Them halibut are biting

    The halibut are still biting way in the back, mostly. In classic fish fashion, at least one boat that limited easy on Friday couldn't get a bite on Saturday. Same place, just no bites. But they watched a guy hook six halibut while trolling near them. That guy caught two on Friday, one on a Predator and one on a hootchie/fluke combo (you put a hootchie over a Fluke. Looks stupid. Fish think differently, often). On Saturday that same guy hooked six halibut, keeping two, one on the hootchie/fluke and five on the Predator. That bastard. Well, that's probably what some people were thinking, and I don't blame them. I heard of a boat landing ten halibut yesterday in Inverness while jigging tube jigs. Try different things, especially if what you're doing isn't getting the kind of attention you desire. Remember, if you're doing something and the thing you're doing isn't producing the desired reaction, stop doing the thing. Do something different. Change bait, speed up, slow down, throw in that lure that cost a lot but never caught before. Today could be that day! Probably it isn't, but you gotta do something. Remember, there is no try. Do, or do not.

   Quite a few fishermen have gone out for the shallow water rockfish since it opened and the weather allowed. The guys that I talked to did pretty well. We got lucky in the draw when they drew up the "20 fathom line", as in our area it tends to agree with reality by and large. Not everywhere, but mostly. The shallow water is harder to catch fish in, but more fun. The fish seem like city fish, kind of jaded, "been there, done that." Sometimes smaller lures work better, and, heck, if you're fishing really skinny water why not fish light gear? You may only catch half of what you would have caught in the deep, but if each fish is three times the fun, well, you win. It's math. 

 

    The Coastodian found a couple of halibut in the Inverness area today. One keeper left the boat without permission. This is one of the many dangers of kayak fishing, but it also adds to the joy of success, when it comes. Finally! The harder it is, the better the payoff when it is finally earned. Ask a fly fisherman. Yes, they're insufferable, but they're also not wrong. Okay, probably don't ask one, but keep that nugget of unease in your heart that they may actually be right. In my humble opinion, they're right, but I'm still fishing bait most of the time, because not catching sucks. Anyhoo.... Other fishermen also connected today. I can't say that everybody clobbered them, as I only heard a couple of reports, but the couple I heard were good. Drifted live bait, drifted dead bait, jigging, and trolling hootchies and P-Line Predators all accounted for tonight's dinners. I also heard of a kayaker doing well on halibut by Hog Island today. I have no details, but another fisherman saw somebody "doing well", so I'm assuming it was catching and not just not dying. For my two cents, the best time for success should be around the turn of the low as the high tide brings in frigid water. 47º is too cold. Even our few rockfish yesterday were sluggish. There was a boat with some nice eating rockfish in the ice chest pulling out this evening, so Gage and my problems of getting them to bite in cold water may be just our problem, not universal. We'll work on it. But also, remember, even in the super shallow where you don't need a descender device to return fish safely, legally, you need to have a descende r device rigged and ready to go if you're rockfishing. You don't legally have to use it (you should, when necessary), but you gotta have it. So sayeth the law. We have a few in the store, but Promar just came out with one for a very reasonable price. Just get one, hook it to a spare rod on the boat and you're legal. In the shallow water that we're allowed to fish it seems silly, but, hey, I missed the short shallow season last year, and if this is the silly crap I need to do to go fishing, then whatever. Descender, check. Stand on one foot, check. Chant an allegiance oath, check. Whatever. Let's go fishing for whatever they let us catch. 

     

 Today I went with Gage to the back bay. Only one photo was taken, but fish were caught. We left the house at 7:00 AM and had limits of halibut by 10:00 AM. Where did we go? To Gage's secret spot? Maybe? They didn't bite for us like they did for him yesterday, so.... Different day? Different spot? I don't know, but I know better than to ask. Just catch your fish slower and be happy. And I am. We trolled from a little north of Heart's Desire Beach to almost the Tomales Bay Oyster Company and had bites all over. The fish are definitely in schools, as we had a couple of times when more than one were biting. We finished on a sequential quadruple bite, but only two of the four stuck. Our buddy boat was alongside and was able to convert that bite into....nothing. Those fish are fickle. Our totals were: Two fish on a straight chartreuse Krippled Anchovy (including the largest of the day at ten pounds), two on a Krippled Anchovy (I think chartreuse) behind a chrome 00 dodger, and two keepers and the day's only short on P-Line Predator lures. Two nice keeper fish were returned, one early because we thought we could do better, and one later because we did. They're biting, but not awesome. Our buddy boat came home with zero. Another boat that Gage knows returned with one. It ain't hot, but there's possibilities.

