The catch numbers weren't great for most fishermen yesterday but the salmon are definitely there if you can figure out the combination of things to make them bite. The fish I am aware of came from the outer bell off Tomales Point to just south of the Trees in 50 to 70 feet of water. We got five, lost two and missed several other bites while trolling near the bottom with UV baitheads just north of Bird Rock. We saw several other salmon taken in the same area. If you see a school of bait "blown up" on the fish finder you'd better circle it. The fish aren't everywhere. Halibut was a dissapointment yesterday. The best news from the bar was a diver sighting a white sea bass. There's enough squid around that there's probably more sea bass than you'd think.

Two halibut from Hog Island today for one boat. Of the two boats I checked with that went salmon fishing, one had two limits and the other had nothing. Both salmon boats fished the Bird/Trees area.

A few more were salmon landed today before the chop chased everybody off the water. Catches ranged from 0 to limits. The fish aren't all hugging the bottom. Some guys are catching salmon at 40 feet down in 70 feet and at least one salmon was caught while the angler was dragging the bait on the surface, preparing to attach his drop weight. Anybody know any good topwater plugs for salmon? No halibut landed that I heard about.

The halibut didn't play well with others today but the salmon sure were kind. They're biting light and not sticking real well, but for many fishermen today it wasn't a big problem as there was another fish on soon enough. As a tackle salesman, these are my favorite kind of fish because they are nestled right down in the rocks. Careful with your downrigger weights. If losing gear bothers you, mooching has been working as well. 45 to 70 feet of water, Tomales Point to the Trees.

The salmon are back! Well, maybe not all of them, but definitely enough to make it interesting. Scott Mason, Mara Nursement and Mike Nursement caught these four salmon today, the largest being Mike's 24 pounder. The fish were right out front in about 60 feet of brownish water and they were hugging the bottom. More fish were lost than were caught. There were other boats catching as well. If the weather stays decent the halibut count should start to rise.

The fishing (and catching) has definitely improved but it's still only fair. Salmon were scattered with most of the ones I heard of caught from Tomales Point to the Trees. Salmon totals ran 0-3. There were a few halibut caught as well, some on Ten Mile and a few by Hog Island. There was a halibut on the bar but a diver shot it. Rockfishing ran from slow out front to good at Point Reyes.

The DaCruz boys, not wanting Jake Showaker to have all the glory, brought by these two salmon. These account for a third of all the salmon that rolled through here today, but that's still more fish than we've been seeing for the last few weeks. Catch locations today have ranged from Bird Rock in 150 feet of water 40 feet down, the Trees, McLure's, and 20 feet of water on Ten Mile. No halibut that I heard of but the divers that tried the bar said it was cold and clear with needlefish but no flatfish. A late landing today was a 27 pound salmon caught by John Kuhlman in 150 feet of water off of Bird Rock.

Jake Showaker captained his boat over these salmon this morning, 23 and 26 pounders. I was so excited to see salmon that I forgot to get the fishermen's names. They were caught on the troll on the bottom in 50 to 80 feet of water near McLure's Beach. There were some other salmon caught (according to the VHF) near the Bodega whistle buoy. 

A brutally slow salmon and halibut day today. The best I heard was a couple of salmon lost. The rockfish were even slow off of Bird. There was a decent lingcod and rockfish bite at Point Reyes where Steve Towne landed a 21 pound ling to cap off four limits on the boat. The reefs off of Ten Mile had a better rockfish bite with some nice vermilions mixed in with the schoolies. The best halibut bite is by Hog, but it isn't that good. Even catching bait is tough. The good forecast this week could mean the water may be able to warm up and maybe get some color to it. Hopefully that will happen and kick things loose.

In the last two days, every boat that has gone fishing has come back with halibut! Unfortunately, that was only one boat and one fish. It has been pretty windy in the afternoon but that's all supposed to change starting today. Let's hope the weather guys are right.

Yesterday, I saw a grand total of three halibut, one salmon and one leopard shark caught. The salmon was mooched up off of Bird Rock, the halibut came from off of Dillon Beach on live jacksmelt, and the leopard came from near Hog Island. A diver speared a halibut on the bar and a few more sharks were shot by bow fishermen, but that's it.

