Megan Padon. That's her name. She caught a 21 pound halibut yesterday. She reminded me of her name today when she weighed in a 25 pound halibut. I fell asleep before finishing my post last night. No picture today, as it looked a lot like yesterday's picture, only today's fish was a bit larger. Also, boats were waiting to get pulled out. The important thing to know (besides Megan's name. Sorry!) is that Connor Padon has figured a few things out. I don't want to give him any more cred than that, as to much backslapping tends to scare the fish away. But attaboy. And attagirl, Megan, as Connor's numbers increased when you got on the boat. Coincidence? I think we all know...

   The big fish here weighed 22 pounds. I was hoping that the fisherman would write his name on the bragging board so I could post his name here and spell it correctly. These guys had been fishing here for a day or two without catching. That's pretty easy to do when the fish aren't biting like starving piranhas. Today they tried something different and tried a bit closer to home, and it worked. No boats were by them. Sometimes, working different water can work. I will repeat, if you make a drift and don't catch a fish, unless you saw a nearby boat catch a fish, why repeat a failed drift? Don't fish where they aren't biting. These guys tried new water and caught two fish on jigs. Badass, gentlemen. Good on 'ya. Now fix your steering.

    Kerry Apgar sent me this photo. She's got the Covid and can't visit (don't worry, Kerry fans, she says it's a cold, and not a bad one at that) but she got this picture and couldn't help but share it, as she is probably the biggest fan of the people at this campsite. David Gonzales is the man in the photo, but lurking somewhere out of frame is John Rosasco (THE Jigger John) and Frank Green (THE bane of halibut). Last night THE Dave Prater and crew were in camp for a chat that I wish I was privy to. I wanted to slide in so bad... But. Some things need to be secrets. Thanks for the picture, Kerry, but I think the boys may be upset that you're outing them. It is definitely a bed week to be a halibut in Tomales Bay.

    Overall picture of the bay? There's halibut from one end to other. Not a lot of halibut, however. South of Hog has been hard. Lots of hot, empty water there. From Pelican Point to the bar there are fish everywhere, but they aren't biting super well. Again, those of you that know better to sort your jacksmelt and keep the smallest for bait, probably don't work so hard at that. From my experience this year, larger baits get bit better. The fish don't stick as well on a big bait, but the flatties seem to like the larger baits for biting. But don't go all in on biggies. The only constance is change, and just because they bit large bait yesterday don't mean nothing today. I advocate a mix. Fish it all. Some may work! 

  

    I got a call today from the Coastodian. He hooked a thresher from a kayak and was wondering what to do. My answer was not helpful. The guys in the picture were actually helpful. They landed the fish and removed the hooks before releasing the thresher. Threshers are awesome. Unless you hooked one. Thanks, guys, for saving the Coastodian from a tow around the bay. This was at the yellow buoy, where there's schools of bait and apparently one thresher but not tons of halibut lately. 

 Yet again, a report I missed: "Hey Willie,

Greg and Scott are out of Bodega fishing. Greg caught I believe is a Treefish. Crab unknown.

Ever see those outta Bodega?

Hope all is well!" All is well enough, sirs. Thanks. The fish? Yes, Treefish, and rare here. Nice job! The crab? Probably a spiny lithode crab. That's a relative of the King  Crab. I only know of that crab from a comment on this report from 2011. Gage showed off a weird crab he caught while rockfishing in 2011. Somebody anonymous responded with a definition. Thanks! Count the legs. It ain't your regular Cancer crab...

      

    The halibut fishing remains the same, poor, but at least one boat did well again. The Stockton Jiggers were swarmed today as they demonstrated how to catch halibut with jigs. I apologize for "outing" them, as the swarm of boats following them today probably weren't helpful. And yet they still caught fish.

    Booyah.

    How do these guys catch that many fish? First, they bring a lot of people in their camp  to pass off fish to. That's a legal imperative, and they do that. How do they catch them? That's the question.... Part of it is that every time that boat stops, every rod in the boat is jigging. Fast, slow, they're all going. And Dave, the boat owner, is not one to stop over spots that aren't fishy. What's fishy? Well, in a word, edges. What's an edge? Any change. Water temp.  Depth. Structure. The Stockton boys used all of those things. Their jigging method clearly worked as well, even though I think that they jigged too aggressively. The fish didn't think that their jigging was too aggressive. I had my luck jigging slow with my jig. My success isn't as good as their success, so. I'm going to say to mix it up. Find the thing that works for you. You'll know what works when the fish bite.

