Hunter Smith sent over this report today: "Picked up this sixteen pounder just north of elephant in 125’ on white tube jig" I assume that this is a today fish. Yesterday, Gage and I saw 49º water in the morning and decided against trying for halibut. It is my understanding that there are more halibut out in 100 to 200 feet of water than I would think. Like, there's lots. The downside is that there's way more area than fish, and the water at that depth is always pretty cold, making the fish fairly sluggish. That said, my buddy Hunter Smith says that those fish will bite. For him, at least. Most of the successful halibut guys fishing deep water are dragging nets behind big boats (drag boats), covering a lot of ground for fish that don't need to be hungry. Your chances of success are less, unless you talk to Hunter, it seems. He's got something figured out.

    Gage and I took Ed Parsons out fishing yesterday. We fished between 8:30 and 11:00 for 29 schoolie rockfish and 5 lingcod. We then checked our two pots we had dropped for red crab, one at Abbott's Lagoon and one at Kehoe Beach. Our three hour soak yielded a total of five keeper Dungeness, returned. Takeaways for us are: 1. Red crabbing in open sand yields very few red crab. 2. A couple of the best places for Dungeness crab have very few crab of any kind. I had heard that numbers were very low in the Outer Bay and after seeing so few crabs on Ten Mile, I'm a bit concerned for our season.  There's a good chance that there's a lot of Dungeness out deep that just haven't come ashore yet, and maybe they've been waiting for the water to cool off, but at this point, a week before the opener, it ain't looking good. Then again, I'm not a very good crabber. 

   Sorry, I'm a liar. I was informed that the final decision about crabbing would come on Monday, and I repeated it. Now, this:

CDFW Restricts Recreational Crab Traps and Delays the Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery

The recreational take of Dungeness crab using crab traps will be temporarily restricted statewide when the season opens on Saturday, Nov. 5 due to presence of humpback and blue whales and the potential for entanglement from trap gear. Recreational take of Dungeness crab by other methods, including hoop nets and crab snares, is not affected by the temporary trap restriction and is allowed statewide beginning Nov. 5, 2022. However, the deployment and use of crab traps in any recreational crab fishery (including rock crab) is temporarily restricted in all fishing zones until lifted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director. CDFW also reminds recreational crabbers to implement best practices, as described in the Best Practices Guide. The commercial Dungeness crab fishery south of the Sonoma/Mendocino county line was scheduled to open on Nov. 15, 2022 in Fishing Zones 3, 4, 5 and 6. However, the season opener has been delayed in those zones due to presence of high numbers of humpback whales and the potential for entanglement. “Based on recent surveys, large aggregations of humpbacks whales continue to forage in California coastal waters and allowing the use of crab traps would increase the risk of an entanglement,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “We will continue to work with both the recreational and commercial Dungeness crab fisheries to protect whales and sea turtles while striving to maximize fishing opportunity. We appreciate the ongoing commitment by the fleet and the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group to protect these incredible animals. These partnerships will continue to shape the future of both fisheries and we look forward to continuing the important work of providing fishing opportunity in the coming weeks." Prior to this determination, CDFW worked with a broad range of scientific partners, researchers, agencies and the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group to collect and synthesize information regarding presence of humpback whales, blue whales and leatherback sea turtles across each fishing zone. Aerial and vessel-based surveys indicate aggregations of humpback whales and several blue whales are present statewide. Under triggers established as part of the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP) regulations for the commercial fishery as well as regulations for the recreational Dungeness crab fishery, the CDFW Director is required to implement a management action for these fishing zones to reduce marine life entanglement risk. CDFW anticipates the next risk assessment will take place on or before Nov. 23, 2022, at which time the Director will re-evaluate the temporary recreational crab trap restriction and commercial fishery delay in Fishing Zones 3-6, as well as the need for any management actions for the commercial fishery in Fishing Zones 1 and 2. That risk assessment is expected to inform the potential for a statewide commercial fishery opener on Dec. 1 and the potential to modify the recreational trap restriction.

 

 

    Mike Mack sent me this report from Sunday. Sunday wasn't as windy as Saturday, but that's not saying much. Even with the wind whipping, Mr. Mack and company put a couple of halibut in the box: "Halibut: we tried going out front to rough and coast guard was at the tb. Caught 1 smelt 1 small anchovy in bay and then went to bar. Caught about 30 smelt and drifted bar 1st drift 15lber 2nd drift jigged up 16lber on grape tube jig using the one Willie gave me" That was a Redrum 1.5 ounce jig. So, at least as of Sunday the halibut were still biting. Well, they bit for Mike and Spinner. Your (and my) mileage may vary.

