Here's a picture from Thursday. Conor Padon and his junior Padon are showing their catch from the bar. Conor smacked two srtipers and a halibut on jigs. We (Gage, Richard Porterfield and I) took two trips to catch the same thing. As far as I know, this was the best result from the bar on Thursday. The crazy good bite of Tuesday night rapidly devolved to scratching a few fish here and there. The bar has been slow and Hog, slower. But, fish are being caught.

    Megan Hirschfeld caught this 23 pounder at Hog today. No other biters, but the team effort paid off for one big enough to share. I didn't hear what this fish bit, but most of the fish coming in now are the results of grit and perseverance, as there aren't that many coming in. Grinding is a valid method. Nice work, Team Hirschfeld, as they aren't coming easy.

    Big fish of the day is this 30 pounder. Cameron sent this message with it: "Lapp crew, 30 lbs. First and only bite by the weather buoy on "one of those stupid tubes with the green thing on it."" I think that's a Bigfoot Bait Jig, as some of them have the green thing in them. Tip of the hat for catching a damned good fish on a lure that you clearly had no faith in. Maybe now? I will say that a lot of the time I think that anything presented in front of a fish will catch. But the tubes, when properly jigged, will dart around like a scared baitfish, and that seems important. It can surely help an indecisive fish make the right (or wrong, if you're the fish) decision. Nice fish, folks. Keep jigging.

    So as Gage, Richard and I went out on Thursday we passed a Klamath boat with three people that looked familiar. Holy crap! It was Frank Green, David Gonzales and the Jigger John. I didn't hear anything further until today when Kerry Apgar sent me this photo. That's a halibut and a white seabass for you folks playing along at home. Kerry also said that the seabass was really tasty. Dammit. I'd like to think that those were my fish, but when the jigging is happening the world likely belongs to people with "Jigger" in their nickname. 

   I gotta get a new, functional nickname. 

   Also, the fishing, aside from these fish, was pretty slow. High boat that I heard of was four fish at the bar and a mix of stripers and halibut. Their bait was caught outside the bay proper and was mostly anchovies, but there are a few big sardines out there. Hog has been dead but  clearly a few fish have trickled back. No spot is good but there's possibilities. 

 

     Well, that ended pretty quickly. There were quite a few boats on the bar today at a couple of different times but not too many fish caught. High boat that I heard of was Conor Padon with two stripers and a halibut, all on tube jigs. We had to go fishing twice just to catch up. Gage, Richard Porterfield and I caught two stripers in the morning/afternoon and Richard caught a halibut this evening on a separate trip. There were other fish caught on the bar at various times today but it wasn't even slightly "hot." One fact I neglected to share was that on Tuesday night both Chris Brown and Doryon Dye reeled up halibut that had a second, smaller halibut following it. The only reasonable explanation is that those second halibut were spawning males, as generally it is the stupid horny guys that get into trouble because they can't see it as they are horny-blind. I've been that guy, I know. It seems like when the halibut come in to seriously spawn (as they're doing now, or have done) they bite initially and then lockjaw for a week or so. Post-coital malaise? It doesn't matter the name, the results are the same. The fish quit biting. They will start again, tomorrow or maybe next week. Halibut have small stomachs and feed less than a fisherman would hope for, but eventually they will bite again. There is a ton of bait in the outer bay 

 

    These two halibut came pretty quick this morning. The big one went 24 pounds and did not fit in the net. They grabbed it by the gills and dragged it into the boat like men. This is why men often have bloody hands. They caught them just inside the bell buoy (TB) on tube jigs. Nice work, men. Don't forget to show off the scars. "Did I ever tell you how I got this scar?" "Yes, Dad. Please, don't tell me the story again." "There I was, on the Tomales Bar...."  

     You know what they say," The family that fishes together often curses in front of their children." Not so with the Padons. That's probably mostly because they catch a lot, and catching takes a lot of the edge off. Success will do that, I'm reliably informed. I believe that this is Mrs. Padon's first jig fish. Catching halibut is fun, but hooking one by working a jig in the correct manner and feeling that "thump", well, it can be addictive. They had three bites on the jigs today but this is the only one that stuck. It looks like a pretty good one though. The bar was kind of slow for most guys for the bulk of the day, but after 5 and the tide change an evening bite lit up again. I only had one bite, but I saw one boat land five fish while I was there (Nice work Loren Poncia and team on the Early Shirley.) and another had four (Team Dark Lord, way to holler at Gage). Cannon Brunkhorst jumped in with Gage this evening and they caught three. All on tube jigs and mostly Bigfoot Baits but there were some Redrums in the mix.