Not much success to report on today. Very few salmon, a few rockfish, a few lingcod, and enough wind to make the ride home very unpleasant. More wind for tomorrow. On the plus side, it's not hot.

There were some salmon caught out front yesterday in the Bird/Trees area, not many, but some. Elephant Rock and the Keyholes area had squid schooled up and salmon eating them. A few salmon were caught on the troll there but the moochers did better. A commercial squid boat arrived to take a look, so there may not be any more squid there anymore. There were a few halibut caught in 30 to 40 feet of water at the Keyholes and they were also full of squid. Hog Island had a few more halibut yesterday as well as a 23 pound white sea bass caught by Mike Pfiefle. Point Reyes had quite a few boats working it yesterday and some of them did pretty well on rockfish and lingcod. Questionable weather on the way with more wind in the forecast. Hopefully they're wrong.

Marty Medin of Inverness caught this 24 pound lingcod at Point Reyes today. This one broke his rod.  Marty and Bob limited out on lings and rockfish in a couple of hours. There were some halibut caught back by Hog Island, as well as at least one from McClure's. The Trees Reef had a few more salmon this morning.

There were some salmon caught out in 250 feet of water in the last two days. They were full of herring. There were also a couple of salmon caught on the mooch close in to Bird Rock. There were a couple of halibut caught by Hog Island this morning. The divers reported that the bar was still cold and clear with no halibut in sight, and they could see pretty far. The rockfishing was even slow for a few boats, but a few others found the rockies, either out a little deeper on jigs or in close while mooching.

Upper Wye

Back up to a very pretty part of the Upper Wye just below Rhayader which again did not disappoint.

The upstream breeze which is a rare occurrence on this part of the river made casting and fly presentation so much easier and although there were no fish rising I soon found some quality fish willing to take my nymph.

There was very few upwing flies coming off the water but as usual for this time of year there was quite a few small sedges skimming just above the surface, my nymph of choice was a #16 GRHE with a 2mm tungsten bead attached to help get it down in some of the fast turbulent water often found on these boulder strewn sections of the Upper Wye system. I find the Hares Ear nymph a good choice when there are sedge flies hatching and is my usual 'go to' fly in these situations.

Much Chewed #16 Tungsten Head Gold Ribbed Hares Ear Nymph

As I have mentioned before..what this part of the river lacks in quantity it certainly makes up in quality, many of the resident fish here will put a hefty bend in the rod and give you some heart stopping fights amongst the boulders.

The weather, location and the abundance of wildlife seen pretty much made for a perfect days fishing and to have near enough a mile of river all to myself I returned home feeling more than spoilt.

Here's 40% of the salmon that were landed here yesterday, the larger one weighing 20 pounds. Jerry DaCruz was kind enough to send me this photo to remind me of what they look like.

Jeff Lanzaro caught these lingcod today as well as a his limit of rockfish while fishing with his neighbor, Mike Mayry. Quite a few lingcod found their way into the catch this weekend, partly because there's quite a few of them and partly because there's so few of everything else.

I'd like to say that these were from this weekend, or even this week, but these pictures from his August 1st fishing trip were sent in recently by Rob Sereni. Notice how he carefully set up the photo so as to not get any landmarks in the frame. It's my understanding that they came back with four salmon and had ten others on but lost them. It's also my understanding that he was somewhere south of the Trees. Of course, this was almost two weeks ago and there's a pretty good chance that those fish are in a different county by now.

I saw five salmon from three boats come in today. No halibut. Maybe the salmon are deeper. They sure weren't thick in the shallows.

The past couple of days were windy offshore with a large, close swell. Most folks avoided going out. Not being most folks, I went out yesterday and caught two salmon in front of Estero Americano. I heard of one other caught in the area. There were some boats that tried the bar and back by Hog Island for halibut but the cold clear water glued the halibut's mouths shut. For the shark fishermen out there, there's quite a few thresher sharks out in the outer bay. My boys lost a 10'+ thresher yesterday and several others have been lost or released in the last couple of weeks. At least one halibut diver had a bit of a scare when a big thresher swam past him on the bar.

