Big swells today. not the largest ever but pretty damn big. We had a few break all the way down the middle of the bay. There was even a surfer riding them. 

     We got off light, yet again. It probably helps that we don't have a pier to destroy because most of the piers on Tomales Bay got busted up a week ago and today the end of the pier at Santa Cruz busted off. Big swell today and big tides and wind last week were bad for human-built things in the water. But, between the waves of hurt there was a window of opportunity where it turns out the crab were biting. Last Saturday one boat had 40 Dungeness inside the bay. They caught a few more on Sunday but not quite as well. A fellow today had a quick limit in the morning. They aren't jumbos. mostly, and the aren't pretty, mostly, but there's some keepers in the bay. And more good news, as it seems that traps will open at 8:01 AM on January 2. Commercial gear will hit water at the same time. They get to pull on the 5th. 

     The "King Tides" this week made for some excitement but not good crabbing. Good crabbing inside the bay generally requires slow currents, but the kings have some of the highest and lowest tides, and all that moving water makes for bad crabbing and lots of gear loss. Eight feet of water rushing out of the bay in seven hours makes for a pretty good river. People were still catching some crab, but not too many. As the moon wanes the currents should wane as well. The king tides did happen to arrive with a storm,.  perfectly timed to maximize damage. We were lucky enough to have purchased some large concrete blocks this summer for our parking lot. After seeing the forecast and tide table, we moved our blocks from the parking lot to in front of the store. They worked, and we were able to stay open and not even have to sandbag the doors. We lost more beach and the use of our webcam for a bit, but we got off light compared to many of the businesses and homes on the bay. When the front passed the wind switched from 50 mph from the south to 65 from the west. We get the worst of it from the south, so our neighbors further up the bay caught the brunt of it, as the long fetch built up some serious waves on top of the highest tide, low pressure and a big northwest swell pushing more water into the bay. Our only real damage was our webcam, as the waves washed out some of the dirt floor of our tractor garage, and sitting on that floor was the battery pack that ran the camera. Amazon is sending a new battery and the camera will live again. The blocks will probably stay until the storms chill. How long until April? 

    Commercial crabbing and traps will be opening soon. The recommendation to the honcho at CDFW is to allow commercial to start here at 50% of traps starting on the 5th. Your traps may start earlier or at the same time. Half gear means harder work for half pay for the commercial guys. I hope nobody gets hurt and no boats are lost. But I worry. 

    I was going to report that the outer bay was good for Dungeness after hearing a few reports. Then I heard a few more reports. So, I'll say that there's a possibility of good things in the outer bay, and also you can get skunked. Better than half of the fishermen I spoke to did poorly, but here's a report from George Homenko from last week that got me confused: "Went out off of Dillon Beach on Monday.  The mouth had a moderate swell and was breaking on the edges, but after you cleared the Tomales Bay Gong the sea condition were pretty nice.  Set 8 rings 50 to 60 feet of water with a soak of between 30 and 45 minutes and within two pulls we had two limits.  None of the crab were jumbos but they were Dungeness crab.  Bait varied from chicken legs to fish heads, didn't seem to make  to much difference.  We did flavor some rings using Scotties containing anchovies, squid and cat food.  That seem to help a little.

Set the same pots out side on opening day and a week later in the same places and got nothing except a lot of work hauling rings.  I think it definitely getting better from what I would call a dismal start.

By the time we picked up our gear we had over our two limits in less than two hours.  On the way back to Miller Park we checked with some of the crabbers inside the bay and it was much slower going.  Shared our smaller catches with them."  It is likely that the weather of a few weeks back may have pushed some crab in, although the reports from deeper water never seemed very good. For sure it wasn't the tsunami, as it we less than 1" here. Whatever it was that shook them loose for the guys that got them, cool. For the rest of us, keep moving the gear and a slow soak is generally better than a longer one. So, like voting, pull early and often.

     It seems that strange things are afoot. Albacore are being caught locally in December and with them, yellowtail. If you can find a kelp paddy or floating log early in the day, maybe a lot of yellowtail. North Bay Charters are lighting them up. Here. In December. Twenty yellowtail is a lot. They aren't giant but they kinda don't need to be. The water temps are maybe 58º at the higher end, which I guess is warmish for December (remember, our coldest water comes in May and June, so...) but it is officially not warm enough for yellowtail. At the same time, amateur and professional crabbers are both commenting that the relatively few Dungeness crab that they're catching are acting very sluggish and don't want to move around very much. The surface water ain't that warm, but perhaps the deeper water is warmer than it should be. The offshore warm water from Fort Bragg seems to have pushed down and in, with possible tuna sightings from reputable, knowledgeable people seeing tuna in 300' of water or even substantially less (150'?). Is it impossible to catch albacore over the shelf? No, just unlikely. My brother caught one once on top of Cordell in 200' of water. To be fair, he's really lucky, but still, it can be done. Maybe through a few feathers in while you're running for crab. You almost surely won't catch. But if you did.....well, you'll be boring your great-grandchildren with that story, as well as anyone that looks like they might fish. People will avoid you. You could be that guy. Good luck.

