David Cerini was having some trouble catching a fish, as the fishing has been pretty slow. So what does a killer do when he's having trouble killing things? Up your game. Mr. Cerini jumped in the water yesterday, along with John Morozumi, and they looked for halibut. Ten feet of visibility showed them....no halibut. But, while on the edge of a school of needle head (what's smaller than pinhead?) anchovies, across the bay from the Boathouse, Davey saw a gray shadow emerge from the gloom. After determining that the hoped for white sea bass was actually a thresher shark, he started to lower the speargun, as generally, spearing a thresher is a great way to get dragged through the water for a long time or maybe get bit. But, the thresher, sensing Davey's need to kill, turned sideways and paused in front of him. When a forked-horn buck leans up against the barrel of your rifle during deer season, well, you shoot him. You can get past the smell of burned fur. Davey shot, and for a second the shark was stunned and he thought he got away with it. But threshers are built out of speed and power, so Davey couldn't get past the dragging and wrestling part. But he won. The thresher weighed 36 pounds gutted. He's smiling in the picture, but there may be a longer pause before he pulls the trigger on another thresher shark.

     The fishing has been slow, partly because the wind we've had has finally blown a plume of 48º water into the bay. That will slow things down on the north end of the bay for sure. The southern 3/4 of the bay has still had fish biting and a few people have even limited out. The fish in the back aren't big and you must carefully sort them as most aren't keepers. There were a couple of halibut caught on the bar today in that cold water, so more may be lurking there and be even bitier when the water warms up. Time will tell.

    

 

        Mike Mack caught this 28 pounder yesterday. I don't know what bait and where he caught it, but I suspect a jacksmelt and near Hog Island, as that has been his method as of late. That's the largest halibut of the year here so far. 

     Cannon found another one today. This one weighed 14 pounds if I remember correctly. This was the only fish for the Doghouse today. If Cannon is only catching one, the fishing is pretty slow.

           Vance Staplin texted me this photo today. Apparently the happy kayaker pictured here wanted someone to take his picture. I guess Cannon missed another white sea bass. It appears that there's a few around.

 

    Cannon didn't fish yesterday so there was no reason for me to post anything. Here is today's obligatory Cannon photo. Not pictured is the striper he caught in the afternoon after jumping on a jet sled with some striper whisperers. There are fish out there for other people to catch but Cannon has first pick while he's here.

    Oscar and Angela Aceves found one that Cannon missed. The white sea bass weighed 15 pounds and bit a trolled bait near Marconi. I've heard about a couple of these being caught in the last month but this is the first one hung on the scale here this year. Nice work, Team Aceves. The WSB's don't come easy or often.

     It wasn't as windy today as yesterday but it sure wasn't the weather anyone wanted. Still, the fishing wasn't as bad as the wind and the first few boats back had a couple of halibut a piece. Yesterday there weren't too many boats out fishing but only a few fish were caught. Oscar Aceves had a pair of halibut from Marconi and Gage and I caught three halibut and a striper at Hog but I heard of no other action. Gage and I were able to catch our bait reasonably fast but we used a lot of oily chum. It turns out that freezer-burned bluefin is actually good for something. We left a slick behind the boat, and I had difficulty holding anything after, but the jacksmelt approved. 

 

     Catching bait was really hard today. Catching halibut was hard without live bait, but Cannon Brunkhorst found one that liked dead bait. This one weighed 20 pounds and was hunkered down in 47 feet of water. There were other halibut caught today, mostly on dead bait and jigs, but nobody from here landed one as large as Cannon's. I did hear that there's a couple of large ones that got left behind. Tomorrow is supposed to be windy but the worst is supposed to pass by Friday. I imagine there will be plenty of fishermen trying the bay this weekend. Please try to make space for Cannon. And his head.

 

     Quinn and Dave came out to see if the surf had any stripers in it. Dave caught a couple almost immediately and released them, but after Quinn fought this 29 pounder for a half hour, Quinn decided to keep it. That's a big striper for here and a huge striper for for here in the surf. Nice job, gents. 

    Cannon Brunkhorst had only just arrived here when Quinn dragged in the big striper. Moments later he found himself jumping in a Whaler with Gage and Cameron to try fishing the surf from a different angle. Cameron and Gage didn't catch but Cannon connected to this 18 pounder. It took him around the boat a couple of times. The last time may have been a victory lap to tease Gage. Nice job, Cannon! Not pictured today are the majority of striper fishermen that did not get bit. 

    Tom Brodsky and friend gave the rockcod a try today: "Hey Willy,

Limits of rockcod up to 5lbs today down off 10 mile.

Yesterday 17 rockcod and 14 Crab in outerbay." The halibut fishing was slow again today, so taking the opportunity to fish the ocean with the good weather today was a darn good idea. I bet it seemed like an even better idea when they ate fresh rockcod tonight.