Gage went out with Tom Brodsky today for bluefin. The got this one about 9:00 am and then no other bites. It bit a sardine MadMac 200 35 seconds back at 7 knots. They were between Cordell and the Bodega Canyon. Many boats out trying for bluefin today. Some guys caught (Ryan Giammona of North Bay Fishing Charters was spanking them in the afternoon) and many were sad. Speaking of the sad guys...

    ...Alec Bennett got some nice action shots of our day bluefin fishing. Both fuel filters plugged on the way out. I plumbed past them with some inline filters on the boat Then we trolled and tangled and cursed for 6.5 hours. Then on the way in the inlines plugged up and I barely could get the hoses connected without the filters, but it worked (it shouldn't have). Now to replace all filters. Again. The wrenching wasn't even the worst part of the day. I discovered that trolling MadMacs and spreader bars at the same time is not like chocolate and peanut butter at the same time. It is a tangle machine that eats gear and time, and lots of both. Side note, the crimps on the spreaders will cut and weaken your Spectra to where it just breaks while trolling a MadMac. Awesome. We fished from 38 03 by 123 31 to 38 11 by 123 38 and saw some fish hooked around us at both ends of that range. We saw tiny jumpers at the first numbers. I would write more but I need to go pet my Golden retriever again for some positive affirmation. 

PS. To the gentleman that stopped to help us this morning, thank you. Stopping on your way out is pretty badass. I hope you had some good karma today and mine didn't rub off on you.

     Gale force winds on Saturday kept the fish count low. There were a couple of halibut caught in the bay by a small portion of the few boats that braved the chop. Yesterday the weather was better, not good out on the ocean , but Mike Mack went out and found the bonito off of Elephant Rock in 200 feet of water and caught his fill. He also got beat up by the rough conditions. 

    Also of note: There are a lot of Dungeness inside the bay. Shore snarers are reeling in about ten Dungeness for every red keeper they're catching. Most of the Dungies are not quite the size we need them to be but many of them are. No telling how long they'll last once the season opens (as we are recycling the crabs now) but the opener looks promising. The ocean conditions being kind of atypical this year, there's a possibility of a domoic acid delay, or at least the pessimists think so. Nobody is dropping dead from eating the red crab, though, and nobody is testing the reds either, so I guess nobody is worried? 

 

    Yes, Virginia, there are bluefin at Cordell. And off the Farallones and Half Moon Bay. But I can only speak for the fish at the northern-most point. Gage found one yesterday at 06 31 at 11:00 am. We went there today. It was rougher that forecast but the definition of fishable. We had to slow down to MadMac speed (10 knots or so) 10 miles short of Gage's numbers from yesterday as the weather was no bueno and we were beating up the boat (and us). We threw the macs in and trolled the 10 miles. As we were going to swap out the Madmacs for spreader bars at the numbers we hooked up. A good rule for fishing is of you're catching don't change your method. We caught our limits (4) of bluefin at 06 by 31 in 90 minutes on Madmacs at 10 knots. Other guys had bigger fish farther south but I don't leave fish to find fish. They also had limits. There were probably a few with nothing as fishing can be a fickle b*tch. There were lots of bluefin caught from below the Half Moon Bay weather buoy to at least our numbers. There may be a weather window next week. 

      Last weekend the fishing was pretty much bad, unless you were Stephen James of Ukiah. He caught a second halibut on Sunday, again across from the Landing, but a bit smaller.  Also on a Redrum jig. Mike Mack and company had one salmon on Saturday and a few bonito but just lingcod on Sunday. 

Today Gage and his buddy Mason had one bluefin to 20 pounds at Cordell.  Tomorrow?  There's been quite a few bluefin caught near Cordell banks over the last few days. Probably more tomorrow,  and hopefully some by Gage and I. More to come...

 

     Stephen James of Ukiah started us off today with this nice 18 pound halibut caught right across the bay from the Landing. It bit a white 2 oz. Redrum tube. There's not no fish in the bay, just almost none, and now there's one less, but what fantastic weather to go sit in a boat.

 

   Slooow this week. The Swampy report: "Evening,

Spent Tuesday all day trying to catch bait. Ended up with 13 whole baits of various grades. Got my Dad out for a lot of drifts on Wednesday with him catching one short and a couple missed bites. Great year again and waterfowl better watch out. Thanks for another great year at your little bay.

