Thresher Sharks

Salmon and halibut are both being caught right now, but the wind has been blowing. Red crab have been doing very well. More are being caught because people can't be picky with dungeness.

As you may or may or may not know, Tomales Bay and the nearby areas are very good places for shark fishing. I've heard every shark out there be called delicious, but only one is really tasty to me. Thresher sharks are a delicacy. They taste quite a bit like whitefish if prepared properly. If it isn't, it tastes like urine. But, bragging rights were always more important anyway. Be careful when you catch them. That tail is designed to cause serious damage. If anyone watches Wicked Tuna, remember what that captain's chest looked like after a smack from a thresher.They tend to bite salmon gear, but I would modify it. Use wire instead of fishing line, because, being sharks and all, they have very sharp teeth. I have hooked two threshers and the one hooked in the mouth bit through the line. When, you hook it prepare for a long fight and a nasty tail. The shark I managed to keep on the line was only juvenile and it fought for almost an hour with no oxygen running through its gills. Here's a step-by-step:

1. Make sure you have wire leaders and a buddy or two in  the boat.
2. When you hook it at first, let him wear down running a bit. Unless he's going towards surf, rocks, or boats, make him do the work.
3. Don't be afraid to take shifts fighting.
4. Whoever isn't reeling should drive in the direction of the shark to make it easier. 
5. Once you can see it, estimate its weight and size and ask some questions:Can you and the crew get him in the boat? Safely?Is he tired? Consider letting him run a bit more.
6. ALWAYS WATCH THE TAIL! 
7. If he can be safely brought aboard, do so. If not, you could attempt to tie a rope to the tail of the shark and the stern (back) of the boat. 
8. Get it on ice and clean ASAP. Sharks urinate through their skin.
9. Come brag at the boathouse to brag like the above person.

Trolling

The salmon bite has slowed down a bit. They appear to be biting on baitfish. A few halibut were caught off of Ten Mile Beach. They would only take plain herring. For an idea of a successful day of salmon fishing, watch the video below. It is a clever collection of fishing film shot on the Fourth.

When I say "trolling," I am not referring to the internet practice of writing nasty things everywhere you can to ruin someone's day. I mean leaving the motors running while you fish. It helps you cover more ground, so it's very useful if you're not certain where the fish are. The downside is that you require heavier equipment. No, your fly-fishing rod won't cut it. You need more weight to get down since you're moving, making a sinker release essential. Most fishermen troll at about three or four knots (for those of you who don't know, that's one nautical mile per hour and about 1.51 mph). However, I prefer a slower troll because it catches bigger fish; our boat has landed three 40+ lb. salmon. My great-grandfather, who preferred a faster troll, never broke the 40 lb. barrier.

Sinker Releases

Salmon are biting well, if you're brave or stupid enough to get out there. I got out to fish Wednesday and Thursday, with the pictures shown below respectively. Wednesday couldn't have gone better, when we caught ten big salmon with Gerard Fitzgerald. On the Fourth, the weather was getting more iffy. I was fine, but there was a cookie tossing contest on board. A couple hours rewarded us with three salmon, the largest being thirty-one pounds. Rumor has it that a few halibut have been picked up in the bay, but I won't say where until I see one of these fabled fish myself. Weather is going to be nasty until Sunday.

You need sinkers to get your lure to where you need it, but until they outlaw lead weights and we're forced to come up with something craftier, how do we avoid dragging two pounds of lead along with a very distraught fish? Sinker releases. Both kinds I've used worked basically the same way. Fish bites, line is tugged and sinker falls to the watery depths. Both kinds are available in the boathouse.

 

Cockles

 Salmon fishing is really picking up. Last weekend and the last few days have yielded many salmon. On Wednesday, an almost-40-pounder was brought in. See here for details.Most when fishing that day,but I took advantage of the low tide and went digging for cockles. While I was not particularly successful that day, they were still unbelievably tasty. Today I'll tell you about the process to catch them.

After

Before

First, you want to wait for a low tide, preferably one that's 0.0 or below. The lower the tide, the more clams are exposed. Unlike most clams, cockles are located on rocky shores. When scouting out a location, look for obvious holes in the beach. This indicates the someone has already been there and that it's a bad spot. Bring a hoe or rake to dig them up with. Start digging. If your hole doesn't yield many clams, don't be afraid to move to a new hole. If you have a lot of luck with one hole and then you dig all the clams out of it, dry digging outwards rather than deeper. Remember that cockles have a daily bag limit of 50 and a size limit of 1.5". Most crab gauges have a hole in them can be used to measure cockles.

Bells and Whistles

Salmon finally went on the bite in earnest last weekend. A number of fish over 20 lb. were brought in. I also heard that on Wednesday, the New Sea Angler, a charter (or party) boat out of Bodega Harbor, hooked 18 salmon and landed ten and only returned because several folks on board had very disagreeable stomachs. At the time they were in 180'-deep water off of Bird Rock.

