Hunter Smith sent over this report today: "Picked up this sixteen pounder just north of elephant in 125’ on white tube jig" I assume that this is a today fish. Yesterday, Gage and I saw 49º water in the morning and decided against trying for halibut. It is my understanding that there are more halibut out in 100 to 200 feet of water than I would think. Like, there's lots. The downside is that there's way more area than fish, and the water at that depth is always pretty cold, making the fish fairly sluggish. That said, my buddy Hunter Smith says that those fish will bite. For him, at least. Most of the successful halibut guys fishing deep water are dragging nets behind big boats (drag boats), covering a lot of ground for fish that don't need to be hungry. Your chances of success are less, unless you talk to Hunter, it seems. He's got something figured out.

    Gage and I took Ed Parsons out fishing yesterday. We fished between 8:30 and 11:00 for 29 schoolie rockfish and 5 lingcod. We then checked our two pots we had dropped for red crab, one at Abbott's Lagoon and one at Kehoe Beach. Our three hour soak yielded a total of five keeper Dungeness, returned. Takeaways for us are: 1. Red crabbing in open sand yields very few red crab. 2. A couple of the best places for Dungeness crab have very few crab of any kind. I had heard that numbers were very low in the Outer Bay and after seeing so few crabs on Ten Mile, I'm a bit concerned for our season.  There's a good chance that there's a lot of Dungeness out deep that just haven't come ashore yet, and maybe they've been waiting for the water to cool off, but at this point, a week before the opener, it ain't looking good. Then again, I'm not a very good crabber. 

   Sorry, I'm a liar. I was informed that the final decision about crabbing would come on Monday, and I repeated it. Now, this:

CDFW Restricts Recreational Crab Traps and Delays the Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery

The recreational take of Dungeness crab using crab traps will be temporarily restricted statewide when the season opens on Saturday, Nov. 5 due to presence of humpback and blue whales and the potential for entanglement from trap gear. Recreational take of Dungeness crab by other methods, including hoop nets and crab snares, is not affected by the temporary trap restriction and is allowed statewide beginning Nov. 5, 2022. However, the deployment and use of crab traps in any recreational crab fishery (including rock crab) is temporarily restricted in all fishing zones until lifted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director. CDFW also reminds recreational crabbers to implement best practices, as described in the Best Practices Guide. The commercial Dungeness crab fishery south of the Sonoma/Mendocino county line was scheduled to open on Nov. 15, 2022 in Fishing Zones 3, 4, 5 and 6. However, the season opener has been delayed in those zones due to presence of high numbers of humpback whales and the potential for entanglement. “Based on recent surveys, large aggregations of humpbacks whales continue to forage in California coastal waters and allowing the use of crab traps would increase the risk of an entanglement,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “We will continue to work with both the recreational and commercial Dungeness crab fisheries to protect whales and sea turtles while striving to maximize fishing opportunity. We appreciate the ongoing commitment by the fleet and the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group to protect these incredible animals. These partnerships will continue to shape the future of both fisheries and we look forward to continuing the important work of providing fishing opportunity in the coming weeks." Prior to this determination, CDFW worked with a broad range of scientific partners, researchers, agencies and the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group to collect and synthesize information regarding presence of humpback whales, blue whales and leatherback sea turtles across each fishing zone. Aerial and vessel-based surveys indicate aggregations of humpback whales and several blue whales are present statewide. Under triggers established as part of the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP) regulations for the commercial fishery as well as regulations for the recreational Dungeness crab fishery, the CDFW Director is required to implement a management action for these fishing zones to reduce marine life entanglement risk. CDFW anticipates the next risk assessment will take place on or before Nov. 23, 2022, at which time the Director will re-evaluate the temporary recreational crab trap restriction and commercial fishery delay in Fishing Zones 3-6, as well as the need for any management actions for the commercial fishery in Fishing Zones 1 and 2. That risk assessment is expected to inform the potential for a statewide commercial fishery opener on Dec. 1 and the potential to modify the recreational trap restriction.

 

 

    Mike Mack sent me this report from Sunday. Sunday wasn't as windy as Saturday, but that's not saying much. Even with the wind whipping, Mr. Mack and company put a couple of halibut in the box: "Halibut: we tried going out front to rough and coast guard was at the tb. Caught 1 smelt 1 small anchovy in bay and then went to bar. Caught about 30 smelt and drifted bar 1st drift 15lber 2nd drift jigged up 16lber on grape tube jig using the one Willie gave me" That was a Redrum 1.5 ounce jig. So, at least as of Sunday the halibut were still biting. Well, they bit for Mike and Spinner. Your (and my) mileage may vary.

