Update: Two halibut today, one caught off of Dillon Beach and one speared in the clear water on the bar. The one boat that went for rockfish had no bites until he started slow trolling for lingcod, then he caught three lings and a cabezon. There was another reel-screaming hook-straightener off of Dillon Beach parking lot as well.

Not too much to report on. Sharks in the bay, leopards mostly, and one boat got spooled/hooks straightened three times off of Dillon Beach yesterday afternoon. Lots of Dungeness crab in the bay. Today is the last day of salmon season. Rockfish ends on December 31st, so at least you can fish for them while you're soaking crab pots. Historically, the rockfishing gets good this time of year.

A while back I posted on here for the Dillon Beach Tuna Club. They had a few spots open for a long range trip and were looking for someone to fill them. Here's a taste of what you missed:

 Rob Serini and Steve Towne hoist a pair of nice yellowtail (hamachi to you sushi lovers).

Wally Frei poses here with his yellowfin tuna while Bob Warren fishes in the background.

Not a recently caught fish, but a photo recently submitted by Chad Hansen. I don't know how much the halibut weighed but I think we can guess that it bit a jacksmelt. This victory is from July 2007.

One halibut was caught in the bay on Thursday and a halibut was caught at Abbott's lagoon today. Not too many fish in the report, but not too many fishermen either. The water turned very clear in the bay in the last 24 hours, so it should be a good opportunity for divers on the bar. Lots of Dungeness cycling through the nets on the pier, many of them large, so things still look good for the opener in two weeks.

I didn't see any fish come in yesterday or today, but then again, there haven't been many fishermen either. The water is still warm and brown outside. Actually it was too brown for the divers that tried the bar on Tuesday. The didn't see any halibut, but that's not really a surprise since they could barely see the bottom. There were a couple of halibut caught on Ten Mile on Tuesday but Wednesday's wind prevented a repeat performance.

Here is Herb Hansen of Dillon Beach with his 35 pound white sea bass. He lost the other sea bass but caught three halibut. You may not be able to tell from the picture, but that's a smug expression on Herb's face.

Weekend On The Irfon

With temperatures dropping down to one degrees around Builth Wells over Friday night I sensed that the time was getting near for the box of heavy tungsten nymphs to be brought out of retirement. Fortunately the morning sun soon burnt away the cold mist in time for me to check out the lower part of the River Irfon which was looking glorious.

After much deliberation I decided on a short lined nymph approach, 2 x tungsten beads (2.5mm + 2.0mm) set up on the 10' #4 Streamflex. This can be a highly effective method when the target fish is Grayling and its amazing how close these fish can be to you when you do not make a minimum of disturbance when wading.

With such favourable conditions I had soon accountant for some good sized fish and left the river after a few hours with the self satisfaction you get when you know your chosen method was right and everything goes to plan.

On Sunday I headed a little further upstream to the Cammarch Hotel waters which are marketed by the Wye & Usk Foundation as part of their roving voucher scheme. Day tickets are available direct from the hotel allowing you a choice of beats along this prime stretch of the middle Irfon.


The Cammarch Hotel - Point of purchase for day tickets.



There have been some recent good catches reported from this area so I was anticipating the prospect of latching into a few more of the Grayling that the Irfon is renowned for. Starting halfway up the beat things started slow and after a couple of hours I had only managed to catch three fish, although I did have to share the top part of the beat with a lively pair of otters! (low quality video below).

I then walked down to the start of the beat and found some nice looking water which immediately produced some good sized fish all caught short line nymphing. The session ended when the sun came out from behind the clouds and a rise in temperature brought a few fish to the surface, a quick switch to a duo setup produced a couple more fish before other commitments forced me to leave the water early. 15 nice grayling, plus a few fingerlings and some out of season trout assured that this is a venue I am sure to return to in the future.

As with many parts of the Irfon wading can be a little tricky in parts so I would always advise a wading staff should you give it a try.

'Busy' country lanes around the Hotel!

When someone calls in to the shop on the VHF and asks what the limit is on white sea bass, I'm not sure whether to answer him honestly or just call him the names running through my head. Apparently, right now Herb Hansen is somewhere on Ten Mile with a sea bass on board and another hooked. The beach produced only halibut for the boats that tried the past couple of days, although a few salmon were hooked and lost. The bar and the bay had a few halibut over the weekend, but not as many as earlier in the week. There's been at least one caught today, so far. Yesterday a couple of the local divers tried for abalone on Tomales Point and found a lot of empty cracks and crevices but only two keepers. Apparently the red tide affected the abs here as well.

More halibut from the bar today. One boat caught two and missed five bites. Divers speared a few as well. The weather looks good for the weekend with light wind and small seas forecast for the area.

Nancy Burgenger caught her first halibut today while fishing with Denny Rhodes. It bit a live jacksmelt. There were five halibut caught on the bar today and two from Hog Island, all on live smelt but one. The loner hit a white bucktail jig.

There's a big, dangerous sea outside today, but that's okay, because the halibut were in the deep hole inside the bar, and they were hungry. Two boats fished there with three fishermen and landed eight halibut, four on live smelt and four on jigs.

Three divers tried the bar today and top shot was Dr. Steve Werlin with an 18 pound halibut. There were five halibut speared on the bar yesterday. Actually, four were speared and one was stunned by a shot that did not penetrate the skin. Dave Cerini, the failed shooter, grabbed the stunned halibut by the gills and brought him to the boat, all while free diving.  

Pius Kuhn of Lodi caught this 34 pound salmon off of Bird Rock today. This was his only bite. So far, the radio report from Ten Mile sounds slow.

John Morozumi caught this 24# salmon off of Tomales Point today. He was trolling near the bottom in 60' of water. There were a few halibut and a striper caught on the bar, all on live bait. The water was not nice today.

No salmon landed this week, but no salmon fishing either. The rain kept most people off the water, but the two boats that fished the bar caught halibut. A pair of divers said the visibility was pretty bad on Tuesday but still speared three halibut. The water is still warm and brown, so, weather permitting, the fish should still be out there.

Top boat for Sunday was John Rosasco and Dave Prater of Stockton with 6 halibut and a salmon. All the fish came from Ten Mile and were caught while jigging. There was a limit of salmon and a few other singles from the Towers area. Another boat had three salmon while trolling in the area of Bird and the Trees. All in all, quite a bit of salmon action for October.

This one's not a keeper but it's sure a looker. This sunfish (mola) was about 6 feet long, which is pretty large for one around here. They can get much larger, up to 14 feet long and over 5000 pounds. This is one of the few critters that eat jellyfish, so if you see one, please leave it alone to go do his job. They've got a lot of eating to do.

Yesterday's catch numbers ran from 0 to 8 fish landed, with the average being around 2 fish. On Ten Mile there were more halibut taken than salmon, but the top boat from here (the local legend) had an even mix of 4 salmon and 4 halibut. McLure's had nothing to offer but seaweed but the bar had a few halibut for the determined few that fished it. The south wind blew pretty strong through the middle of the day making fishing difficult, especially for the guys that drift. The weather looks better today but not too promising after that.