It's obvious that salmon season reopens tomorrow.  For the uninitiated, the tell is that there's a gale warning.  The last gale warning was the last opener. Good times. On the plus side, the wind this year has been milder than predicted, at least early in the day, so opportunities may exist for the bold. It would be a shame if we didn't hit the quota before the end, and if the wind stops the water will boil, or nearly, and salmon won't be an option, or at least, a fun option. Fishing 300' on the wire is like working a Waldo in a nuclear reactor. Remote control fishing. It works, but it ain't like fishing 60' of water. Let's get them while we can.

    Halibut in the bay has been slowing as the water has been warming past happy temperatures. It's pushing 70 degrees in Marshall and that's too warm. Unless you're swimming, then cool. But halibut-wise, no bueno. 

Salmon reopens August 1st

 

        As I have nothing to report on here but wind, here's a report from Kelley Roy: "Willy, was a busy few days last week. Thursday in FB for albacore then on to Eureka for halibut with Steve Wiz and Dave Alexander.

 

Great trip"   Looks like a great trip to me, too. Now that salmon is over in Eureka they can concentrate on other things, and the other things are biting. Nice of you to let Dave catch the largest Pacific for your group. The albacore are officially biting at Fort Bragg and the tuna water is close, five miles or so, although some of the better catch numbers are coming from 12 to 25 miles out. That water extends down to where a trip from Bodega or Tomales Bays is doable (not with current weather) but far with the edge at 62 miles. I've  made that run before but driving to Fort Bragg seems like the more sensible option if you've got a roadworthy trailer. Otherwise, it's only July, so it seems likely that closer options should be available before the season passes us by. California halibut will have to do for us here until maybe salmon will reopen on Saturday. Probably only half of our local quota were taken during our 26 day season, so it seems likely that we'll get a reopener on the 1st of August. We should know by this afternoon, here.  Fort Bragg and Eureka may just have to stick with albacore and halibut, as their salmon catches were 73% and 77% of their much lower quotas.  UPDATE: We get August uncut for now. Fort Bragg gets August 1 to 9. Eureka gets to concentrate on albacore and halibut.

 

    Jim and Scott (or is it Scott and Jim?) Alexander, Larry Varela and Richard Tamagni trolled off of Dillon Beach on Thursday in the wind for these nice halibut. There were some other halibut caught on the bar but they weren't like these. Nice work, boys. It's probably no surprise that they went back there today. I didn't hear if they caught any more halibut, but...

     .... they did manage to catch this 53 pound white seabass. Richard Tamagni had to go home but the twins' dad Terry stepped in to help in this team effort. Excellent work, gentlemen. 

  Cameron sent me this photo with the cryptic message:"Margaret Morgan and Lee Gutierrez " A look at the big fish board says that Margaret Morgan of St. Helena caught a 24 pound halibut today, so I assume that this is her. So there were some halibut caught on this windy day, and I'll bet these folks are with St. Helena Appliance. They usually catch fish, and this seems to fit the bill. Nice fish, Margaret and Lee. 

 

    Larry Laackman hopped in the boat with me and my wife Monday evening for a troll on Lake Pacific. Usually flat water makes for a slow bite for me but we ended with with three salmon again, the largest, caught by Larry, weighing 28 pounds, again.  We seem to have plateaued. It bit a tiny hootchie behind an 8" flasher in front of Bird.

   Tom and Jerrie Carter limited on halibut to 25 pounds on the bar yesterday. Live jacksmelt and a bit of skill was the ticket. Tom's not supposed to be lifting heavy things, so Jerrie may need to adjust her fishing methods.

   A fishing report from yesterday: "Evening,

Spent the day sweating under the hot sun. Turn the thermostat down. Ended up with 3 fish for the two of us on the bar. Had enough action to be done early but obviously we didn’t want to sweat in camp. Will try again in the AM.

Swampy"    Seems like there are (maybe were?) some biters on the bar. Nice work, Swampy, but I bet you can do better.

    My wife and I went out again last night but couldn't get a 28 pounder. She was okay with this 26 pound fish, though. Bird Rock again, small hootchie again.

   Today is the last day of the early salmon season here. The fishing was mostly not awesome, which sucks for the guys that fished it but bodes well for a second chance in August. We shall see if the guys that waited were correct. Albacore started biting at Fort Bragg just in time, as their salmon season has ended. I guess we'll take a week for halibut and rockfish and hope for another salmon chance.

  This is Rich Nacarelli with his 17 pound halibut, one of seven caught on his boat on the bar today. The halibut are stepping up as salmon take a break.

    Last salmon for nine days or so. Paul Giese caught this 25 pound salmon off of the wreck on a watermelon Apex  this evening. He was fishing with John Daleuski and Alec Bennett, both excellent netters. Catch numbers of salmon have just been released up to 7/15 and it looks like we will have August for salmon, or at least a good part of it. Poor fishing, now, means more fishing. Good?

