So, tomorrow deep water rockfish (300"+ by the waypoints...) ends and shallow (120' or less, as defined by other waypoints...) starts, again, until the end of the month, when deep water rockfish prevails again and the deep runs out the year. Good for them. Dungeness will open at 12:01 AM on Saturday morning. If history is any indicator, actual catching of Dungeness in Tomales Bay will start slightly earlier, not legally, but it seems like those guys paddling or motoring around at 9:00 PM on Friday may not be waiting. I don't know, but I haven't seen the CDFW out checking, either, so... Maybe everybody is just getting ready out there? Or maybe, even if you're being good, don't go early and look like you're breaking the rules. Sometimes perception is reality. If you don't act act like a douchebag, it is less likely that you'll be perceived as a douchebag. Probably. Honestly, I'd be more concerned about the perceptions on other crabbers that are waiting to go. Ever watch any road rage videos? Just saying....Be good, and look good.

     For the record, Dungeness crab opens, as said, at 12:01 AM on Saturday morning. No traps, as there are too many whales, somewhere. The commercial guys are screwed, again, but good for you, sporties! This may be the last year you get that exemption, as next year new rules will apply for rings, as they will be interpreted differently in fall of 2025. It ain't then, yet, so go crabbing this year. The very little scoop that I've heard has been bad. It sounds like there isn't many crab out there. That sucks, but waiting for next year may be worse. Probably it will be fine, but...who knows? The weather this weekend looks less than optimal, but good enough for a damp time on the bay. Outside, maybe on Saturday, but Sunday looks less safe. Both days, be careful in  the afternoon inside Tomales Bay, as the tide will be going out pretty fast, carrying the unprepared out to sea and some big surf. Let's not do that. Be safe, be careful, and think twice at least. Please. Also, no traps, hoops (rings and conicals) and snares only, until the whales leave and commercials get the okay. Maybe New Year's. 

     "Wow! The halibut went back on the bite!", is what everyone fishing this weekend hoped I'd be reporting today. Instead, I can say that it seems the halibut bite may be over. Having said that, I look forward to the halibut reports coming in over the next few weeks in order to make me wrong. I shall revel in my incorrectness. Over this weekend the only catching in the bay was of thresher sharks and silver salmon. Good fun, but not the halibut we were looking for. The threshers and salmon were caught near Pelican Point, but targeting coho is probably not a good idea, legally. Officially, don't do it. But if you're fishing in the bay in October or November, don't keep the salmon.  Wrong kind, even if salmon was open.

    Saturday, Dungeness opens here. No traps, as expected and as has happened in recent memory. Same as it ever was...  The commercial guys and the trap guys will have their chance, probably in late December or January, but for the moment the sporties with hoops should live it up. Changes are in the works for next season. Changes are rarely good. And they won't be. 

    Gage, Cameron and I tried for bluefin yesterday. The weather was not ideal but just barely doable. The water started off lumpy and cold and proceeded to get lumpier and colder as we went further. At the big drop-off 23 miles out the thermometer bottomed out at 48.2 degrees. It started to slowly climb as we proceeded even further. At 50.5 degrees we started dropping in the Madmacs at about 11 and 32 and 30 seconds later huge bluefin started erupting from the ocean in front of us chasing large saury. We thought we were gonna light 'em up. We chased birds and fish until a little after 9:00 am when the tuna shut off. Soon after the dolphins started in on the saury. It was a heck of a show but not what we came for. We finally trolled up to the Football and caught a few large red rockcod for dinner, then ran back to Bodega Canyon mouth to see if the tuna would return for the tide change. They did not. If you're going, the two best looking spots were the Canyon and the Football, as that's where the bait was. We didn't see any sign of the anchovies like last year, but yesterday was the first day after the wind dropped, so who knows? Good luck to those that go this weekend.

   Also, as expected: " California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton H. Bonham has assessed entanglement risk under the Risk Assessment Mitigation Program (RAMP) and announced a delay in the opening of the commercial Dungeness crab season in Fishing Zones 3-6, a temporary crab trap restriction in the recreational crab fishery in Fishing Zones 3 and 4, and a Fleet Advisory for the recreational fleet in Fishing Zones 1-6. Recreational take of Dungeness crab by other methods, including hoop nets and crab snares, is not affected by the temporary trap restriction and is allowed statewide beginning Nov. 2, 2024. The use of recreational crab traps will be allowed when the season opens in Fishing Zones 1, 2, and 5. As a reminder, crab traps cannot be used south of Point Arguello.  " So sayeth the CDFW. Situation normal, Dungeness opens on the 2nd but no traps for us. Hoops and snares. Commercial guys get to wait.

    The fishing is slow. Well, no, slower than that. I heard of two halibut caught from Saturday through Tuesday. Both were at McClure's. There were more rockfish caught there, but you can't keep the shallow fish until next month. The deep rockfish are biting when you can get there. There are some albacore biting way out, 50+ miles, also when you can get there, and finally the bluefin are biting out of Bodega. The forecast is for flat, foggy weather this weekend. It should be a mess out there. I'm glad I'll be working. 

