I say the halibut fishing is bad, and who shows up? Swampy. Challenge accepted. His report from today: "Evening Willy,

Fat lady ain’t singing yet. Solo and probably last trip of the year, gotta start getting ready for the ducks. Started on the bar in fog and got spooked by the crashing rollers. Found these two just north of hog during the afternoon tide change on live bait. Sounds like Gage hammered them again. Thanks for another great year, Swampy." It looks like there are a few fish in the bay, or there were a couple. Probably there's more. Swampy tends to connect, and the tide change seems to be the deal. Nice work, as usual, Swampy. You gotta feel nervous for the ducks, though.

    Swampy mentioned Gage, and here's Gage's picture from today. He jumped on Tom Brodsky's boat, Fishbox, and he, Tom and Lee limited on rockfish before trying for halibut in Gage's "secret spot". Gage will be on my boat tomorrow and I hope to find out the spot, but I've already been sworn to secrecy. Heck, he didn't ask for my soul, so I'm in. They're out there, if you can find them, it seems. The rockfish is good, though, regardless of Gage's knowledge. No fishing in the +120 foot area has left many fish in the 120-200 foot area. There's probably more lingcod in closer but those unmolested deeper water rockfish are kinda dumb and very tasty.