 

    A new theme for this report: "Emails I missed while writing the report." Here's one from yesterday: "Hey Willy,

This slab was  caught by my friend Rick. Location? Big deep hole full of Sardines. Actually, my fish finder said the bottom was only ten feet down. That’s a lot of Sardines.

AF FISH" So this report was from Thursday. Friday the sardines had disappeared. Today I heard they were back but the guy that reported that was busy fishing with dead bait and was too occupied doing that to catch and fish the liveys. So I'm going to repeat myself. The fish are eating other fish when you're not around. Jigs, trolled bait, even dead bait to a degree, try to simulate a live fish. The best simulation of a live fish is a live fish. And sardines are like the ribeyes I can't afford to buy. Lots of fat. To Americans, we publicly disdain fat, but we love to eat it, as our programming says it tastes good. Fish have similar programming. Part of not dying is eating enough calories, and fat little fishies are full of calories. Fish know this, or they die. That's why they love sardines. Gage and I used buckets last week to keep a few alive (and only a few will stay alive in a bucket, but it only takes one to break to a skunk) so you don't need a baitwell, even though that would work better. Better is always better (it's in the name) but good enough is also good enough. Run what you brung. Last month, Gage and emptied out the anchor locker on my 1969 Whaler and used it as a baitwell. Limited. Not ideal, but better than eating beans. React to your conditions. The worse that can happen is that you won't catch, and if you already aren't catching, well....? AF FISH, good work. I was told that nobody caught under the sardines on Thursday, but it seems that you did. Nice job. Nice fish, too. That one is larger than any Gage and I caught that day. 

    Today's report (now that my rant is over. Sorry) was almost exclusively slow. The halibut for most fishermen were tough. Rockfish out in the ocean were actually pretty good, and at least one rock fisherman was concerned that the season was not open due to the fact that there were no other boats in sight while he was fishing in the shallows near Elephant Rock. He was fine, just nobody else was trying there. In the bay, halibut were tough, or worse. Numbers of catches ranged from mostly zeros to one, except for one boat. The boat that caught five for three guys jigging yesterday caught eight for four guys today. They were back early and swaggering around the campground early, and rightly so. These are my favorite fishermen. They don''t have all the fancy new gear and high speed reels. Don't need 'em. Fancy boat? Nope. They know where to go and what to do to catch fish, because that's what they love to do. This is Dave Prater's crew from Stockton, and if you don't catch fish like them, it's alright. Most of us don't, but we can practice and learn and aspire.

 

   Here's a report from Wednesday: "Hey Willy, hope all is well. First and foremost thank you for the report. Not only is it informational, it's also a breath of fresh air that a community of non youtube fishermen/ladies still exist. 

Please tell Mike that the kayaker from Wednesday evening owes him a beer..or a fish taco. An evening of cooling down sipping a beer by the point produced a tasty 28"er dragging dead bait.

Cheers and blessings to you and the Lawson community, Alex P. (Sorry for the terrible pic, was catching my breath from fighting the current back in)" And reeling in fish, it appears. That'll take the wind out of you, or so I hear. There are a few fish around but they aren't easy to catch at the moment. Looks like Alex P. knows what he's doing. . 

    Most boats from here have been returning with very few halibut. The fish are out there but they're hard to catch right now. The giant school of sardines that had been hanging out at Pelican Point, vanished. Those damn fish have tails, and they use them. It is hard to fish live bait without live bait. Yesterday, I forgot to mention that Gage and I caught seven stripers. We released them so they're still out there. We also caught our limits of four halibut relatively quickly at Hog Island. We saw one other guy catch a halibut there. I only heard of one other halibut caught back there. Gage and fished where the others weren't and when we found biting fish on the edge of a hole we kept going back to just above the hole and repeating the part of the drift where fish were biting. Today, three guys jigged for five halibut in the box by following a similar method: Cover a lot of ground and repeat the ground that is working. Don't fish the fleet of boats if nobody else is catching fish. A cluster of boats has no purpose for you if fish aren't being caught there. Sometimes you have to find your own fish.

 

   Here's the report that I was trying to post last night when I fell asleep: "Came down to escape the heat and get my Dad Ed out. Glad I brought him so I could get some netting practice. Perch were easy, Halibut were caught all over the bay but only by my Dad. Us other two watchers were impressed. See y’all soon.

