Happy second salmon season! I just finished a dinner of fresh salmon bellies, collars and dumpster salmon (grilled bones with meat on them) with a bit (more than a bit!) of Thai sweet chili sauce. Heavenly! It was almost worth it! I've been up since 2:00 AM, driving to Emeryville to get on the New Huck Finn on a charter by Larry Varela. I've never fished out of the gate before and now have experienced Duxbury and Muir Beach. After screwing up spectacularly (sorry Scott and your down stream tangle buddy) I sorta figured it out. It was completely new to me but it sure works. My way here is more fun, but putting bodies in the boat is key, so this method works well. Not driving the boat was key to my enjoyment, as bum. per boats seemed to be most people's experience level. What's a boater's card? We limited by 2 with most of our fish caught at Dux but we had to pull and run to Muir to finish, and Muir had the largest fish. My limit fish came off of Gage's rod on the bow at about 20 pounds at Muir. Here's a pic of my cousin Nathan from South Carolina who came to catch salmon. 

   Quick summary: He did. No heads, as half of our fish were fin clipped hatchery fish and the fish counters were apparently omnipresent, as they were during the last short season. Expect the same wherever you go. Lots of monitoring, and let's be clear, lots of hatchery fish. As only a quarter of the fish from the hatcheries are actually fin clipped and chipped, let our 50% rate be your guide. They are all hatchery fish, as the river can't support salmon. It turns out that they need water, and water is money. It just is. Smolts trucked past the Delta and river tend to live to adulthood. Thanks truckers! It worked! Bummer, extirpated wild fish. I'm sure heaven is nice. Your highway star cousins sure taste good.

     Mike Mack and Spinner were not invited to Larry's charter and ran down past Point Reyes today for these three salmon. These guys are here almost every weekend to fish for whatever they can. Not surprisingly, salmon was on the menu today. It is not as good at Point Reyes as it is closer to the salmon funnel at the Golden Gate. Surprise, surprise. But two of these fish weighed in at 20 and 19 pounds. For a year without salmon, that sounds pretty awesome. It ain't red hot. But dinner, man, oh boy. Even better, I heard that Jesse Keilman and crew limited, eventually. after running from here to Point Reyes. Nice work gents.

    Here's a picture of me last week on the return from the albacore trip. Alec Bennett took the photo but it was out of spite, as he wanted to sleep in the beanbag chair. I get it, after sleeping in it. West Marine may be having a hard time like every other retailer, but their beanbag chair IS THE FRICKING BOMB.  I was out. Hard. Good times are the hard times. But the beanbag makes them easier.

     Here's the August finale we all wanted, except it has somebody else's faces in the picture. 

    These guys are big, and this photo doesn't do the fish proper justice. That being said, Michael Cameron of Cameron Park caught the 45 pound halibut in the photo and his friend, Todd Gentry of Sacramento landed this 36 pounder. Gage's text was, "45/36 lbs on the bar large grade jack smelt." It's a good text. I heard of at least one other jumbo that the fisherman didn't want weighed as it could cause a rush of fishermen. The real fact is, I think we're seeing the results of the last pulse of fish to come in to spawn. Fishing (catching, really) will suck again for a while. The pictured fishermen went without a fish yesterday and limited early today. They are obviously good fishermen, but today there were fish to catch. Tomorrow? I'll let you know later, but there may be a few stragglers from yesterday's push in. The day after? Should have been here yesterday...

   Most of the rockfishing has been pretty decent in the shallows and now that the deeper water has opened up the scores should increase. Canary rockfish catching should triple immediately with the two-fish limit. The largest canaries I ever caught were during the canary closure a few decades back. 

    An important bit of information I neglected to share yesterday in my post-tuna hangover (small boat tuna guys, you know what I'm talking about) is that the rockcod regulations that we were told will be changing, have changed. The press release: "

In response to new scientific information on quillback rockfish populations off California, the California Fish and Game Commission took emergency action on Aug. 14 to restore access to fishing depths in state waters that have been closed to protect them since 2023. The new state regulations are in effect as of Aug. 28, 2025.