    Gage and Chris Brown caught and released several halibut this morning, looking for the right one. This 28 pounder was apparently the right one. I struggled to catch a wrong one, so please excuse my snark. Nice work, Gage. 

    Also, Cameron said to call out James Ludovina. James, I hear you're busy. Understood. But they're biting. Right. Now. 

   

    Nick Donnelly reports: "Saturday and Sunday were a grind with the south wind and poor drift conditions. scratched a limit one day and only a single fish the other day and a bunch of ray and shark and couple more missed hookups, all on Bigfoot jigs. only action I got on lives was a stolen chovie that the hook never stuck" Unsurprisingly, the guy that caught fish ain't wrong. The live bait action has been tough. Dead bait? Tougher. But the jigs have worked? Why? I haven't a clue, but what I do know is that why doesn't  matter if it works. Nice job Nick. Them fish don't hook themselves.

   The Coastodian sent over this picture. There's some stripers around, it seems. For the record, Richard was fine with me posting this but Gage said no. So I can't say where, but it was close and apparently painful. Nice frickin' fish, though.

   Speaking of striper fishing, here's a picture of Cameron and I hooked up on a double. I hooked a fish and he casted on my hookup and got his own fish. So  most importantly, mine was first. He still caught more than me.

  So. Steve Cato has been trying hard this season. He tried hard last season, too, and he caught a few, but this season the fish have been tough. And, to be fair, they have been tough for everyone. A couple of years of no salmon lay hard on every other fish. But today, tough be damned. He took Cameron out to the bar (like a stray dog; If you feed him you can't get rid of him) and they caught fish. I believe the total was two stripers and three halibut. The pictured one went 21 pounds. All fish on Redrum and Bigfoot jigs. Live bait entertained but did not hook a halibut. What kind  of world is it that fish bite junk faster than real stuff?

        The Chris Brown hasn't been out to visit since Prime Time last year. It has now been scientifically proved that when he arrives to fish, it is go time. All of the pictured fish were caught on Bigfoot Jigs. They're biting. You may have heard Gage's whoops and hollers this evening. I sure did while I was fishless. Doryon and I couldn't buy a bite until Chris and Gage left with their limits. Then we started catching. Limits all the way around, but some of us started sooner and finished earlier. It doesn't matter, as the feeling of a fish biting a jig is special on its own. I highly recommend it. They're biting. Best time to get bit, it seems. 

       Not much to report, as the halibut catching inside Tomales Bay has been, well, bad. There are fish getting caught, but not many, and this is July when it should be many. Yesterday we saw almost no halibut come in, but the almost fish was 33 pounds. The big fish was caught by Colton Millel of Kenwood and was hooked "straight across bay tucked against far edge of channel, 9am, redrum tube." Very nice job on a difficult fish during a difficult time. There's been a few stripers in the mix as a few roving "wolf packs" have been showing up here and there from the bar back to Hog. There will be a flurry of action and then back to the usual nada. Tough times, but the water is warming and the bait is here, and while it may never get epic this year it will get better. And then get worse. Such is fishing. I love it.

 

     Here's a Ron Johnson submitted Wednesday report: "pics from today fishing  on the Bar. I mean Hog. My son Eliot visiting from Oregon and I fished with Miller Time." Yes, the San Francisco bar isn't the only bar with halibut on it. Nice work on finding the fish, gents. The SF bar has way more halibut on it currently, but Tomales has some, and those some will be heading further into the bay to hopefully re-energize the fishing at Hog. It needs it. Bait catching is still difficult but there's a few smelt in the outer bay and along selected weed patches. There are also some schools of small anchovies at the yellow buoy that can be fished with small single hooks. Gage and I tried the bar this morning around the turn of the tide and had eight bites with two fish landed in our first four short drifts, Then the incoming tide brought in cold, clear water and we had no more bites. We left when the water dropped below 50º. As the forecast calls for much less wind and a more summerlike pattern, the water should warm back up soon and the bar action should fire back up. Soon....