     CDFW will be evaluating their more recent whale data and deciding whether to allow commercial crabbing and traps or not. My guess is that probably not. The Preliminary Assessment and Management Recommendation from CDFW recommends a steady as she goes approach, no changes. A decision will be made in the next few days based off of this Recommendation and it's data. We shall see by Friday.

    In other bad news, salmon returns to the Sacramento River have been appallingly low. Minimum  numbers of eggs and spawners were not met. According to the methodology, this will mean that they were overfished, even without fishing. Good thing we didn't fish, eh? Pretty much every other river with a hatchery (that also trucked or otherwise enabled their smolts to avoid the river without water) has had really good to record returns. Some people say that trucking helps encourage a higher wandering factor in the smolts, and if true, that would account for the number of salmon showing up everywhere but where we want them. Lake Merritt? Really? There's no sewer outfall to swim up? Coleman Hatchery did truck smolts two years ago, and amazingly (not) they had a maybe decent number of jacks show up. We shall see what the real numbers are in March. We may get some kind of season if enough showed up at the right time. Not a good season, but I'll take almost anything. I'm tired of watching salmon jump while I'm halibut fishing. Officially, I am for a hatchery-only fishery, especially if that's the only way I get to salmon fish. Have the factories make lots of baby salmon, take off all their adipose fins, transport them past the river without water, and then let fishermen fish and only keep the ones without adipose fins. It has worked in other places. We aren't getting the water back for fish, wild or otherwise. Because money. So let's just figure out a way that we can go fishing. 

    Here's a report from Ed Biagini. : "I just read your article of the 27th and wondered about lost pots. I set 8 rings at 10 mile yesterday and lost 6. I've never had that happen and have been going down there a number of years and never lost a pot. Do to a bad shoulder, I have promar 32" rings with 2 small 6" floats. They are a little harder to spot, but with bright colors I always find them.  I figured if I used big floats, rings might drag. I don't use leaded line. Also have small amount of weight in them. I set them out pretty far apart. What was interesting was that one of the rings was where it was supposed to be and had a crab in it. The other ring I retrieved was nowhere close to my gps marks. I was heading for a different waypoint and there it was. It was the pot with the big float and it wasn't even close to any of my waypoints. Also, strange - it was completely clean. If it dragged that far, you would think there would be a little gunk in it. I've been trying to check to see if there was some kind of strange current running yesterday?

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Ed Biagini, Inverness, Ca"  the tides are Sorry about your lost gear. If it's any consolation, you weren't the only one to lose some gear. The low tides in the afternoon likely contributed to the strong currents in the ocean. At least, I've noticed stronger currents around the full and new moon, so I'm assuming the tides are a factor in currents, even in the open ocean. There's a lot of kelp of other floating crap to help redistribute crab gear, even without the stronger currents. Usually that would be just a ring or pot or two. I heard a few stories of rings lost and then found after the current slowed, but the found gear was all pretty heavy and didn't walk. The strong currents inside the bay made catching crab very difficult today when the current was ripping but a few guys did well earlier in the day when the currents were more moderate. Tomorrow is the last day for shallow water rockfish for the year and then we get one last month of deep water (over 300') to finish the year.

 

  

Here's a report that I lost and just rediscovered. Sorry, Nate. It's from the 19th. : "Hey Willy, Robert and I ventured south with Scott Mason and his buddy Andy on Sunday and bagged 4 limits of quality crab north of Abbotts. It was Robert's first time pulling hoops so he was nice and tired by the end of the day. About 1/2 the crab were jumbos and the rest were in the 6-6.5" range. Averaged about 2 keepers per pot until we found a couple good areas- then it was easy. Rockfishing was slow and the current was fast so we didn't spend too much time with the rods and reels. Looking forward to hitting the deep water again in December if the wind and swell decide to cooperate. 

Best,

Nate Baker"  That's one of the better reports I've heard from Ten Mile. Good work on the crab and good work on wearing out Robert. I'll bet he's ready to go do it again. 