    In other news, Dungeness season is coming. That means that crab traps for red crab ends on Friday night. No traps for the week before Dungeness opens. Now the good news/bad news: The good news is that it looks like domoic acid is not an issue. The bad news is that, while it isn't official yet, you can pretty well count on Dungeness opening without the use of traps. The official word will come on Halloween (spooky) but their recommendation is to just say no to traps. Too many whales. The recommendation: "B. Recommended Management Action, RAMP subsection (e) 

Recreational Fishery: • Crab Trap Prohibition: Fishing Zone 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 

Commercial Fishery: • Season Delay: Fishing Zones 3, 4, 5 and 6"

  Before you ask, the Commercials aren't delayed in Zone 1 or 2 because those Zones wouldn't open until December 1st. The next official word won't come until November 23rd or so. So for now, get those hoops ready.

    The wind is screaming (Mary?) today, but luckily for us, Brandon Hodson had a good day yesterday. "Hey there,

had to try to get cousin Mark some ink as a new fisherman,
Mclures cane through for us with a couple halibut and a few lings, one of each photo worthy… They’re out there if you don’t get easily discouraged.  Not looking good for halibut after this wind though! 

Thanks for keeping us informed.  Here’s cousin Mark:" Brandon is correct; it ain't looking good for most fishing post-gale. Thank God for rockfish! Nice work putting your cuz on the fish. Those are some good ones. I can't believe that Gage left any flatfish behind, yet here's proof. Nice work, Brandon. And Mark.
 

   

As there have been very few boats out from here this week, I have very little information. There were a few halibut caught here this week, but not many. It ain't over in the bay, but it ain't good, either. McClure's isn't much better. Gage fished there for two days for a total of one ten pound halibut on a live jacksmelt. That was his only halibut bite. There have been a few others caught but not many. On Thursday, Gage caught his halibut, but after the building seas threatened to toss us and the boat ashore in 35 feet of water, we decided to go back in the bay. Soon after the bar started breaking all the way across. We fished by Sand Point, where he missed a halibut on Wednesday. After six drifts we were about to give up when Gage hooked a striper on his Bigfoot tube jig. We missed two more bites on that drift. After three more uneventful drifts, John Brezina pulled up alongside us to to tell us he was tired of no bites and he was headed in. He tossed his dead jacksmelt over the side of the boat. A moment later, a striper ate his dead jacksmelt twenty feet from the boat. Four drifts later, John was gone and we had no other bites except for crabs. As we weren't crabbing, we bailed, too, just after we watched a guy in an antique fourteen foot aluminum skiff go past and jump the bar. I can't believe he made it, and we left because we didn't want to risk our lives to save someone that got in trouble by doing something so blatantly stupid. Sorry, but if I see you doing something stupid, and risking my life to help you for your failed risk assessment is my option, I'm not going. Your choice was bad. Mine should be good. My father used to go out and save people (and often just try to save them) when bad things happened. After flipping a boat with Bill George on New Year's Day 1986, he slowed down a bit. There's nothing like staring at your own mortality to lend a bit of perspective to your life. I, too, want to help others, but it turns out that (in my case, at least) you need to carry a relatively small number of drowned people to learn a reasonable fear of the Tomales Bar. Anyhow, the weather forecast for the weekend is bad. After the wind, halibut fishing gets really questionable. Probably, figure it's over. Local bluefin may be over as well. But we'll see.

    The halibut bite at McClures Beach slowed but didn't quite stop. These fish were caught there yesterday, I'm told, and I saw an approximately 15 pound halibut in Mike Mack's pile of rockfish yesterday. It ain't good fishing, but it's better than inside Tomales Bay. It's way better than the salmon fishing, at least as far as I've heard. The rockfishing is way better, but as long as there's still a chance for halibut you really gotta try.

 

     Taking my own advice, I tried for halibut after work today. I was passing by Sand Point at 5:45. I went to Bird Rock, as I overheard someone fishing from here saying that they caught a big halibut at Bird in 50 feet of water. I metered around for a few minutes looking for a flat, slightly deeper spot in the rocks and found one pretty quick. Five minutes later I had a seventeen pound halibut in the box. It bit a jig, as I hadn't caught any bait yet. Soon after, jacksmelt bit the sabiki. Five in the bucket. Two back over the side with hooks in them. Ten minutes later a very large fish ran off with a jacksmelt but spit the bait out, in very large halibut fashion. The next bite was a rock and I lost a bait but landed a purple urchin. Shortly after I caught and released a shorty halibut. The it looked like I was drifting out of the sand hole back into the rocks, so I fire up the motor and backed up a bit, only to see that one rod was hooked on the bottom. I grabbed the rod and tried to pull it loose, but the bottom shook its head. Soon after I had a second 17 pound halibut. The sun was down and I headed for home. I'm pretty happy with these two fish, but the one that didn't stick is haunting me. It felt Big. Oh well. It's still out there guys. Catch it and make me feel bad. Or don't. That's okay, too. 

