Fishing results here today: Beach fishermen caught more halibut than the boat fishermen, but only because of a funny quirk in math where one is more than zero. Three boats tried from here, and the two that worked the bar had bites but nothing that stuck to a hook. There was one beach fisherman spotted with a halibut, so the beach guys win. Barely. Not much happening here, but there are things happening offshore to our north, and soon the current will shift and the Fort Bragg water will slide down this way. Whether we get a corresponding weather window remains to be seen, but if it happens..... well, hopefully the following is a sneak preview. The first is from Captain Ryan Giammona:"

Hey Willy, 

Figured you would like a heads up on what's hopefully heading down the line into our waters. We fished south of Bragg 35 miles, just above the rooster  and hooked 2 big eye for 3 days of fishing. One going 250lbs and one going 120lbs.  The big one ate a nomad slip stream, and the smaller one ate a Mexican flag clone.  They like it close to the boat like albacore so none of that 90 seconds back stuff like bluefin and I can confirm that the 120lb big eye fought a hell of a lot harder than my 190lb bluefin did last year so the 250 was a battle even on my mak 50 wide at 48lbs of drag.  A few buddies ran out of bodega 70 miles and both boats had 2 big ones each day, so they are within range, just not close enough for me to run charters on out of home yet.  Figured Gage would see it but I wanted to get you a few pictures to post along with it. 

Ryan Giammona 

North Bay Fishing Charters" That's some good and a little terrifying information, Ryan, thanks. I got worked pretty hard by a barely triple-digit bluefin last week. I guess I better start working out, or at least bring someone with me that has been. Captain Ryan has been kind enough to share much of what he knows about bluefin fishing here, and his website for booking trips is here. A chance to catch big tuna without driving for eight hours one way sounds pretty sweet. 

   One of the guys that ran out for tuna from Bodega was my my cousin Lance. His brother, Ira, sent me this report: "

 This happened of course while I was up hunting this weekend. Lance and my nephew Hunter ran out of Bodega to Fort Bragg 90 miles and 124 gallons of fuel burned but check out this big eye..... 178 pounds" Ira and I share the trait of believing that everybody else is doing better than we are, no matter what we're doing. Our FOMO gene is strong. That said, 90 miles is fricking far, Lance. Actually, 50 miles is far; 90 is far beyond far. I don't think anybody will be seeing me out that far, at least not with gasoline over $5.00 a gallon. But, I'm thinking about it. How can you not? Bigeye is a whole 'nother tuna..... For now, I'll just wait for that water to slide on down. Good work guys. That's a pig.

  Here's two reports from Bragg from today. First, a tale of victory, written by Tom Brodsky at 6:00 this evening: "

Caught on my Christmas gift 220 DTX
Thanks
No albacore most boats.0 high boat 3. Should have been here yesterday
Still 20 miles out running in."  The 220 DTX was a gift to replace the one lost while I was fishing with Tom last November. I guess I need to buy one for myself, now. Albacore not biting sounds like the kind of tuna water I usually find myself fishing in, so I'll take this as a sign that the water is moving this way. Another sign: "

The tuna that bit my nomad DTX nearly in half is still laughing all the while I’m crying" At least you had a little action today. Eddie Parsons and crew had one bite today and it broke his expensive Nomad lure (all Nomads are expensive) as the fish escaped. No fish and/or gear breakers sounds like my kind of fishing. The expensive gas is also an indicator that fish are coming. There's a reasonable chance that we'll have opportunities to chase tuna in the next month.