Patty Stahl of Loomis caught this nice 23# salmon while trolling with her husband, Mike, yesterday. There were a few other fish caught, but not too many. The rockfish took a beating from frustrated salmon fishermen. The halibut bite slowed down as well but not quite as bad as the salmon. The wind is supposed to star blowing again this week, easing up around Thursday. That should cool the water off and hopefully shake things up a bit. Less of the red tide bloom probably wouldn't hurt the fishing any but will close the nightly light show. For the shark fishermen out there, my boys tried casting lures to the glowing sharks as they swam by, but apparently the sharks aren't interested in biting things with a glowing fishing line pointing at them. Dropping bait to the bottom is a good way to catch the many Dungeness crabs walking by. It's still a good show, though.

Tyler Lipton of Granite Bay caught this 20# halibut on the bar on the 26th.
Jim Moore of Fallon, Nevada caught this 30# halibut on a frozen sardine while drifting the bar on Friday. Both of these halibut were the first halibut ever caught by these gentlemen and will be difficult to top.

First, a little catch-up. Here are future local legends Haley Porter, Cameron Vogler, Gage Vogler and Paige Cato, all of Dillon Beach, showing off the largest of their total of 14 salmon caught between two boats (there were three adults helping) on August 2. There was a boys versus girls fishing contest and both sides claimed victory.
John "Johnny Sandbar" Bartholomew caught this 27 pound salmon while trolling on the 19th. In the picture, the thing under the salmon is a pelican trying to figure out if he could fit the fish in his beak. He couldn't.

Joe DaCruz and Tad Bowers show off some of their (and Jerry DaCruz's) catch of 1 salmon, 6 halibut and 6 sole from Ten Mile on Thursday. If you look closely you can tell where they were fishing.

Ten Mile has been pretty good for halibut this past week, with a few salmon thrown in as well. McLure's has also been good for both species. Tomales Point and the Trees have been good for salmon. When I say good, I mean that there were fish caught. Not too many salmon limits anymore but some decent scratch fishing. The rockfish have been a bit slower. Some of the slow could be caused by the fish feeding all night. We are experiencing a bloom of bioluminescent dinoflagellates, or light-emitting plankton. The ocean glows with every movement in the water. It is a bad time to be a small fish, since every movement lights up an "eat me" sign. Last night we watched no fewer than 6 sharks feeding right at the pier, and those were just the ones near enough to the surface that we could see them. One shark chased a fish onto the beach. It's a heck of a show but probably not good for daytime fishing. The wind is forecast for Monday and Tuesday and if the water cools off the lights should go out.

The halibut are on the bar. So far I've seen 5 limits go by from there. Live smelt has been the ticket.