    Ryan Ballantine caught this 15.5 pound lingcod on a squid-tipped shrimp fly at Elephant today. The boat had three limits of rockcod and was back just after noon, with plenty of time to clean the pile of fish. The rockcod have been pretty bitey lately and the lings, some of them pretty big, are here to party.

   It looks like Gage isn't the only one catching halibut. Mike Mack sent in this report from today: "Caught 6 keeper halibuts at McClures on live bait in morning until about hour after tide turned. Plenty of lings and rocks off elephant in 120'."   Mr. Mack also watched another boat catch a pair of halibut and a striper. The water is still cold, but luckily some of these halibut don't read this report and don't know that they aren't supposed to bite in 53º water. Poor illiterate bastards. Let's teach them that literacy matters.

   John Wertz sent me this report: "Out with my brother in law today and the Halibut took the day off. At least no one showed up at Miller Park with any. Lots of bait though and we did catch and release this guy. Hey, it beats working!" So, at least some of the halibut believe me about the cold. Salmon, it seems, don't care as much. This silver didn't mind. This is prime time for endangered coho in the bay, so your chances of excitement followed by heartbreak are as good as it gets right now. Do your best to release them unharmed.

 

   Ed Parsons sent me this: "Got these Monday with a couple of other blind squirrels.  Think it'll make honorable mention for Gages calendar?" Maybe, but you really should be laying down behind the fish.  That's a nice pile of white meat but I'm guessing that the smiles would be even bigger if the fish were already cleaned. Well, Gage heard that the halibut were caught at McClure's Beach, so on Wednesday he and his buddy Mason took a trip down.

     They did well after a slow start. At 1:00 PM they had one halibut. By 3:00 they had five, then hooked a quadruple. With shaking hands they released three fish. Of their eight keepers, three bit live bait. The others liked the Bigfoot Jigs better. The lings liked both jacksmelt and jigs and the sand sole were 50/50 jigs/bait. So. what to do on my day off?

      I went where Gage went. A friend of mine often askes himself when fishing, WWGD? I just did as I was told and pointed the boat towards McClure's. At the end of the fishing day, Gage had two halibut to 26 pounds, Chris Brown had two halibut to 18.5 pounds (plus one 23 incher released safely) and I caught a barely legal (but very tasty) cabazon. The wind came up today and required some boat piloting to slow the drift when the wind blew harder than our parachute could compensate for. The ride home was cold, wet, and bumpy. Tomorrow should be less wet and bumpy. The biggest halibut ate a big jacksmelt and everything else (including five short halibut released safely) ate the jigs. The water was only 53º. Inside the bay there were a few halibut caught in Jed's Hole. I'd share the spot, but it isn't mine. At least it was Jed that caught the halibut in his hole. 

    Craig Dahl caught this nice green lingcod on Tuesday. The greenies are the best. It is lingcod spawn time and they are coming in closer to shore to make lots more lings. If you catch a big female full of eggs it would probably be a good idea to release her as more lings are good and spawners have a bit stronger taste. 

 

       The one boat that we launched today had plenty of crab action on their halibut bait but no takers with scales. Nonetheless, I had an hour of light after work and gave it a try. After hurriedly getting the boat and gear and running down to McClure's, I discovered that the tube on my Bigfoot Baits jig had split on the head. I also had not packed my spare jigs or tubes. So, I jigged my broken one. It still darted on the up and fell slower on the drop. Five minutes later, I saw something on the meter, and a minute later.... 

    .... a nineteen pounder was on the deck. I drove the boat back out to where I hooked up, but after fifteen minutes of jigging the even more damaged tube I decided to leave and reeled up, putting the rod away. I glanced at the meter and saw another line on the meter. I grabbed the rod and cast a little behind the the boat. Jig, jig, bam....

    .... a fifteen pounder. And the tube was gone. After catching only eight halibut. Warranty! Do I know that the lines on the meter were halibut? Nope. I saw something and something bit. Twice. Whether the something I saw was the something I caught can't be proven. But if I see lines on the meter again, I'm throwing a jig at it. 