       The crabbing has been mostly meh, still, but a few guys are doing well. Inside the bay is still mostly bad but a few guys have things figured out and done pretty well. Most of the rest have been doing well to get three or four keepers. So, same story, different day. There's a few pockets of finicky crab that can be yours if you do you right things in the right places, apparently. The guys I talked to weren't sharing particulars. Outside of Tomales Bay proper, the outer bay has been. well, okay, I guess. Some guys have done quite poorly there, but some of the happiest (and catchingest) guys I spoke to today were crabbing there. Having lots of nets and not waiting seemed like the recipe for better results. Move around. Repeat. I heard a report today from Ten Mile. There were a few crab caught and a few rings lost, hopefully to be recovered tomorrow morning. The crabbing was not good. There were more smiling people from the outer bay. Farther north, above Bodega Head, things were better but you can't just drop and catch. Drop gear and pull with little soak time. Move. Then move again. Then, probably move again. Almost reasonably low gas prices are your friend. Rockfish in shallow (where it is legal) has been unreasonably difficult, but there is actually a reason; after not really recovering from fishermen being forced into the shallows in the first part of this century numbers are down and will remain so until the heat is lifted for a reasonable amount of time. There are still fish to be caught but unless you're on the water every day it kind of sucks. 

    After three days of gusts over 40 knots and almost 8" of rain, the crabbing inside the bay has actually been better. Good? Hah. No, but it seems like the weather shook something loose and the crab are moving around a bit. I heard a few sad reports from the outer bay, not many crab, but snare guys on the beach in the bay were actually catching a few keepers, which is a few more than they were catching. Basically, snaring has gone from no to maybe. Where I come from, "maybe" isn't bad. The beach is mostly gone after the storm, so snaring from the beach got more complicated, as no beach makes it hard to snare from a thing that doesn't exist, but the nubbin of sand that remains is apparently enough. Go nubbins! And, thankfully, the really bad weather this past week was so obviously bad that nobody tried to go crabbing and then died. 

     Another deadly boating accident out of Bodega Bay yesterday. I have no knowledge other that what I saw in the news, but I can say that the weather was likely a factor, similar to the other two accidents. It was not good yesterday with a large swell and small craft advisory winds. The boat was pretty big and that may have been a factor in deciding to go crabbing anyway, but bad weather multiplies the effects of any unexpected event. The pictures look like they might have got a crab rope in the prop (a line in the wheel, they say) and that would kill the engine and be pretty much unfixable on a shaft drive like this boat. Strong winds would push any boat around and make driving over your own rope (or any other out there) likelier. They called for help, but it takes it a bit for the USCG to get on the boat and get to wherever you may be in the event of a mayday. They weren't super far (Salmon Creek) and they probably dropped anchor, but a big boat in the wind and swell can drag anchor pretty easy and pretty fast. It looked like the boat had an auxiliary motor but it didn't help in those conditions. I assume that they did all the right things, but the conditions were such that it didn't really matter. What would have been a bummer on a calm day became a life ender. Let's all choose better weather days.

    The crabbing is still slow but the effort continues. We are currently at peak current as we just passed the full moon. That equates to tough times inside the bay. A (very) few people have done well inside the bay this week with a few boats catching as many as thirty keeper Dungeness in a day. Most people have caught much, much less. The current didn't help in the catching the last part of this week. Big current is bad for crab, and big current is what we had. Big current almost killed another person in a small boat yesterday, as his inflatable with an electric trolling motor was unable to beat the outgoing current and he got sucked out into the breakers and flipped over. A super good guy and his family were out crabbing and as they returned to pull the boat out they were hailed by people on the beach to alert them to a person in trouble in vaguely defined terms. They ran off and thankfully found the dude. He was in the water and wearing hip waders, which made him hard to get out out of the water and into the boat. They did it though, got him in by just sheer badassness. They really wanted to save him, and they did. Life jacket, no. Probably don't be that guy. He may not have known, but now you do. Life jackets may not save your life but they sure won't hurt. The boat was recovered today and returned to its owner. The current is bad, but should be slowing as the moon shrivels, for a bit. 

   The rockfish was slow early in the week, when you could get there, but as the weekend approached the window for going out the bay closed as the weather shut it down. There may be opportunities in the next couple of days but then after that, well, surf's up! For those of us looking to go offshore, or even out of the bay, well, bummer. It appears that we may get two to eight inches of rain in the next ten days. That should make the steelhead happy. Good for them. For crab, as I started, inside Tomales is mostly bad, but outside, if you can get there safely, the crab is better, maybe not as good as we would like, but better than inside the bay. Limits, for those that move around a lot. 

    

 

      I received this picture yesterday afternoon. It seems that there are, indeed, albacore out there. The trick to finding them is to see which way I go, then do the opposite. I went south. North had actual fish. John Brezina and Ed Parsons went north and caught nine fish yesterday. They even let a couple go. Today there's reports of fish off of the Bodega Canyon, as the water is sliding south. This information will help nobody, as the weather is turning to crap and it will be a while until the offshore is doable again. But look how happy Ed is. Well, good for you.

   Dammit.

