The fishing has been slow, as said previously, so Frank decided to wait for a couple of days before he fished again. Or he was tired. I'd like to believe the first one. Thanks for giving us average guys a shot, Frank. He went out again on the 6th with friends for three fish. Not red hot, but they're allowing room for others to flourish. Thanks! I didn't flourish (I worked, mostly) but a few other caught some fish. One boat landed eight halibut for four guys, three of which made the over twenty pound board. I'm not good at reading handwriting, but here goes: Brian Delgade, Linden, 22 pound halibut. Evan Schmidt, Lodi, 21 pound halibut. Ron Bessette, Lodi, 20 pound halibut. When the average has been zero pounds, these guys rocked it. Where did they catch them? What were they doing that made them catch when others struggled? Good questions, but they weren't answering. After I outed the Stockton boys a few weeks ago and they went on to get hounded by a dozen boats all day (didn't help the hounders; you gotta be the boys; watch and learn, though, maybe) others are less likely to want to comment. Huh. People are weird.

    So some fish are being caught. It mostly sucks, but if you're one of the lucky few, nice work! If not, try again! So says the motivational poster on the wall. The rest of us non-Frank people will just have to figure it out. Monday, Cameron and I had two stripers on the bar before work. Tuesday we caught three, but two at Sand Point. They were small, but exciting for a moment. Disappointing, but exciting. Wednesday Gage tried for nothing. Those fish are fickle. 

   

   Herer's another Tuesday fish, although it was unable to be held out far enough for a forced perspective shot making it seem as large as the fisherman wanted it to be. Such are the fish of the back bay. When the incoming tide and cold water shuts off the bite around Hog and points north, sometimes you have to go long to Marshall or Inverness. The fish generally aren't large, but they may bite, and sometimes biters are good enough.

    Sometimes biters aren't good enough and we want big fish. Connie McAllister of Orangevale caught this 20 pound halibut yesterday. No other fish, but I'm guessing that's because they didn't drift over another large fish, so this was it. It took another day of fishing to drift over another large one...

     Jim McAllister caught this 23 pounder today. The McAllisters aren't looking for biters, it seems, but are targeting a larger variety of flatfish. And catching them. Nice work. 

    Another 23 pounder today for Tom Brodsky, this time. I think Tom's bit a jig but I don't know that for a fact. It was caught "close to the launch" and that was all the info I got. 

   So, the halibut fishing is still mostly bad but there's a few nice ones nestled away out there (or there were). The most successful average came from way back in the bay but involved a lot more measuring than the scarce jumbos on the north end of the bay. Outside the bay the rockfish are biting but the shallow water water never really recovered from the beating it took during the shutdowns in the early 2000's, so patience and small lures are helpful. Finesse.

  I've just been watching old Anthony Bourdain shows and realized that I've been trying to copy his genius. Apologies.  But he was so good. I miss him more. Don't worry, I'm not as good as he was. I will be around for a while.