Another day, another Eddie Kim photo:"Cousin Jimmy and I worked hard for these. Caught on anchovies and 1 on shiner" Mr. Kim works the area around Hog, and as you can see from the photo, these fish, while not monsters are also not typical back bay fish. There were some guys that did very well further back in the bay today, numberwise, but the closer you got to the front of the bay the larger the average size. Coincidence? I think not. There were a lot of halibut caught today, again, and in my opinion it is due to an influx of fish following the anchovies combined with mild tides. But, my opinion is worth exactly what you pay for it. 

On the salmon front, the one fellow I spoke with that went out for salmon ended up fishing for halibut before noon. Was it because he limited out early? In a word, no. He tried the 80 to 100 foot area in front of Bird and saw nothing but cold, clear water and jellyfish. He saw a lot of jellyfish, though. I did receive a tip from a friendly commercial fisherman,"Fish off bird rock to elephant, at 40 fathoms, shallow. Go down anywhere from 6 fathoms to 9 fathoms.  Darker hoochies, like watermelon or deeper green, chrome spoons." For those that don't know, a fathom is six feet. That is serious commercial speak. I feel saltier just copying and pasting it. I'm also gonna give it a shot tomorrow. 

Here's a report from Breck Davis:"Hello,

I took my girlfriend,Debbie,out on Tomales bay thru Westside,Sorry,blowing hard yesterday,southwind,we did run to Lawsons and try to drift there by the shore,wind was fierce,blowing incoming or outgoing tide.

She caught 3 live anchovies,fished hard for them,1st one she got a reel screamer by hog,nearly spooled her bait casting reel and lost it,WSB? 

Next one got a bat ray on anchovy and fouled the anchor line,talk about a heavy hoist-100#s to get it released, 3rd one got lucky,she caught a 24" halibut @ yellow weather  buoy,as she was reeling up to go in, Southwind was gale force by then

Fish was caught on my blue Starcraft Blue Balls,by the way I have been using Jeff Akers Marine for outboard repair on Blue Balls and other boat,from Lawsons....Breck" Jeff Akers was one of our mechanics for a long damn time. When our shop closed he went solo but is still in the area. In my opinion he's a damn good mechanic. My opinion is based upon the fact that he taught me most of what what I know about outboard repair. The outboard breaking I taught myself. Jeff is a bit overwhelmed by the number of people calling him for repairs but it's kind of his fault for being good. Also, nice work, Breck, for putting your woman on some fish in some pretty difficult conditions.

And another report from a familiar name (and now face):"Hey Willy,

Nice to finally meet you and get down there for our first trip of the year, my boat is no longer a tractor virgin. Here is the promised picture of Tuesday’s fish. Big fish were 16 and 17 pounds caught a good bit north of hog on shiners. Wednesday the boat limited In the same area with 9 fish with the big fish being 16 and 17 pounds. I think I see a pattern......

Thanks, Swampy."  Not a bad pattern, I'd say. Nice to finally meet you as well. Way to drive a boat. You did a great job trailering in difficult conditions. It wasn't pretty but it was very functional. Nice damn pile of fish as well. Sorry Gage talked your ears off but, hey, don't say "striper" in front of him. That's your fault. 

   No pictures today but quite a bit of South wind. Our only salmon fisherman got blown off the water by noon with only one fish on and off in 80 feet of water at the Trees. The halibut fishermen had better luck (and weather; the waves were smaller) with about half getting limits or close to them and most of the rest catching a few. Live jacksmelt and anchovies were the baits of choice today, and boats worked from Marshall all the way up to the Landing. The channel near Marker 5 had a number of boats fishing in it although I'm not sure if it was because the fishing was good or if the wind was less there. The gusts peaked over 26 knots and left baits skipping over the surface of the water, far from the mouths of hungry halibut. The seagulls were pretty cool with it, though. The forecast calls for some more South wind this week but now that the fog has rolled in the wind may have less to prove and will hopefully just be unpleasant. 

The halibut bit well again today for most of the fishermen. Eddie Kim sent over his victory picture with a note: "Brother Harry and I with the 2 biggest weighing in at 15lbs each. Saw a lot of bait coming in. Good to see." Live bait definitely was the way to go if you wanted to catch. I didn't hear of nearly as many stripers in the bay today, probably due to the current slowing with weaker tides. I did hear that there were some in the surf. It turns out that if you cast a popper towards a pile of pounding pelicans in the surf you may have a chance of catching a nice striper. Who knew? The pelicans were darkening the skies over the day beach at times today. Relatively good weather forecast for this week so we should see some more silvery fish coming in soon.