    This weekend the crabbing was about the same but the crabbers were happier, on average. Perhaps the reports of bad crabbing tempered their expectations. Whatever it was, their were a couple of guys killing it inside the bay and a lot of people scraping by. Huh. Sounds like something else. Similar notes in the outer bay and points north with a slight edge towards killing it the farther north you went. But even some far northers got skunked, so run your gear early and often and move if it ain't happening.

 

   Does the rockfishing suck? Mostly, the word is yes. But that talk doesn't make it on to Joe Winn's boat. Not catching here? Move. Here? No? Move. How about here? Holy crap, it's trying to drag me out of the boat! This monster weighed 33 pounds and actually bit a legal lingcod that had just been hooked. One hook, one limit, bam! I need to try that. Heck, we all do. But unfortunately, we all can't fish with Joe Winn. His boat is nice but it ain't big enough for all of us. Damn it.

    Another report from today comes from Kelley Roy: "Wanted to let you know we had a great day on the water today. Went up north for 2 limits of nice grade of crab and quick work of 2 limits of decent grade of rocks.

Crabbing was  slowly picking away at the low tide but really picked up towards high tide. Felt like Cabo out there under the gorgeous sun.

Best Regards

Kelley" North is very generically where Joe Winn went. Joe also caught a lot of crab. Will you catch a lot of crab and rockfish if you go north? Truthfully, probably not, but chances are better if you do. They are out there but you need to find them. A twenty minute soak is enough to figure out if there's crab there. No crab? Move. If the crab are there they can be in the net in a few minutes. If they aren't there you can't catch them at all.

     Thursday the ocean was beautiful. Not quite flat calm, but almost. Quite a few boats hit the water in search of crab and rockfish. Quite a few boats also had issues with catching those things. Neither the crab nor the rockfish wanted to play ball. One boat that had caught their limits of Dungeness at Abbott's Lagoon in his last two trips found himselfgoing home without limits today. Another boat tried 10 Mile in a couple of places and only caught one keeper. The Outer Bay has a few crab if you work hard at it but it seems that north of Salmon Creek there's some good crabbing and rockfishing if you can find them. 

    Here's a report from yesterday:  "  

Good  morning Willy,

I was part of a mass fleet of boats crabbing north of Bodega Thursday.  I got out early enough to find a small patch of real estate to work my 8 hoops and 2 rings in 80-94’ of water.  Two pulls of the string produced limits for the two of us with a 30-45 minute soak.  Others I spoke to did not fair as well so it seems I got lucky and found that sweet spot.  It was a very slow bite for rockfish at Ft. Ross reef, but we did manage to box a couple in addition to limits of ling cod.  Overall a productive day on a beautiful flat calm ocean.

Regards,

Brad Stompe "  Nice work, sir. Rockfish have been hard to find in the shallows. I stopped at Point Reyes yesterday and we caught about half limits of rockfish but we saw two other boats there from San Francisco Bay. That's a long way to go for rockies. I'm guessing that things are tough all over if they are running that far.

   Gage, brother-in-law Greg and I tried for bluefin and albacore yesterday from north of Bodega Canyon to Cordell and only had one bite. The bite was from a striped marlin. 56 degree water seems to cold, but we never got the chance to explain that to him as he jumped away into the distance. Strange days.

   Another overturned boat off of Salmon Creek this morning. One of two people in the boat recovered, condition unknown.  One missing. The seas are 11 feet at the weather buoy. The crabbing isn't very good and better weather is coming. Maybe wait.

    Today's crab report was more of the same. Really slow inside the bay. The best place in Tomales Bay for catching crab sounds like the spot north of Marker 5 alongside the sand bar. It is also the worst place to crab because half of the crabbers on the bay are working the quarter acre sweet spot. It is a Charlie Foxtrot. The buoys are thick and close enough to walk on and the boats either have their fenders out or they should, because even though you aren't at Scandia there's a good chance that you'll still be playing Bumperboats. Good luck. You'll need it. The rest of the bay has a few crab, but a very few. It's a bad Dungeness season to be a red crab in Tomales Bay, as they're the fallback plan. The fast current in the afternoon has made catching even harder and gear loss a near certainty. Good luck. You'll need it. 

   Outside has been better, as it usually is. Good? No, but better is good enough. The outer bay has crab, but like money, they aren't distributed equally. There's a lot of shuffling gear, and drop more gear on top of your rings that caught, and then be surprised that the none of the rings you dropped on the "hot spot" caught any crab on the second drop. The crab are sparse there, too, just less sparse than inside Tomales Bay. Ten Mile usually has a few good spots but I'm still waiting for someone to tell me about one. Again, there's some crab, but good luck. There's more places without crab than with. I haven't heard many reports from up north, above Bodega by Salmon Creek or further. I guess that it's possible that there's some good crab up there and that a whispered message has gone out to a select few that are running up there and smacking them. There's definitely some boats that have headed there in the last few days, whether it was a good idea to go or not. The weather is supposed to be good on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and if it holds I hope someone gets a chance to go there safely and report on it. Safely is the watchword. The crabbing is poor. Let's not push it. 