 

     Tom Brodsky sent me this report last night but I missed it. "Willy, took my friends grandkids fishing the last 2 days. Here's the lingcod Noah caught in the outer bay yesterday. Today 40 Rockcod in 1-1/2 hours off of 10 mile. Sorry no photos." A flat ocean and poor halibut bite is surely bad news for the rockfish. So is Noah, by the looks of it. Nice work of the rockfish. 

     Tom was out after the rockfish with a new crew today and both he and Ron Johnson sent pictures of this fish to ask if it was a cowcod. It is a tiger rockfish and they aren't very common around here. Most importantly, it is also a keeper. 

 

   David Cerini was having some trouble catching a fish, as the fishing has been pretty slow. So what does a killer do when he's having trouble killing things? Up your game. Mr. Cerini jumped in the water yesterday, along with John Morozumi, and they looked for halibut. Ten feet of visibility showed them....no halibut. But, while on the edge of a school of needle head (what's smaller than pinhead?) anchovies, across the bay from the Boathouse, Davey saw a gray shadow emerge from the gloom. After determining that the hoped for white sea bass was actually a thresher shark, he started to lower the speargun, as generally, spearing a thresher is a great way to get dragged through the water for a long time or maybe get bit. But, the thresher, sensing Davey's need to kill, turned sideways and paused in front of him. When a forked-horn buck leans up against the barrel of your rifle during deer season, well, you shoot him. You can get past the smell of burned fur. Davey shot, and for a second the shark was stunned and he thought he got away with it. But threshers are built out of speed and power, so Davey couldn't get past the dragging and wrestling part. But he won. The thresher weighed 36 pounds gutted. He's smiling in the picture, but there may be a longer pause before he pulls the trigger on another thresher shark.

     The fishing has been slow, partly because the wind we've had has finally blown a plume of 48º water into the bay. That will slow things down on the north end of the bay for sure. The southern 3/4 of the bay has still had fish biting and a few people have even limited out. The fish in the back aren't big and you must carefully sort them as most aren't keepers. There were a couple of halibut caught on the bar today in that cold water, so more may be lurking there and be even bitier when the water warms up. Time will tell.

    

 

        Mike Mack caught this 28 pounder yesterday. I don't know what bait and where he caught it, but I suspect a jacksmelt and near Hog Island, as that has been his method as of late. That's the largest halibut of the year here so far. 

     Cannon found another one today. This one weighed 14 pounds if I remember correctly. This was the only fish for the Doghouse today. If Cannon is only catching one, the fishing is pretty slow.

           Vance Staplin texted me this photo today. Apparently the happy kayaker pictured here wanted someone to take his picture. I guess Cannon missed another white sea bass. It appears that there's a few around.

 

    Cannon didn't fish yesterday so there was no reason for me to post anything. Here is today's obligatory Cannon photo. Not pictured is the striper he caught in the afternoon after jumping on a jet sled with some striper whisperers. There are fish out there for other people to catch but Cannon has first pick while he's here.

    Oscar and Angela Aceves found one that Cannon missed. The white sea bass weighed 15 pounds and bit a trolled bait near Marconi. I've heard about a couple of these being caught in the last month but this is the first one hung on the scale here this year. Nice work, Team Aceves. The WSB's don't come easy or often.

     It wasn't as windy today as yesterday but it sure wasn't the weather anyone wanted. Still, the fishing wasn't as bad as the wind and the first few boats back had a couple of halibut a piece. Yesterday there weren't too many boats out fishing but only a few fish were caught. Oscar Aceves had a pair of halibut from Marconi and Gage and I caught three halibut and a striper at Hog but I heard of no other action. Gage and I were able to catch our bait reasonably fast but we used a lot of oily chum. It turns out that freezer-burned bluefin is actually good for something. We left a slick behind the boat, and I had difficulty holding anything after, but the jacksmelt approved. 

 

     Catching bait was really hard today. Catching halibut was hard without live bait, but Cannon Brunkhorst found one that liked dead bait. This one weighed 20 pounds and was hunkered down in 47 feet of water. There were other halibut caught today, mostly on dead bait and jigs, but nobody from here landed one as large as Cannon's. I did hear that there's a couple of large ones that got left behind. Tomorrow is supposed to be windy but the worst is supposed to pass by Friday. I imagine there will be plenty of fishermen trying the bay this weekend. Please try to make space for Cannon. And his head.

