Gage says that the halibut, like Elvis, have left the building (In this case, the building is supposed to be Tomales Bay, FYI). From the fish counts here over the weekend, he may be right. Joe Winn and crew fished halibut over the weekend and caught a couple, but a couple for them is equivalent to zero for us mere mortals. Basically, he just made sure that the door didn't hit all of them in the keester on the way out. Even so, halibut may not be completely done yet. I know of at least one caught on the bar on Wednesday and Thursday Gage, Richard Porterfield and I caught limits of halibut after catching our fill of rockfish and lingcod. Ours were not inside the bay, but they weren't far, and they all bit jigs. The rockfishing has been very good and the lings are in. Mike Mack and Spinner had several pushing or exceeding 20 pounds to the boat yesterday but weather and gear malfunctions kept the majority out of the boat. They're out there. Mike left a couple for us. 

     Dungeness season is coming pretty quick. The flights looking for whales haven't started yet, nor has the domoic acid testing, nor have the new regulations been approved to go into effect. But they will in the next few weeks and my guess is that we're 95% sure to have the season start on time with hoops. Traps will likely have to wait. I guess that only because that's how it worked for the last four(?) seasons. It's not just those who have forgotten history that are doomed to repeat it.

 

Coleman hatchery this morning has an estimated 30,000 to 80,000 salmon waiting to spawn. There's more in the river (They're stacked up for 3/4 of a mile below the hatchery) still heading that way. Lots of Jack's mixed in. Remember that last year Coleman had 250 fish return. It looks like there's more than that this year.

We may have a salmon season next year. It could happen! Gage is visibly vibrating.

    Apparently that vibrating calls in the fish. This 19 pounder whacked his jig on the drop. He missed another bite and released a small halibut. I caught nothing and missed no bites. I'm going to work on my vibrating. This pretending to be calm just ain't working.

 

      I was headed out the door on Tuesday and bumped into this gentleman who's name I didn't get, but I did get this photo and the info that the halibut weighed 21 pounds and it bit the only live jacksmelt they,  caught that day. There was another, smaller halibut on the boat as well that bit a jig but this one was more photogenic. There has been almost decent halibut fishing this week, although the last few days the bar and, God forbid, Dillon Beach proper have been off-limits due to high surf. It makes it hard to fish the outgoing tide when it carries you towards your doom. There are a lot of jacksmelt out in the ocean for bait, but that's not helpful if you can't safely get there. The halibut should continue to be somewhat active until some weather cools the water down below their comfort zone, and I don't think today's wind was enough to do it but a few more days will. The forecast is for a break from the wind, at least on the beach, for a bit. Maybe even a pause in the swell, too (we already had a break, and a lot of it). 

    Rockfishing is about as good as it gets right now as all depths are open and the lingcod have moved in closer to shore in order to make more lingcod. Go help out a rockfish by catching a lingcod. Heck, get a pair of them. Probably get a few rockfish as well (we can't help all of them). I had forgotten how good fresh rockcod is. Now I remember. Damn. They're out there and not too far, but a bit farther will be better. Close in has been hit hard. The 120 to 300 foot area has been left alone for a bit, but beware: The forbidden fruit that we call quillback rockfish appear to be quite plentiful, despite their low numbers officially recorded. Gage showed me a video from Instagram where a pair of guys had probably a dozen quillbacks laying on deck while fishing the Farallones. Strangely, the video has since been deleted. But I don't think we've had a half dozen quillbacks on the boat in the last twenty years. Maybe I suck at quillbacks. Probably, even. But damn. Those guys caught all of them. Or, maybe there's more than we think? No, they probably got them all and we don't even have to worry now. Thanks, guys. But just in case one got missed, go here for info on what they look like: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=222200&inline