    In other news, Dungeness season is coming. That means that crab traps for red crab ends on Friday night. No traps for the week before Dungeness opens. Now the good news/bad news: The good news is that it looks like domoic acid is not an issue. The bad news is that, while it isn't official yet, you can pretty well count on Dungeness opening without the use of traps. The official word will come on Halloween (spooky) but their recommendation is to just say no to traps. Too many whales. The recommendation: "B. Recommended Management Action, RAMP subsection (e) 

Recreational Fishery: • Crab Trap Prohibition: Fishing Zone 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 

Commercial Fishery: • Season Delay: Fishing Zones 3, 4, 5 and 6"

  Before you ask, the Commercials aren't delayed in Zone 1 or 2 because those Zones wouldn't open until December 1st. The next official word won't come until November 23rd or so. So for now, get those hoops ready.

    The wind is screaming (Mary?) today, but luckily for us, Brandon Hodson had a good day yesterday. "Hey there,

had to try to get cousin Mark some ink as a new fisherman,
Mclures cane through for us with a couple halibut and a few lings, one of each photo worthy… They’re out there if you don’t get easily discouraged.  Not looking good for halibut after this wind though! 

Thanks for keeping us informed.  Here’s cousin Mark:" Brandon is correct; it ain't looking good for most fishing post-gale. Thank God for rockfish! Nice work putting your cuz on the fish. Those are some good ones. I can't believe that Gage left any flatfish behind, yet here's proof. Nice work, Brandon. And Mark.
 

   

As there have been very few boats out from here this week, I have very little information. There were a few halibut caught here this week, but not many. It ain't over in the bay, but it ain't good, either. McClure's isn't much better. Gage fished there for two days for a total of one ten pound halibut on a live jacksmelt. That was his only halibut bite. There have been a few others caught but not many. On Thursday, Gage caught his halibut, but after the building seas threatened to toss us and the boat ashore in 35 feet of water, we decided to go back in the bay. Soon after the bar started breaking all the way across. We fished by Sand Point, where he missed a halibut on Wednesday. After six drifts we were about to give up when Gage hooked a striper on his Bigfoot tube jig. We missed two more bites on that drift. After three more uneventful drifts, John Brezina pulled up alongside us to to tell us he was tired of no bites and he was headed in. He tossed his dead jacksmelt over the side of the boat. A moment later, a striper ate his dead jacksmelt twenty feet from the boat. Four drifts later, John was gone and we had no other bites except for crabs. As we weren't crabbing, we bailed, too, just after we watched a guy in an antique fourteen foot aluminum skiff go past and jump the bar. I can't believe he made it, and we left because we didn't want to risk our lives to save someone that got in trouble by doing something so blatantly stupid. Sorry, but if I see you doing something stupid, and risking my life to help you for your failed risk assessment is my option, I'm not going. Your choice was bad. Mine should be good. My father used to go out and save people (and often just try to save them) when bad things happened. After flipping a boat with Bill George on New Year's Day 1986, he slowed down a bit. There's nothing like staring at your own mortality to lend a bit of perspective to your life. I, too, want to help others, but it turns out that (in my case, at least) you need to carry a relatively small number of drowned people to learn a reasonable fear of the Tomales Bar. Anyhow, the weather forecast for the weekend is bad. After the wind, halibut fishing gets really questionable. Probably, figure it's over. Local bluefin may be over as well. But we'll see.

    The halibut bite at McClures Beach slowed but didn't quite stop. These fish were caught there yesterday, I'm told, and I saw an approximately 15 pound halibut in Mike Mack's pile of rockfish yesterday. It ain't good fishing, but it's better than inside Tomales Bay. It's way better than the salmon fishing, at least as far as I've heard. The rockfishing is way better, but as long as there's still a chance for halibut you really gotta try.

 

     Taking my own advice, I tried for halibut after work today. I was passing by Sand Point at 5:45. I went to Bird Rock, as I overheard someone fishing from here saying that they caught a big halibut at Bird in 50 feet of water. I metered around for a few minutes looking for a flat, slightly deeper spot in the rocks and found one pretty quick. Five minutes later I had a seventeen pound halibut in the box. It bit a jig, as I hadn't caught any bait yet. Soon after, jacksmelt bit the sabiki. Five in the bucket. Two back over the side with hooks in them. Ten minutes later a very large fish ran off with a jacksmelt but spit the bait out, in very large halibut fashion. The next bite was a rock and I lost a bait but landed a purple urchin. Shortly after I caught and released a shorty halibut. The it looked like I was drifting out of the sand hole back into the rocks, so I fire up the motor and backed up a bit, only to see that one rod was hooked on the bottom. I grabbed the rod and tried to pull it loose, but the bottom shook its head. Soon after I had a second 17 pound halibut. The sun was down and I headed for home. I'm pretty happy with these two fish, but the one that didn't stick is haunting me. It felt Big. Oh well. It's still out there guys. Catch it and make me feel bad. Or don't. That's okay, too.