Swampy"  Nice fish, and nice job, Ed. The catching has been a bit slow, so it is good to see someone catching some nice fish. Swampy is a fish killer, but it seems that when things look tough, he turns, as many of us do, to people with more experience and better luck. Go Ed. Show 'em how it's done. Actually, maybe you could show me how it's done. 

    In other Wednesday news, the sardines are back and they are thick in the water at the deep hole at Pelican Point. Yesterday there were some big stripers feeding on the sardines judging by the stripers that were successfully landed. Today the sardines were there but no stripers. Gage and I caught some sardines in the hole and then moved off toward Hog Island and caught our four halibut there. One other guy saw us doing that and caught his limit there. I didn't hear of many more, but don't give up; it is possible. The fish are there (somewhere) and they like sardines. A lot.

   Gage would like everybody to know that the stripers are still biting, somewhere out there in the fog. He was using a Redrum tube in pearl white. Stripers care less about water temps. The water is warming up, though, and happiness should be on the way soon. 

     Wind-driven cold water has slowed the halibut bite in the bay north of Hog Island, but, not killed it. A few biting fish remain. Trip Plumb and Rich Chapin caught a 22 pound halibut off of Dillon Beach proper today. They were trolling live jacksmelt. They also hooked and released a 14 pound salmon (Their estimation, and as long-time commercial fishermen, their guess at weight is probably gilled and gutted.) and a 100+ pound sea lion, also released. Actually the marine mammal released itself, although I have been reassured that Rich and Trip didn't want it and were planning on releasing it anyhow. They also said that their combined 174 years of fishing experience was the main reason for their success. I don't have enough years of experience to argue that, even if I wanted to.

    Other halibut fishermen had mixed reviews. Catch numbers have ranged from a lot of zeros to four in the box. Success, numberwise, seemed to increase south of Hog, as the water was warmer there and the fish were more active. But the larger ones lived north, as usual. just not plentiful. as usual. Bait catching, depending on who you asked, ranged from nearly impossible to easy with the majority in the hard category.

    Rockfish, now that the wind has died and you can get there again, have been a bit slow as 49º water makes everybody a bit sluggish. As the worst of the wind lays off the next few days we should see a corresponding interest in eating by these fish, too.  Luckily, stripers are less concerned with water temp and more concerned with eating, God love 'em. They bit this morning, and Cameron almost outfished me. Almost. The old man still has a few tricks, but not many. But all I need is one.

 

    The weather was bad yesterday and the forecast was for better weather today. Instead, we got crappier, foggier, windier weather. It was more than a little disappointing. John Rosasco was more than a little disappointed to drive all early morning in the dark to get here and discover that the wind was blowing, and blowing pretty hard. He tried some spots that weren't biting in the wind, and then tried one more, right across from the boathouse. He hit it during the turn of the tide and hooked this personal best 34 pound halibut on a jig. The fish would look larger except for the fact that John is a large man. If you know John, this picture is "Damn! What a fish." Otherwise, the fish seems small next to him. John is known here as Jigger John, as he has been jigging up halibut since well before jigging was cool (if it ever was). It sure worked for this fish, and countless others over the years. If success is cool, then John here is making jigging cool. Nice damn fish, John. Nobody else even tried to weigh in a fish today. It sucked. Except for Jigger John.

 

    As usual I missed some things. Here's a makegood as re-submitted by Tom Carter: "While Nolan was catching those halibut down the bay last Tuesday we were fishing on the bar in 62 degree filthy water with our grandson Ezra Rock from Santa Cruz and picked up these two fish!" This is before the wind hit. Good job, Carters, and I heard thirdhand that Ezra was almost pulled from the boat by one of these fish. Only almost. Clearly Ezra stayed in the boat and landed the fish. Nice job, Ezra, but as a story teller, it sounds more awesome when you're actually dragged over the side. Wear your life jacket, Ezra, as I like a good story but I like you more. 

    George Lowery sent over this report today: "White sea bass caught near hog today " This is not the only keeper white seabass caught today. It might be the largest. But if you've never caught a white seabass your personal best (probably shorty) is waiting for you here.

 

    Most of this week's reports were bad. Very few halibut were caught. A few guys did okay, but most did not. Here's one happy story: "Nolan's got a couple so far this morning", this morning being Tuesday morning. Nice work, Nolan, and thanks for the report, Mason. Mason, and also, Nolan, are masters of live bait fishing. In Tomales Bay, that also means live bait catching. Nolan has it figured out. The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree, it seems.

