I received this photo yesterday. No information with it. From what I can deduce from the photo, Curly DiBella caught a bluefin. Way to go, Curly! Later, I heard that he was fishing with Peter Kim out of Bodega. Two fish for Peter's boat in two trips? First, go Peter! Second, go Curly! Third, you can tell me if you launch from a different place, guys. I won't be upset. Actually, less work for me, so... The takeaway from this is twofold: One, Peter is on a roll. Go team Kim! Two, take Curly fishing. He makes the fish bite. Just ask him.

   I received this report this morning, about November 4. "We fished in the area of 29x36.  Lots of jumpers and birds. After two hours of being taunted by breezers we hooked the long line(90secs). While clearing the other two rods I get hit, number two on. Then it becomes unbelievable the third rod is hooked up. Thank the tuna gods for one coming unbuttoned. After 45 minutes and one bent gaff we have two on the deck. One 120# and the second 185# by doing the math. Ron White on tater salad." Nice job on the triple/double! Two out of three is not bad at all when you're dealing with fish as large as at least some of the crew. Nice job, gents, although I'm not jealous of you triple. It's a rare day when you lose a fish early and think, "Yes!". A good day.

    

    On the crabbing front, numbers dropped a bit on days two and three but people are still catching.  I saw a couple of keepers landed from shore in front of the store and heard of at least one fisherman landing eight on the oceanfront beach on the opener, so there is hope for snares. 

 

    The mixed aromas of spoiled crab bait, stale beer and a bit of marijuana and cigarette smoke floats about the shoreline. Boaters in a rush cut off snares as they race by. Snarers cast out directly on to boats. Drunk crabbers pass out under parked, empty boat trailers. Miles of polypropylene rope stretch across the surface of Tomales Bay. Hey everybody, Dungeness season is officially open! And the results so far are mostly just okay. Reports from people casting snares from shore were mostly bad, although, as referred to earlier, a few of them were actually too drunk to crab, so they may have driven the average down. Tomales Bay by boat was fairly typical, with the best crabbing being from Tom's Point to the mouth. The guys that have their spots figured out and usually catch, caught. Those that are still learning mostly caught less, although a few newbies brought home more crab than they expected. Numbers there ranged from limits to zeroes with a median around 6 or 7 per boat. Outer bay? Mostly good if you monitor your gear and move the unproductive rings around until they start producing. Ten Mile? Good for the few that made the trip, and best of all, everybody there was running their own gear and not "sharing." One fellow tried up at Salmon Creek for nothing, then brought his rings down to the outer bay and got quick limits. They're out there if you look for them and the crabbing probably won't get any better this season.

    The Coastodian sent over a few pictures on what it looked like in other local launches. These photos are from Miller Park and Westside. The boat without a plug was at Miller. I had heard that it almost sank, but this photo ain't almost. That's sunk. As far as I know, though, it sounds like nobody died out there today. Good job, everyone! 

   Here's your obligatory crab pictures, also provided by the Coastodian; "Some mean crabs caught today.

The guy that belongs to the hand got bit hard while they were cleaning them. His buddies gave him a hard time to which he replied "hey, I already lost one finger"" Yes, folks, even half a crab can still pinch hard. Save your fingers. 

 

  

 Here's the post I've been waiting for"

Proverbs 13:19: “A desire realized is sweet to the soul.”

 

Thanks to Willy, Gage, Vern S., Ryan G., Danny at Fisherman’s Warehouse, Alan Tani and Tony Pena for freely sharing your intellectual property. Also, thanks to the one gal and all the guys who tried with me multiple times and struck out, and to my buddy Erin who cranked on this one with me today. NorCal BFT has quickly transformed this expensive hobby into an expensive sickness!

 

64”, 26x35 just west of the football, 240mm pink madmac 650’ back (using Rapala Digital Line Counter), blind strike, 11/2, 1:40pm, 20-minute fight. Hooked in the red of the gills and came in easy at the end.

