Cold, clear water and not too much bait made for some slow salmon fishing today. The halibut were still biting for  few guys, though. This 30 pounder bit a shiner near Hog Island for Jacob Montrose of Sacramento. The fish still had white spots, so they're still coming into the bay and shallows for the spawn. The anchovies, on the other hand, were moving out towards the outer bay, which could mean another good salmon bite there in the next few days if the wind would just lay off.

    The wind blew like crazy today which kept everyone off the water. Except for a few hours in the morning when a few people like Tom Treadway and his family darted out to the outer bay for some limits of really nice salmon. Why, even the guy who said "fishing is hard" yesterday stuck his head in the office to say "fishing is easy" today. I'm not sure what to believe, but I am pretty sure it will blow again tomorrow and that the water will be cooling off, possibly sending the schools of bait to wherever they disappear to after a blow with the salmon following them. It seems like there's quite a few fish around, though, so maybe a few stragglers will stick around. The halibut fishing was still good over the weekend. although the bait catching was difficult yesterday. Current thinking is that the anchovies do less eating when they're concerned with not getting eaten. Poor little fishies have been getting abused by bass and 'buts. It may not be a bad idea to have a lure or dead bait at the ready when the anchovies aren't biting because there's a good chance that something else is biting.

     Here's a picture from last week with the Carter clan's most fresh-faced fisherman, Ezra, somehow making some pretty good sized stripers look a little larger. I may need to borrow him if I catch a fish. 

    On Thursday, as I drifted with one just-legal fish in the box, I received this photo. "They're on the beach" said the text. Huh. I wasn't. No wonder.

    I also received this photo on Thursday.  It would have been nice if this text had included the information that the fish was caught in the outer bay. I like catching salmon in the outer bay. Now everybody else is out there catching my salmon. Salmon like...

    ....these salmon. The Alexander boys (and honorary member Larry Varela) laid into limits day before yesterday. Luke and Logan even caught their first salmon ever and their fish each weighed 20 pounds. When the fish are biting so well that the older Alexanders let the youngest ones catch fish, it's a pretty darn good bite.

    Teo Lally's grandpa, Ed Parsons, tried a few times this week to put Teo on the big fish. Luckily for Teo, Kapulani Chong stopped by and put them over the fish. According to Ed:"Teo got a 28 lber yesterday.  Landed it unassisted right up to the gaff.  He's coming right along for a 10 yr old.  Said he wants to be as good as Gage.  Sounds like we both have our hands full!"

     Sam Gracy of Napa caught this 27 pound salmon yesterday morning.

    These gentlemen used their kayaks to try a variety of spots for halibut but ended up catching both fish in the channel that runs past the pier. You could almost cast there...

   ...and these gentlemen did. Both halibut from the Sand Point, casting into the channel. I won't tell you their secret lures because they asked me not to and because you wouldn't believe it.

    If you heard a bunch of whooping and hollering yesterday evening at about 7:00 PM, that was Gage. He caught his limit of salmon trolling in 50 feet of water in front of Estero de San Antonio in about 90 minutes. Some of the rest of us took much longer to catch much less.

    Jake and Adam are not some of the rest of us. They wrestled these fish out of the weeds in the outer bay today.

     Some people go to the bar to drink. These people go there for halibut (and sometimes stripers). It looks like Tom Carter got his eyes back on the same side of his head and finally caught himself a halibut instead of a striper. He's still got his hand on his wife's fish, though.

    Vance Staplin has been working on this whaler for a few years and he's finally got it in the water to test it. I would say it passes. Ron Johnson may have helped.

     Tom and Jerrie Carter caught these fish yesterday. Not by Hog Island. I was going to crop Tom out of the photo but I wanted everyone to see the way he's got his hand on his wife's fish. Like we'd believe you caught it, Tom. Stick to your bass.

     Danny McDonald went fishing with Gage on Monday evening and caught this 10 pound halibut at sundown. That's the smile of a man's first halibut. 

   Gage thought he'd try noodling for halibut and this one bit his thumb, also at sundown. I guess his thumb must smell like anchovies.

    Alec Bennett caught this one on a dead drifted anchovy yesterday morning. It kinda looks like he was on the bar...

    Gage wasn't the only one fishing in the evening. This 25 pound halibut filled out my limit on the bar on Monday night. Small live anchovies with #8 treble hooks. Attention divers: There's halibut on the bar but you can't see them. Bring a white cane instead of a spear gun.

    These salmon came from out deeper but...

   ...it looks to me like these salmon came from closer to shore. The larger salmon weighed 20 pounds and the two larger halibut weighed 20 and 24 pounds. Nobody else did even half as well (Gage tried pretty hard) so I'm not calling the salmon "on the beach" officially, but I'll guess these were scouts for the rest of the school. Soon....What will we do while we wait?

    How about catch white seabass? Nancy Raggio sent in this photo and story from yesterday:"A fishing day to remember-

Here is the 40 inch white sea bass I caught yesterday in the bay! People say that catching a white sea bass is kind of rare here, so I feel extremely fortunate. I'm curious how many of this size are caught in our area?
Could not have landed it without my son Noah manning the net! 
Tore off at least 50 feet of line 3 times urgently trying to get back to the ocean.
Had no idea what it was but Noah just released a huge ray so as i was fighting it we compared  the action to that 15 minute fight - and it was similar but the ray did not race away fast toward the ocean and the surface like this big fish did! 
In between the runs I was able to gain on it pumping and reeling. 
She weighed in at a little under 20 pounds and bit on a dead fresh smelt.
I've caught salmon all my life,and they're always a thrill,  but this powerhouse fish beat them all as far as fighting fun.
We also both also limited on halibut...by the way. A day we will never forget!

Nancy Raggio"

   Nice job Nancy (and Noah). Don't catch the WSB bug (although it sounds like it may be too late for you). We're a little far North for consistent seabass catching, although I did hear a forecast calling for a return of The Blob, the warm water anomaly that screwed up our weather, abalone and crabbing a few years back but did gift us with WSB and bluefin. I mostly hope it doesn't happen but the devil on my shoulder keeps whispering "seabass..." 

    Also, there's halibut and stripers on the bar.