So if you followed this blog recently, you may have noticed that I've been talking up Abbott's Lagoon and the deep water (250'+) off of Bodega Head. Tim Nelson and Mike Mack took careful note of my recommendations and, after some consideration, they fished between Bird Rock and Buoy "02". They were barely able to complete their tack between those two landmarks in 50ish feet of water before they had their limits to 22 pounds. It may have taken them 40 minutes. See what kind of knowledge you can gain by reading this report regularly? They spent the rest of their day trying for halibut in the back bay for a grand total of no bites. That part of the day they took my advice. At least the rain cleaned the boat a little.
     The acres of bait at Abbott's Lagoon are still there and there's still fish being caught there and off of the Head if you don't mind some south wind. Some? Maybe more than some. Probably I'd try a bit at Tomales Point for salmon first, but the fish often move quick this time of year, so it seems likely that the fish had moved on by the time I heard the story. It's still worth a half-hour tack, though.

   Tom Carter caught this nice, 15 pound striper yesterday. It was not the halibut he was looking for (he caught that one, or maybe the grandson of that one, today) but he seemed at peace with the way things worked out. I'm sure any lingering doubts disappeared at dinner. The fish bit a live jacksmelt.

   Looks like the fish counter can catch them, too. Zach and Nick caught three salmon today at Abbott's Lagoon. While the fish bit there all day the bite was way better earlier in the morning. There's anchovies scattered from there to the first parking lot from 30 to 150 feet of water. Most boats, including the commercials, were trolling in 60 to 80 feet of water as the jellies got bad, deeper. There's some nice fish down there, but if you're looking for numbers and don't care about size, try the area around 18 and 8 (38º18' by 123º08') or at least within a few miles of there. Lots of next year's fish. LOTS. Hey, why wait until next year to catch those fish? Waiting is for suckers. Fish too small for you? Just hold it further out when you take your photo op. It works. Don't ask how I know.

    No pics, but two boats caught four salmon yesterday morning at the Keyholes in 70 to 100 feet of water. Out deeper, 220 to 270 feet, there are lots of next year's salmon, all of them too short for the commercial fishermen and most of them too short for us. A few more halibut were caught near Hog yesterday. Not too many fishermen, so not very many reports.

    I heard of four halibut caught by Hog today. Here's what two of them looked like. These two bit live smelt about two hours before the high tide, near the split channel marker (red/green pole). The other two weren't quite as impressive as these but were caught as a double hook-up closer to the weather buoy. Outside there was one boat that caught a couple of keeper salmon "out deep". They weren't too big, but if you're looking at getting a head start on catching next year's salmon, this could be your chance. Also, Gage tells me that the surfperch had been patiently waiting for him and are still biting well, at least for him.

Here's a report from earlier in the week:"I finally hooked up a flatty after almost 2 years of coming up empty handed. This beast bit a drifting squid 60’ off McLures beach last Monday. She felt bigger but weighed in at 17 pounds even. We had Halibut steaks for dinner the last few nights and my kids said it was the best fish they ever had… although they often say that. Regardless it keeps me fishing and smiling. 

Djubaya 
17’ Boston Whaler
‘Djuta Tyde’" That fish looks larger. I'd ditch that scale. There was a 30 pound halibut caught on Thursday by a rockfisherman at Tomales Point, so maybe the cold water isn't keeping the big ones from biting. The bait at Abbott's dried up and the pelicans and whales moved out to 240 feet of water, as well as many, many sea lions. I overheard a commercial fisherman on the radio saying he had over 20 sea lions following him. He was stacking the gear and running away. That's worse than jellyfish.

EDIT: We have a revised report:"

I was tired when I wrote in about the Halibut off McLures… I said it weighed in a #17… I meant #27… Ooops. I thought she for sure broke my #28.25 Flatty record I set back in Sept 2015 off Kehoe beach (along with 2 white Sea Bass #26-#36 that was a good day)…

Anyway I am not going to ditch the scale just yet… I might send my brain on vacation soon… although it seems to go without me more and more these days

Djubaya"