Swampy " That means the halibut fishing in the bay is bad. If Swampy ain't catching the rest of us are kinda belly up. I can confirm that I couldn't catch in the bay. At least you had some sun on your stay, Swampy. Look for the bright spots. And ducks.

   Gage found the bonito yesterday. On his way to Point Reyes to try for salmon he found birds working at 38 08 by 123 00. He was only able to get two lines in before he hooked up on both. He limited with his ten fish and the boat running with him landed six bonito on salmon gear, losing about as many. Gage used albacore gear, both feathers and Rapalas, trolled at 5 to 7 knots, and his largest fish weighed 13# gutted. 

    I had a morning meeting so I didn't launch until after 1:30. No bites on the bar for me but I caught one halibut in 45 feet of water by Tomales Point on a Redrum jig, probably not coincidence that it was the turn of the tide. No more bites for me. I started running down to where Gage had caught his bonito but it was almost 3:00 so I stopped in 150 feet of water off the Trees and trolled two lines northwest. Off Tomales Point fifteen minutes later I saw a boil next to the boat and maybe ten seconds later my Rapala got bit. One bonito later I went home as I had no ice. If you can find feeding birds there seems to be lots of bonito. If you can't there's a few scattered about. Water temperature was 54 to 56 degrees. 

 

     Swampy sent over this report Wednesday evening: "Evening,

Came down for a quick trip, I was net boy today. Shiner and big eye perch bait worked great at the bar till it got too nasty. Ended up with 3 to 18 pounds for a good day.



Looking for at least one more trip before duck season.

Swampy" I had always been told that those walleye perch were no good for halibut but my experience has been similar to yours, Swampy. I just wish that I could catch them reliably. Actually, I wish that I could catch any bait reliably. Nice work on the fish (including the baitfish). Those halibut will likely stick around a bit longer. I didn't hear of any other fish but that could be due more to a lack of fishermen than a lack of fish. 

 

    Gage sent me this report today:" 

The Goligowski’s with their two halibut from across the bay, to 20 lbs" Nice work Goligowskis! They were just planning on drifting some dead anchovies and not trying for any live bait. Well done. Only other news is that Mike Mack and Spinner limited on salmon again on Sunday.

    I have been informed now, after first posting, that of the three boats that launched from here today, all caught two halibut. Ed Parsons limited by himself and the other boat caught a pair. The Goligowski's 20 pounder was by far the largest, though.

 

      Here's a report from yesterday from Swampy's second day of fishing: "Gave it the old college try today but didn’t get any Bluefin. Ended up with 3 butts to 15 pounds. Al did a great job with the net. Caught a few shakers with most caught on the bar. See y’all next week.

Swampy" I guess Al's good netting means Swampy did the hooking. Team effort. Good work, gents. Today there were a few more halibut caught with Team Porterfield catching four on the bar. Mike Mack and Spinner made the run down to Point Reyes and the open salmon area and caught their limits of salmon in about an hour. The year is winding down but it ain't over yet. Then again, neither is the wind. 

 

    These aren't bluefin, which is what Gage and I were looking for yesterday. We trolled about ten miles south from the edge of the shelf just below Rittenburg, then turned back toward Noonday Rock and as we came up onto the shelf below Fanny Shoal we saw some birds feeding in 450 feet of water. We hooked up on both MadMacs on bonito, then stopped and threw jigs at them for 45 minutes. We kept ten and released at least as many. They ran about eight to ten pounds gutted and gilled. We then ran about two miles out back over the edge to try for bluefin again and immediately hooked another bonito, so we called it a day as reeling in MadMacs from 450' out for bonito you're going to release anyway isn't fun. Stopped at Fanny for a few rockfish for dinner. The limit on bonito is 10 over 24" fork length but ten was more than plenty for the two of us. They bit everything we threw at them, metal jigs, surface iron, RedRum tube, etc., and they pull hard. The lights out bonito were at 37º 46' by 123º 12'.

    A report from way closer to home yesterday from Swampy: "Afternoon,

Been a while since we have been down but got into them today. Al and I were done by 1:00 with good fish. Tough bait but little shiners work. Will hit them again tomorrow. On the bar." That's the best report on halibut since last weekend. Mostly it's been sadness. Lots of anchovies in the bay but I've only heard of a few halibut and a thresher shark by Hog. There's been a few shiners on the bottom right at the yellow buoy but those anchovies might work on the bar too if you can catch any big enough to support your hook.  