  There was one tip emailed in last week: " 

Hi Willy,

Past three weekends we have been hooking into thresher sharks back by Pelican point.  Last Sunday we witnessed at least five other boats fighting threshers as well.

They sure are fun.

AF FISH " I did hear of one lost there on Saturday, so there still may be some, but at least some of the school bait has been moving out of the bay and likely taking some of those threshers with them. It's probably still your best chance for action in the bay, though.

    I have been on vacation for the last two weeks so I didn't have much info to post. South Africa has kinda spotty internet access, at least where I was. Plus, I was kinda distracted. I've never bank fished where dinosaurs can launch out of the water to eat you. It's hard to concentrate on your technique. 

We went with African Wild Safaris and it was awesome. I wanna go back. Plus, anyplace you can buy two beers and a fancy coffee at the airport for $4.50 total is worth visiting again.

 

   Kelley Roy sent over this picture with a brief report from the past weekend: "Willy great day today on a great ocean!!

30 good grade rocks😳
First time for me fishing the deep water - nonstop action.
The pic will show our location


Best Regards
Kelley

" The deep water is what's open for rockfish until the end of this month. Shallow water will reopen in November. It looks like Kelley likes the deep, and why not? Catching is fun. As there aren't too many areas of the proper depth with good rockfish, I'd guess Kelley was at Rittenburg or the Football. I kinda wish he sent a bluefin picture too. Maybe next time. Nice work, Kelley and crew.

 

   I didn't receive any info with this photo, so against my better judgment I'm going to guess that Tom Carter caught a couple of nice halibut ghis weekend.  It seems likelier from the size of the fish thar Jerrie Carter would have caught them, but as she isn't pictured I'll have to assume that she did not.  We can also assume that even though it is mid-October the halibut fishing and catching isn't over. Thursday, Gage and Nolan Lessard caught five keepers (releasing one) out of 15 bites in an hour of fishing the bar. Probably Tom's fish were near there too.

 A report from Nate Baker from a few weeks back: "

Hey Gage these are pictures Chris wanted me to  end in for your page. September 14 out north of hog island. 44" Halibut 40lbs."  Nice fish sir. 

 

     Not too many people heading out now. It's kind of peaceful. Swampy stopped by yesterday for a relatively peaceful fishing trip, except for these two fish that rudely interrupted his revery: "Evening Willy,

Today’s Report: The big boned lady may be warming up her pipes but it ain’t over yet.  Easy perch bait with a couple mackerel in the mix near pelican. Besides catching myself on my prop I got a couple eaters at 6 and 7 pounds. Great weather and another good trip to the bay. May have another trip in me, Swampy." Nice work, Swampy. I guess it ain't quite over. You can definitely hear a heavyset woman clearing her throat backstage, but she ain't singing yet. A diver tried the bar yesterday and saw zero halibut. Gage ended up with one and likely missed another bite. There's fish. Maybe not a lot, but not none, either. I don't know where Swampy caught his fish, but  Gage said Swampy was moving around a lot, looking. That sounds right, because most of the few people fishing for halibut haven't been doing well since the weekend.

    But Swampy's success got me to go this morning. Gage and I launched at 7:40 and crossed a peaky but not yet breaking bar to catch a quick 20 jacksmelt near the outer buoy. Inside the bay has been difficult for smelt, but outside is good if you can safely get there. There was some concern on our part, as easy bait usually means difficult catching, and vice versa. We went back to the bar and started in the head of the channel just inside from the shallowest parts, as those had now started to break. The tide was incoming, so we drifted away from danger, as one would. First drift, on the northern side of the channel, resulted in four missed bites. Gage and I had a quick conversation and determined that we suck. Three of the bites just took off running, and then.....nada. It seems difficult to me to not get a treble hook into an actively biting and running fish, but Gage and I figured out how to do it and repeat it. We went back for a second drift, but move a bit more south as a south breeze seemed to be pushing us more to the north. The breeze died, and we drifted the middle of the channel, and we had only one bite at the edge of the deep hole. But it stuck. One in the box. Back up for a third drift but this time, back to the northern edge of the channel. 

   Boom.

   We barely got lines in when Gage hooked the second halibut. It got gaffed and boxed, and maybe three minutes later, Gage is on again. Then his second rod takes off. That fish came off, but soon after I placed his rod back in the holder, one of my rods took off. Double! And then we were done. 9:00 AM. Four fish seven pounds to 14 pounds. But we still had about ten smelt. We started back in and saw Richard Porterfield trying to catch bait by Buoy 3. We hooked him up with our bait and pointed him at the bar. When I  saw him at noon I asked him how many? None for him, and he had to back to work, so he gave his bait to James Ludomila. A few minutes later I went to the Boathouse and saw James eating lunch. I think I called him dude when I yelled and told him to get out there! Tide change was listed at 12:20 and it was 12:15. The fish often bite at tide change. Guess what? James caught his limit in the next 45 minutes. Sorry for yelling, James, but I was excited. Like the Captain said on Hill Street Blues, "They're getting away out there." Well, he's right. And they won't last. Get 'em while you can. Supplies won't last.