    I took Chris Brown (Bigfoot Baits) and Pieter Jones (Redrum Baits) out for an after work trip on Tuesday. The stripers didn't really put in an appearance for us. Well, not quite true; we saw a few rolling and chasing bait but only one stuck to a hook. So we went for a quick halibut drift. Fricking Chris caught two before I could get my line in the water. It was kinda humbling. Well, not kinda. Humbled am I. But a fair gaffer I am, as well.

   

    Tom Brodsky sent me this picture yesterday. He and his fishing partner caught four stripers, keeping the two smallest. They also went on to catch two halibut, all on tube jigs. Nice fish, Tom and crew. I was out with Pieter and my brother-in-law, Greg Ladner. We caught one striper and three halibut to 25 pounds (Pieter). There had been a tremendous striper bite on Wednesday and I expected it to continue, but the fish had other plans. Where they had been, they now weren't, and where they were yesterday, for a little bit, was on the beach. The surf guys were catching the stripers and the boat guys really weren't. It seems that a school of stripers pushed a school of baitfish up against the beach and then had their way with them. Gage got a call from surf fishing buddy and suddenly he was gone from the lineup of boats. He anchored his (actually he borrowed my) boat on the inside of Sand Point and he and his crew ran across the point to cast into the surf from the beach. It worked.

    Gage's crew: Travis Franceschi caught a 22 pound halibut and Todd Damrosch caught a 21 pound striper, both in the surf. They and Gage also released three stripers, only one of which was caught from the boat. Nice fish, boys, and both of those fish are bucket list. 20+ pound striper from the surf? On the list. Any halibut from shore? Also on the list. 20+pounder? My bucket runneth over. Jealous? Yes I am. Gage says they're top boat. I think Brodsky is. Also, both Tom Brodsky and I caught our fish from the boat. IMHO, you can't be top boat while standing on the beach....

   Today's reports were worse, as the wind has cooled off the ocean and that cold water is seeping into the bay. After 61º water, a shot of 50º water is sure to give the fish lockjaw, and even the surf fishermen are getting ice cream headaches when the wind blows off of the water. There were still a few halibut and stripers caught today, though. Wear a stocking cap and throw Kastmasters and tubes. 

    

 Where was I? Oh, yeah.

   Cameron took this photo yesterday morning and sent me this report: "13 pounder and a smaller one picked up first thing this morning out front using frozen squid." Why try to catch bait when the frozen stuff will do? Especially when the liveys are playing hard to get, and they are. There's baitfish around but they just haven't been climbing on the sabikis. These folks wisely didn't wait and did well.

    No other fish pictures from here. There were a few caught but mostly it was sadness. The guys that did catch mostly didn't wait for live bait  (like our happy photo people) and either trolled or drifted tray bait, or they used jigs, mostly tubes. Duly noted, there were a lot of people with no fish that did the same thing. Luck is the most important lure in the tackle box.

   Today was a similar story, very few catches for even less fishermen. The most interesting report of the day was from Kehoe Beach (or the Keyholes, if you prefer) where no halibut were caught but schools of anchovies that blacked out the meter were all over and whales were eating them and breaching. There's almost certainly something besides whales and birds eating those anchovies, but we can rest assured that it isn't salmon because there aren't any.  

   Not from here, but friend of the report Tomales Outlaw sent me a picture this evening that I thought I'd share since photos of fish from here are hard to come by. "One of these came on a Zara Spook south of Ocean Beach. Huge boil." Very nice fish, sir, and glad to hear of the topwater bite. There were some stripers caught from the beach here today. I saw a surfperch fisherman with a striper tail peeking out of his backpack, and a fly fisherman caught five from shore. That's pretty badass. Will they be there tomorrow? Definitely maybe.

 Interjection

Willy will be with you shortly. He may have fished enough this week. 

Honestly, he fell asleep on the couch before he even started today's fishing report.

-Nicki

 

    As seems to be the way I work, I missed this email for my last post two days ago. Sorry! Here's the report from Thursday: "Good day on the water Willy, 3 Hali 1 Striper. Drifting popsicles and a jig south of Hog.

The jig had 3 come unbuttoned?, I am being schooled on proper hook setting.

We didn’t start boating fish until 80 % of the fleet left the Hog area sometime

afternoonish time. Couldn’t get our 4th but boated back to Lawson’s with deep content smiles. (You know I’m a lousy Hali guy) but with no salmon to chase I’m hopeful to be a Hali slayer soon.