 

 

    Todd Gentry and Jason Morrell caught these halibut today. 27 pounds for Todd and 21 pounds for Jason.  Limits for the boys, but these are the bigger ones. Yesterday was sadness for the same fishermen but limits for Mike Mack and Spinner. Today no halibut for Mike Mack and Spinner.  Fish are complicated. Mike and Spinner limited yesterday but today only landed a salmon (on a sabiki) and a striper. And limits of ling cod for Doug, but Doug fish don't count.  Nice work today Todd and Jason. 

     Yesterday I took Alec Bennett and Cameron on a nature tour of the Pacific. We covered just shy of a hundred miles of water for a grand total of one bonito. There were whales jumping and feeding, bird piles and hundreds of dolphins but no bluefin for us in the warm, mostly brownish-green water that we found at the Bodega Canyon. The outside edge of Cordell had better looking green water (that's where the bonito was) but apparently I should have ran farther offshore to find the cleaner water. Oh well. I didn't want to clean a bluefin anyway. 

  The halibut bite has been super slow on the bar and Dillon Beach. Here's a report to back me up: 

"Tried for halibut yesterday. Not even shorties. Water chocolate brown, whales, diving pelicans.Outside of that the water a little clearer, pasty green. Need some wind, and looks like we are going to get it.

Mat

F/V Candice, Retired" Well, we're getting the wind whether we like it or not, so hopefully it does some good for us. There are a few halibut in the bay (I think, he doesn't say but he usually trolls by Marshall), or there were, as a report from Branden Mendoza says:

"Hey Willy we headed out for our last trip of the year. Before I go in for 3rd and hopefully final back surgery. We decided to celebrate and try for some halibut. Ended the day with 3 big keepers. One looks like it came at the expense of someone else as the biggest had a gaff scar. We ran fresh cut makeral and a chartreuse hootchie flasher combo. Just want to say thank you for always keep up a good report always has the good info. Until next year we wish you calm seas and many memories. " Good luck on your surgery, sir. Nice finish to your season. 

 

     I was hoping for a picture from here but need to post this photo from Fort Bragg as it's my only picture. Team Nursement took Trip Plumb out for some albacore fishing today and finished with 10 when their fish box was full. Smallest fish 30#, largest 40#. Not far out. 8 to 15 miles. Seems like they're there. Not here, now, and maybe not later, either, but maybe there will be a window here. Or, you could go to Fort Bragg and catch albacore. Probably don't wait. It's a wierd year and there's no expectations except for weirdness. 

     Halibut report here is bad. Lots of tiny sublegal fish. Not many keepers. Gage and I caught three keepers off of Dillon Beach on Thursday for a pound and a half of dead squid, 5 jack mackerel,  and 5 tiny anchovies. Two keepers on a swimbait and one on a live jack mackerel.  And many, many short bites. Lots of shorts, to be clear. 

    Best report I heard today was from the inside of the bar where a legal white sea bass was caught by the Wet Dream boys. Not huge but nice fish.  Lightning strike fish. Nice work boys. See you next year, and that's a hell of a finish this year. 

 

    Harvest Time harvested a big one yesterday. They scored a giant where others did not. The report:"Plugged the boat with one yesterday morning (all my problems are small boat problems).

66” fork length, 600’, at the canyon.

How many other sport boats were out there you ask?

Zip, zero, zilch, nicht, nein, nada!

Finished up with quick limits of quality rockfish at Cordell.

Harvest Time out." I read a couple of other reports from the same general time and area and they had no bites. So I'll share this. Steve Wisnewski was right time right place. Your experience may (and likely will) vary. Super job Steve. Thanks for the heads up. And nice job catching where others failed.

   Gage went down past the salmon line (38 02) and caught his salmon limit today in 70 feet of water.  I worked today, but did get out in the evening for a quick try. I caught my personal best halibut, 39#, on a whole dead squid in 76 feet of water. Not what I was trying for but I'll keep it. 

   There's a couple of photos from Gage's trip today. He caught his salmon and got a good great white shark show on his return. Not a bad day.

