys went back to the same place and circled a bait ball for limits before eleven. They dropped them off and tried for halibut after, but let's talk about the salmon. "Limits by 11am fished keyhole at 90 to 100' hoochies blue and green 55 pulls. Massive anchovies bait balls. Also seen over 40 bottlenose dolphins in a school rip thru the bait. Awesome day on the water!!" The hoochies have been the ticket for the last few weeks, especially the blue ones. Those bottlenose were in the outer bay last evening, feeding.

    The halibut fishing has been slow, but good enough that I was able to jig up this 14 pounder last evening on the bar. Not as good for me as it was for "Jigger" John Rosasco and David Gonzales today. They jigged up three halibut and two stripers on the bar before 8:00 AM, then went down to the top of Ten Mile and caught four salmon in two doubles. They caught lingcod as well, so they got a Slam +. 

 

 

     Sorry, I was away for a few days and Cameron was too busy to post that no catching was happening. Well, almost no catching. Most people went without fish, but a few guys did well. I heard a story about an "epic" day of fishing by Miller Time where the boys landed salmon, lingcod and halibut to 29 pounds on a day when most fishermen struggled hard to get any one of those. Today, Ron Johnson landed both a salmon over 20 pounds and a nice halibut. Both of these feats occurred off of McClure's Beach. There are salmon being caught off of the north end of Ten Mile Beach and in the outer bay, too, just not a consistent bite anywhere. You have a better chance of catching nothing in all of those places, but there's little pods of salmon moving through the area, and if you and they meet, life is good. Otherwise, bring a book. The halibut fishing has been the better bet but it is less than excellent. More catching than the salmon fleet, though. 

   So, what was I doing that was so important, you ask. Well,

    Gage I have a new policy. If Eddie Kim invites you on a fishing trip, you go. You don't ask questions. This policy resulted in Gage and I landing seven bluefin on Wednesday night. A couple of them were less than 100 pounds (including the 60 pounder I caught flylining 40 pound gear. My arm still hurts) but most were 100 to 130 pounds. I got off to an early lead, but Gage beat me by the end of the night. Thank goodness fishing isn't a competition, or I'd be losing all the time. Then we came home, and with a lot of help, vacuum packed the fish over the last two nights. Thanks for the help, everybody. It takes a village, as they say.  

    Not only did The Wet Dream catch a halibut yesterday, today they did it again, along with a few rockfish. I didn't see any other halibut come in today, but there were some salmon. High boat from here was Mike Mack with three, again. 

  "28lb,24,18 all at the trees in 104' with anchovies fishing 70'to 80' with 2lb ball. Beautiful day on the water. Many thanks to staff at lawsons for the great service."

Good work. The fish were from Bird to McClure's and really close to the bottom but they weren't biting very well, and when they did bite they unhooked themselves pretty well. Tough fishing is what they call it, but it's way better than the no-chance-at-all fishing of a few weeks ago. We'll take it and wait for the late season bite on the beach. Fingers crossed, as that can be a good time. Soon....

      The salmon fishing was better today. I know this for two reasons. One, Mike Mack told me so. Two, Mike and Spinner are holding three fish in this picture, one more than yesterday. They lost several in the morning as well. Jesse Keilman and his crew landed four salmon, none after noon. Both boats were in a small fleet of vessels between the Trees and McClure's in 70 to 140 feet of water. Some of the fishing was chasing birds. The fish are here again and biting. For now.

      The halibut fishing in the bay was mostly tragic this weekend, but Howard Law and crew caught four halibut today, two on bait and two on jigs. Yesterday our Tim Woerner and Christine had three halibut, a striper and a sand sole on the bar, also about 50/50 bait/jig. I heard that the Wet Dream crew landed a halibut today. There's a few fish around. It ain't good, but there's a chance.

   I know, it's not here, but friend of the report Eddie Kim scored a personal best today out of San Diego on the Poseidon. He landed two bluefin over 200 pounds in a day. One is serious work. Two? No wonder fish fear him.

 

       Mike Mack and Spinner landed two salmon today and lost one more. According to the (mostly bored) fish counter, they were high boat. Jesse Keilman and crew had one salmon and one halibut. They came in after and were a close second. Third place? Everybody else tied with nothing. The Trees to McClure's in 80 to 100 feet of water was the ticket today, if you could take the beating.

 

     Yesterday Gage, Chris Brown, Nathan Duby and I tried for salmon in the outer bay. We finished with two salmon for a long day, then jigged up a couple of halibut (and missed about ten more bites) on the bar just before we had to pull the boat. The limits of salmon from the day before eluded us. There was lots of bait and what looked like salmon on the fishfinder, just not many biters. I heard of some others caught there, a few mooching and a few trolled up off of Doran Beach. There were a few salmon caught today in some less-than-ideal conditions; a couple at McClure's and a couple at Buoy "02". Jesse Keilman and his crew caught a 30 pounder there this morning. The wind is up and is expected to blow for the next few days, but how hard it will blow in close remains to be seen. Even if it doesn't blow hard on the beach the water will be riled up. It seems that there's a few fish around but catching them is almost as hard as staying in the boat.