    Pictures today! But we will start with the sad one first. My phone battery died last night, so when I fired up my phone this morning it started vibrating like mad with all with texts from Doug and Gage. Here's the first photo that was sent:

    This would be the bottom of a 24' Marlin with a cabin and and an I/O. It was anchored out last night and rolled over and sank at about 5:30 this morning. Doug was notified, and he called Gage, and together with the owner of the boat they were able to right it and get it ashore. By the time my phone started shaking the boat was already on the sand (the right way) and getting pumped out. Good work, gents. I guess that means that I can start thinking about going fishing more (Editor's note: I've already been thinking that a lot). It was Gage's day, off, so was a little late on getting out fishing. Didn't matter, though.

   Gage caught a sequential triple and tossed the last fish back. Sequential in that as he landed the first fish the second rod went off, and as he landed that one, the third rod popped. 12 feet of water again, Inverness, I think. Frozen bait took the first two. I think that I get to go with Gage tomorrow, so maybe I can get a little more info. Or, maybe I can shut him down. We shall see.

   I should also add, the big tides now and big winds we have had had made for big currents and a lot of seaweed, so the surf fishing has been hard, and the catching has been even harder. But today pelicans and terns were pounding the tip of Sand Point, and while the Gage was unable to connect in his short time there (how hard do you fish when you already have a limit in the box?) if the stripers find out that there's bait getting carried over that bar, well, good things will come. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, as sayeth the bard.

    All of these crappy fishing reports must have got to me. This morning, after icing down my swollen eyes from crying, I saw a man with a limit of halibut! He actually hooked three, but the last two were a double, so the 28 incher came home with him (sometimes being smaller is better. Less is more!). Another gentleman went to the same area and landed one in five minutes. I'm not sure if he caught a second one but he was pretty stoked about numero uno, as we all should be. Where was this miraculous parade of halibut? Gage knows, as he told these guys where to go. He didn't tell me, but I heard 12 feet of water from the two happy guys. The water out front is running in the mid- to high forties, temperature-wise, so I'm guessing that they went way, way back. And trolling, as that is what the Gage usually advises in the early season. So, it's on, barely. Yeah for us!

  On the first of May the deep water (Westward of a line of line of waypoints indicating 50 fathoms(300 feet)) closed for rockfish but the shallows (Eastward of a line of waypoints indicating 20 fathoms (120 feet)) have opened. So, the good nearshore fishing will remain closed this year to protect the almost non-existent (here) Quillback (or maybe I just suck at catching endangered species, but I've probably boated two quillies in the last decade. And that seemed like an improvement from the past, "good old days", when we say almost none. Whatever...) but we can still catch the fish that do exist here, except for coppers. The last two decades of fishing limited to nearshore have reduced the copper's numbers. Well, something had to give. You box us up on the beach for two decades, I guess you might expect that beach to get a bit burnt.

    Also this week we had a boat roll over near Inverness yesterday, probably a small sailboat (judging by the style of life jackets worn by the victims) but indicative of the weather we've had lately. The wind almost closed the road in to Lawson's with piles of blown sand this week. It's building up the beach that the storms washed out, but damn! It kinda sucks. Today the wind was pretty mellow, so instead of a boat flipping somebody fell off of the cliff on Tomales Point. The Sonoma County Sheriff's helicopter, Henry One, has been busy out here. I hope that they get to do some work closer to their home in the future. I also hope that they are as successful in the future as my limited understanding seems to indicate that they were in the last few days. Stay safe, everybody. And catch fish. It is time. Let's fill those freezers.