Best Regards

Kelley" Halibut and stripers seem to miss the jigs a lot. Those tubes dart around, and the darting is what draws the strikes, but the darting also sometimes prevents a good hookup, I think. We have had about a 10 to 20% restrike rate. My wife's fish the other night was a second striker. Cameron says it sounds like missed bite to hookup is about 2:1. Probably. But when the fish are around in numbers, not having to fish for bait before you fish for fish is sure nice. And the hookup on a jig just feels awesome. Next time you're down I will have to show you the Willy Hop that Swampy mentioned in his recent comment. It's the dance I do while cursing after missing a bite. Today I missed four striper bites on one retrieve and I danced  and cursed so much I thought it might start raining blood. It's cathartic.

    Maxine Meckfessel caught this 24 pound halibut on a Bigfoot Baits jig this morning at the bar. This fish was weighed in around 8:30 this morning. I guess the early bird gets the halibut. Nice job, Maxine, and I guess I don't need to show you how to dance the Willy Hop.

    Mike Nursement  caught this nice striper in Tomales Bay this morning. He hooked up about three feet away from me while I was doing the Hop yet again. After completing my temper tantrum, a few more pumps on the jig resulted in a hookup for me as well and a double for the boat.  And after landing those two fish, we left, as I had to go to work while fish were biting. Sometimes, fishing is hard, and especially hard when the fishing is easy. Nice first saltwater striper, Mike. By the way, Mike's bit a Bigfoot jig and mine bit a Redrum.

   Branden Mendoza sent over a report today. I post it now only because my wife pointed it out and told me "not to miss another one." So, here's Branden's report: "Hey Willy. We were out again trolling. Had some success with large herring and hootichies. We managed a 29 and 23 inch halibut. Along with a large thresher shark and a short halibut. It was a good day over all." There were a lot of boats out fishing for halibut today. It is a bad year to be a halibut in California. Many boats did poorly. A few did pretty well. Skipping the bait catching was probably a good idea, as, aside from a lucky or skilled few (you know who you are), catching bait was very, very difficult. And then having the bait was no guarantee of success. So, on average it was tough, but there were a few smiling guys like Branden. Also, the south wind blew off and on today and made things really complicated for fishermen when it was on. But hey, nobody wants a boring fishing day. 

 

   Swampy was kind enough to send over a report last evening, and I was tired and distracted enough to not even notice. I am sorry, sir. Here it is: "Evening,

Today’s Report: Thanks for the bait tip, ended up with limits of halibut for three today to 15 pounds. Not as big as the monster caught but we were happy with our day. The bar and north of hog was the ticket.

Tomorrow is another day.

Swampy" The halibut are sorry, too. I honestly don't remember what my bait tip could have been. Maybe that large ones are working well? Hopefully that is still true. Nice work, gents, and thanks for the vocal support last night. Camp Swampy was cheering for us while my wife fought her fish. It was  nice, but a little too much pressure to be watched. 

   Here's a Shrimp Boat text from today: "As a wise man once put it: go on black buoy bam a lam" I'm not entirely sure of the actual message, as the black buoy on the bar last year has rotted off in the winter storms, but perhaps the memory remains. The text was soon followed by a "Limited" text, so I guess the bar has some fish? Seems plausible, as there have been halibut caught from there to Marshall. Most of the halibut fishermen did well today with Hog being the most fished area. I heard no complaints about making bait, but I wasn't hanging out at the launch and asking, either. On my short visit to Hog I saw lots of school bait on the meter, so I would hope that it was biting. The halibut were, it seems.

   I forgot to mention a classic fishing story from a few nights back. Ed Parsons caught a couple halibut ad put them in his cooler. After the thumping stopped he decided to have one of his two Coors Lights. The  halibut bit holes in his cans of beer and left him with empties. I guess they figured, "If it sucks for me, it sucks for you, too." It turns out that beer-marinated halibut is pretty good, though.

   I was too tired to smile, but there's a few of these around. The details are not my secret to share, but I can say, keep an eye out, as these fish weren't hiding. They were biting, though.

 

   Last night Gage caught his personal best California halibut. It weighed 27 pounds. He went out after work with his buddy, Tanner Carrick. They caught four halibut and a striper, all told. I went out last night, too, and caught nothing. I watched Ed Parsons catch a couple of halibut on jigs while I wasted my time casting for striper. Gage's halibut is the largest on the big fish board. Or, was...

