Even though salmon season has been functionally over for a month or better, the season is now officially over as well. It's good to be on the same page. Not coincidentally, the chances of hooking a salmon while rockfishing just went up. 

     The swell has been up and the Tomales Bay bar has been breaking pretty aggressively. You can tell that Dungeness season is close. I'm not naming names, but last Saturday a regular had a, let's call it eventful, passage over the bar where he jumped four breakers to get across. The fourth wave knocked the captain to the deck as it broke through the almost vertical boat. Not wanting to stay there and wait for the next wave, the passenger next to the captain grabbed the wheel and throttled out of the death zone. Aside from some bruises, the boat and crew were all okay, but they didn't go fishing on Sunday. I tell this story to try and encourage everybody to be safe. The forecast for Saturday's opener looks good right now but it can change. The breakers will definitely be back before November is over. The Sonoma County Sheriff's helicopter and the Coast Guard helicopter have both been flying practice runs to the mouth of Tomales Bay in preparation for the opener, as they are expecting somebody to have a bad day. Let's disappoint them.

     The water is very cold in the bay and the chances of a halibut in November are slim but not zero. There was at least one caught on dead bait by Hog Island on Sunday and halibut fishing conditions don't get too much worse than they are now (except for too much fresh water in the bay which hasn't been an issue for a few years) so if one or two are biting now, who knows?