 

     Quinn and Dave came out to see if the surf had any stripers in it. Dave caught a couple almost immediately and released them, but after Quinn fought this 29 pounder for a half hour, Quinn decided to keep it. That's a big striper for here and a huge striper for for here in the surf. Nice job, gents. 

    Cannon Brunkhorst had only just arrived here when Quinn dragged in the big striper. Moments later he found himself jumping in a Whaler with Gage and Cameron to try fishing the surf from a different angle. Cameron and Gage didn't catch but Cannon connected to this 18 pounder. It took him around the boat a couple of times. The last time may have been a victory lap to tease Gage. Nice job, Cannon! Not pictured today are the majority of striper fishermen that did not get bit. 

    Tom Brodsky and friend gave the rockcod a try today: "Hey Willy,

Limits of rockcod up to 5lbs today down off 10 mile.

Yesterday 17 rockcod and 14 Crab in outerbay." The halibut fishing was slow again today, so taking the opportunity to fish the ocean with the good weather today was a darn good idea. I bet it seemed like an even better idea when they ate fresh rockcod tonight.

       George Homenko sent over this report to refute my claim of slow halibut fishing:

    "Had a good day fishing on Sunday.  Miller Park looked like it was opening day for dungeness. I'm amazed at how many boats and kayaks were out.  Weekdays for me from now on.   I've been out several times in the last month with no luck, but this time I landed two nice halibut in under 90 minutes.  One was 25 inches and the other was 34 inches.

I was drifting by the red and green day marker north of Hog, in about 20 feet of water.  There was a gentle outgoing current, and I was bouncing frozen herring.  Caught them both near there." 

    Thank you for reminding us that popsicles (frozen bait) are still considered tasty by halibut. Live bait tends to work better but dead bait can still catch. Sometimes it's better than live. Nice work on the flatties, George. I believe that the Miller Park situation was a mix of halibut fishing being perceived as not so good in San Francisco but better here, and a really low tide getting a lot of clammers on the water. It sounds like a few fish are trickling in to San Francisco Bay now too. 

     Tomorrow is last chance for legal Dungeness out here until November. Good luck if you go. Inside Tomales Bay it has been better than it has been but still not good. There's likely a few in the outer bay but I haven't heard any reports. Halibut over the weekend was slow. It was so slow that even Gage couldn't get one to stick to the hook on Saturday morning.  He had four bites but hookups. Friday I caught one by Hog and saw another halibut and striper caught. Most of the action around Hog over the last three days was bat rays, but man, were the rays on fire! If somebody landed the bat ray with a 1.5 ounce underspin swimbait I'd love to get it back. There were a few halibut caught, but very few. Branden Mendoza caught a couple yesterday and sent over this report:

    "Hey Willy. We trolled around today. Tried by hog island with no luck. Went down by the red bar in 19ft of water trolling a white hootchie behind a dodger. Landed the fire fish at 9:30am and then we're gonna leave but the dock was too low and traffic was backed up so we decided to just keep trolling went back to the same spot and picked up another at about 1230. Both were 28 inches and 8lbs." Nice work, Branden. The fish are where you find them.

 

    Gage and I hit the water at 6:00 AM today to catch the low tide at Hog and hopefully find a few halibut biting in the warmer water from the further back bay. The wind was also up early, or really, it never quit last night. Over a choppy and windblown 3.5 hours we caught four halibut to 21 pounds and an eight pound striper. We also released four leopard sharks and missed more bites than I care to think about. Most of the time one or both motors were in reverse to slow the drift and follow the channel. All bites and fish were on live sardines caught near the yellow buoy, except for a halibut on our one live anchovy and the striper bit a small jacksmelt. The nearest boat was probably a half mile away and only one other boat was fishing. With the good weather forecast for this weekend I will guess that if you go fishing at Hog you will see many, many more boats than I did. Just keep the drift slow and the bait active and you have a chance. And if you figure out how to get them fish to stick to the hooks better, Gage and I are very interested because the stinger treble hooks were sure underperforming for us today.

