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.