     I knew Swampy could do better. His report from today:"Afternoon,

Took Al and Brian out to chase some flatfish. Had leftover shiners from yesterday and hit the bar early. Done by 8:45 to 17 pounds. Great day."  That seems great to me too. 

 

    Big fish (salmon, at least) for Sunday goes to Carrie Brewster with this 30.5 pound slug. The salmon catching today was, again, mostly early and late in the day. This one was a morning bite but definitely not crack of dawn. So, there's hope if you can't hit the water early. At least there's hope if you're Carrie.

     Pennley Brunkhorst caught this halibut off of Dillon Beach right in front of Cannon. Nothing like a bit of sibling rivalry to keep things on the boat interesting. 

    There were a lot of zeros in the fish counts yesterday but not for the Evil Twins. Reports Larry Varela, "Picture from yesterday got six

Lost a few and had a couple other pumpers no stick 

All in all a pretty darn good day😀" I would agree. Nice start to your salmon season.

    Cameron caught this 28 pounder last night. We had three fish total. Hootchies and bait for all our bites at Bird Rock. 

     Flat water, again, or should I say, finally. The salmon bit, for a while. Gage says it's like a full moon bite, when the fish bite early and late. True. But it ain't the full moon. I think it's a pressure bite. Little pressure early, little pressure late, but midday, pressure, lots of boats trolling.  Not so much with the biting fish in midday. But a few guys caught some before the pressure shut them down.

   

     Todd Gentry caught this 21 pound salmon today, one of three for the boat. The fish came early in the day. His boat was the second one launched today. Early birds and worms.... Nice fish, sir. Largest today, here. Not a lot of contenders. Nice work, Todd and crew.

     Jody Stover has been here a few days and suffered from the bad weather and crappy fishing. Today he caught a nice salmon. What a difference a fish makes. Jody looks much happier today.

     Halibut has been slow as the bar has cooled off. Hog Island has improved as some of those fish have relocated there, but even an improved Hog Island fishery is still slow. There's fish, and you can catch them, but you're probably not catching limits for multiple people. 

 

    Cameron sent me this: "Missed his name, but a 14 pound striper yesterday afternoon from shore on a live smelt".  Good work, missed name person, as stripers from shore have been pretty rare lately. Especially fourteen pounders.

   Ah, the comment says this is Robert Baker of Folsom, who tricked his father into going to get lunch while he caught fish. Another Gage.... Good work, Robert, and nice gaffing, Robert's mom. And I'm sure the lunch was really good.

 

     Gage hit the water at 6:00 this morning and was able to scratch up a few bites before the wind hit the beach. The two stripers he kept weighed 19 and 32 pounds. He missed several short halibut bites on the bar. 

 

   It was a tough salmon day today. Not that you can tell from this picture of Eddie Kim, Dave Nguyen, and Doug with 26 and 22 pound salmon. Good job, boys! This is the high boat from here. Two other boats had one salmon each. Everyone else was just jealous. Except for...

      .....the Tomales Outlaw(s) that gave up on salmon and caught rockfish instead. The Outlaws are eating well tonight.

   The salmon bite slowed over the weekend. The probable cause was a plethora of trolling boats. A lot of pressure in a small area in relatively shallow water will turn the salmon off. Remove most of the boats and they come back. Most fishermen returning to Lawson's yesterday had zero to two fish. My wife and I went out last night after work and after most boats left and caught three. Gage and Amanda got a later start for two. We both lost one and shook a coho. Less pressure, more fish. Amanda's fish:

    The bar had some halibut over the weekend, not wide open but most fishermen had one or two. The cold water slowed the bite but didn't quite kill it. 

    A report from the water from Alec Bennett says the fish are still biting near the wreck of the American Challenger. This is number two for him and Johnny. There's a fleet of boats but a few biters it seems. 

    Later reports are that there were very few biters. The boats that did well were mostly using very small lures, as the fish were eating very small anchovies.  Do with that as you will.

   Gage sent me this belated photo today with the note: "Anthony Piccardo 21 lb striper and a halibut on the bar Sunday" I'm afraid this got lost in the "oh crap I'm taking the wife fishing" thing last night. Sorry you were missed, Anthony,  but nice fish. Those weren't misses, obviously. 

 

    Wednesday the halibut bit like crazy on the bar just before the turn of the low in 57 degree water. Gage called me, I called Alec Bennett and grabbed Leo Hernandez. We caught our limits in an hour to 25 pounds. Yesterday, after some more wind, the water was 52 degrees and two hours of fishing yielded one 22 pound halibut. Shoulda been here yesterday.  The fish are still there but much more lethargic. How do I know they're there?

    Tom Carter caught this 22 pound halibut on the bar today. He and Jerrie came back with two fish total. If the water was warmer they would have had their four fish and done it sooner. Probably. 

     James Ludovina caught this 26 pound salmon yesterday in front of Bird Rock.

Salmon is still pretty good with catches ranging from zero to limits with more consistent happiness to the north, especially for those that ran up to the Russian River and beyond. Tomales Point to the Trees still had some fish to share and were a lot closer.

