Barb Pope caught this 17.5 pounder yesterday on a dead herring drifted this side of Hog Island. Three years in a row she has been the killer of the group from St. Helena. I'm sure that the rest of them are killers in their own right, but Barb just kicks it up a notch or three. Nice work, Barb, and very nice of you to sit it out today and let somebody else have a chance. They didn't catch any halibut without you, so... Well, get some, Barb. The halibut misguidedly like you. Most fishermen had the opposite response from the few halibut present. The catching sucked, as it kind of has. Some very good fishermen had a few fish this weekend but would normally be celebrating multiple limits over the weekend. Three years no salmon= no halibut. That's algebra I learned in 2010 after two years of no salmon. Three years is worse. Next year halibut fishing will suck, and suck hard. It will be a year to separate the men from the boys. I hope you do as well next year, Barb. For all of us.

     Howard Law sent over this picture with the report:" Not a bad day on the big pond. Threw back a  bunch of smaller ones." Those are some nice rockcod. Probably even better fish tacos. Nice work, Howard and crew. Last time Howard tried to fish somebody pulled out in front of him and he was in a pretty horrible crash. Good for the fish, I guess, but it kinda sucked for Howard. Well, payback's a, you know what.

     So, here it is Friday night and I'm finally posting Swampy's Tuesday report. I suck, but Swampy surely doesn't, as he tells it true:

     "Evening,

Should have been here yesterday. Tough bait today, plan C and D finally worked. Hit the bar and interior hard for two butts. Jake, Swampy Jr, scored a 14 pounder and Alex got a clicker. Great time as always and see you next trip. She ain’t singing yet……" The fat lady is surely warming up, though. She's not singing but she's doing the throat exercises to get ready to sing. It sounds like gargling and wind. Solid work, Swampy family, snatching a few fish from the jaws of .... well, the end of halibut season, such as it was. Keep in mind, as bad as this past season's halibut catching was, next year will be worse, and as halibut grow and spawn slowly (Sucks, but at least they don't need a river of fresh water in California like some prima donna like salmon) they will recover at the same slow rate. (Also sucks, but what are you gonna do? Run a hatchery?). I predict good halibut fishing in 2030. Until then we grind.

 

     This is one of those reports that I've been waiting for. Chris DeTrani moved here from the East Coast a few years ago and bought a boat to go salmon fishing. Bad timing, as he hasn't been able to fish decent local(ish) salmon water since the purchase. But Saturday last, "Worth the ride down. 90’ of water and 40’ down just below Point Reyes. 35” and 30”. 

Chris " I gotta bet those fish taste really, really good. Good on you, Chris. Maybe next year we'll have more chances at them. I took Alec Bennett with me yesterday for the end of season. We finished with our four, largest about 15 pounds, right about where Chris went, just deeper. They finally went on the bite after noon in 160 feet of water. We called in Mike Mack who finished with three. Okay, it wasn't a good bite but the grinding and scratching got quicker. It didn't sound too different farther south, as we saw the New Easy Rider out of Berkley tack past us at Point Reyes. That's a lot of good salmon water to drive past to get there. Some guys killed them on Sunday, but for most fishermen the season ended not with a bang but with a whimper.

    I received this report from Gage on Saturday with the message: "Megan Porterfield (not pictured) landed this 20 lb halibut near the bar on a Nomad jig." Seemed like a lot of beard for a Megan (not that there's anything wrong with it). This appears to be a Richard Porterfield and he put the boat over the fish Megan caught, so there you go. I'm guessing that Megan was jigging a Squidtrex as those have been accounting for some fish this year. Nice work Megan (and Richard, I guess).

     The halibut have been biting about as well as I've been posting, so very slow. Yesterday had a lot of zero reports at the launch. We didn't tell Swampy the fish weren't biting and look at the report he sent over this evening: "Evening,

Swampy Jr was on fire today, but everyone caught fish. 3 poles for 6 fish mostly from the bar. Biggest going 14 pounds. Got tomorrow to try again 

Swampy." 'Try? Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.' Said a tiny green wise man(?). It doesn't look like you tried today, just did. Keep doing that. Nice work Swampy, Swampy Jr. and unpictured third person that caught at least one fish and took this photo.

    This is a photo of the boat lights just outside of the Golden Gate Bridge on Thursday. Not pictured are all the boats running without lights, and their number was nonzero. We saw a couple of shadows pass between us and other boats. Holy crap. Only one boat filled with water and flipped over. Pretty good, IMHO. 

   In answer to question in the comments about the federal vs. the state rockcod regulations, my short answer is : Bureaucy. Longer explanation: The state only regulates the waters inside of three miles. The feds go out like 200 miles (don't get me started.  I think we blew up Qaddafi's son or nephew because he claimed the Gulf of Sidra, but whatever; we have the F111's to make it happen). So, you can rockfish any depth within the three-mile limit. When the feds vote this month sometime they will extremely likely vote to make it true outside of the three mile limit, as this was their idea. So by October you'll be good to go all depths. 

