I, like you, am stuck on the dirt today. Gage took the boat out with a few guys and sends me this picture.  He's at 15 by 4 and fishing 120 on the wire. Flat calm conditions. That won't last. Tomorrow (when I go) the wind machine cranks up again. Next window is maybe Sunday.

Got this text last night with the cryptic message, "Even I can catch on a jig." The fish was north side of Hog and caught by Chris Lawson.

 

    My apologies to Mike Mack and the crew of Andrew's Deplorables limited out yesterday. They (and most of the successful salmon fleet) were in the general area of between 12 and 17 on the latitude line and 3 to 7 on the longitude. That's a lot of water to cover, but I spoke to many people yesterday and can't remember what Mike told me. I was going to post this last night but I fell asleep while typing. I was out fishing after work until 9:00 PM. We caught three between 14 by 3 and 15 by 5 last night. The fish bit at 60 pulls on a 2-pound ball and 120 and 150 feet on the wire. Tonight we fished out farther and a little more south for only one keeper but the sight of over a dozen salmon jumping out of the water was worth the trip. They were likely silvers, but when the ocean has so many fish in it that they get pushed out into the air it gets the juices flowing. When the sun set it started raining salmon at 13 by 5. Lots of schools of anchovies scattered around with most moving northwest. Some are migrating in shallower. Maybe salmon in the shallows soon.

    Here's another report from yesterday, courtesy of Branden Mendoza: "Hey Willie we burned a lot of fuel today trying to find some fish that wanted to bite. Finally did some radio fishing and chased a bite we heard about down on ten mile and it paid off for 1 salmon. We were in 186 feet of water fishing 82 feet down with straight bait anchovy. The gas station made us sad but even 1 fish can make anything better. We will see if tomorrow works out any better. "  Nice work Branden. Nice salmon, too. I hope you got 'em today.

   There's a lot of Kims in this photo, but Lincoln Kim is the one that caught this 18 pound salmon today. It bit in 180 feet of water off of Tomales Point, very close to a mass of birds working a possible squid spawn. That's right. Maybe squid. 

    Barry Van of Nevada City caught this 25 pound salmon today, one of the four that he and his brother caught out at 14 by 4 or so. Watermelon Apex at 120 feet on the wire. Lots of coho up high but deeper seems to be the key for chinooking. Mostly. I caught a king at 20 pulls tonight. Then we caught four silvers. Probably go deep.

 

    These guys limited this morning at 12 by 3. Lots of anchovies in the water but the fish bit herring. It's only 14 miles closer than the weather buoy.

   Vance Staplin took Stuart Johnson out for limits of salmon today. There precise location was not included in the report, but in the story, after fishing at 12 by 2 for over an hour with no bites, they went "way further south". Four salmon and back by a little after noon, seems like it worked out. Stuart had a 20 pound halibut in Tomales bay yesterday, so I think we can assume that Stuart had a pretty good weekend.

    Logan Chaffin caught this wolf eel (wolf fish) today. The rockfish bite was good today for most that tried, but most weren't catching wolf eels. Logan was.

 

    Finally. Eddie Parsons caught this 19 pound halibut on a jig while fishing near the Tomales bar today. He was just waiting for the second half of the year to kick off. Now that it has there will be trouble. Hopefully for the fish, but only time will tell.

    A few other boats had halibut today, none as large as Eddy's. Most of those fish were caught by Marshall but a few were caught near Hog Island. Live drifted or dead trolled bait was the ticket. No salmon landed here, probably because nobody went out to try. The mornings have been not too windy close to shore but offshore has been bad. It sounds like all the anchovies in the world are just south of Point Reyes. I hope at least some of them keep swimming north. A couple of million anchovies will make the halibut and salmon so happy. Oh, and me, too. Offshore the water is a soup of krill. We need a reason for some of those salmon to come inshore, and tons of anchovies is as good a reason as any. 

     The surfperch are still going strong as we are still in peak sand crab molt. At least one surf fisherman was seen packing in a limit of large stripers today. I spent a lot of time this last week making about a thousand casts for no fish, so I feel pretty comfortable saying that, while there's a better than average chance to catch a big striper from the beach right now, chances are that it ain't gonna happen. It is fun to try, though, and you have a slightly better chance of catching one when you're actually fishing for them.  

 

    These guys caught four halibut to 28 pounds today. Excuse me, these folks. Will Moore caught the big one. It bit an underspin swimbait. One ate a live jacksmelt. The other two (and one short) bit jigs. All fish north of Tom's Point (barely). I heard of one other halibut caught today, also in the same area. There's been a few others caught around Hog Island and Marshall. Hopefully these fish are indicators of fresh fish entering the bay. I don't know that it's true, but I hope that it's the case.

    The wind is blowing, so getting out to where the salmon are lusting for your baits is very hard. Not impossible, but distance times gasoline price times wind in knots equals a big, bad number. Something close to no way. Close enough that very few are going. The wind today was not quite as bad as forecast but it sure was a long way from good. Soon enough the wind will drop, and soon thereafter there will be close fish.

    Probably.

    If you follow this website regularly, you probably are aware that even more than water temperature and clarity, I favor my theory that gas prices are a leading indicator of albacore. Today I learned that a couple of commercial boats running out of San Diego and heading north searching for albacore found... albacore. Off of southern and central California. 40 fish a day, mostly, with a 200 fish day off of Half Moon Bay. It's June. It's way more than they've seen in the last several years. We may have tuna this year, it seems. Game on.