   Sunday night there was a kayaker that overturned after 5:00 PM and was rescued by a boater. Saturday another kayaker got sucked out of the bay and went through the washing machine of the breaking bar from the mouth to the beach in front of the Dillon Beach parking lot. In the dark. Hard pass. Glad he made it though. Kayakers: Wear a wetsuit. Don't go when the tide is ripping out. Have a buddy. If it's windy, drink beer on the beach. Other boaters: Have an anchor ready. Don't go when it's crappy. Everyone: Sometimes it's good enough to sit on the beach and drink a beer while looking at the water. Sometimes it's the best choice. Let's all make better choices.

    As I write this there are planes, boats and helicopters searching for perhaps as many as five people that are missing after their boat flipped by Bodega Head yesterday. I know no details but just want everyone to be thinking safety. No crab is worth your life.

 

The crabbing is only okay at best. Outside the bay was better with the best reports from here running 20 to 25 crab to a boat. Inside the numbers plummeted with a lot of zeroes. The ripping outgoing tide in the afternoon didn't help in the catching but did lose a lot of gear. That outgoing tide also had the bar breaking pretty steady. A kayaker got swept out of the bay after dark and lost all of his gear in the surf but was able to swim in to Dillon Beach and at least keep his life. 

   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.

    Tom Brodsky also fished last Thursday and sent over his opinion of the day last Friday: "Morning Williy.  Accurate report you had yesterday. We limited on rockfish again, than jiged McClure beach no halibut. Then tried for ling cod in front of the slide and the point, no luck.  Yes the bar was breaking when we came in and fished for halibut on the inside. 7 hook ups only landed 2. Another fun day in the ocean." Tom has been fishing jigs a lot for halibut, and I guess running only artificials is a good way to avoid sharks. Not perfect, bet better than bait. Nice work, Tom, and good job keeping the boat right side up on a day when going inverted seemed like more than a possibility.

    I've been mostly stuck in the office or elsewhere lately and missed out on talking to most of the fishermen, not that there were very many of those. Of the few I spoke to, and of the few second-hand reports I heard, it sounded as if Hog had a few fish scattered around, but it was better for halibut the closer to the mouth of the bay you got. One fellow caught a limit on Saturday and on Sunday just jigging on the bar. Others may not have had the same success. But it seems like the action, mostly is moving toward the mouth. This being almost October, it may be because the season is winding down. And winding down it likely is.  But it ain't over. Yet.

 

     The bar today was not the bar of yesterday. Today after the tide turned it was breaking all the way across some of the time. "Some of the time" is about the most dangerous because you can be fooled into thinking you can make it. Gage and I were able to get across before the tide changed, catch our jacksmelt and return to inside the breakers. For the hour or so around the tide change we caught two halibut and hooked at least six sharks. The couple of sharks that we got to see were 4 to 6 foot spiny dogfish. The others cut the leader pretty quick. Before we ran out of bait and leaders we finally caught one more halibut around 1130. So it ain't that good and it's more than a little scary. It is officially fall.

 

    Swampy stopped in yesterday. His report: "Hey Willy, one day trip today with three in the boat to 12 pounds. I worked on my net game today for Al. Easy perch bait but didn’t start catching till 2:30. I did release a 21 3/4 inch one at least.

See you soon, Swampy" When Swampy says "See you soon," it's kind of a threat if you're a halibut. Thankfully, my eyes are one to a side, so no threat. A bit of Swampy's mojo is surrounding himself with other halibut killers. Taking good fishermen fishing almost always makes you look good. Al is a killer, as evidenced by Swampy's net work. He's a nice guy if you're not a fish. Nice work, gents. 

     

    Tom Brodsky and his buddy caught their rockfish today, then tried a few spots for halibut before stopping on the bar. They quickly hooked five, landing four, with the four they landed coming in quick doubles. All on Bigfoot jigs. I thought it might be a good idea to try fishing the bar this evening after work. Go figure, it worked. I caught a 15+ pounder on a live jacksmelt, and as I was just finishing roping it in to the boat (it helps to keep them from jumping back in) my jig rod in the holder went off. A sequential double for me. The water has warmed up, the wind is on its way to cool it off, but before that gets here we have a couple of days of really good halibut fishing, it seems. To the bar!*

* while supplies last

   Tom Brodsky saw my report and sent this photo to prove his fishing superiority. well done, gents. Now, go to bed. And sleep.