HarvestTime" You thought the addiction was bad before, Steve. Now you're well and completely  f****d, Welcome. I'm actually happier for you than for my catch. You earned yours more. Many trips without a bite. I'd like to say they get easier but that's probably baloney. Good on you for sticking it out for your first, and good on you for sticking out for number two. I hope it's easier, but there ain't no guarantees in fishing. It could be worse. But now you'll keep grinding, because you know. They say the tug is the drug, but the pull that wants to drag you over the side is something else entirely. 
And not we earned your thanks by any other measure than by "if those jackasses can do it, so can I" inspiration, but you're welcome. When we assemble a 12 step group we will try to include you. Glad you got 'em.

   That report weas from yesterday. Today at the Landing...

   Kapulani Chong took out this motley crew today and caught this 115 pounder (gutted and gilled). Kapu has put in his time, and Eddie P? No comment. But they got 'em today, and no matter the money and time you spend chasing one of these critters, once it happens, it's all worth it. Bluefin are pretty notorious for pulling hard, but at least in the warmer water down south they'll overheat or run out of oxygen. Up here in the cold, oxygen-rich water, the fight is different. Hang on. And an addiction is born. Nice work, Kapulani and crew, and it even harder work with Eddie on board. I know. Good on ya'.

   

     Finally! Gage, Alec and I got one at the Football today. 104 pounds gutted. We saw the usual bird and tuna show but no whales there (they were all off of Bodega Head in 40 fathoms). In the holes in the fog we saw several other boats with fish hooked up. In some of the thick fog we saw the boat Blue Money run over and break off one of out MadMacs, Normally I wouldn't name names, but the Blue Money ran over our lines on July 5, too. Twice gets you outed. TWICE! Apparently not saying anything supports bad behavior. Anyways, we finally caught one after sliding our lines back further. Go figure, two days of no bites with our lines at 40 and 60 seconds out, then less than an hour after going to 50 and 75 seconds me hook up on the long line. 

    I'm trying to talk Gage into going to 90 seconds for the long line. Maybe 100?

 

    

From yesterday, not two fish, but one fish twice. Nice damn fish, though. This one went 122 pounds. Tom Brodsky and Vern Sasaki caught it well beyond the Football around noon on a pink Halco Max 190 (or 220). Not many bluefin caught yesterday, so Tom thought he'd try his luck again today.

   Tom also brought along his lucky Ron Johnson. Ron did all the reeling and grunting for this one. It went 108 on our scale, gutted, but it felt and looked heavier to me. This fish also bit the pink Halco, but it bit just after sunrise on the north side of the Bodega Canyon. Pretty serious work for a couple of retired guys.

   Peter Kim and crew (yes, that's Doug in there) caught this 108 pound (gutted, gilled) bluefin at the Football today. The saw many nonbiting tuna but finally found a biter at 10:30 or so this morning. It liked Peter's green mackerel Madmac 200. Peter earned this first bluefin for his boat after seven trips. Your time was up, Peter. Nice work, but watch that gaff work. The fish didn't like getting punctured and took a five minute tour of the area before returning with Peter's gaff. There was a noontime bite at the Football, or at least it seemed like it to me, as I watched boat after boat hook fish around me. Gage and I hooked zero fish today. There were other boats with zeroes, too, but watching other people catch makes it hard to tell yourself that the fish aren't biting. Then guy crying for help on the radio because he needed a gaff (or maybe another gaff and a guy to work it) to land his fish was kind of the straw that broke this camel's back. I may have yelled vile things at the radio. You researched, bought the right gear, ran to right place, trolled the right way, hooked a fish, got it to the boat, but forgot that you might catch a fish as big as you? That might be difficult to get into the boat? Isn't that kind of the point of this fishery? I have five gaffs on the boat when tuna fishing. I've never needed more than three. I guess I had too many gaffs and hands to catch a tuna today.

   On the crabbing front, it looks good for the opener. There were a few people poaching from shore today and they caught some very nice Dungeness (The person I heard this report from saw the crabs but the poachers in question assured her that the season opened on November 1. It doesn't) Assuming we can CalTip any future season jumpers, it bodes well for the rest of the law-abiding fishermen. Decent crab on the beach should mean good crabbing where the crab should be. Time will tell. We did score a few fish heads for bait for the opener from a commercial fisherman, so we will be selling those for as long as we can get them. Demand is likely to outstrip supply.