In the absence of any fish to talk about, I'd like to repost a couple of comments from the last post, as some people don't read them (Why not? They are usually more interesting than my writing and often better informed). In order of comment:
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Perhaps too much fishing pressure on small shallow narrow bay is catching up quality wise?, always couple stripers around but after all the large females that were harvested last year not expecting much sadly. Price we all pay for posing with big "piles" of fish to be Instagram heroes. If you want some sport action just back from boat camping trip up on Lake Shasta, lots of spotted bass every day on topwater surface baits always lots of fun as an alternative, nice to have full lakes again"
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Tilly has inspired me to offer up my observations. Others' experiences may differ, but here's mine: Over the past 10 years, the productivity of Tomales Bay's halibut fishery has plunged to where it's barely worth going anymore. I'm a free-diver. I used to never even mention that, hoping to keep a good secret to myself, but it doesn't really matter now. The fish appear to be almost gone. As recently as 2016 and 2017 I would see an average of 3-5 fish per outing - sometimes 6 or 8, sometimes 1 or 2. I usually managed to spear a halibut somewhere along a 2- or 3-mile transect. Things have changed, especially in the last 3-4 years. In 2022, I went diving 21 times in Tomales Bay, between Pelican Point and the Bar. I brought home 2 halibut all season, both on the same day (speared 10 minutes apart). In the entire season, I saw or spooked just 7 halibut. 2021 was equally poor for me - 3 fish in the boat in about 20 trips. For anglers on top of the water, it's appealing to imagine on a slow day that the fish are "there" but just aren't biting. Diving adds an extra layer of visibility to what's actually going on under the surface. As far as I can see, the fish are not present anymore. I always have worried that the fillet tables stacked with halibut, and the urge to post reports on the Internet, would catch up with us, as Tilly suggested. I think that may be where we are now. I hope I'm wrong and that things turn around.
In case anyone is wondering, the most halibut I took from Tomales Bay in one year was roughly 10, in 2016.
I'm curious: Does anyone have a Tomales halibut perspective that strongly differs from mine?"
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Predatory fish such as halibut and stripers generally enter the bay for one reason....to chase baitfish. While some species of fish can be caught there year-round, Tomales is mainly a seasonal fishery, that ebbs and flows with water temperatures, fish migration patterns and most of all...the presence of baitfish. No baitfish have yet entered the bay in any quantity. I have fished the bay for over 15 years regularly, and my best days for halibut, and stripers, have been when there is a lot of bait present in the bay. Herring, anchovies and even large numbers of smelt account for this. When the bait is there, the fish are there.
Not many species actually spawn in the bay. Some sharks, and bat rays account for the major spawning species inside the bay. Yes, halibut and stripers do spawn in the bay, but not in large numbers. This is my personal observation, and not based on any kind of first-hand science. Just the observations of a fisherman. This has been the best halibut year in recent memory in SF Bay........a few years ago we had the same in Tomales. When this occurred the bay was glutted with bait.
I don't disagree with the added attraction social media can give to a fishery, and as a result the added pressure on said fishery. But they good days and big fish will return. My main point is that bad fishing in Tomales Bay is not so much a result of fish caught there in great numbers, but also in fish caught elsewhere in great numbers that would one day be present in Tomales, as a direct result of chasing the bait schools.