      Saturday ended up really windy, but before the wind hit a number of boats were able to get out. I only heard of one nice halibut caught (Nice job, Richard!) out of several trying for them, though. Today, only four boats launched here, but at least two of them caught halibut. One boat had a couple of keepers on the bar. The other boat limited off of Dillon Beach, their first time catching limits. Good for them! They also hooked and landed a salmon. That did not work out so well, as there was a warden here checking everybody and salmon is closed. Also, even when it is open, salmon can't be kept if caught on the hooks we usually use for halibut (barbed, trebles, etc. You know, the good ones). Just to complicate things, if you have a salmon on the boat (legal or otherwise) you have to fish by salmon tackle rules, barbless hooks if trolling, barbless circle hooks with no offset if drifting, and no more than one rod per fisherman. Salmon will reopen on September 1st but ONLY BELOW THE 38º 02" LINE. You can bring salmon ashore here and in Bodega Bay but you have to run 15 to 20 miles south to fish for them. If you go and catch a salmon below the line you may not fish north of the line while the salmon is aboard your vessel. Transit only. You probably already know this, but it bears repeating. 

    Just heard this evening that Mike Mack and Spinner caught three good halibut on Saturday. I apologize, gents. Today, nada. The fish gods are capricious.

    Here's a report from Sam Winglewich: "

Hi Willie and crew, 

This bit a purple/pearl swimbait at around the tide change.  I'm somewhat glad I got burned trying to catch anchovies for hours, otherwise it wouldn't have led to me getting a 35"er on a swimbait - the biggest I've ever caught inside of the bay.

 It was a pretty somber mood on the water today. Lots of helicopters, rescue boats, ranger trucks, everyone's looking for the two missing boaters. I was told by the FD to watch out for two men and a silver/grey canoe that went missing last night. Do you know any further information about the incident this weekend? 

- Sam Winglewich " Nice fish, Sam. Lures are more fun than bait when they work. I don't know much about the missing guys except for what I read. They found both men deceased. Supposedly they launched around midnight Saturday night. It was really windy Saturday night. They were wearing life jackets. 

 

     Kind of windy today but the halibut were biting. Lots of shorts, but in among them were some nice ones. Luckily we caught quite a few squid for bait by Buoy 02. The halibut liked them.  I caught an 18# and a 23# fish and Gage, of course, smoked me with a 26# and 29# fish. We fished 40 to 45 feet of water in the mouth of Tomales Bay. We got distracted early by some bird action at the mouth of Estero de San Antonio....

    Here's another group of birds off of Dillon Beach yesterday afternoon: 

   I think there may be some bait around. Maybe. That may even be a squid "suicide ball" under the pelicans and in the surf. Strange days, but would explain our success using squid for bait.

 

    It's a heck of a thing when lightning strikes you. If you heard thunder this morning, this is why. Paul Piazza of Graton caught this 28 pound white seabass while surf fishing. It bit a white fluke. Your results may vary. This is the second white seabass I've heard of caught from the shore here during my lifetime. It had a belly full of anchovies and was probably following a big school that slid into the bay earlier. That school is probably near Hog and has some salmon chasing it as well. 

    Gage was chasing the salmon this morning before work and he found his two to 22 pounds. There's some fish by the wreck but the bite slowed dramatically after Gage left. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

      Gage and I headed to San Diego to fish on the Pacific Queen on Eddie Kim's charter. We got there in time for the bluefin bite to die (it went off from Santa Cruz to Cordell instead) and the wind to come up. The boat still finished with 243 yellowtail and a bruised and tired group of fishermen. In the meantime there were a few reports I missed. Here's one from Ron Johnson:

"My wife's cousin Sue Munson is visiting from Minnesota aka ice fisher person caught her first salmon today 21lbs." It's almost as cold as ice fishing. Nice fish, Sue

He further reports from yesterday, "And today Sue got her first Halibut on the first Jig drop..... 45 seconds in she says I think  I have one on. The morning lasted 'til the wind blew us off. Picked up 3 in an hour or so. I'm sure you have heard the salmon quota has been met and our season closes Sunday.😥" Yes, last chance for salmon here. The weather forecast is crappy but there may be a morning window. Nice work on the halibut. Also yesterday: 

     

Jack and Connor caught this 22 pound halibut.  Connor has been looking for this one all summer. Nice job, boys. 

