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.