 

   I received this photo from Howard Law on Friday night. "Got this today between hog and Marshall." Nice thresher, Howard. I'm told that there's a heck of a story with this fish, but I missed Howard on Saturday to get it. As threshers are power and maneuverability incarnate, I'm betting there was yelling and almost getting spooled and tangles and maybe some hard feelings between the folks on board. That's a good day of fishing. This was not the only thresher in the bay recently. There's quite a few patrolling the anchovy schools back by Marshall. They taste pretty good, but holy crap, they are like a bottle rocket with a broken stick, fast and random. And awesome.  Good on you and your fishing team, Howard, as they ain't easy to land, but you did it.

   Swampy fished here on Thursday and Friday. His report: "Afternoon Willy,

Came down for the good weather and huge tides. Alright, maybe not the huge tides. 3 halibut first day and 3 halibut and a striper on the second to 18 pounds. Easy perch/anchovy bait near pelican and spent a few hours near hog for nothing. Took your advice and moved around to find the fish north of hog.

See y’all soon, Swampy" The water got pretty cold last week, but there were still a few spots of fish that continued to bite, even in the cold water. Swampy found them. Yesterday and today that good spot was on the bar. The water wasn't that warm, still, but fish were biting for a few people. Nice work, Swampy and crew. 

    Mike Mack and Spinner caught these yesterday. As I have been remiss on my duties as a fishing reporter, they felt the need to send over this photo to get me to post. Well, it worked. These were caught on live jacksmelt by Hog . Nice fish, gents.

    Kerry Apgar may have retired from the Landing a couple of years back, but she still enjoys sending me pictures of Paul Boley with fish I can't catch. Here's one from yesterday, with the message: "Today, Anchovies Tomales bay" Thanks, Kerry. This one looks like it was probably a keeper, and most of the white sea bass inside the bay have short, but not by much. Happiness starts at 28 inches. Thank you, Kerry, and it is nice to see Mr. Boley again. I hope that next year Kerry inundates us with photos of Paul with lots and lots of salmon. He's the man to catch them, if they let him.

    These fish are much smaller than the usual fish the Mike Mack and Spinner catch, but these were caught in the wrong place which makes them very interesting. The are saury, and they are normally found way offshore with the albacore in warm, clear water. Gage and I saw sauries jumping by the weather buoy on Thursday in clear but 52^ water. Soon thereafter a small school of bluefin boiled nearby as well. Pretty cool, but these two sauries were caught on a sabiki while fishing for jacksmelt in 60 feet of water in front of Bird Rock. Sauries aren't supposed to be there. Think the bluefin are there, too? It seems unlikely, but at this point, who knows? It's only unlikely, not impossible.

    After last weekend's wind the water has laid down and started to (barely) warm up. The rockfish are biting pretty well in the shallows in which we allowed to fish. Next month we switch to outside of the 50 fathom line, so if you want to catch shallow water rockfish you need to go now or wait for November. Going now is not a bad idea. Honestly, better chance for a ling in shallow now than waiting until October for a Rittenburg run, as this time of year the lingcod come in shallow to spawn. Well, October will hopefully let them make more little lings. Good for them. Then, good for us.

   In the bay the colder water has slowed down the action from Hog to the bar, although action can still be had at the bottom of the current low tides when the warmer water from in back runs all the way forward.  I was even able to connect with a 24 pound halibut on the bar this evening. They're here. It's just getting them to bite that's hard. James Ludovina stopped by again and, after seeing the cold, baitfish free water near Hog, went farther (further?) back and found warm water with schools of anchovies. In those schools, in the last few days, he and his guests have caught five halibut, three stripers (lost one of a triple yesterday) and three white sea bass (two keepers, one short) and a thresher shark. I think. I'm sure James kept a better count than I. But with the good weather forecast (inshore) this weekend I imagine we'll see a few more fish. Things are winding down, but it ain't over yet.

 

   This picture is from Saturday. Doug sent over this report: "Mark Rotondo Campbell California 22 pounder" I don't know his fishing location or methodology, but I would guess that he was within a mile of Hog Island and probably using a live jacksmelt. Just, statistically, that's the probable answer. But as he caught the only 20+ pounder in the last few days, he may have been almost anywhere. Saturday saw quite a few halibut caught but mostly near Hog after the tide had gone out a bit and brought the warm water forward. Mike Mack and Spinner had no halibut at 3:45 PM and three in the box at 4:30. No giants, but nice fish. They had to be back by 4:45 to pull out with the tractor, hence their missing the last fish. Other fishermen had similar days. Not Mr. Rotondo, apparently, as Doug sent me this picture at 2:40 PM. Yesterday, the wind blew, and it blew hard at peak. Our one launch caught a shorty before they finally gave up and came back. The guys that came out to kayak crab were coerced by Doug into at least buying life jackets and wearing them before going out. The one guy that went out decided that he loved his life jacket after getting blown off his kayak twice and having to swim the kayak back to the beach. He will tell you, the water is cold. Another couple of hundred yards from shore an he could have been a sad statistic. Now, he's educated, and would likely repeat the advice I read a while back about kayaking (although it really applies to all boating...) that one should plan for success (have the right gear for fishing, know where to go and what to do) but dress for failure (wetsuit, dry suit, lifejacket, whatever: you might be in it). Don't die. Please. It's a bummer. 