 

   Gage found a couple of stripers to 21 pounds on the bar today. The big one really loved the surf and spent most of his time there. Getting it in the net without rolling the boat was not easy. Exciting, yes. Hog Island also has stripers as well as halibut and amost no surf (pretty much just wakes). I heard of a striper and halibut yesterday and the same boat had at least two halibut and a striper this morning. There's been a few halibut caught near Inverness as well. Crabbing is okay even with the tides, but I expect the Dungeness to go crazy in about a week when the season closes. They're always easier to catch them when you can't keep them.

   Here's the fish I heard about. Ezra and the Carters put the hurt on them. Tom Carter sent over this report: "We have our grandson for a few days and Tuesday the wind was calmer than it has been in a while and Ezra caught an 8 pound halibut and Jerrie caught a 14 pound striper , and this morning the weather was even better and we all caught! 22 inch striper , 17 pound halibut, and 11 pound halibut ! Ezra brought us some good luck"  Nice report Tom. I think you need to take Ezra fishing more often.

    You may recall that two weeks ago I said that our next salmon opportunity would be in September. It is now official: "Ocean Salmon Fishery Achieves Summer Catch Limit; Will Reopen in September

California’s June 7-8 Ocean salmon season offered some of the best fishing many longtime anglers can remember. Fast action, quick limits and bustling harbors characterized the weekend along much of the coast with a hot salmon bite reported as far south as San Luis Obispo County. Excellent ocean conditions from Crescent City all the way down to Avila Beach allowed anglers to get out both days and try to catch the iconic sport fish in ocean waters for the first time since 2022.

“We’ve seen so many pictures and heard many stories of people enjoying their time on the water with family and friends,” said California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham. “By all accounts, the weekend was a huge success.”

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) estimates 9,165 Chinook salmon were taken statewide by 10,505 anglers aboard both charter vessels and private skiffs, achieving the summer fishery harvest guideline of 7,000 Chinook. On recommendation from CDFW and industry, the National Marine Fisheries Service took in-season action today to close the remaining summer dates of July 5-6, July 31-August 3, and August 25-31.

Like most salmon seasons, the majority of catch and the greatest number of anglers originated from ports in the greater San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas.

Nearly 100 CDFW and partner-agency staff participated in dockside data collection activities over the opening weekend at major boat launches and sport fishing centers statewide, counting anglers and their fish and collecting heads of hatchery-origin fish to recover coded wire tags containing life history information.

“CDFW appreciates the ongoing participation and cooperation of the recreational fishing community in our dockside surveys, which generate data vital to planning California’s ocean salmon seasons every year,” said CDFW’s Senior Ocean Salmon Project Supervisor Kandice Morgenstern. “Anglers are also very interested in learning about our hatchery programs and to participate in our courtesy program where they can learn about the hatchery of origin, age, and release location of their fish after the information is recovered from the Coded Wire Tag.”

The recreational ocean salmon fishery is set to reopen September 4-7 under a separate fall harvest guideline of 7,500 Chinook in waters between Point Reyes and Point Sur. If the harvest guideline isn’t reached, the season will continue September 29-30. If any fish remain after this date, the fishery will continue in waters between Pt. Reyes to Pigeon Point on October 1-5 and October 27-31.

The use of harvest guidelines and in-season management in California’s ocean sport fishery management is new this year. The guidelines were developed as part of the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s pre-season process using catch and effort information from prior years along with expected performance this year. The guidelines serve to ensure that impacts from the fishery to stocks of particular concern - namely Klamath River fall Chinook and Central Valley Spring and Sacramento River Winter Chinook, are minimized. In-season management, including use of in-season monitoring and harvest guidelines, is a new objective identified in  California’s Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future released in January 2024."

  So, 9165 salmon in two days? I guess it's a good thing for the salmon that they cut the originally suggested four day opening to only two, as we weren't supposed to catch more than 7000. Oopsie! It's pretty hard to stop when the fish are throwing themselves at you. Let's hope they're still in suicide mode come September.

 FYI 

CDPH Warns Public Not to Consume Sport-Harvested Bivalve Shellfish from Marin County

June 19, 2025  

SN25-014​

What You Need to Know: CDPH warns consumers not to eat recreationally harvested mussels, clams, scallops or oysters from Marin County due to dangerous levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins detected in mussels from Marin County

SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is advising consumers not to eat sport-harvested mussels, clams, scallops, or oysters from Marin County.   