 

   Sorry about the lack of posts and for "forgetting" these reports. I've been falling asleep at the computer, or in some cases, my dinner, so posting has been difficult. No fishing today, so I'm awake, and here's the report from last week from Chris DiTrani (apologies, Chris): "Hey Willy. I’m sure you’ll be flooded with salmon reports, but here’s mine! Both of these were caught within an hour of dropping the line on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. I suspect limits could have been had both days but I had reasons to head in early. I swear there were some 10 footers on Wednesday, so I wasn’t heartbroken… Both of these fish were 31-32 inches. 

Thanks as always. 

Chris"  Thanks for the report and sorry for my narcolepsy. Nice work on the salmon. I hope all of the build-up was worth it. Chris moved here from the East Coast and bought a boat, looking to catch salmon, right before they closed salmon for (functionally) three years. There is a short list of people that deserved a salmon more than Chris. Very short. 

       Here's a late (because of me...) report from Swampy from the 1st of July: "Evening Willy,

A wise man once told me to catch fish you have to fish where the fish are. Today I was not where they were. Easy perch bait, but no fish today. Kicker lost its pisser, I lost my wind sock and my radio was dead when I needed my trailer. Glad I got it all out (hopefully) on this trip. See you soon, Swampy." Get it out now, Swampy. The fish are here now, and more are coming. The good stuff for halibut is just getting going, and it is going pretty good. Not so much inside the bay, as that has been abused for the last few years, but some new fish are coming in from outside, and the folks that find them at the mouth before they can ,make their ways back inside, have done well. Today, very well. Good effort, Swampy, and better luck and mechanicals next time.

   Branden Mendoza sent over this report yesterday: "Hey Willy hope you had a good 4th. We spent the weekend chasing salmon. 7 fish in 2 days. It's nice to have the season open again. We trolled crippled anchovies 1 with a flasher 1 without. The bite was great both days." Branden ain't wrong. The weekend bite was good. Sunday was off the hook, as they say. Nice work Mendozas. The salmon weren't super easy. The offshore (in my opinion, over 200' of water) bite lit off and drew a lot of boats out to the deep for good catches. It also allowed the inshore bite to light back up, as Mike Mack and Spinner smacked their limits (4 fish in the boat for 9 fish on) pretty quick in the afternoon after trying for the reported bite offshore. That afternoon bite slowed but was still good enough for me, Cameron, and Nate Buck (local lifeguard/paramedic) to catch three (lost one broke off) and miss several bites in a few hours after work. Of course, Gage came out a little later and limited (released one) but the view in front of Bird was pretty epic with four kinds of birds feeding on the boiling anchovies in 40 to  60 feet of water. Epic fishing , really. From a visual standpoint. 

    

   There's a couple of yesterday photos from Vance Staplin. Vance has been working hard to try to get us some salmon to fish for and and this year he got it. Thanks for the fishing.

    Kerry Apgar sent me this photo of Frank Green with a pile of large halibut but no note. I think this means the halibut are biting again. Since a bunch of people caught halibut today on the bar and at Dillon Beach, I'm guessing yes.

 

    This is Tyler Holland of Auburn with a 42 pound salmon, Ryan Robie of Lincoln with a 31 pound salmon, and Jim Clark of Auburn with a 24 pound salmon. And another salmon. These fish were caught in less than 80 feet of water, inside of where most of the sport fleet have been concentrating here. Irt turns out that there's some fish all over, 10 feet to 300 feet, but they mostly aren't easy. That makes them interesting.... Nice fricking job, Tyler and crew. Those jumbos are hard to hook and even harder to land...

   Peter Kim went out today and caught a limit of salmon to 21 pounds. The bite picked up today, not as large of fish as Tyler and crew caught, but good enough. The bite had slowed on Thursday and Friday with less limits but still most boats catching a fish or two. Halibut, not awesome but not a waste of time. 

    Interesting fact: Normally when Dungeness closes the traps become legal. This year, nah. No traps until probably January, best case, it looks like.

     Most people are interested in salmon now. But Frank Green is a halibut man. This one one weighed 20 pounds. If somebody is going to catch a 20 pounder during this week's halibut bite, not shutdown but downturn, Frank would be the guy.  Good to see you, Frankie. Keep at it.

   Dan Dentone has been here for a week, waiting for salmon to open, then waiting for weather to get them. Today he caught salmon. Four in the boat to 20 pounds. The bite had been dead in the middle of the day the last few days, but today they bit all day. Dan's first fish was landed at 10:30 and he was back by 1:00, so midday is okay. Nice job Dan.

    No stranger to this report, Cannon Brunkhorst wants us to know that yes, the fish are biting. For him. This was also a twenty pounder. Cannon is a fish killer. 

   Overall report: Salmon is pretty good between Elephant and Tomales Point.  Maybe even farther South but I haven't heard any reports. Halibut? Last week. This week it's salmon. Maybe next week,  halibut.