I know most of you are full of halibut, but a few of us are still fishing for them. Yesterday, Gage, Steve Cato and I caught limits of halibut to 20 pounds, all on live bait. For us, the bigger the bait, the quicker it got bit. Note the size of the bait compared to the halibut it caught in the photo. When your bait is super-sized you need to feed those halibut some line and give them some time to eat that super-burrito. We caught five of them on the bar in three drifts, with three of the fish landed on one drift between 9:15 and 10:00. During that time you could hear whoops and hollers from many of the other boats out there as they landed fish, too. There was a bit of swearing on our boat as well as we missed at least as many bites as we stuck (probably more). After two dry drifts we moved to off of Dillon Beach in 30 feet of water where we missed a few more bites, then stuck a nice keeper to finish. 

    Alec Bennett of the Shrimp Boat took more time to catch his bait than it did for him to catch this 23 pound, rod-breaking halibut yesterday. He pretty much bonked it on the head when he dropped his line in the water.  There was a netting incident that resulted in a dead fish and a broken rod. To be fair, catching a large fish by yourself is hard, and halibut are wicked strong. But I'm betting that Alec may be using that gaff more for landing halibut in the future. For the record, myself and my boys are pretty strict halibut gaffers, if for no other reason than a gaff is way, way easier to use effectively one-handed. Also, after you get used to punching 'buts in the gut it gets pretty cathartic to stick them.  We prefer J gaffs, but Gage has also spent enough time on a commercial salmon boat to know how to effectively pick a halibut, too. I've picked a few, but I feel better with the straight pull of a J gaff. 

    Swampy got on the water before me yesterday, and not surprisingly, was off the off the water before me as well. His report: "Got to make it down for a quick trip Thursday.  Good to see and talk with some familiar faces. Two limits for us to 12#s, two from the bar and two at my favorite area. Shiners did the trick. See y’all down there next week. Doug there in the photo bomb.

Swampy" We watched Swampy repeat a drift a couple of times on the bar, so we kinda figured he was bonking a few. Nice job, sir. I don't know where Swampy catches his shiners, but probably not coincidentally a boat from Bodega Bay limited quick on the bar today using shiners. They gifted some to these guys:

   Scott Bergenstock and crew had a rough day yesterday but made up for it today with quick limits of halibut to 15 pounds. They used large smelt for one, but after watching the guys in the gray Whaler get quick limits they didn't say no to sharing the offered shiner perch. They quickly finished up. In similar news, a couple of my personal heroes had a rough day yesterday and finally finished with a respectable four halibut for three fishermen, but the man known as Jigger John failed to connect with a jig. Today he lived up to the steely glint in his eye, and all six fish were taken by him with a Bigfoot Baits jig. It's possible that it had more to do with the man than the jig (He is "Jigger" John, after all) but it could be that is was jigging day, as live bait and swimbaits have also had their days recently. Whatever it was, good job to all. A table full of filets is its own reward. 

    Hunter Smith sent over this photo and quick report: "Got this today at 9 on herring popsicle at mcclures on drift  Hunter Smith" He weighed it at 26.5 pounds. Even without the weight, any fish that has it's tail sticking out of the ice chest is a good fish. Because I want as many fish as possible to have a positive self image at their demise, I try to bring the smallest reasonable ice chest for my fish. On my boat a 24"er feels like a badass. Hunter clearly doesn't follow with my thoughts on fragile egos, but he still seems to find fish that won't fit. Good on you, Hunter. Nice damn fish, too.