George Homenko sent over this report to refute my claim of slow halibut fishing:
Monday, June 30, 2025
Sunday, June 29, 2025
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:
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Monday, June 23, 2025
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 subject 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.
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Monday, June 16, 2025
Friday, June 13, 2025
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.
Sunday, June 8, 2025
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.
Saturday, June 7, 2025
It is salmon season, so let's roll out the salmon pictures!
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Gage and I went out in the south wind today to do a little scouting. We saw no bait in close from Tomales Point down to the top of McClure's. Then we ran out to 15 and 5 and saw only travelling birds along the way, no feeding. We did find a pod of humpbacks possibly feeding at 15 and 4 but we saw no biat there except for the faintest of lines of krill at 150' down. Then, as I had neglected to wear raingear and the spray was pretty cold and constant from the chop, we went back into the bay. 2.5 hours of trolling by Inverness later we had released three very short halibut. We had skipped past Hog as the water temp there closer to the high tide was only 53º when we passed by. By noon the outgoing tide had the water up to 59º. Also up was the south wind which had increased in strength there from earlier. We weren't able to find any schools of bait at Pelican Point but we did catch a bunch of shiners. Shiners aren't really our favorite bait, but we gave them a try.
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Monday, June 2, 2025