Outlaw"
I mostly agree with these comments. I also am concerned for the lack of fish. I know guys that dove for halibut on the Tomales Bay bar for decades and have given up (a few have aged out. You know who you are...) as the surefire body stacking from the 1970's though the 1990's piddled out to the lots of swimming and very little shooting of the recent times. The bar bite has definitely died. Except for when it's awesome. I, too, have seen periods with damn few biting fish. Just so you know, Mr. Bland, when I don't catch any fish I comfort myself by saying there weren't any fish. The thought of drifting over fish that won't bite my offering sends shivers down my spine. I reject it! I also refuse to get one of those cameras that can see what fish are looking at your bait. I DON'T WANT TO KNOW THAT FISH WERE THERE AND NOT BITING. Nope. But I digress, as I do. I don't know what's going on. I have some ideas that are probably wrong. But first, here's some background information. I starting "working" on a party boat when I was eight. At that time for me, "working" meant going on the boat, helping set up gear and then fishing. I also puked a lot. Lord have mercy, a lot... That was 1978. I heard stories of schools of yellowtail rockfish boiling at the surface at Cordell. I saw one of those in probably 1980 to 1982. (It was awesome) When I started we limited out on big rockfish every day we fished Cordell. When we occasionally fished Rittenburg (Merle Lawson called it "A-hole" to keep it a secret) it was a hell of big lingcod (hell if you were a rockfish. Good times to anglers). By the mid-1980's we were fishing in 500 to 600 feet of water looking for fish, then trying to find hard bottom with rockfish in the area between Cordell and Rittenburg. We, and the other party boats and drag boats had fished out arguably the most productive rockfish spot in central California. My family sold the boat in 1985 and I finished my tour of duty on it (less puking by then, but not no puking) under different ownership in fall of 1986. It was like selling a played out gold claim. By 2001? 2003? I don't recall the date, but CDFW agreed and closed the deep water to fishing for rockfish. Can you overfish something? I think yes. Going back to Rittenburg 20 years after it was almost empty and seeing these huge rockfish humping your lures, well,,, They fixed it. Will it last? I am confident that our current regime at CDFW will not be asleep at the wheel and will shut down our deep water party earlier that we would like, primarily due to too many Yelloweye rockfish being brought to the surface. Even descended properly, some will die, and that's actually part of the equation allowing fishing out there now. And you know what? Fine. I understand, now, that limiting access is probably a good thing. I kinda understood then, but seeing 1980's numbers of fish again made it real. Sometimes swatting your hand away makes it better for everyone. Maybe a two fish limit for halibut is the right thing....
Having said that, do I think overfishing is trashing the Tomales Bay halibut fishery? Well,,,, I don't know. It still seems to me that there more fishermen in the past. And actually, there's a bit of evidence to show that. Pictures first, because they're pretty:
Great read Willy!! Enjoyed the history and info by you and others!!
ReplyDeleteOnly way to catch them is keep fishing at most opportune times.
Not sure why my post didn't go through yesterday .Guess nobody wants to here my opinion 😕
ReplyDeleteThat’s a framer! Copy print and frame.
ReplyDeleteThat was a fun read by a lot of guys that have some great knowledge of the area. Thanks for bringing our attention to it.
ReplyDeleteAs an avid surfcaster in the area and a boat fisherman I have my own view on things.
It's hard to cry over harvest of halibut when 30+ miles to the south they're having one of the best seasons possibly on record. With just one boat approaching 2000 halibut the numbers of halibut were healthy (before this year). After this year, we'll see.
Last year was one of my best years ever in terms of numbers and size of stripers from the surf. I keep a journal every time I go surf fishing and definitely see patterns over the years. I agree that Instagram has had ill effects on spot burning and hero making too. When I see giant hen stripers on the bottom of the boat or dead in the cooler it bums me out. Are they doing anything illegal? No. Am I putting my values and my code of ethics on someone else? Yes. Personally seeing a large striper swim away from me after being caught will always be 1000 times better than having taco meat. Aside from that, DFG recommends that women of child bearing age should have zero meals of striped bass and the rest of us should only have 1 serving per week. I'll take the hint and not have any.
Thanks for the post. Thought provoking and it created great dialogue.
A very interesting and informative dialogue by fishers; not DFG. Especially interesting were the views from "under" by the diver.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting and informative dialogue by fishers; not DFG. Especially interesting were the views from "under" by the diver.