The Tomales Outlaw tried for salmon further South out of the Gate. "Hi Willy we fished Muir area yesterday. 600 boats spread out from Muir to Duxbury area. Fish spread out too. More bait than I have ever seen. Huge balls of anchovies everywhere. Maybe too much bait. Stopped at a favorite hole on the way in and stuck this ling. Picked up enough browns and coppers for a heck of a taco party as well. See you soon." Too much bait is a thing. It's funny, you're usually looking for it and can't find it, and then later you're fishing in a thick anchovy soup. It can be hard to get fish to bite when your bait is one in a trillion. Sometimes you do better by fishing bait-adjacent, near but not in the mix, targeting the hungry fish on their way in. Sometimes the crazy crap that never caught before will work just because it's different. And sometimes you just don't catch.

 Frank green caught this twenty pound halibut today in the back bay. To me, catching a twenty pounder back there is like catching a forty pounder on the bar. Both things are possible, just very unlikely. I gotta say, after all this Covid crap, hearing Frankie laugh again made me illogically happy. You know how certain smells or sounds or places will trigger a happy memory? Boom. Thanks, Frank. And damn, nice fish. It might have outweighed the other eight fish in the boat, combined. To be fair to the other fishermen, there were some other guys that limited or nearly limited today. None of them triggered a memory like Frank, but most of them triggered a bit of jealousy on my part. Don't panic (Hitchhiker's Guide reference), fair readers, there were a few fish caught around Hog Island for those of you that can't branch out. For those with a bit of wanderlust, try further back. Or further forward. Clearly there's a of of smaller fish in the back. My sources tell me there's a few fish coming in to the bay chasing those 'chovies. Those fish tend to be larger. And oriented towards the mouth of the bay. I heard of a couple caught near Marker 5 today. That's a pretty good indicator of incoming critters. I didn't get the white spot report (white spots on halibut often indicate fish on the move).  or the record, Frank did not complain about getting bait, so it may be getting easier, at least for a master baiter. In the good sense.

Here's a couple of salmon victory pictures from team Mack. That bottom fish weighed in at 23 pounds. That's a keeper in my book. Even if Tim caught it. Actually, especially if Tim caught it. I can say mean things all I want, but these guys go out in some questionable water at times and catch fish. And then come back. All good, because we like them. Today the weather outside was bad, so any salmon was pretty notable. This week has a good forecast, and if it holds (unlikely, but a man can dream) the fishing should be spectacular by next weekend. I know, third week of July? What are the actual chances of that? Oh yeah.....

Late entry, but confirmation of white spots. If you zoom in you can see the spots on Vance's fish (on the right). It didn't have them when getting cleaned a bit later. Frankie (my personal halibut guru) says white spots mean the fish just entered the bay. I ain't arguing with the guy that caught more halibut than I've seen. I'm just writing stuff down. But it looks like they're coming in. Thanks for the pic, Vance. Nice grade of fish. I almost didn't need the background to determine your location. Almost.

    So, the place that looked so unfishy to me on Thursday had serious fish, it seems. One boat that Gage spoke with today had three limits of salmon at 50 feet down in 80 feet of cold, clear, baitless water. It turns out that the words "cold", "clear", and "baitless"' sometimes have no relation to to catching fish. Often they do, but often isn't always. That's why they're spelled different. I forget these things. Be better than me. 

Here's a quick report from Timmy Nelson on a trip from last weekend :"Here's a picture from the 4th of July, biggest was 23lbs according to your scale. Also had 4 short halibut and a bunch of rock fish. " I though his salmon was larger. Normally that only happens on fish that I catch. Perhaps I'm growing as a person. Probably not.

I gotta say, the best part of posting a fishing report is people sending in successful reports just after you've reported your crappy day. Spaced Invader sent me this picture of the halibut I didn't catch. He was trolling by Marshall in the wind Thursday evening.

Team Barton hit the water today for a grand total of two salmon. Two others were lost. They were working 80ish feet of water from Tomales Point to the Trees. All bites on Apexes (Glitter Melon and Cop Car).

The Kim family took a bit of a beating on some sloppy water today for only one fish, but if you're only going to catch one, catch a big one. This one weighed 24 pounds. 

Jim McKeand caught a halibut and a striper today. And yesterday. He's been working live bait back by Hog and I think it's working. Most of the halibut fishermen had fish today but mostly not too many. Except for one fellow that I won't name that had ten halibut for three guys (Last hookup was a double when they had eight fish in the box). They returned with only their limits, but I would guess that there may be a few fish about.