   Today the wind was spent. James Ludovina went out with a brother (not sure which brother) and the Ludovinas limited on halibut pretty quick near Hog (in James' spot) using live anchovies. They caught a thresher shark further back in the bay earlier. That took 45 minutes or better of fighting and chasing. I generally don't like sharks, but threshers are awesome. Jusr plain awesome. They. Have. Horsepower. And they taste good on the grill. Probably good for them that they have lots of horsepower. They're the poor man's marlin, except that they make marlin have to step it up. Good for them, and good for marlin, too! No slacking! Theshers are keeping the marlin honest.

    An albacore report from the 9th from Brad Stompe: "Willie,

Took a run out to Bodega Canyon yesterday with the hopes of loading the boat with albacore.  Dropped the gear in with 62 degree water and in five minutes had a triple on.  Boated 2 out of three and were on our way to loading up the boat.  Eight hours later we decided to head in without getting another strike.  Polling those at the ramp revealed a range of 0 – 3 albies per boat.  We found water as warm as 63.5 on the outside and lots of life just inside the shelf on our way in with whales, dolphin and birds in abundance.  Maybe that’s where the bluefin are?

Brad Stompe" Gage went out with Tom and Bob Brodsky and they caught one albacore on their way, way, way, way back MadMac. No bluefin for them, which was their main plan. The albacore seems to be fizzling out. There's a few guys whomping some, but the vast majority of fishermen are catching, as Brad noted, 0-3 with an emphasis on the zero. The bluefin are biting a bit southwest of the the Farallones but haven't quite made it here, yet. The bait is out there on the edge of the shelf, so the fish will come. Bluefin come to eat and water temp is less of a concern for them than albacore. They also fight like hell in cold, oxygen-rich water. Which is good, because the wind blew (and is still blowing) and it cooled the water off. Again, less of an issue for the bluefin but a serious problem for halibut. The halibut bite has dropped off on the bar and off Dillon Beach, but there's still some biting at the yellow buoy. Hope springs eternal.

 

   I shamed or flattered (hopefully flattered) James Ludovina into a report. It worked! Thanks, James. "Great time and 1001 thanks. Hopefully can get my stuff done for more. Guess I’m a no tide river rat at heart!! Why can’t I smash fish tacos and a couple brews while beaching my boat! Tides??!! 😂 Yesterdays 31” fish was Jonesing for giant 30 pounder and a Thresher or WSB keeper. Next time! My brother is Paul from Woodland. He’s working the Knights Landing out of his game. 16# largest on smelt.

Cheers" Nice work on the fish, James. Grounding the boat, well, you learned. That's all the world asks. Screw up once, you learn. Screw up in the same way a second time? We will talk. But for now, good work! You'll get those fish you're looking for. Just maybe not today.

 

  My cousin Ira texted me this report from Thursday: " Sorry for the late report.  We covered some ground Thursday.  We got 17 at 20&55 but it was a grind.  Slower trolling and cedar plugs helped get us more fish,  thanks to our buddy Donny.  I'm bad about taking pictures because when the lines go off,  grab a rod....  and yes it was a not so comfy trip in.  Flat seas and wide open Tuna I hope are coming 🤞" Yeah, I'm jealous. In the catching, no so much the cleaning. I heard that Saturday was pretty slow on the tuna grounds, but today the bluefin started biting, so game on. The offshore water is cooling and the albacore bite has dropped, but bluefin are here and the game is changing (yet again; change is the only constant) so new game, game on! By the way, Nice Job Ira and crew.

     Cold water has flooded in from outside today and the halibut bar bite has died. Yesterday was good, but today, nada.  Inside the bay is still good, and Hog is really good, in spots. Nice Donelly of Lake County (but not from Lake County) caught this 20 pound halibut today. It was within sight of Hog, but an exact location lives only with Nick. Nick has been working hard this year on this halibut thing, and it's working. This is one of the reasons I love fishing. Some things are hidden from you in the human world, but the wild world is hidden but honest. Put in the time, pay attention, and it will pay off. Good for you, Nick. And show those kids. You got the bug. Pass it on. Us fish addicts need more addicts. We are the happiest and longest-lived addicts you'll ever find. As long as we allowed to fish...

