You'll notice that in yesterday's post I said, "no fish that I am aware of." I am now aware. Ruben Ledesma (@fishkraft on Istagram) sent in this report:
"Hi, I didn’t know how else to contact you so I thought I’d send this here. You published a picture a couple of weeks ago about a big halibut I  caught near Hog Island on an umbrella type rig. It was a Humboldt Dredge and I caught another one on it yesterday. This one was 30” and was taken just west of the island on the eastern edge of the channel in 17 ft of water trolling the Humboldt Dredge with a herring on a Rotary Salmon Killer trailing about 24” behind it.

Anyway, I love when folks share my catches and I’m sure its good for your business when the halibut start biting so here’s a picture for you.

"
 

     Years of experience and local knowledge tell me that the halibut should be coming into the bay now. The angle of the sun, the first few flocks of pelicans flying by and the water color help. Those things, and the fact that I just saw a picture of a 20 pound-ish halibut caught less than hour ago about 200-300 yards from our pier. Probably the photo was the most helpful. Almost a year ago Sean Bottomley caught a 33 pound halibut in the same place. Coincidence? I think not. Seems like they might be moving into Bodega Harbor, too. A few boats have been trying near Hog the last couple of days for no fish that I am aware of, but it appears that a few are on their way there now. Here's the picture:

     The surfperch have been slow but the big sandcrab molt should be coming soon and it should bring in the perch and stripers on the beach. Dungeness has been slow but there's still some around to be caught. And for anyone that was worried, the wayward BBML buoy has been reunited with its loved ones.

   
   

     I just heard that the 250,000 baby chinook may not be released in Bodega Bay this year due to concerns from some local environmental groups. I haven't got any independent confirmation on that but from my experience it sounds pretty believable. Apparently, the concerns are that a few of the released chinook may end up spawning in Lagunitas Creek, an important breeding spot for cohos. From what I read, they've already had a few chinook spawning in the creek. What kills me is that, if the creek had the ideal conditions for chinook it would already be full of chinook. They would have colonized it years ago. Sometimes salmon don't return to the same place from which they were spawned. That's why they live in more than one river. Successful species have a bit of a bit of fudge factor built into their programming to compensate for change. If they returned to only one river and that river was fouled by a volcano or landslide, bye-bye fishies. It's why chinooks spend one to eight years in the ocean instead of a fixed three year tour. They will go where the conditions allow, and if the conditions change to allow it, they'll be there, whether they were hatchery raised and released in a bay or naturally spawned in a river.
     I hope I just have some bad info, though.

   This just in: If you know the owner of this weather buoy (BBML, I'm looking at you) please contact us at Lawson's Landing (707)878-2443 to arrange pickup. We're kinda scared to move it since it looks expensive.

    The Marine Lab said to haul it up, so we did. Apparently everybody likes coming to the Landing to relax.

    FYI, it's finally striper time. At least, it was for this gentleman. May we all be so lucky.

     So there were a few salmon around the north end of Ten Mile last week, out in 200 feet of water. Of course, the wind came back and upwelled the heck out of things, so when it stops and the salmon season reopens (which likely won't be the same time) it will likely be back to square one for finding fish. I heard of a short halibut caught near Hog over the weekend, so that's two halibut from there for the season. The water temperature looks good (56º to 62º) and there's some bait around, so all we need are actual fish. There's a few surfperch around and the size is getting better. The crabbing was slow in the bay this week, probably from the extreme tides and currents, but it should pick up a bit this week as the tides moderate.