Until they change their minds again....

     Happy second salmon season! I just finished a dinner of fresh salmon bellies, collars and dumpster salmon (grilled bones with meat on them) with a bit (more than a bit!) of Thai sweet chili sauce. Heavenly! It was almost worth it! I've been up since 2:00 AM, driving to Emeryville to get on the New Huck Finn on a charter by Larry Varela. I've never fished out of the gate before and now have experienced Duxbury and Muir Beach. After screwing up spectacularly (sorry Scott and your down stream tangle buddy) I sorta figured it out. It was completely new to me but it sure works. My way here is more fun, but putting bodies in the boat is key, so this method works well. Not driving the boat was key to my enjoyment, as bum. per boats seemed to be most people's experience level. What's a boater's card? We limited by 2 with most of our fish caught at Dux but we had to pull and run to Muir to finish, and Muir had the largest fish. My limit fish came off of Gage's rod on the bow at about 20 pounds at Muir. Here's a pic of my cousin Nathan from South Carolina who came to catch salmon. 

   Quick summary: He did. No heads, as half of our fish were fin clipped hatchery fish and the fish counters were apparently omnipresent, as they were during the last short season. Expect the same wherever you go. Lots of monitoring, and let's be clear, lots of hatchery fish. As only a quarter of the fish from the hatcheries are actually fin clipped and chipped, let our 50% rate be your guide. They are all hatchery fish, as the river can't support salmon. It turns out that they need water, and water is money. It just is. Smolts trucked past the Delta and river tend to live to adulthood. Thanks truckers! It worked! Bummer, extirpated wild fish. I'm sure heaven is nice. Your highway star cousins sure taste good.

     Mike Mack and Spinner were not invited to Larry's charter and ran down past Point Reyes today for these three salmon. These guys are here almost every weekend to fish for whatever they can. Not surprisingly, salmon was on the menu today. It is not as good at Point Reyes as it is closer to the salmon funnel at the Golden Gate. Surprise, surprise. But two of these fish weighed in at 20 and 19 pounds. For a year without salmon, that sounds pretty awesome. It ain't red hot. But dinner, man, oh boy. Even better, I heard that Jesse Keilman and crew limited, eventually. after running from here to Point Reyes. Nice work gents.

    Here's a picture of me last week on the return from the albacore trip. Alec Bennett took the photo but it was out of spite, as he wanted to sleep in the beanbag chair. I get it, after sleeping in it. West Marine may be having a hard time like every other retailer, but their beanbag chair IS THE FRICKING BOMB.  I was out. Hard. Good times are the hard times. But the beanbag makes them easier.

     Here's the August finale we all wanted, except it has somebody else's faces in the picture. 

    These guys are big, and this photo doesn't do the fish proper justice. That being said, Michael Cameron of Cameron Park caught the 45 pound halibut in the photo and his friend, Todd Gentry of Sacramento landed this 36 pounder. Gage's text was, "45/36 lbs on the bar large grade jack smelt." It's a good text. I heard of at least one other jumbo that the fisherman didn't want weighed as it could cause a rush of fishermen. The real fact is, I think we're seeing the results of the last pulse of fish to come in to spawn. Fishing (catching, really) will suck again for a while. The pictured fishermen went without a fish yesterday and limited early today. They are obviously good fishermen, but today there were fish to catch. Tomorrow? I'll let you know later, but there may be a few stragglers from yesterday's push in. The day after? Should have been here yesterday...

   Most of the rockfishing has been pretty decent in the shallows and now that the deeper water has opened up the scores should increase. Canary rockfish catching should triple immediately with the two-fish limit. The largest canaries I ever caught were during the canary closure a few decades back. 

    An important bit of information I neglected to share yesterday in my post-tuna hangover (small boat tuna guys, you know what I'm talking about) is that the rockcod regulations that we were told will be changing, have changed. The press release: "

In response to new scientific information on quillback rockfish populations off California, the California Fish and Game Commission took emergency action on Aug. 14 to restore access to fishing depths in state waters that have been closed to protect them since 2023. The new state regulations are in effect as of Aug. 28, 2025.

In state waters between the Oregon/California border and Point Conception (34° 27’ N. Lat.), fishing for rockfish, cabezon, and greenling (RCG Complex) and lingcod is now open in all depths.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is working to implement similar all-depth fishing regulations for federal waters, however they are not expected to take effect until mid-September. As a result, federal waters will remain closed to RCG Complex and lingcod fishing north of 36° N. Lat. (near Lopez Point) until federal regulations are in effect. From Lopez Point to Point Conception, federal waters will remain closed for RCG Complex and lingcod fishing seaward of the 50 fathom Rockfish Conservation Area boundary line.