In state waters between the Oregon/California border and Point Conception (34° 27’ N. Lat.), fishing for rockfish, cabezon, and greenling (RCG Complex) and lingcod is now open in all depths.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is working to implement similar all-depth fishing regulations for federal waters, however they are not expected to take effect until mid-September. As a result, federal waters will remain closed to RCG Complex and lingcod fishing north of 36° N. Lat. (near Lopez Point) until federal regulations are in effect. From Lopez Point to Point Conception, federal waters will remain closed for RCG Complex and lingcod fishing seaward of the 50 fathom Rockfish Conservation Area boundary line.

A map that includes the boundary line between state and federal waters is available on the Ocean Sport Fishing Map Viewer.  

Since fishing in the Southern Groundfish Management Area (south of Point Conception, to the US/Mexico border) is constrained by copper rockfish (Sebastes caurinus) and vermilion rockfish (Sebastes miniatus)/sunset rockfish (Sebastes crocotulus), there are no changes to the current fishing seasons in the Southern Groundfish Management Area.

Anglers should also take note of other important elements of the state’s recreational groundfish regulations:

There is now a two fish sub-bag limit on canary rockfish (Sebastes pinniger) statewide.  

Vermilion rockfish and sunset rockfish are now considered the same species for regulatory purposes. Both species in combination count towards the vermilion rockfish/sunset rockfish sub-bag limits.

Retention of quillback rockfish (Sebastes maliger), bronzespotted rockfish (Sebastes gilli), cowcod (Sebastes levis), and yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) remains prohibited statewide. 

This blog post will be updated when federal regulations that open RCG Complex and lingcod fishing at all depths go into effect; please check back regularly. The Summary of Recreational Groundfish Regulations web page will also be updated with the most current information.  

Please send CDFW any questions you may have regarding the new recreational RCG Complex and lingcod regulation changes." 

   A very basic summary: You can fish all depths. The stuff you couldn't keep before you still can't keep. The canary limit dropped to two. The middle water (120 to 300 feet) hasn't been fished in almost two  years. If you don't mind reeling a little more it should pay off. 

   Also, salmon will reopen on September 4 through September 7th. If the 7500 fish quota isn't caught in that time than it will reopen for another short window later. In my humble opinion, after watching black-out-the-meter schools salmon chase stripers out of the surf here for two weeks, guys having to release multiple salmon at Hog Island, the first season going well over quota in their "limited" two days, well, probably don't wait for the second opener. My prediction is 20,000 fish will be caught. Or more. I plan on personally accounting for at least two. Good luck if you go. Remember, it will be open from Point Reyes, south to Point Sur. Not off Tomales Point or Bodega Head. There will be plenty of fish there but they are no go. Go south, young man...

 

    Swampy sent in this report this evening: "Evening Willy,

Hope y’all smoked the heck out of the tuna. Two fish for two roads today to 17 pounds. Looks like we caught  a herniated halibut today. You ever see one like this? Cheers, Swampy." I don't know what kind of heavy lifting a halibut might do that would cause an injury like that. It seems likely that a gaff or seal caused an injury that healed less than ideally. But really, ew. I like your whole fish pictures better. But these are interesting.

        Gage, Alec Bennett and I went out for albacore today, as Swampy mentioned. We had a slow start, as the trim didn't work on one motor and we had a delay while we figured things out. But at 9:00 AM we hooked a quad at 38º 36 and 124º 01. After our initial catch it was 100+ minutes for the next bite, but our day went 4, 3, 1 1, 2, 1. A dozen fish and it felt like we weren't catching. Booh whooh. The hour or better gaps between hookups led to negative feelings between bites. But we got over it. Other guys did better, and some others caught less. But purple water at 30 miles is pretty interesting. It ain't Bragg, but it's here.

    

   I received this report this evening: "Evening Willy,

Another good day on the bay with 3 fish to 19 pounds for two rods. Your son was our lucky charm as two were caught next to him. Hope tomorrow is another good day.

Swampy"  The weather is supposed to be good, at least. Nice job on the flatties. Gage finished with his limit but he worked his Bigfoot jigs pretty hard to get them. The bar (or the mouth of the bay, generally) was responsible for most of the catching today. Not wide open by any means, but there was a scratch bite for a few hours around the turn of the morning tide. Zeros to ones and twos, but fish. I like to think of myself as a master of forced perspective, but that close fish looks pretty nice in Swampy's photo. Nice work, Swampy and crew. And thanks for the cookies.