Dangerous levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins have been detected in mussels from Marin County. The naturally occurring PSP toxins can cause illness or death in humans. Cooking does not destroy the toxin. 

This shellfish safety notification is in addition to the warnings against eating sport-harvested bivalve shellfish in Santa Cruz County,  Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, and Orange counties due to marine biotoxins. Consumers should also be advised that the annual mussel quarantine remains in effect. The annual mussel quarantine prohibits the sport-harvest of mussels for human consumption and applies to all species of mussels harvested for human consumption along the California coast, as well as all bays and estuaries, and will continue through at least October 31. 

Paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins affect the nervous system, producing a tingling around the mouth and fingertips within a few minutes to a few hours after eating toxic shellfish. These symptoms are typically followed by loss of balance, lack of muscular coordination, slurred speech and difficulty swallowing. In severe poisonings, complete muscular paralysis and death from asphyxiation can occur. 

This warning does not apply to commercially sold mussels, clams, scallops, and oysters from approved sources. State law permits only state-certified commercial shellfish harvesters or dealers to sell these products. Shellfish sold by certified harvesters and dealers are subjec​t to frequent mandatory testing to monitor for toxins. 

You can get the most current information on shellfish advisories and quarantines by calling CDPH’​​​s toll-free Shellfish Information Line at (800) 553-4133 or viewing the recreational​ bivalve shellfish advisory interactive map. For additional information, please visit the CDPH Marine Biotoxin Monitoring web page.  ​​

 

     Nick Donnelly sent over a report from earlier in the week: "Willy,

Sup bro it's lake county Nick, was just shooting ya a pic of the lip I ripped last Wednesday in that wind squall " I believe this fish weighed 17 pounds and it bit a bullhead by Hog. Yes, a bullhead. It has been very windy and the water has been cold, so the halibut catching from Hog to the mouth has varied from slow to very slow. Good job Nick on catching one in tough conditions.

    Scott Simpson sent a report from this weekend: "Hey Willy, I was worried the wind was going to scratch fishing for the Wet Dream this weekend. We took a chance and launched at 7 am while the wind was manageable.  It turned out being  a rough 5 hours, with 3 foot waves south of Hog, but we kept pushing and made it a day of long drifts. The bait was easy,  caught about 40 smelt.  Finally about noon we reset for another drift and  first drop this 28 incher decided to join us.  Considering we were surrounded  by  nothing but white caps, we called it a day. It was a white knuckle ride back to the Landing.  There are good days and not so good days of fishing. Today was a good day!"  All the returning boats had lots of salt crusted on their windshields but not many had fish. There were a few halibut caught and a few more stripers but mostly fishermen just got a beating from the weather. 

       Crabbing has been mixed with a few coming on snares from shore but better numbers from boats in the bay. At least one boat got limits of Dungeness on both Saturday and Sunday. 

   The halibut didn't bite for these guys but the jacksmelt and stripers did. Shane and Michael Nichols caught these stripers on live smelt at the north end of the bay. Stripers were caught from Pelican Point to the mouth of the bay this weekend, but both of these were caught within sight of our launch area. Nice work gents.

Mitch Hamilton sent over this report from Saturday: "Pretty good day with two grandsons, Lucas, the youngest , landed a 32” fish. My fish was 27”. Found tons of 6” jack smelt towards Marshall.Fish were caught around hog island just as low tide was winding down." Sounds good to me. Low tide at Hog seems to be the sweet spot now for water temperature and active fish. Good job putting the grands on fish, and good on you for also showing them how it's done.

 

     With salmon over, one would expect the halibut to step up. They had two days off, after all. But the halibut seem to have different priorities. There have been a few caught near Hog but nobody is complaining of the fish biting too aggressively. Gage and I are back to not liking shiner perch again as the halibut decided they didn't like them yesterday. Big baits were key for us and they worked well, the only problem being that we couldn't hardly catch any big bait. We caught two halibut and two stripers by Hog on a large sardine, a large jacksmelt and two 6-8" walleye perch. We missed two other bites on a jacksmelt and a walleye. I had been told long ago that halibut won't bite walleyes. Thankfully, the fellow that told me that didn't tell these halibut. If you catch a mix of bait, use a mix of bait, as who knows what they like today? The strange things may not work but they sure make catching bait more interesting. And, they may actually work. 

