Dale Fortner of Sacramento caught this 25 pound halibut off of Dillon Beach on Wednesday. There were a few other halibut from there and the bar but the bite slowed yesterday. I only heard of three salmon and two halibut landed yesterday. There were saury jumping in 100 feet of water and schools of them in starting in 140 feet. The wind is forecast to cool things down this weekend but hopefully it will stay far offshore. Ten more days for salmon.

Ari and Mayer Goldberg of Oakland with their first fish, two halibut weighing a combined 23 pounds.
Ed Parsons of Lodi with this year's only landed white seabass, a 38 pounder he caught on a jig off of Dillon Beach. Ed also had two halibut in the box. Bob Lapp of Rio Vista caught two salmon to 26 pounds out in front of the outer red "2" buoy.

It turns out that there were some fish down on Ten Mile. One boat had six salmon, all caught on a 100 yard long tack that they fished so much they got dizzy from the turns. Another boat had a salmon and a halibut from the beach. Their ride home was not as pleasant as the ride down and the forecast for today doesn't sound too good for Ten Mile runs.

I heard of a grand total of 7 salmon landed here yesterday out of 28 launches. Even less halibut. I would suggest abalone diving except for the "bigger than the boat" shark that chased a couple boatloads of divers in from behind Bird. The rockfishing has been pretty good at least.

Colder, clearer water has pushed in, slowing down the salmon bite and nearly stopping the halibut. The Keyholes and the north end of Ten Mile had a few salmon today. The rockfish bite was good even though the current was strong and it was hard to keep the lines near the bottom. Maybe a halibut story tomorrow.

Gordon Rogers of Sacramento shows off today's largest salmon so far which weighed 25 pounds on our scale.
This 33 pound halibut was 47" long. We thought it would be heavier. Aldo Freggario of Stockton caught it on a jig. It was breezy today giving long trips to the south a longer ride home but there were a few who went down to Ten Mile and caught a few halibut and salmon. There were some nice salmon caught off Bird Rock as well.

Terry Fogal of Sacramento caught this 34 pound king and put himself at the top of the big fish board. Terry and most of the other successful boats were working the length of Ten Mile Beach. Listening to the radio, there were fish caught from Jenner to Point Reyes. The bite off of Bodega Head slowed but Bird Rock stayed productive. Halibut were caught and speared in good numbers on the bar. Ten Mile also had a good halibut bite.

Bailey Johnson of Sacramento caught this 29.5 pound halibut. Quite a few others were taken from the bar the past few days, although it slowed today for the fishermen. The divers got their fish, so the fish are still there. A few salmon from Bird again, a few more from Ten Mile, but word today is that the best bite is off of Bodega Head. Unfortunately, so is an MPA, so know your location relative to it. I hear that there is more than a few boats over the line. I recommend not going there. For those not in the know I've included a map. Red means no fishing and blue means you can fish for salmon. The closed waypoints are:

Boundary: This area is bounded by the mean high tide line and straight lines connecting the following points in the order listed except where noted:

38° 20.10' N. lat. 123° 04.04' W. long.;
38° 20.10' N. lat. 123° 08.38' W. long.; thence southward along the three nautical mile offshore boundary to
38° 18.00' N. lat. 123° 08.08' W. long.; and
38° 18.00' N. lat. 123° 03.64' W. long.

Permitted/Prohibited Uses: Take of all living marine resources is prohibited.

To stock or not?

Recent outings have been based around the Rivers Wye & Irfon mostly fishing the 'French Nymphing' style, last weekend I choose a more gently flowing stretch of the upper River Wye and after seeing a few fish rising I opted for the Duo approach fishing a caddis for the dry with a tungsten beadhead nymph below.

I started connecting with quality fish immediately but here's the problem (and the reason for this post) the majority of the fish were stocked fish and of a really poor quality with little fight in them due to the lack of properly formed fins.

A couple of the stocked fish suffering from deformed fins

I have fished this bit of water many times but never encountered such a glut of 'stockies' in fact this is normally a very productive area with lots of natural fish to catch (I once caught 50+ fish here including Grayling, Trout & Dace!). I did manage to also hook a few of the natural residents but felt they were struggling to compete for the offerings.

My point really is: what is the purpose of introducing so many of these large stock fish to a relatively healthy river when they are obviously going to be competing for most of the natural food normally taken by the wild population.

Small...but beautifully formed wild Brown Trout

The enjoyment level from an angling point of view is very short lived and you end up trying to find ways not to catch them...with an eventual exit from the river in frustration. Fortunately the stocked fish do not seem to stray to far from the place they were introduced so I will now target the areas well away and get back to nature.

Since the salmon bite slowed the halibut bite has picked up to take up the slack. No monsters but decent fish and good numbers of them on the bar. Spiny dogfish sharks aplenty off of Dillon Beach, if that's what you like. The best salmon catching was on the mooch off of Bird in 35 to 55 feet of water.

The salmon bite slowed a bit more but didn't stop. About half the boats trying for salmon caught one and a few had more. Success came from Tomales Point down to the towers on Ten Mile with Bird and Elephant being the slightly better spots. An abalone diver reported seeing four salmon while he was diving behind Bird Rock. A few halibut on the bar again.

Well, the excellent halibut bite died overnight. The warm water and limits of Tuesday turned to cold water and no fish on Wednesday. Even on Ten Mile Beach where the water is still brownish and 57 degrees the halibut are no hungry. The winds have dropped offshore so maybe the water and the fishing will warm back up. Salmon fishing was just OK. There were fish caught at the Keyholes in 30 to 80 feet of water. The more consistent bite was still at Bird Rock where fish were caught slowly all day. Those that stuck it out and fought the jellyfish to keep their gear fishing near the bottom in 80 feet had the best chance for success. I heard a rumor of good fish and no boats at Duncan's Landing but I can't verify it. On the plus side, the rockfishing was good.

There are halibut on the bar and quite a few of them. In fact, this one, a 30 pounder caught by Fred Meyer of Fair Oaks, was caught there yesterday. Many others were caught as well but none as large. Live bait and jigs were putting the flatties in the box.

The water was lumpy outside yesterday but there was still salmon in it. One boat limited out just around the corner between Tomales Point and Bird Rock. I didn't hear about any halibut yesterday but I did hear about a few white seabass landed just south of Elephant Rock, some more thresher sharks caught off of Dillon Beach and some nice salmon landed from in front of the southern estero.

Doug Koinzan of Lodi put his boat over the fish back by Hog Island today, enabling him to catch a 21 pound halibut and Ken Morgan to catch this 49 pound, 62" sturgeon. They had two other halibut as well. The halibut were caught on bucktail jigs, the sturgeon on a live shiner perch.

Lou Zanardi, with a 27# salmon, and Larry Hoberg, with a 22.5 pound salmon, limited out before 11AM yesterday. The were trolling in 70' of water just off the bottom.
Paul Page of Sacramento was back with an early limit yesterday as well, including this 30 pounder. Paul mooched them up just south of Bird reef.
Robert Pfeifle of Lodi caught this 27 pound salmon while trolling yesterday.

Apparently there's a few halibut on the bar. Bill Adams of Oakdale speared this 25 pound halibut yesterday. The salmon fishing was spotty with some scattered boats limiting out and the guys fishing next to them skunked. The average was still over one per boat. No real hot spots to speak of, just the general area around Bird Rock still being the best bet.