A map that includes the boundary line between state and federal waters is available on the Ocean Sport Fishing Map Viewer.  

Since fishing in the Southern Groundfish Management Area (south of Point Conception, to the US/Mexico border) is constrained by copper rockfish (Sebastes caurinus) and vermilion rockfish (Sebastes miniatus)/sunset rockfish (Sebastes crocotulus), there are no changes to the current fishing seasons in the Southern Groundfish Management Area.

Anglers should also take note of other important elements of the state’s recreational groundfish regulations:

There is now a two fish sub-bag limit on canary rockfish (Sebastes pinniger) statewide.  

Vermilion rockfish and sunset rockfish are now considered the same species for regulatory purposes. Both species in combination count towards the vermilion rockfish/sunset rockfish sub-bag limits.

Retention of quillback rockfish (Sebastes maliger), bronzespotted rockfish (Sebastes gilli), cowcod (Sebastes levis), and yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) remains prohibited statewide. 

This blog post will be updated when federal regulations that open RCG Complex and lingcod fishing at all depths go into effect; please check back regularly. The Summary of Recreational Groundfish Regulations web page will also be updated with the most current information.  

Please send CDFW any questions you may have regarding the new recreational RCG Complex and lingcod regulation changes." 

   A very basic summary: You can fish all depths. The stuff you couldn't keep before you still can't keep. The canary limit dropped to two. The middle water (120 to 300 feet) hasn't been fished in almost two  years. If you don't mind reeling a little more it should pay off. 

   Also, salmon will reopen on September 4 through September 7th. If the 7500 fish quota isn't caught in that time than it will reopen for another short window later. In my humble opinion, after watching black-out-the-meter schools salmon chase stripers out of the surf here for two weeks, guys having to release multiple salmon at Hog Island, the first season going well over quota in their "limited" two days, well, probably don't wait for the second opener. My prediction is 20,000 fish will be caught. Or more. I plan on personally accounting for at least two. Good luck if you go. Remember, it will be open from Point Reyes, south to Point Sur. Not off Tomales Point or Bodega Head. There will be plenty of fish there but they are no go. Go south, young man...

 

    Swampy sent in this report this evening: "Evening Willy,

Hope y’all smoked the heck out of the tuna. Two fish for two roads today to 17 pounds. Looks like we caught  a herniated halibut today. You ever see one like this? Cheers, Swampy." I don't know what kind of heavy lifting a halibut might do that would cause an injury like that. It seems likely that a gaff or seal caused an injury that healed less than ideally. But really, ew. I like your whole fish pictures better. But these are interesting.

        Gage, Alec Bennett and I went out for albacore today, as Swampy mentioned. We had a slow start, as the trim didn't work on one motor and we had a delay while we figured things out. But at 9:00 AM we hooked a quad at 38º 36 and 124º 01. After our initial catch it was 100+ minutes for the next bite, but our day went 4, 3, 1 1, 2, 1. A dozen fish and it felt like we weren't catching. Booh whooh. The hour or better gaps between hookups led to negative feelings between bites. But we got over it. Other guys did better, and some others caught less. But purple water at 30 miles is pretty interesting. It ain't Bragg, but it's here.

    

   I received this report this evening: "Evening Willy,

Another good day on the bay with 3 fish to 19 pounds for two rods. Your son was our lucky charm as two were caught next to him. Hope tomorrow is another good day.

Swampy"  The weather is supposed to be good, at least. Nice job on the flatties. Gage finished with his limit but he worked his Bigfoot jigs pretty hard to get them. The bar (or the mouth of the bay, generally) was responsible for most of the catching today. Not wide open by any means, but there was a scratch bite for a few hours around the turn of the morning tide. Zeros to ones and twos, but fish. I like to think of myself as a master of forced perspective, but that close fish looks pretty nice in Swampy's photo. Nice work, Swampy and crew. And thanks for the cookies.

      No photos today, but good news, sort of. It's sort of good news because it seems that whenever I say halibut fishing is dead it picks up, and when I say it's good it dies. Yesterday I said the halibut fishing was bad and had been bad for a while, and it has been bad. Frank Green is here with family and friends and the four of them have been struggling to get one keeper per day in the boat. These are halibut killers, and one fish for four guys is bad. This is the halibut Godfather and his lieutenants, at least in my pantheon, and them not catching scares me for the near future of halibut. And then today they limited out on the bar in a couple of hours. The Carters, as fishy a couple as have ever tied the proverbial knot, watched them do it without getting a bite, until they did get bit, and limits followed quickly. All the fish were caught on the bar and were spotted, so if you believe the old-timers (crap, I think I'm one of them...) these are fresh fish to the bay. As the Jigger John said today, "They weren't there yesterday." He's been fishing here for over ten days, every day, and he's a killer too, so consider his words to be carved in stone and carried down a mountain by a really old man. Nice work, team Green. Grinding pays off, if you grind enough. Ten days is kind of soul-crushing, but what a finish! 

