All of these crappy fishing reports must have got to me. This morning, after icing down my swollen eyes from crying, I saw a man with a limit of halibut! He actually hooked three, but the last two were a double, so the 28 incher came home with him (sometimes being smaller is better. Less is more!). Another gentleman went to the same area and landed one in five minutes. I'm not sure if he caught a second one but he was pretty stoked about numero uno, as we all should be. Where was this miraculous parade of halibut? Gage knows, as he told these guys where to go. He didn't tell me, but I heard 12 feet of water from the two happy guys. The water out front is running in the mid- to high forties, temperature-wise, so I'm guessing that they went way, way back. And trolling, as that is what the Gage usually advises in the early season. So, it's on, barely. Yeah for us!

  On the first of May the deep water (Westward of a line of line of waypoints indicating 50 fathoms(300 feet)) closed for rockfish but the shallows (Eastward of a line of waypoints indicating 20 fathoms (120 feet)) have opened. So, the good nearshore fishing will remain closed this year to protect the almost non-existent (here) Quillback (or maybe I just suck at catching endangered species, but I've probably boated two quillies in the last decade. And that seemed like an improvement from the past, "good old days", when we say almost none. Whatever...) but we can still catch the fish that do exist here, except for coppers. The last two decades of fishing limited to nearshore have reduced the copper's numbers. Well, something had to give. You box us up on the beach for two decades, I guess you might expect that beach to get a bit burnt.

    Also this week we had a boat roll over near Inverness yesterday, probably a small sailboat (judging by the style of life jackets worn by the victims) but indicative of the weather we've had lately. The wind almost closed the road in to Lawson's with piles of blown sand this week. It's building up the beach that the storms washed out, but damn! It kinda sucks. Today the wind was pretty mellow, so instead of a boat flipping somebody fell off of the cliff on Tomales Point. The Sonoma County Sheriff's helicopter, Henry One, has been busy out here. I hope that they get to do some work closer to their home in the future. I also hope that they are as successful in the future as my limited understanding seems to indicate that they were in the last few days. Stay safe, everybody. And catch fish. It is time. Let's fill those freezers.