     I guess Tanner has fished here before but never caught a halibut here (He's definitely caught a lot of halibut before, but here ain't other places). Today he caught he first one here. His second one weighed 45 pounds. Sorry, Gage, I guess you were king for almost a day. Besides limits of halibut, the boys also limited on stripers. They fished from the mouth to Hog. Seems like a pretty good day. When I got invited to go with them tomorrow, I said yes. Seems legit.

    Reverend Ron Sayed from Reno came out for a visit and a fishing trip. He had success on both. A bit of a slow start on the catching, but after a bit of effort, things got figured out, and two halibut yesterday became three for the crew today. Today's three fish bit a shiner perch, an anchovy, and jacksmelt, all live, and all by Hog Island. Nice job, Rev Ron and crew.

    My wife saw the 45 pounder and the rest of the fish. So she said we're going fishing. She reeled in an eleven pound halibut on the bar and a 23 pound halibut off of the seawall. There was quite a crowd watching for the gaffing of this fish. Other people did well today, mostly, with Hog being okay but most fish coming from Number 5 to the bar. Fresh fish coming in? Probably. This fish of Nicki's bit a Bigfoot Baits jig. Twice. The second time it stuck. There may have been some cursing between bites one and two. It all got better after the fish was in the boat. It usually does.

   On the surf striper front, I can report that there was one caught today. One. By a damn good surf fisherman. So, yes, it is possible to catch a striper in the surf here. But it ain't hot, yet. It is warming up, though. 

   In the same way, there were some halibut caught today at Hog, but not many. Bait catching? Hard. Fish catching? Also hard. But doable. There were a few fish caught but no awesomeness to report that found its way to me. There were a few stripers caught on the bar by one boat but it was not duplicatable by the fishermen I spoke with that watched the catching happen but were unable to duplicate. I know that feeling. Gage didn't go fishing with me tonight so Cameron got to jump aboard. We landed three stripers, lost a good one (straightened hook) and missed six bites. Three of those missed bites were on my topwater. You know how you're supposed to wait for a second before you set the hook on a topwater bite? My reflexes don't know that. I YANKED THE LURE OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS THREE TIMES! Is the message going through my head all night. Good luck, sleep. Luckily, tomorrow I'll be twice as jumpy.....

   John Daleuski was Johnny-on-the-spot again today when he took Alec Bennett and Leo Hernandez out fishing for striper for an hour or so. Long enough for Leo to catch his first striper. Leo says he prefers catching stripers to catching jacksmelt, the only other fish he's caught around here. Stripers are bigger and fight harder, I'm told. I'm going to have to try to catch one of those for myself. Nice fish, Leo and crew.

    I heard that this might have been Mike Mack's fish, but after spending a bit of time fishing in Alaska he's reluctant to claim such a paltry morsel. Luckily, others on the boat were kind enough to step in for some photography. The fish weighed 23 pounds and was caught, I think, on the bar. There are rumblings that the bar has some nice halibut. A pretty badass halibut diver tried for halibut on the bar on two consecutive days at high tide and saw... nothing. But three feet of visibility only allows you to see almost nothing, so nothing seen only means nothing shot, not that there's no fish there. But good luck spearing one...

     Kerry Apgar sent me this photo today: "Jules (my granddaughter) got her first halibut yesterday.  Just had to share!" Nice job Jules! Good fish. Looks like it was caught in Tomales Bay, probably near Marshall Beach. Why, that looks a lot like Paul Boley's boat! I wouldn't really know for sure, as I've never been inside it, but I sure as heck know what it looks like on the outside as I followed it around a lot. It's a fish indicator, like diving pelicans or waving nets. Of course, it's the captain that's important, but the boat is definitely more visible at a distance. I'm not saying what boat. Paul and I have a few secrets. The difference is that I don't know what Paul's secrets are and he's so good he doesn't care about mine....

    

    Gage and I went out after work and pretty much dropped in on a striper feeding spree. It was awesome for 20 minutes. In my first four casts I had three bites and two stuck all the way to the boat. All told, we boated five fish on Redrum tubes, and after that slowed I tried a Zo-Zuri popper and landed one more (and missed another bite). The current slowed and the bite died. But the most important thing to know is that I caught on a popper. Heck yeah! Surface strikes are the best. You know it's good when Gage brags about your fish....
 

