"Jigger" John Rosasco of Stockton caught this 22 pound halibut in Tomales Bay today. Despite his nickname, the fish bit a live jacksmelt. He and Frank Green had three halibut for the day. Most of the bay fishermen did not do as well.

     There were probably as many salmon caught today as halibut, which is a long way of saying there weren't many salmon caught, either. Some were caught, though, as shown in these pictures. The bite, such as it was, was scattered in little pockets. Should you be lucky enough to get a salmon bite you should tack back through the area of the bite immediately, if not sooner. These little groups of fish are on the bite for 10 or 20 minutes and if you find such a group you need to capitalize on it as fast as you can. As my dear, departed grandfather used to tell me, "Get those lines back in the water! We came here to fish!" 

       Joe Gantley picked up one of those leopard sharks last weekend as well. Now I, personally, don't really care for the taste of shark. For me, they have a kind of strange aftertaste, like the first time I tried a diet soda. That said, before the aftertaste it wasn't too bad, so long as the proper measures had been taken. I'm not sure that it's true, but it is my understanding that sharks urinate through their skin and care should be taken to gut them, chill them, and get them out of their skin (once ashore) if you want to eat them. Thresher shark meat used to sell for the same price as swordfish in the market, so somebody likes them pretty well.

     First, the pictures. These were taken on Saturday and sent in by Mike C. "Fished the back of the bay by Inverness.  We got the two nice leopards and the baby sand shark.  Had two other nice fish hook up that ultimately bit through our line.  We had many strikes but it was a devil of a time getting a proper hook up." 

     Second, today's report. I didn't see any salmon brought in but it sounds like there were a few caught, just not by boats from here. There were a few picked up in scattered locations in 50 to 90 feet of water and it sounds like a pretty fair bite for a few commercial boats out in 200' of water in front of Elephant. "Pretty fair bite" being relative to the fact that they haven't been catching very many at all. The halibut bite was better but not more consistent. Catches ranged from 0 to 5 fish, with the highest and lowest numbers coming from the area around Hog.

     Today wasn't very good day for catching. So, let's dwell on more of yesterday's wins. Michael Jones sent in this report:"Leza brought in her first ocean Salmon yesterday off Elephant.  Mooching herring…" All you moochers out there, I think he's trying to tell you something.

     Nick Bauer caught this one on a trolled VK Dying Minnow. Please note his location near a bunch of birds feeding on a bait ball. Coincidence? Maybe, but it's probably a good idea to put your bait near where the salmon are feeding. 

     To start with, most people didn't do this well. That said, there were quite a few fish at the North end of Ten Mile this morning, but there's less now. T. J., Robert and Jake worked over the area pretty thoroughly in the last two days, but there may be a few scraps around for the rest of us. Gage went with Gerard for three halibut and a prematurely released salmon nearby, so there's hope. A few salmon were taken off of Ten Mile and the Trees by circling the schools of anchovies the salmon and birds were feeding on. The word I got from the bay fisherman was slow.

     You always hear about Hog Island halibut and Ten Mile halibut. How about some Bird Rock halibut? C. J. Weber of Ione caught these two halibut just South of Bird Rock in 30-35 feet of water. The larger weighed in at 31 pounds. Halibut was definitely the fish of the day with one boat returning with 11 (Jake Showaker). Some of the other fishermen did almost as well. Salmon also found their way aboard many of the boats. Not too many limits of salmon, but enough salmon were caught to give a lot of people a taste of religion when the wardens checked them today. Multiple lines and barbed hooks are all well and good when you're halibut fishing, but when you hook a salmon and want to keep it you'd better be barbless and one rod per person. If you want to fish more lines just take more people fishing. My boat is usually SRO.