    

      I heard of one halibut caught over the weekend. That was Ron Johnson at McClure's Beach yesterday. Today, McClure's had a few more halibut for a few more boats. Red hot bite it ain't, but it is the last chance sweepstakes for halibut before their (functional) season ends. There's still a few around inside Tomales Bay, and catch numbers may go up if the fog clears and the sun warms things up a bit. The halibut fishing is awesome, though, compared to the salmon fishing. There's still time for a final push of fish to come through, but not a lot. A November salmon bite would just be sad, since we couldn't legally fish for them then. Let's hope for a quick arrival. At least rockfishing is good, and lingcod even better in the shallows as it is time for lings to start making more lings. Speaking of rockfishing....

    ..... next year will be under different regulations. In our area here, the proposed season is: "San Francisco Groundfish Management Area: Closed January 1 through May 14; Open May 15 through July 15 in waters seaward of the 50 fathom boundary line; Open July 16 through December 31 in all depths." So, shallow water rockfish will open in mid-July. Deeper than you want to fish will be open in mid-May. Unless you were hoping for a shot at sablefish (black cod) you probably weren't hoping for these regs. But, like so much of what's happening now, it's what we're all getting. Let's make the best of it. At least they're not changing the crabbing rules again, right? Wait...

   "

Proposed Hoop Net Regulation Change Webinar on October 6, 2022

Due to the increased use of hoop nets during the Dungeness crab season and recent interest in modified hoop net designs, the California Fish and Game Commission will consider taking emergency action at its upcoming meeting on October 13, 2022. The proposed regulation changes, which would amend subsection 29.80(b), Title 14, California Code of Regulations, are intended to clarify hoop net requirements, add consistency, and to minimize the risk of marine life entanglement with hoop nets. If approved, the regulations would take effect in time for the recreational Dungeness crab season start date of November 5, 2022 and are not expected to impact the ongoing use of hoop nets in the recreational lobster fishery.

The following hoop net regulation changes are addressed by this emergency action: Clarify that the hoop net service interval requirement of two hours applies statewide Add that non-metallic soft mesh must be used in hoop net types A and B Amend requirements of type B hoop nets to restrict the number of rings from three to two (not including the bait ring), adding that the rigid support arms must be "straight", and prohibit any additional openings Add that the use of a surface buoy and buoy marking requirements apply statewide to include hoop nets used north of Point Arguello and that only one operator's GO ID # is required to be legibly marked on the surface buoy (would not include hoop nets used from shore) If you are interested or have questions, please join us on October 6, 2022 from 4:30pm to 6:00pm to discuss the background and purpose of these proposed hoop net regulation changes.

"  Well, on the plus side, just know that a lot of this action seems to stem from the need to preemptively block an attempt by the commercial crab industry to invent a conical "trap" for them. Custom Crab Pots made a "trap" with a small opening on top, a squat cylindrical shape and wire mesh. Well, that's out, it seems. I'm not sure what advantage it would give, but now I want one.

    Yesterday John Bresnahan, Tom Brodsky and Gage spent their day on the water chasing bluefin off of the Farallones. They saw one little patch of foamers but had no bites. Today John and Tom headed to McClure's Beach for halibut and ended up with limits, including John's 34 pound slab. Half of the fish bit bait and half, including this one, bit Bigfoot Baits tube jigs. The water was only 54º but the halibut didn't seem to mind. I think Eddie Kim is hearing footsteps. There aren't that many boats out fishing, but I don't recall a season in the last decade or more with this many 30+ pound halibut. It's kinda cool.

 

   Sorry, I was away for a week in Cabo San Lucas watching my wife catch marlin. Two days fishing with Picante Sportfishing resulted in Nicki catching and releasing three marlin up to 180 pounds as estimated by the generous and skilled crew. Mike and Mara Nursement and I each caught and released one marlin (Mara's was the largest). We all left with 35 pounds of dorado fillets frozen in the ice chest. It was so hot that there almost wasn't enough beer to cool me (the Dillon Beach, lives in the cold guy) off, but only almost. The Fresco stores are well stocked, thank you. Bohemia FTW. And Cazadores. And schooling striped marlin are a gift from a very benevolent God. Holy crap. Talk about the opposite of boat shy. 

    Here's a picture of the the definition of boat shy. These bluefin were caught near the Farallones on Sunday. Nomad MadMacs 500 yards behind the boat sounds like the definition of boat shy, but it works, it seems. There have been a few reported as caught between Monterey and Fort Bragg over the last weekend, mostly on Madmacs. Live macks will definitely work, as reality beats simulation every time. This is Ryan Giammona of North Bay Charters with two local hogs. Separately, in my time out of town I missed no salmon from the sound of it. Halibut I missed but not a giant bite. Trip Plumb had s thirty pounder at McClures over the weekend and a number of others were caught in the bay, but a red hot bite didn't happen.