 

    Just before noon today, Cannon Brunkhorst hauled these fish over for a photo op. I think that he caught the striper, but I'm not clear on the halibut; it may have been caught by his father, Mike. Either way, Cannon knows how to take a photo with a fish. He's been watching Gage, he says....  Also, these fish were caught on the bar. After not finding any bait in the places where, yesterday, there was a lot of bait, Mike Brunkhorst relocated to the bar, where two kayakers waved him down to tell him that they had just limited on stripers, "Right here!" Mike, not being an idiot, decided to try fishing right there. Only having some tray bait, he trolled, and it worked. Go figure. This was soon after the low tide. After the cooler water filled in the bite died, it sounds like. Also, pretty much all the bait that was so thick you could walk on it, left. Hog Island was suddenly barren. Possibly the stripers and sportboats chasing them broke up the schools of sardines. Possibly the rapidly warming sea lured them back with a promise of warming waters. The water should continue to warm a bit as the forecast calls for non-gale force winds for the next week. That may lure bait out of the bay but may also lure some halibut in from the deep. So, it is with mixed emotions that I sort of welcome the warmth.

   Some of you are thinking, "Hey, didn't I just see this picture?" No, these fish are bigger, as is Cannon's head. These, yes, larger fish, were caught the Cannon while fishing with Gage between 4:00 and 6:00 this afternoon. Gage caught, well, Gage was a good captain and gaffed and netted well. Of course, I went out soon after and caught what Gage caught, nothing. My excuse it that the tide turned and conditions changed. Gage's excuse is that he was too busy gaffing and netting Cannon's fish to be able to really concentrate. I think that Gage may have been overwhelmed by the sound of those footsteps gaining on him. The footsteps are coming from within the boat! I'm pretty sure that this won't be last Cannon photo in this report, but it is for today.

   Speaking of people that we haven't seen the last of in this report, here's some future competition for Cannon: "Hey Willy,

Long time reader first time emailer. Love living vicariously through your reports when I can’t get out.

First time on the water for me this year. Was great to get my 9 year old daughter Thalassa Wread out after talking about fishing all winter.

She kept me busy with two sabiki rigs all morning for lots of small anchovies and a good amount of large sardines as well.

We missed some opportunities in the morning with the sardines and didn’t get bit till the afternoon tide where we put 3 halibut in the boat in rapid succession.  I reeled in the first halibut while Thalassa napped but she reeled in the next two on top of catching most of the bait. I enjoyed my role as deckhand.

We had good luck with small baits on big hooks because that was all I had. Hoping to get out again soon and will definitely remember the small hooks which will probably guaranty we only catch big baits.

-Eliot Wread

Point Reyes Station" Well, Eliot, it sounds like you and Gage have similar futures. I have a feeling that this won't be Thalassa's only fish pictures on here. Good work on making bait and making do with what you had. As a tackle shop owner, may I suggest having an assortment of hook sizes, as the literature says the most effective method is to match the hook size to your bait, not what  you're fishing for. Keep that bait lively! But if you only have big hooks, and they're catching, put more big hooks in tiny baits. It ain't wrong if it works. Good work on filling the fish box.

   On the surf front, there's been a few surfperch caught off of the oceanfront beach. Stripers, well, yes, a few from Sand Point. Kastmasters and Daiwa SP Minnows have been the weapons so far. Generally, the turn of the tide, high or low, is the best time to be casting from the Point. Halibut? Well, yes, but not many. Here's a picture I got a few days back:

   Keeper? Short? Dunno. I can say it's a halibut. And that's the beach. So.. It can be done. Thank you Tom Carter for the photo.

   

    John Daleuski hit the water early this morning and quickly caught limits of halibut and stripers by Hog Island. Live sardines were the ticket for him. Sardines were easy early but got difficult later. Some guys did well today using the small anchovies that followed the sardines. Many fishermen did not do as well as John. I guess it pays to be Johnny on the spot.

     Josten Daleuski caught this halibut today, his first. It looks like somebody tried to gaff it recently but was unsuccessful. Today the net was successful. Nice work, Josten. As stated earlier, the catching today was more difficult for most. Some of the guys that didn't do as well yesterday killed it today. And some of the guys that killed it yesterday didn't do as well today. Fish are funny, and not "ha-ha" funny. The sardines changed to tiny anchovies, but the guys that figured out how to turn lemons to lemonade prospered. Me, well, I like them both. They just require different techniques. Smaller bait requires (normally)  smaller hooks. I say this smugly, as I read this in an authoritative magazine. I still believe that it is true, mostly. that a smaller hook will allow a small bait to swim better and be more enticing to a predator. But, today, big hooks in tiny baits killed it. One boat limited with eight halibut and two bonus stripers using mostly tiny anchovies and big hooks. So, again, we are reminded that the only wrong things are the ones not working. It may look wrong to you, but if the fish bite it, it's right.

