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.

       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. 

    Ninety minutes later we were done with fish from 10 to 17 pounds. We had to release one at the end as we had three fish in the box and then doubled. We missed another six or eight bites. We had to stop halibut fishing and catch more perch to finish. We may not be shiner perch fans but the halibut were today. It seems like the halibut may be coming in.

    Gage was grabbing a beer at the Boathouse around 5:00 PM when Jeff Tucker of Petaluma walked up from the beach with this 21 pound halibut. He caught it from the beach, this side of Sand Point (not the surf side), on a fluke drop shot rig. He also needs a larger ice chest if he's going to catch fish like this. Very nice job and fish, Mr. Tucker. It really seems like the halibut may be coming in.

 

   I received this report from the Coastodian yesterday: "Any idea where the whales, birds or bait fish are ?

I was unable to make bait this morning near Hog. Others found plenty near the grass beds, I found tangles and lost gear as well as drifting far from where I wanted to be as I addressed the aforementioned.

Got three bites on frozen herring, converted two of them.

I heard of two other fish landed and one skunk.

Mildly sloppy for a kayak, but manageable." So, there's a few fish at Hog Island. I guess there had to be a few somewhere, and Hog is as good as anywhere. There are some scattered sardines and anchovies in the bay but they are harder to find than the halibut. Jacksmelt can still be had, but as mentioned in this report, they can be a bit hard to find, too. But, maybe you don't need live bait. Even better. I haven't heard any other reports of halibut, but this report is pretty good. 

    But who's thinking about halibut now? Salmon season is coming! And if you blink, you'll miss it! The Coastodian is not the only person asking about whales, birds and bait fish. So, here's what I heard: Commercial boats have seen quite a few whales and birds working baitfish out in 50 to 70 fathoms (that's 300 to 420 feet of water to us sporties). There's also some birds and whales off of Bodega Head in 40ish fathoms (240 feet). If you're a guy that likes to find the place with a bunch of other boats because instead of birds and whales, boats are your indicator species, well, Bodega Head should be your target. Whether there's any salmon there or not, there will be a lot of boats there. Put out your fenders and watch out for the MPA. In the last three years there will have only been two days to write tickets to salmon guys trolling through the Bodega Head MPA and those two days are this weekend. There will be wardens in boats. Good luck. 

   And don't forget to check your flares and get your Boater's Card.

 

   In today's episode of The Old Man and the Sea, Tim Woerner caught the first bragging board fish of the season. Everybody that had their name on there last year, so sorry, but you got erased. Tim's halibut weighed 26 pounds and bit a trolled 6" tray anchovy in 90 feet of water in front of Bird Rock. Why would you fish for halibut there in 49º water? You wouldn't, nor was Tim. He was trying for some fresh rockfish for dinner but had to settle for flatfish instead. The south wind was chugging pretty good, so even though Tim would have rather has rockfish on his plate, this fish let him go home, which by that point was really all he wanted. Note the spots on the fish. It barely hit the deck and Tim was on his way home. 

    I received this bit of clever marketing from Bigfoot Bait Co.,  maker of Bigfoot jigs. The text had little information other than this happened this morning, but I bet it bit a Bigfoot jig and it looks like Hog Island to the right of the halibut. The south wind came up an hour or two later and dropped again by the afternoon, a theme we will likely see repeat a bit this week. Nice fish, Jonathon. I'm going to have to get out and try putting one of those jigs in front of a halibut myself. It looks like fun.