   In other news, there's albacore here, but they're far. 50+ miles is a long run. But the bucks here have been rutting since before the start of deer season and geese have been flying south past here since at least Sunday last. The elk have been bugling since July. Winter is coming. Since many of you believe Gage more than I, I'll repeat what he said: "Signs are that winter is coming soon. They're catching tropical fish from here to Washington, yellowtail, dorado, striped marlin. That's October fishing. It's August. Get 'em while you can." Well hell. I guess I'm going. Thursday. The forecast says Thursday is the day. I guess we'll find out how good the forecasts are now without weather buoys to report what actually happened...

    

     An important thing to remember when reading this report is that the guys that didn't catch don't get their pictures taken. The halibut fishing has been bad. If you catch one, you're ahead of the curve. That being said, these guys got a good one and made it look easy: "Mike Cordova, Matt Stockwell, Brayden Davis and Cole Mikita from Stockton with a 29 lb halibut and a 16 lb lingcod" was the message I received. There have been very few halibut hanging from this scale this year, so this is very good to see. Very fine work, gents, and I love that the lingcod is a green one. I think that those are the best for eating. The texture of the flesh seems more delicate. But maybe I just like cooking up green meat for guests just to watch their expressions. 

   Dean caught this 10 pound striper in the tertiary channel in the middle of the bay today. He caught it from his kayak on a Nomad Squidtrex. Nice fish, Dean. I hear those Squidtrex are doing the work on halibut too (probably why Dean was jigging one) but in the absence of good halibut fishing it's nice to see the stripers stepping up here as well as San Francisco Bay. I guess immigrants do work harder. Rockfishing has been mostly slow but the lingcod action has picked up, likely as the spawners come in to the shallows to do their work. I heard of a few around 20 pounds from Bird Rock this weekend but no photos found their way to me, only stories. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

 

       I was out of town for a few days and have to catch up on a few reports. The info I got with this one was a bit cryptic, but here it is: "Jack caught 20 pounder right out front drifting" I'm guessing that "out front" was in front of the store but I have no good guess as to what the fish bit. Nice work, Jack, as what little I did hear about the fishing didn't sound very encouraging.

     Nick Donnelly sent this report with a few highs and lows: "Willy sup bro, got some biggons yesterday 22 and 27 lbers after a crazy ride to the coast where the "critter getter" decided she was gunna launch her self at 35mph coming down the winding highway down Mount Saint Helena completely slingshotting past my truck onto the roadside... Luckily I managed to get her trailered again with some logs and brute strength avoiding getting hit by crazy lake county commuters.. limited out within an hour around 8ish. The "critter getter" takes on some water now from skidding on asphalt but she'll patch up nicely " Nice fish, Nick. I guess you were jigging while you were bailing. It seems to work. Excellent job on turning a bad day into a reasonably good one. 

     Depth restrictions will be dropped for rockfish soon. Exactly when remains to be seen, but while it is still summer seems to be the message. Here's the press release:"

California Fish and Game Commission Increases Fishing Opportunities for the 2025 Recreational Groundfish Season

On August 14, 2025, the California Fish and Game Commission (Commission) adopted emergency changes to the state’s groundfish regulations so that recreational ocean fisheries are no longer constrained by quillback rockfish (Sebastes maliger). Fishing opportunities in northern and central California were reduced in 2023 due to low estimated quillback rockfish abundance. A new stock assessment completed earlier this summer indicates it is no longer necessary to restrict groundfish fishing to specific depths north of Point Conception in order to avoid quillback rockfish, allowing anglers to take advantage of expansions to open fishing areas. The Commission acted to rapidly change the regulations to allow additional opportunities before summer’s end.  

Over the last few years, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) collaborated with federal partners, fishing groups, and anglers to gather data and improve scientific knowledge of quillback rockfish off California. The information was crucial in informing the new stock assessment, which indicates the stock is at a healthy level and not overfished. This finding reverses results from a 2021 stock assessment which relied on very limited data from the California stock. Retention of quillback rockfish, however, remains prohibited in all waters statewide until recommendations for sport and commercial fishery catch limits are developed for California quillback rockfish in conjunction with those for other nearshore groundfish species. 

“This action is the result of hard work by a lot of people,” said Tim Klassen, an appointed advisory member for the groundfish sport fishery and a charter boat captain in Eureka. “The Commission and CDFW moved quickly to implement these changes and worked collaboratively with fishermen to achieve a result that protects our fisheries and the people that depend on them. This is what good fishery management looks like.” 

CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham remarked, “CDFW is pleased with the new assessment, which reflects what California anglers have been seeing, and is committed to restoring fishing access as quickly as possible. We appreciate all our fishing industry partners who participated in scientific data collections that contributed to this positive outcome – it was a true collaboration.”   

With restored access to all-depth fishing for northern and central California, a sub-bag limit for canary rockfish (Sebastes pinniger) is necessary to keep catches within the federal California recreational harvest guideline for this species. Therefore, a new two fish sub-bag limit will apply for canary rockfish, statewide. Additionally, vermilion (Sebastes miniatus) and sunset rockfish (Sebastes crocotulus) will be managed together as a species complex, meaning that they are considered the same species for regulatory purposes (e.g., sub-bag limit) due to their nearly indistinguishable appearance. 

These changes are intended to roll back restrictions that were put into place to avoid quillback rockfish, which are very rarely seen south of Point Conception. Since fishing in the Southern Groundfish Management Area [(GMA) south of Point Conception, 34° 27’ N. Lat. to the US/Mexico border] is constrained by copper (Sebastes caurinus) and vermilion/sunset rockfish, there are no changes to the current fishing seasons in the Southern GMA. Groundfish fishing in the Southern GMA is currently open shoreward of the 50 fathom Rockfish Conservation Area boundary until September 30. The Map Viewer application can be used to view updated GMA boundaries and the 50 fathom Rockfish Conservation Area boundary. 

The following summary details the changes adopted by the Commission: 

• Boat-Based Fishery Season Dates and Depths – North of Point Conception (34° 27’ N. Lat.; within the Northern, Mendocino, San Francisco, and Central GMAs), groundfish fishing will be authorized in all water depths through December 31, 2025.  

• Species Retention – Nearshore, shelf, and slope rockfishes, lingcod, cabezon, and greenlings may be retained during the all-depth fishery.  
  • Canary rockfish will have a new two fish sub-bag limit statewide. 
  • Quillback rockfish will remain prohibited (no retention) statewide. 
  • Vermilion and sunset rockfish in combination are limited to two fish south of 40° 10’ N. Lat. (near Cape Mendocino), and four fish between the OR/CA border and 40° 10’ N. Lat 
• Management Line at Lopez Point Removed – The Central GMA will revert to a single management area. The split at Lopez Point (36° N. Lat.) between the Central – North and Central – South GMA is no longer needed. The Central GMA remains at the same northern and southern borders from 37° 11’ N. Lat. (Pigeon Point) to 34° 27’ N. Lat. (Point Conception). 

With all-depth fishing opportunity, anglers will experience greater flexibility on fishing trips when targeting species in addition to groundfish. Combination trips are no longer limited by depth constraints when targeting additional species or transiting between GMAs that do not have depth constraints. Note when transiting between GMAs it is still unlawful to exceed the bag limit of a GMA even if the fish are caught in another GMA (§27.20(b)(1)(A)(1). Meaning, anglers cannot catch four vermilion/sunset rockfish in the Northern GMA, then possess or land them in the Mendocino or another GMA with a two fish vermilion/sunset sub-bag limit. Similarly, anglers cannot take nearshore rockfish, cabezon, or greenling north of Point Conception and land them in the Southern GMA October through December when inshore fishing is closed.  

CDFW will notify the public when the new regulations take effect through the Marine Management News blog; please subscribe to receive the notification or check back regularly for the announcement confirming the new regulations are in effect. Anglers should review the Summary of Recreational Groundfish Regulations page for the most up-to-date information before going fishing. If anglers encounter a quillback rockfish, CDFW strongly encourages using a descending device to return it to depth. When fishing in ocean waters from a vessel a landing net is always required, and when fishing for or possessing groundfish, a descending device is required to be carried aboard. Questions? Contact Ask Marine. "

And where was I, you ask? On the Eddie Kim Bluefin Invitational. Good times with good fishermen, even though the weather wasn't ideal. We finished with 126 tuna and a yellowtail (Go Cannon!) for 24 guys. Heck, I even caught a couple. 

     I was forced to go fishing without Gage yesterday. Hard times. I took Jerry Knedel instead. We started on the bar for two stripers and two missed bites over 90 minutes. The fish didn't show for us like they did for Gage the day before, but we weren't Gage. Oh well. We then went looking for schools of bait, bait that we heard was "black-out-the-meter"  for miles and miles, especially on McClures. So to McClures we went, and by McClures we lost all hope of getting any baitfish. The previously ubiquitous bait had vanished. We were lucky to score four large jacksmelt and get back to the bar just as the tide turned. We pretty quickly scored three halibut out of five bites in two drifts, just before the current sped up and the water cooled off. There were some other fish caught but not many. Today the wind blew and the catch numbers got even worse. Bait is hard. Fishing is hard. Fishing in the wind is even harder. 