 

 

   Yesterday Gage took a couple of brothers out for a fishing trip on the bay. The boys left smiling with two halibut and pretty good story. The first serious hookup of the day was a 12' thresher. It was hooked in the mouth. It ran, and jumped, and eventually it wasn't hooked anymore. But what a ride. Many fishermen hate threshers because they trash your gear and take you away from the real game. True, and especially so if you're commercial, but if you're a sporty like me, wow, what a ride. They do taste good but we rarely keep them when do land them (tail hooked, generally, as they swat the bait with their tails to stun them, and then slowing them down as they try to breathe eventually brings them to the boat). This one broke off, but story established, so life saved and size, well, enlarging with each telling, as it should be. 

   Austin Piccardo of Citrus Heights hammered the poor fish hard today and could barely even hold up his 18.5 and 22 pound halibut. He was tired after all of the reeling. Fair enough. Largest fish on our big fish board this season. Nice work, Austin. It looks like Cannon Brunkhorst's footsteps aren't the only ones Gage hears when he's trying to go to sleep.

   

   This picture is for two reasons. First, check it out. That striper ate that fast-moving sardine head-first. Sardines are fast. But it seems that they need to be fast, as everything wants to eat them. Even the halibut were eating the sardines head first. Which brings me to the second reason for this picture: That's the only fish I caught. Gage caught all of our halibut bites. I missed all of mine, or they were sharks or rays. One of Gage's fish was on my rod, but as the line played out, I told him to take it as my record was failing. Boom! He got it. So, four halibut for Gage today, all while screaming, as the bites, both trash fish and halibut, all came at almost the same time. It was awesome. We called in a few boats and it sounded like they, as well as some others that saw what was happening, did very well. For a bit, it was game on by Hog. Tomorrow? Well, I guess I'll tell you later, after the fact. It might be awesome tomorrow, or frustrating. Or both. But today there were halibut and striper at Hog Island and the sardines that they were biting were there to be caught as well. It was almost as awesome as Gage yelled that it was.

Here's a cool report: "Thought you might like this one. 31" Halibut minus one bite. Caught just south of Hogg on frozen herring. The bite mark was completely healed. Must have happened when it was immature.

Steve Flint"  That fish was tough. Probably a shark got him? That bite looks pretty clean cut. Nice fish with a story, Steve.

   You gotta love the stories where they start with, "I've been fishing here for years but never caught anything..." and end with, "Can you weigh my halibut?" Weight, 15 pounds. This halibut was caught from shore. "From shore" makes almost all catching more complicated. Your options for fishing areas are where you can walk to and cast, not the entire ocean. This fish bit a 3 ounce spoon, and I think it was a Kastmaster but I will correct if told I'm wrong. Unless my wife tells me. It sounded like this fish took him on quite a ride. halibut can be complicated to land with the right gear and experience doing it. Landing one for your first time on the beach without net or gaff sounds like more than hard. I bet that fish tastes better than any fish I've caught in the last two decades.

   There's rumors of white sea bass inside Tomales Bay, but I can tell you, nope. Nothing to see here. Even if there were sea bass, they're all shorties. Or mostly. Or I don't know. "Fight Club" rules are hard. Okay, they're here, but not a lot of them and they are dainty in their size. As I am not a WSB master, I can give no masterful info, but as a guy that has stumbled over a few, here's a crappy, stumbly tip: Fish for halibut a lot. I'm sure that white sea bass can be targeted when conditions are right and you know what to look for. My narrow window of knowledge in this area says it ain't here. Water in the ocean cold, no squid. But occasionally you catch one while fishing for halibut. So keep doing that. Works for me, sometimes. This evening I caught two keeper halibut and two short WSB. I just wish that they were bigger. Other halibut fishermen had a good day today with limits for some. The largest that I saw came from the beach but the best numbers came from Hog Island back to Heart's Desire. Probably not coincidentally, sardines can be found from Hog to Heart's. One of mine bit a live, trolled sardine. Good weather for fishing for the next few days. Come on out and do a little combat fishing in the cool weather with everybody else. Or, sit under your AC and be happy you're home. Either way, good times.