       Chic Ash caught this 25 pound halibut today. He had some help, it looks like. These guys are friends and relatives, so they have a bit of a head start, but it was a visitor, James Ludovina, that told them where to go after he caught his limit, not us here at the Landing. James has been on the water every day for the  last last few days and has kind of figured it out. For now. Ask him, he'll tell you, he's learned enough to know that streaks don't last, the fish move or change their minds, whatever. What worked today may or not work tomorrow. That's what makes fishing awesome. Change. And when it doesn't change, and you can fish fish the same way two or three days in a row? Also awesome, and kinda extra awesome if you know that it's not supposed to work that way. Let's all be extra awesome, should we be so lucky. James says that Hog Island is wide open. I think that he's partly right, in that there's places back there that are full of fish, but there's probably a lot of places that aren't. But give it a shot. These guys got a couple of beauties today after James pointed them in the right direction. Good man, James.

    This picture is from last week. Rachel just sent me the photo. Sorry, guys, don't know your names, don't know your fish's weights, but nice fishies. 

 

    So we went for albacore yesterday. The video is of two fish hooked on the troll and me sticking a lucky one on a cast swimbait. We caught five, lost one. It was hard. Kinda sucked. The ride out, partly in the dark and all in the swell from two directions and fog, was not what what I wanted. It mostly sucked. Dodging ships in the fog was also not not fun, but not dodging them would be worse, so I guess not a complete suck. I just feel, 24 hours or more later, like the beatings I took yesterday were a bit too much. oof. I heard that a very guys did super well, up to maybe 30 fish. Most of the fishermen did somewhere between zero and five. That's a lot of gasoline for not a lot of fish. We burned 60 gallons. Brutal. 

   Can't wait to try again.

 

  Alec Bennet, captain of the Shrimpboat, caught this 26 pound halibut today. Live jacksmelt, but location fuzzy. "Your secret spot" Dammit. You can't trust anyone. Word to the wise, if you find a honey hole, shut the **** up. Or at least, shut up around Alec...Nice fish, but, damn, man...

    Jerrie Carter and friend caught a couple of halibut on the bar today. The big one weighed 18 pounds. Live jacksmelt, again. Tom Carter? Good gaffer. James Ludovina caught two limits today back by Hog, so there's officially fish in the bay. Myself, I'm taking tomorrow off and going for albacore with Gage and Alec. Mebbe? There's tuna to be caught out there. Whether I can catch one is a different story. I'll let you know later...

 

   Mike Mack was hoping to beat Spinner yesterday with this fish. For the day, he did, but Spinner has a 30 pounder in his pocket and Mike's was only 27 pounds. These guys catch enough fish to hang an "only" next to 27 pounds. That's a lot of experience. They caught their fish between McClure's and Hog Island. The big one was at Hog, even though I would expect it to be at McClure's. Shows you what I know. There have been a few halibut caught in the last few days. It ain't  easy, catching, but the fishing doesn't suck, either. There's some nice fish pushing into the bay. 

   

   My wife sent these pictures from yesterday, then called me to make sure they got posted. So. Not here, but she drove up to Fort Bragg this weekend to fish with the Nursements. Day one, Friday, one fish. Day two, Saturday, no fish. Day three, redemption, 19 fish. It's nice when the weather cooperates and lets you wait out the fish. It worked. Other fishermen had similar results with Sunday being redemption day for almost everybody. You may have seen the steam from the  many pressure cookers today, no matter where you live. Albacore are being caught from Eureka to Monterey right now. Suddenly, jars and lids are hard to find. Albacore tend to be feast or famine, and folks, the famine is over. If you have a boat capable, or can get on a party boat, it is time to gorge. Feast! This is the best CenCal albacore bite in......I don't know. A long time. Get it while you can. And use big gear. Monsters are out there.

 

    No mystery on location for this report. "Willy, pretty good day down off Reyes. It was not a wide open bite except for a 30 minute flurry of action but we worked it for a couple ling and near limits of rock fish. Gorgeous day!!

We fished amongst a couple private boats and four charters from SF

Best Regards

Kelley" Looks like a good day to me. Any day you're catching your targeted species is a good day. Good weather, even better. Glad you got your boat working again. Ready for salmon next year, if we're all that lucky... 

   A slower day today on the halibut front. Local hero Shrimp Boat struggled for the one nice one he finally gaffed on the bar. I heard that the local legend Nick Bauer payed a visit and was rewarded with a limit between the bar and Marker 5. Mike Mack and Spinner worked all day for rockfish and three halibut. Most fishermen (at least the ones I talked to) did less. There's some fish coming in, but like money or technology, they're not evenly distributed. Also, the bite is a bit unpredictable. When it's good, booyah! The rest of the time is boring sadness. We all want to be John Wick but mostly we're lucky to be Dorf. 

   I did hear a rumor of a boat out of Bodega catching 25 albacore today, along with two bigeye, 150 and 225 pounds. It's good rumor. It may not be true, but never let the truth get in the way of a good story, I say. I may not sleep tonight.