    The halibut fishing is still hard. Three years of abuse is, well, abusive. But the fish are still trying to compete, as small schools (pods? I've heard it used, whether it's right or wrong...) of fish enter the bay optimistically in search of mates or food. Either way, they find us. So the fishing story is that, as usual, a few guys are doing well and many fishermen aren't. Does that sound familiar? It ought to. That's fishing in a nutshell. So, the few guys I spoke to, for the most part, caught nothing. Bur...

    Here's Cameron's take: "A day trip led to early (3 hours on water) halibut limits plus one striper at the bar for Connor Padon and crew. All on the jig. He mentioned something about luck. No comment." Luck is always a part of fishing, but doing the right thing the right way at the right time sure ups the odds. Conner spends a couple of weeks a year here grinding for halibut. Grinding sucks, but sitting on the water for hours and hours for days and days will teach you things, and I think Conner's "luck" may be influenced by his "experience". Nice work, Conner and buddy. IMHO, those jig fish are the best, and you popped five. Jealous? Yup.

      Gage had a good morning on the bar with stripers and halibut in the mix. And then....

     Gage would like to tell everyone that if you have an old folding knife that likes to fold up when it shouldn't, throw it over the side. Five stitches later, he won't be fishing tomorrow. Good for the fish. Good for Kaiser. Not so good for Gage. 

    

 

        Many of you have probably already heard of this fish, weighed in at Bodega Tackle. "13 year old Julian Her from Marysville caught a massive 63.7lb white sea bass out of tomales bay today!" Nice work, young man. Possibly IGFA record work. That's the kind of thing that makes you think that there's a bunch of them and you have a chance at catching one. We all know that the reality is that there's no other fish. No way that anybody else is going to catch one. Especially not Tom Carter, a man known for not catching....

   Pardon my French, but Holy Crap! Tom Carter, against all reasonable odds, caught his second (yes, #2 lifetime) white seabass. This one weighed 34 pounds. It ate, just like Jerrie Carter's halibut, a live sardine. Who doesn't like sardines? Clearly, seabass and halibut really, really like them. Love is a tough word. But a strong like for sure. Good job, Tom. Don't be surprised when people will say, " You mean Jerrie caught it?" We all know. You know too. Jerrie does the catching. And yet here you are. Catching. The world is unhinged. But good on you sir. Nice work. 

 

    One of the best parts of summer at Lawson's Landing is the two weeks when Jim and Scott Alexander and Larry Varela come to fish. Part of that is that their timing is good for the fishing, usually. This year was a bit rough with no salmon (to be kept; there's lots of salmon out there) and a population of halibut that has been ravaged by (going on) three years of frustrated salmon fishermen. They went home today, but yesterday they caught these four halibut in the afternoon on the troll off of Dillon Beach in 25 to 35 feet of water, only having to shake a dozen or so salmon. 3 to 1 salmon to halibut in the outer bay is an outstanding average. Four halibut is also pretty outstanding right now as the halibut catching has died off, waiting for a fresh batch of fish to move in from the deep. Good work, gents. The fish won't miss you but Gage and I will.

     There have been some other halibut caught this weekend. Anthony Piccardo picked up a pair right off the seawall in the afternoon, and yesterday Richard Porterfield picked one up on a jig in front of the Boathouse. Steve Cato picked up a pair of halibut just this side of Hog Island on Friday after being chased off the bar by salmon (first world problems, eh?). Finally, today, right before they had to run back to the Landing to pull out with the tractor, Mike Mack and Spinner had several halibut bites and a few to the boat in a half hour. The fish they saw had spots, and as the old timers said, it could be that a batch of fish are coming in. Good, because we need them. 

     Man, I hope we get a salmon season next year, if only for the halibut's sake.

 

     Angela Sala missed a halibut yesterday but her boat captain found one: "Hey Willy!  Tomales Bay finally loosened her grip and I landed this beauty today!  31” on a jig.  

-Paul Burns, Lincoln, CA"   Nice work, Paul. I have fished with my wife quite a bit and know that it is hard to get those fish to see your hook when theirs is right there. That ain't easy. It's like snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Nice fish, too.

   Gage took his girlfriend, Amanda, out fishing this evening.  Gage caught, well, nothing. But he gaffed a nice halibut on Amanda's line. This fish was caught on a jig on the bar after 7:00 PM. Not an early bite but a good fish.

    Here's a strange report from a couple of days ago: "Wednesday Report:

Evening Willy,

Should have been here yesterday. We ended up with one halibut to 10 pounds today. Good bait again near the yellow marker. Had a fish bomb from an osprey today that had my pup wondering what was up. A great trip, see you next time.

Swampy." I guess if you're going to get bombed, a fish bomb isn't the worst kind. Swampy went from six halibut to one halibut, even with fish being dropped on him from the sky above. Fishing is easy, and fishing is hard. This year, especially hard for halibut. Little groups of fish moving in occasionally but most days, very few fish. Today was a very few fish day. 

