It seems that, too often, I forget to check my emails before posting. Here's the one I missed last night:"

    Don Jones and I got out today for limits south of bird. The big fish were 30” and 32”.

Hunter Smith" Nice fish, Hunter and Don. I'm going to guess live smelt but Hunter didn't say. South of Bird also encompasses quite a bit of California, but last year around this time McClure's Beach had a pretty sweet halibut bite. Maybe? 

    This poor mola washed ashore at the sand point today. Not a fishing report, I guess, but a fish report. It's not often that one washes up on the beach. I guess this one has eaten his last jellyfish.  Thanks for the photo, Scott and Stephanie, even though it makes me sad.

   

    These guys limited on halibut from shore here on Monday. Doug sent me text with this photo saying "Caught off the beach in front of the boat house" so I guess that's where they caught them. Since Monday quite a few other halibut have been caught, both from the beach and from boats. That said, it is still very possible, and maybe even likely, to not catch any. But the catching is pretty good and probably the best I've ever heard of from shore here (which ain't saying much, as the normal number from shore is zero). As salmon and nearshore rockfish are closed there's not much else to report.

    Sorry about the lack of reports for a week, but I was distracted. Well, on another boat out of /San Diego. Gage stayed home and worked this time while Cameron and I fished. Cam hadn't caught a bluefin yet and really wanted to, so his mother gave us the nod to go. Cameron had been learning his knots and been bullied by Sergeant Gage in preparation and his mother acknowledged his suffering. We went on the Tomahawk and ended up bringing home nine bluefin, six for me, two for Cameron and one donated to us by Jared, a man that caught eight bluefin in four hours and showed the rest of us what the fish were actually biting. Thank you, sir. With two fish at 100 pounds and other seven averaging over forty pounds each, the local crew were busy cleaning and packaging around five hundred pounds (in the round) of tuna last night. Thanks, everyone that helped. The Tomahawk is under new ownership with a captain that is also the owner. The crew is friendly and knowledgeable. They didn't even mock me when I couldn't turn the handle on my reel after they re-adjusted my drag mid-fight (they should have). We had a good trip.

     Sorry, I got distracted. I've been telling my wife that I need to fish, and she acted like I was just being dramatic. Well, Thursday is my day off, and last Thursday I had jury duty. I'm at the Marin Civic Center doing my civic duty (that's where you do it here) and my wife decided that that was the day she felt up to going fishing. While trying to take the tarp off of the boat, she slipped off of the boat trailer fender and fell to the ground, breaking her leg, foot, and ankle in multiple places. She just spent over two days in the hospital. That's why I haven't been posting. But, it does prove that things are better when I get to go fishing. When I can't go, who knows what'll happen? Bad things, it seems. This will be my argument going forward.

   Gage sent me this picture at about noon today: "John Flynn st Helena. 26 lb halibut on a smelt near the bar 30 ft" The Saint Helena boys put the hurt on the halibut today.  John caught the largest one, but every boat came in with fish today. Good work, John and crew. 

   And then there's these guys. Normally when we have a picture of Vance Staplin he's holding a fish weighing over thirty pounds. Today he took a break and he and Tom Brodsky peaked with a 21 and 24 pounder. They had a couple others to fill out their 2023 halibut limits. It sounds like they caught off of  Dillon Beach proper. Live smelt were their weapons. Way to relax, Vance and Tom.

  

     Saturday we saw one halibut landed here. One thresher shark as well, but not really what one would call a good fishing day. Cameron and Gage were advising departing fishermen on Sunday morning that the bite was dead. Luckily for the fishermen, they went anyway and discovered that the fish didn't know that they weren't biting.

    Brian Shadduck of Placerville caught the big one, weighing in at 22 pounds. He and his fishing buddy landed limits but let one keeper go. Three bit red label herring and one fish ate their only live jacksmelt. Similar stories for most of the other fishermen, with dead bait catching most of the fish. Part of that equation could be the fact that live bait was really hard to get, but part of it could be that dead bait is catchable if your you're a sluggish, cold water halibut. Moral: Don't give up and throw everything at them. 

   Spinner and Mike Mack caught a couple yesterday and today. The fish bit live jacksmelt and were on the bar with most of the rest of the fishermen. The bar at the mouth of Tomales Bay has been good recently, not as good as I remember it from times in the past (nothing is ever as good as remembered, even if it's actually better....) but reasonably consistent and some nice fish. Probably it will continue for another month or two. Unless it doesn't. 

 So I've been waiting for someone to bring in a fish so I can do a fish report. I'm still waiting. The wind blew hard, the water cooled off (from 64¹ to 52º? Damn...) and the halibut wired their jaws shut with very stout wire. Nearshore rockfish, responsive to the blue moon (to be fair, those Belgian ales mess me up, too) refused to bite in the last days before the powers that be shut them down. To the best of my very imperfect knowledge, Gage and I were high boat from the Landing on Thursday. I don't want to brag, but our catch of one thornback ray was the best we heard of, and one of those means, well, nothing. The wind is supposed to die and the water should warm again, but until that happens (which probably won't be long) the halibut fishing (or, what I like to call, all we have left) should pick back back up.