    There's lots of Dungeness being caught in the bay, unfortunately they are mostly a hair too small. Maybe they'll be keepers this fall, but for now they're heartbreakers. There are a few keepers in the mix. There seems to be more crab nearer the mouth of the bay. 

       I don't want to brag, but it has been literally years since I got skunked while salmon fishing. That ended today. In my three and a half hours of trolling off of Bodega Head I released a shorty and a silver and lost a small but probably barely legal salmon before I could decide to net him. I was not the only skunked boat, but overall the fishing and catching was better today than yesterday.

     I have to say that I enjoy getting texted photos of fish being caught while I am not catching. I have to say it because I want pictures, but in fact I tried not to look at my phone at a certain point. Mason Lessard sent the first hurtful photo: "Owen put this 25lb into the box 

Straight bait 150 OTW 288' off bodega head...

No other bites so far for us"  My understanding was that no other keepers followed this one, but one keeper is the difference between success and failure, so good on you, Owen. Very nice fish.

     Bob Brodsky caught the top 17 pound salmon yesterday. Good thing he got to catch one Saturday because today Natalia went with Bob and Tom and she caught all the fish. Bob got to net, at least. They were off of Bodega Head both days.

     Branden Mendoza sent in this report: "Hey Willy. We trolled both days out with the fleet. Nothing yesterday. But today we got lucky. Fishing 150ft down with 2lb balls straight bait resulted in 2 fish for us. Happy that we had some success in our short season. As always thanks for the reports." Thanks for your reports, sir. Straight bait did seem to be the ticket for a lot of fish this weekend. I guess we all have to keep that in mind for September.

    Gage sent me this picture at about noon today: "Robert and Nate Baker with this nice striper from the surf. Live jacksmelt" Surf stripers are the best stripers. Nice job. Makes you want to catch another, doesn't it?

       So another fish it was. Nate Baker reports, "Hey Willy, 

Gage got a pic of a striper Robert landed this morning off the point. He nailed this one this afternoon at the tide change in the same spot. 

stay fishy, 

Nate " I'm pretty sure that I'm not as fishy as Robert. Really nice work there, Robert. Two in a day from the surf is pretty special.

     Not from here, but nearby, Kelly Roy reports: "Willy

6 limits by 10:30. Some smalls and some nice high teens with a high 22 pounder.

Came in flurries of triples doubles and a few singles.

HMB great day great ocean" It sounds like it was a little slower down south today and little better up here, but south was still the place to be. There are a lot of salmon out there and we'll get another shot at them in September when they will count against next year's salmon count. Yeah, I don't get it either, but if I get to fish I guess it doesn't really matter.

      It is salmon season, so let's roll out the salmon pictures!

   This week Lou Zanardi discovered that his boat steering didn't work. Luckily, Fred Fritz in Petaluma had a bleeder tool he let Lou borrow to get the air out of his helm. It worked, and he caught today off of the Head. Not a lot, but not zero, either.

    The Coastodian found a keeper off of the Head today as well. There weren't a lot of bites to be had in our area so every one (and for most there was only one) was critical. This 15 pounder stuck. Others had fish that didn't stick. They will be thinking about those fish until the next salmon opportunity.

       Kaare Johnson was fishing with Chris Lawson and they caught two salmon about ten miles apart. This one weighed 27 pounds and was caught near Point Reyes. The other was half its size but was also half the distance from here. Most of the fish were being caught on bait without flashers or dodgers, but these two fish bit a hootchy and a spoon. I only heard of three other salmon out of the Landing today although I didn't talk to a lot of boats so I'm sure I missed some. Not many, though. As expected, the best bite was well south of here. Many boats fishing from Morro Bay to the Farallones got limits of salmon today. You can assume that tomorrow is the last day for salmon until September. 

      Mike Mack and crew gave up on the slow salmon and caught the turn of the tide by Hog Island this afternoon for five halibut, three of which weighed 23, 21 and 21 pounds. Who needs those salmon, anyway? Most of the other boats fishing in the same area did not have these gentlemen's luck. I heard of one other halibut caught and that was Gage's fish. Gage finished with a salmon and a halibut for the day. There were a couple of stripers caught from the beach this morning, so there's something else to look forward to in the salmon postseason.