 

      Swampy sent over this report tonight: "Evening Willy,

Spent the day on the bay with good results. Easy anchovie bait near the yellow marker. 6 halibut to 12 pounds for three anglers north of hog with the tide change being key. Glad to get some meat this trip. See you next time.

Swampy"  The halibut fishing may be down, but not out. There were several other halibut caught today with "north of Hog" also being in common. Also, most of the fish were caught in the afternoon. My guess is that some fish came in. Hopefully there's more following them. Nice work on the fish, Swampy and crew.

    Angela Sala found the fish today, too: "First haul of the season, and I’m one happy gal!  A 23” and a 30” both caught on jigs.  The past few days have been rough with the windy conditions, so I’m quite grateful to have had such a beautiful day today!

-Angela Sala, Lincoln CA" Nice fish Angela! It looks like these fish were some of those "north of Hog" fish. Good work with the jig.

 

   So what do you do when you're on vacation but the weather turns to gale force winds? I guess you troll the back by Marshall for bass.. I guess that because the only boat we launched today did that and caught bass, white sea bass and striped bass. Flatfish are hard this year, and likely will continue to be hard for a few years if the past salmon closure is any kind of indicator. Gage and I were looking at the halibut results, year over year, from Sportfishingreport.com, and they showed a drop of 50% or better in the catch per fisherman since 2023. Go catch what's biting, is the result of that, and the twins,+ show it.  Two striper near Pelican and two white seabass near Marshall were the catches of the day. You go, Alexanders, Johnny Sandbar (a Gerard Fitzgerald nickname if there ever was one) and Martha. The catchning may suck, but certain people figure out how to catch nonetheless. Nice. Fricking. Fish. 

 

    Oops. I'd like to say that the fish have been coming in so hot and heavy that we can't keep up, but the reality is that we dropped the ball (the fishing is still really bad for halibut) so here's another report from Thursday: "Late report: Rob Benjamin of Santa Rosa picked up two halibut to 27 lbs on live anchovies at the green can." Nice work, Rob. The anchovies are thick in the water and that's what the fish are eating, so swimming a few of those around seems like a good idea to me. Good work, Rob, and sorry about the wait. The green can, back in its previous location, was one of my favorite fishing spots. Halibut seem to like edges, like slopes, and a rock or reef in among the sand. The previous spot was in 30 feet of water on a steep slope. I didn't think the new location was good enough to concentrate fish, but Rob here seems to say different. 

     News from today was, unsurprisingly, bad. There were some fish caught, but not many. Rockfish were tough, mainly because the weather outside was bad. Tomorrow shall be worse, weatherwise, they predict. There were fish caught today, halibut, but not many. I didn't get the Robert Rath report today but that's good, because he skews the report towards a false positive. The reports I heard were not good. Maybe the fish aren't coming in. You get a killer in your midst and you think everybody is stacking bodies. Turns out, even when it's good, only a few are killing it. Fishing is awesome, partly because anything can happen and probably will. The bird pile off of Dillon Beach proper continues today but nobody is fishing it as word is out that salmon is the result and that's not what they're looking for. It sure looks impressive, though. 

 

    Robert Rath jigged up this 31 pound halibut yesterday. It bit in 30ish feet of water off of Dillon Beach. So did a 20 pound striper (Gage) and 28 salmon (released, obviously). The striper and all but two of the salmon bit tube jigs, too, Redrums and Bigfoot Baits. The other two salmon ate live anchovies at the bottom. Everything was on the single hook and the releases were clean and the salmon never left the water. The salmon hatcheries have (not you Coleman) done a fine job of making and delivering salmon to the ocean for us to catch, as evidenced by the number of fish caught in the two day season and the number of fish being released by fishermen in the ocean. It's a shame we can't keep any. But it is nice to see that there's a physical reason why there should be a season if not a legal one. You go, Mokelumne. And nice fish, Robert. It was pretty cool watching his rod try to come up but the tip stayed in the same place for five seconds, then the rod did three big pumps and held steady again. "That's a big halibut" said Gage, and he was right. After it became clear that there no further white-fleshed fish to catch off of Dillon Beach proper, we retired to the bar with some live anchovies for a sand sole and two more halibut. Today, Robert limited his boat on halibut on the bar on live anchovies. Finally, a few more fish are coming in. There were a few yesterday and for sure quite a few more today. If about 10,000 more show up the fishing should be pretty good. For now the halibut fishing sucks less. 

  This is a view off of Dillon Beach yesterday. There's more outside the bay where the baitfish would rather be, but at the moment the colder water from the wind has sent quite a few anchovies into Bodega Bay proper. Next time the wind drops for a few days there should be some fish on the other beaches. Maybe some of those fish will be keepers. The bar has a few arrivals; Hog is brutal slow; and the farther back bay is just really, really hard. Good luck!

