The water cooled off and the halibut bite slowed but the fish kept coming in. Several fish in the 20-30# range came in yesterday from Ten Mile and Dillon Beach. Rockfishing was pretty good at Elephant and slow at both points. The forecast is good for today and tomorrow but wind after that.

Nathan Porter of Dillon Beach poses with his 34# white sea bass. Nate caught it and a halibut while trolling Ten Mile beach with sardines on a "special rig". Another boat pulled out before Nate with two limits of halibut to 23#. If you aren't fishing out there right now I feel sorry for you. Yes, I feel sorry for myself, too.

Tad Vogler of Dillon Beach with his 28# halibut. The halibut are on Ten Mile Beach and McLure's Beach. 5 boats had 21 halibut to 30#. Live bait and trolling were putting them in the box. Rockfishing was just OK. The forecast is pretty good for the rest of the week.

A few halibut and rockfish came in today even though the water was not the best. The best catch of the day was by Scott Mason. A boat flipped over on the bar, tossing four people into the water. Scott called the Coast Guard, then started pulling people out of the water. They were back on shore before the helicopter arrived. Nice work, Scott. For the record, the National Park Service was also on scene before the helicopter arrived. More swells are forecast for tomorrow and there will likely be an intermittent break on the bar, especially after the tide starts going out.

A few halibut are showing on Ten Mile Beach now, as well as on the bar. Watch out for the swells, though, as they have been breaking out into 30 feet of water on occasion. Remember, you are there to fish, not surf. The rockfish are biting slow but steady. A couple will bite when you first drop on a new spot, then the bite tapers off. When they stop biting you are better off moving to a new place. It is easier to find a few hungry fish than to try to force stubborn fish to bite. Weather permitting, an albacore run is being planned for next week, probably Tuesday. And there are still lots of sardines south of Pelican Point.

Cluns Alien Invaders!

Last Saturday myself and two others decided that a trip to the River Clun in Shropshire was in order so we headed towards the upper reaches where the river thins out a bit but previous experience told us that there were still plenty of good sized grayling along with the trout to be caught from the deeper pockets of water.

After our arrival at 7.30am we spread out along the 2 mile stretch and began fishing. The river was low and relatively clear and with the bright conditions the fish were going to be very nervous so stealth was a must to get the best out of the water.

The first decent pool I came to saw a couple of brownies come to hand taken on a small tungsten head pheasant tail nymph fished beneath a klinkhamer, then a little while later a couple more, nothing big but the trout on the Clun can weigh a fair bit more than trout caught on a lot of other waters due to the abundance of food available to them.

My journey upstream saw me under attack from a bombardment of missiles fired from the 'over-ripe' Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens Glandulifera) pods which stretch along most of this river bank, when these things go off it makes you glad you put your Polaroids on. Since its introduction into the UK from Asia during the late 1930's and its escape later in the 50's into the British countryside the spread has been phenomenal with few rivers escaping the invasion.

A switch to one of my favourite grayling bugs fished with a fair bit of weight in the deeper glides started to produce a few decent fish, the grayling along this river are a real eye opener...its hard to imagine where they all hide but I'm convinced that some of the deeper depressions in the riverbed can hold a substantial amount of fish and if they are not spooked then catching 2 or 3 from one spot is always on the cards.

Below: possibly the darkest trout I've ever caught.

Taken from right below a wall which is permanently in the shade.

Although there was plenty of flies coming off the water (mainly Stoneflies) the surface activity seemed restricted to the smaller specimens resulting in rather futile splashes at anything that was chucked at them.

Between the three of us we ended with a total of 44 fish with the majority of them being grayling, so under the conditions we all left happy and looking forward to our imminent return...hopefully when the Himalayan Balsam has died of a bit!

Not much to report. A few halibut off of Dillon Beach and south of Pelican Point. A halibut from Ten Mile Beach. The halibut were not giants, but a legal halibut is a good halibut. The rockfishing was good this week with a few more lings showing in the counts. There was a failed albacore mission on Wednesday. Three boats, 57 to 62 degree blue water, fifty miles of trolling each, no bites. Maybe they'll bite next week. For this weekend the big swell has the bar breaking steady and big, so fishing is limited to bay activities.

Terry Fogal caught this 23# halibut in front of Dillon Beach on a live sardine. The water out front has cooled down to the low 50's and slowed the bite but not completely stopped it. There were a few sightings of the school of white sea bass back by Marshall this week and I heard of one being caught, but for the most part they're not interested. Rockfishing has been decent with a few lingcod showing up here and there. Tomorrow looks to be the good weather day for the weekend, with Sunday and Monday being better days to chase those sea bass.