ReplyDeleteI think some times we humans think we can out smart nature. I agree with the fish surveys and having restrictions and bag limits to promote healthy fish populations. The biggest miss on this by DFG is managing the salmon without looking at the main two reasons for their decline. California nearly tripling in population with no new water storage reduces water available in the rivers more than it should need be in drought years. STRIPERS, notably in the Sac River, salmon fry have no chance to make it to the ocean through the glut of stripers waiting for them. The only saving grace in the past was the Red Bluff Diversion dam, stripers as a rule would not go up the ladders, now that it has been shut down (left open year round) the stripers are all the way up to Redding having a salmon fry buffet. In our attempt to save the salmon by stopping the use of the diversion dam, I believe we have achieved the complete opposite. Anyone reading that enjoys the trout fishing in the Redding area, those days are likely numbered as well.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Tomales Outlaw, it's all about baitfish, which have not come into Tomales Bay in huge numbers for 2-3 years now after 5-6 years in a row of massive anchovy schools entering and 3 fish limts on the "right" days were commonplace. This and social media have expanded the amount of folks fishing Tomales. I for one don't necessarily mind if the crowds thin out a bit during this not so easy to catch halbut period.
ReplyDeleteFishnut
ReplyDeleteAside from fishing effort, ocean conditions obviously play a large, poorly understood, and I would guess a dominant role in fish populations and availability, including halibut. Its common to fall into the the perspective that what happens in our relatively short lifetimes and personal experiences represent what is "normal" and events outside of that must be abnormal. Not that a life of fishing and paying attention doesn't provide a very good short-term perspective, but it is helpful to fit that perspective into the larger and longer context of ocean cycles and how fish respond to those.
In the 1930's and most of the 1940s' Monterey had a huge sardine fishery, chronicled in John Steinbeck's very good novel "Cannery Row". The collapse of that fishery in the late 1940's was blamed on overfishing and fishing certainly played some role. However, about the same time as the "collapse", ocean conditions switched from warm water favorable to sardines, to cold water upwelling along much of the California Coast. With that shift, the warm-water loving sardines evacuated the central and northern California coastal waters and headed back to Mexico and Southern California. Cold-water loving critters including anchovies replaced them. The post-1940's cold water period then lasted until the late 1970's, when coincidentally the big scary monster was a looming global ice-age. Remember that? This cold period, in turn, shifted back to an El Nino dominated warm-water period in the late 1970s that lasted to about year 2000. I remember during this warm-water period enjoying abundant warm-water fishes including halibut, mackerel, sardines and albacore. Conveniently, the prophets of doom switched from a looming ice-age to global warming and the demise of the ocean's fish. But year 2000 ushered in a new cold water regime accompanied by a predominance of La Ninas, strong northwesterly winds and cold-water upwelling and an explosion of cold-water loving ocean life. The whales have certainly been enjoying the cold-water abundance. This is not to say that heavying fishing on vulnerable fish stocks has no impact, it obviously does, but there are other big things in play, and to a large extent we are along for the ride. We'll see how much longer this cold phase lasts, but its bound to shift back to warmer-water one of this years, and with it will come and go various fishes and more predictions of doom.
Good read indeed! I started out fishing outside the Gate in mid 80's with old college buddy, Andy Guiliano who now runs Emeryville Sportsfishing and had just purchased 22ft Outrage. So just remember the good old days of getting 5 Lingcod sacks over 100lbs on regular basis, lots of 20-30lb fish many coming in less than 100-150 ft of water and lots of shallow water monsters up around double Point and Pt Reyes in fall, often hitchhikers hanging onto nice size rock cod all the way into the net, great stuff and no doubt all the fishing pressure has knocked down that fishery and thus we are dealing with limited deep water opps only. Have been lucky to catch numerous 20-30lb stripers in surf, but since 2017, motivated by Willy post about Sam blanking on last name fishing big tides noting he let the big potentially females go. Its such a thrill getting huge striper in the surf, been doing same since 2017, keeping smaller schooly type fish that are great eating, just pictures of some monster bass are enough for me now, so much value as sport fish for those like me that love to cast and work the surf, seeing big striper eat big topwater plug is great thrill!!!
ReplyDeleteTilly, even a striper missing your topwater plug is a great thrill! I don't catch many stripers in the surf (definitely not as many as I want) but any hook-up is great and the bites I can see, even the ones I miss, will get me back out there for a bunch more tries. I literally dream about those.
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