Herman Rinkel of Rancho Cordova caught this 20 pound salmon out in front of Estero de San Antonio in 40 feet of water while trolling. It bit a green Krippled Anchovy, as did the keeper green lingcod he caught as well. Weather conditions were better than yesterday but not good. 

A quick note: Divers did well on the bar today. "It's as pretty underwater as it is s****y above," is the quote I have for you. In the clear water seven halibut were speared by three divers and a school of salmon were seen swimming by. Lots of bait as well. Water temp was 55 degrees "and dropping."

Mark Van Lobensels of Walnut Grove caught this 21 pound salmon today by Bird Rock. The weather is better for kite surfing than for fishing, but at least a few fish were caught today. There was also a halibut from Hog and another from off of Dillon Beach. Not too much else but wind and frustration. The zone forecast is for more wind for a few days, but the pinpoint is calling for acceptable conditions. I hope the pinpoint forecast wins.

There was a pretty good salmon bite off of Elephant today, at least for a while. Tomales Point and the "2" buoy had a few others. Great rockfishing down at Point Reyes but trolling back along the beach didn't pan out for the folks I talked to. Mike Gibson landed a 20 pound halibut while fishing off of Dillon Beach and lost two screamers, one of which looked silver near the surface right before the line broke.

Rain Stops Play

Well it's sods law...I head down to one of my favourite rivers and find it looking in excellent condition and the fish in the mood for a bit of a play then after an hour or so of some hectic fishing the heavens open and duly empties it's water reservoirs right on my little patch!

The grayling and trout were readily taking both nymph and dry but an hour or so of relentless heavy rain soon filled up the little feeder streams and gushed chocolate coloured water into the river (a familiar consequence of lowland rivers) totally wiping out any chance of continuing fishing.

 

Then the rains come and 'game over'.



One of many of the feeder streams pouring in its coloured water.

With the majority of the river trout season well behind us lots of new waters I'd planned to fish this year will likely be 'put on the shelf' until next season unless things settle down well before 30th September.

Kathleen Williams of Jackson caught this 20.5 pound salmon today while fishing with her grandfather, Larry Rogers.

John Bresnahan of Sacramento caught this 25 pound salmon while trolling with Tom Brodsky on the Bananas and Change. The salmon bite was just okay today with the majority of fishermen not skunked but not limited, either. The salmon were in the same spots and bit best early, before all the boats showed up. I heard that today you had to fish your rods off the stern because there were so many boats on either side of you. The numbers of salmon have dropped enough to allow other species to show up in the counts, with halibut, rock sole, sand sole, starry flounder, lingcod, rockfish, and even a mackerel coming in this weekend. There was a decided increase in the number of halibut landed this weekend with divers spearing limits in the clear water and fishermen catching up to half limits by fishing the deeper holes. By deeper, I mean deep enough that you can't see the bottom. Bucktail and other assorted jigs counted for some of the flatties. 

Willie Kuhlman caught this 20.5 pound salmon yesterday while fishing with his father.

Dylan Dangelo of Wilton caught this 20 pound halibut today, his first, while drifting live bait near Hog Island. There were a few other halibut landed today from Ten Mile, McLure's and the bar, and even one from across the bay from the pier. Salmon were biting in the usual places, mostly Tomales Point to the Trees, but it wasn't a hot bite. There was an estimated 15'+ thresher shark lost at the boat when the gaff straightened out. I would consider that good luck, since I don't think I would want a shark that size in the boat with me. 

Rob Wagner of Chico (20 pound salmon) and Don Goode of Citrus Heights (23 pound salmon) caught these fish this morning near Tomales Point. There were some other salmon landed in the same general area, from the Point to the Trees, as well as further south at McLure's Beach and Elephant Rock. No red hot bite, but scattered flurries of action here and there. If you weren't on a flurry the fishing seemed pretty bad. The salmon are in the shallows, 30 to 80 feet. One halibut caught and another one speared on the bar today. Lots of lingcod in the shallows now, and some of them are even legal size. 

Keith Johnson of Lodi caught this nice 26 pound salmon today. This was the largest of three salmon on the boat. Some of the boats got skunked today and some did pretty well. Most of the boats were fishing off of Bird and the Trees in 50 to 70 feet of water. Several of the boats had doubles hooked up. No halibut today.