 How do you make a slow halibut bite even slower? Maybe a tsunami? Well, it can't make it better. I heard of maybe five halibut today, four of them from the mouth to the rocks just north of Dillon Beach proper. I haven't heard of much from Hog Island for a bit. There's some bait (mostly anchovies) coming and going but just not that many halibut chasing them. I guess that after 2.5 years of no salmon the halibut have dwindled. Go figure. A positive note, if you want to call it that, is that effort is dropping as interest in saltwater fishing is dropping. We will probably see a bump in interest as tuna start hitting the docks, but even the guys from tuna central in San Diego are complaining of a lack of interest. I'm not sure what could be better than bluefin, but if bluefin fishing gets boring for you, well, don't watch The Deer Hunter. 

    One of the few fish caught today was by this guy. It weighed 21 pounds and was caught outside the bay on a Bigfoot Baits jig in 50 feet of water. One or two of the other fish landed today were also caught on the jig. They definitely work if you can find a spot with fish in it. That's the hard part. Also, there may be squid around, and if so, it will likely concentrate what halibut there are out in the ocean in 50 to 100 feet of water. Gage here spent a portion of his morning trolling for halibut on McClure's but caught nothing but salmon. Eleven salmon released. A pair of gentleman yesterday released 16 salmon while trying to catch a halibut while trolling off of Dillon Beach. If you see a hatchery guy (not from Coleman) you should hug them if they let you. They have done fantastic work. There are a lot of salmon in the ocean, just not enough expected to return to the main stem Sac river. So the biomass of salmon shoos off the fish we can legally catch but cannot be kept themselves. FYI, if there was ever a chance to land a salmon from shore in Dillon Beach, that time is so now. It probably won't happen, but normally it definitely won't happen, so good luck!  And photos if it happens. There are tons of anchovies pushed up against the beach and almost as many salmon trying to eat them. Watch for pelicans and then run to them. You know, for stripers. They are out there and feeding on the same stuff in the same ways. 

 

       I got this report and photo from Steve Brott:"This man, Jody Stover, had invited several people out to join him this past week. He enjoyed helping his fellow fisherman get out on the water and just fish.

He had minimal success early in the week but was rewarded with some nice fish for a Monday morning.

Thank you Jody for getting me out on the water, I am happy you put some in the box, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy."  True this. Jody is a great guy, but even good people can have a hard time catching halibut, especially when they aren't biting. And they aren't biting. Fishing sucks, and catching sucks worse. Jody and his fishing partners this week had a hard time. Over a week, all I heard of was the one halibut caught by the partner. It is good to hear that on the final day he caught two and his partner caught one. Good for you, Jody. You deserve it. Better than that, you earned it, over the week of fishing. 

 

   Gage sent my this photo today with this report: "Kenrick and Hugo and Karsten with a couple nice fish from the bar, drifting dead herring." This is one of the better reports as it has been pretty, well, bad. When Mike Mack and Spinner launch before 7:00 AM and return at 4:45 PM with only half limits of halibut (that's two for the boat) the fishing is slow at best. The guys that returned with nothing would say it was bad. As there's more of them than the Mike Macks out there, let's call it bad. That said, these smiling guys caught fish. Nice fish, as Gage said. That striper looks to be just about the right size to give a pretty good accounting of itself, and I'll bet there will be stories told of its fight for its life for some time. As it should be. Very good work, guys. Those fish should taste extra sweet.

   Branden Mendoza sent over this photo and report: "Hey Willy. We put in some time today to see what we could find. We trolled from Nick's cove to Inverness and back. Managed 6 shorts, 2 bat rays, 1 thresher shark that put on a hell of a show before ripping the line and finally at the end 1 keeper at 23". Nothing crazy but it made for a great dinner. We were trolling white hootchies behind flashers on all poles today. " What, no white sea bass? No stripers? It sounds like you hooked almost everything else. Sometimes (Often? Always? You make the call) action is its own reward. Bat rays are a tough reward, but a thresher is pretty cool. They can PULL. Generally harder than your gear will allow. Good onn you for your keeper. Keep dragging those white hootchies back there and you will be sending over white sea bass photos, eventually. Chartreuse works, too.....

     The best action over the last couple of days would on shallow water rockfish. It wasn't that good for the rockfish, as they still haven't recovered from the closures 25 years ago, but the salmon action was hot. You gotta release them, carefully, but the tug is the drug, as they say. Gage saw a photo of a fish that was 40+ pounds, easy. There's lots of salmon out there; the abbreviated two-day season proved that the hatcheries are (mostly)  doing their jobs. Can't we just target the ones that are being made for us? Just asking. But there's a reason I'm not rockfishing, as I can resist everything except temptation.