Mike Morgan sent in one last report before he went home on Tuesday:" Hey Willy I caught a 19 pound halibut and Teddy caught a 10 pounder down by hog island," Nice way to finish up  Mike. Good to know that few fish have made it back to Hog.

 

   How's a pair of salmon weighing 23# and 21.5# for your first time salmon fishing? Sydney Closterburg of Los Banos knows. She has yet to learn the pain of loss or the dull ache of grinding all day for nothing. Look at that smile. Good for you, Sydney.  Your day will come, but it ain't today, and that's a damned good day. These fish were caught at McClure's. 

   I didn't catch his name, but this gentleman walked up with this 24 pound halibut just after I weighed Sydney's salmon. I know it bit a swim bait though. Halibut was mostly slow in the bay today with the bar being particularly dead. Hog Island had a few though...

   Of course, if anyone is going to catch a halibut it'll be Frank Green. He caught not one but two by Hog. I heard there were six in the boat for four guys. Big fish (Frank's, duh) weighed 14 pounds.

   

   "Jigger" John Rosasco and his nephew Seth caught three salmon and a mystery fish (He Who Shall Not Be Named). The two largest salmon each weighed 20 pounds. Michael I'm the upper picture had a 17.5 pound salmon. No weight given for the Voldemort, nor location for any of them. John's big boat is broke down, so I'm guessing they weren't too far. 

 

    Here's a Wednesday report from Cameron:"3 hour limits from a stretch between Bird and Trees, mostly on straight bait."  Nice fish, and close. Here's another Cameron entry from Wednesday :

        "Tom Brodsky and crew wound up with 5 to 21 lbs gutted. Didn't catch location." I heard the location was between Elephant and the Keyholes.  Other boats did well there too. Of course, yesterday when Gage and I went there the bite was kaput. We caught our three salmon between the Trees and Bird in 50 to 80 feet of water. 

    Mike Morgan caught the only halibut on his boat yesterday, a 9.5 pounder. Not sure of location but they've been pretty firm on their bar to Tom's Point fishing, so I'm guessing somewhere in that mile of bay is where this fish ate his jacksmelt. 

   Mike also sent me this picture of David Gonzales with this caught today 20 pounder. Nice work David. There's been a good salmon bite at Carmet for a few days but I heard it slowed today.

  Okay, the Carmet bite may have disappointed but it seems a bit farther north was okay. "Russian River. 60’. We had 5 fly bys and lost one at the boat. Then.. in 20 minutes at Noon had 3 fish 32, 18,16. Turned a crappy day into a good one." The fishermen are Wyatt Zanardi (top photo) and Steve Freeman (lower). Kind of this year's story, right place, right time. When they bite, maximize your opportunities as they don't seem to bite for long. Have a spare rigged up rod if something goes awry with the one that caught. Redundancy and speed. Nice work gents. 

 

     Dave found a few more surf stripers biting and got a photo of this one. Dave's a Kastmaster guy, so I'm assuming that's what the fish bit. He fought a lot of seaweed for this critter. Nice job Dave.

    Frank Green is moving a little slower but still knows how to get baits into halibut's mouths. Four guys fishing and two fish for the boat, both Frank's. These ones came from near Tom's Point but there were quite a few caught earlier on the bar. Bait has been hard to catch in the bay and Frank and the boys missed the morning bite while trying to make bait. The guys that caught were jigging. Salmon has been kinda okay with some scattered action from Ten Mile to the Russian River. I lost two and landed one last night at Tomales Point in 50 feet of water. 

    Another place you might try is the Trees in 60 to 70 feet of water. There's eight less fish there but it's worth a try.

Another Mike Morgan photo from today. Mike Gonzalez and Howard Cotham both caught 21 pound halibut and share today's bragging rights.

 

    Mina Reynoso of Elverta caught this 27 pound halibut yesterday. There's been an on and off bite with the halibut with some days having really easy fishing and some days really hard. This weekend has been mostly hard, but not for Mina. 

     Jon Erdmann landed this 21 pound striper on the fly today. No other bites but he still looks pretty happy. It's important to have a good attitude. 

   Mike Morgan sent me a batch of photos from his visit this week. Mike and his group have done very well so far. That's a heck of a pile of halibut fillets.