There are countless different modifications to lures that fishermen swear by. Many of these additions have been wildly successful catchers. Of fishermen, that is. You should be careful when purchasing gear so your "quick stop" won't turn into a triple-digit bill. Not all of these are just a waste of packaging, though.

Flashers can be wildly successful. Often times, it's a coin toss between the fish finding it an irresistible toy or it being completely terrified. The idea is that they grab the fish's attention. The soon-to-be-dinner then hopefully notices the weaker, slower, smaller fish (your lure/bait) behind and hits it. My best and worst days of fishing both involved flashers. A good bet is to give half your rods flashers, to see what's catching.

Scents been largely unsuccessful for me. That is, I haven't noticed a scented rod get more fish than any other. However, scents have been known to assist greatly with crabbing. The boathouse carries Smelly Jelly for crabs.

Glow-in-the-Dark products are actually quite useful despite how odd they appear. I have heard people say, "Only a moron would try something so stupid." If that's the case, then I am a gigantic moron. But I'm a moron that catches fish. 

These are only a few of the thingamajigs out there asking to be bought. If you're considering something iffy, remember the following:

• Does it look like a fish?
• Might it scare the fish?
• Is it too expensive to gamble on?
• Does a sales rep recommend it, and if so, might it be because of sales commission? 

Of course, there are exceptions to all rules and this one defies most of them, but I can vouch for it personally.

Rockfish

Bait fishing off the pier has been terrific. From how many are being caught, I would estimate several hundred perch in the waters under the pier. A 16-1/2 lb. salmon was brought in today as well, but salmon has yet to pick up. However, the regulars are lining the boathouse's benches, waiting for someone to come in shrieking, "The fish are coming! The fish are coming!"

Rockfish season began June 1, but with salmon on the mind, no one went. I felt it was pertinent to say a thing about them, though. There is a ten apiece limit with no size regulations. You can have one line with a maximum of two hooks, with no regulation on hook type. Bait is helpful but not necessary for the typical and reliable setup shown below.

Notice that despite the hook type, I don't spring for the treble hooks. Think about where you're fishing. Rockfishing. Single hooks are considerably easier to get off a rock than a treble hook. Monofilament fishing line is also detrimental to getting hooks loose due to the flexibility. But, before you get cocky, you will lose gear. I would estimate that I have left $30 in lead, line, and lures floating on the bottom of the ocean. And that's being very conservative. 

Bait Fishing

The wind has been keeping most people off the water. Forty mile-per-hour gusts can make the bay get nasty. However, the halibut fishermen are waiting for the first window to get out because a learned regular has maintained that when shiner perch are biting off the pier, there are halibut on the bar. And the shiners were and are biting like piranha. On Monday, I experienced the best pier fishing I have ever seen. In twenty minutes, my brother and I filled a bucket with jacksmelt, shiners, herring, topsmelt, and even a sardine. I can tell you from personal experience that anything you can catch off the pier will work as better bait than anything you buy frozen.

While there are undoubtedly many ways to catch bait, a very successful way to do it is with Sabiki rigs. The hooks you see below are small enough for these fish to bite and, while it sometimes helps, they don't need to be topped off with bait. If you decide to, remember to only cut pieces small enough that they cover the tip of the hook. Because they come with six hooks, untangling them can be a pain. If you are worried about tangling this nightmare of a rig, try cutting it into two separate rigs. They will (hopefully) tangle less, and if you lose one on the pier pilings, no need to worry. Children love to fish these off of the pier, but always use supervision. A couple years ago, I used my trusty Leatherman to take one of these out of a man's hand. He was almost certainly intoxicated, but that didn't numb the pain much. The swearing and Oh Dear God Make It Stop were a dead giveaway. While his was a rare case (the hook was halfway buried into the meaty part of the thumb), you should use caution with these and any hooks.

Crab Snares

Salmon fishing has been slow, but the bite should commence sometime this month. Crabbing is also toning down. Surfperch fishing is on the rise again and is very successful when you're in the fish.

Today, the crabbing could have been better, but the crabs that came in surprised me. There were crabs brought in with traps, but the majority of them were brought in with a contraption like this one.

Crab snares are attached to a fishing line and left on the bottom while the bait (hopefully) attracts some takers. When the line is jerked, the loops close around a crab's limbs and is brought up to the pier. The boathouse has two main types: the cheap China-made and the more high-end expensive variant.

Krill

There have been big schools of krill massing just inside of the bay. They are swimming right up by the surface, so I got to discover that krill are quite tasty. No wonder everything in the ocean eats them. But, more importantly, something must be attacking them from underneath to expose themselves to the birds. No one has yet tried fishing in the krill, though, so I don't know if the salmon have gotten close yet. Last Sunday was very windy, but the rest of the week was warm and windless. I did my best not to blink. Don't worry though, things are back to normal and chilly again. In other news, I saw an interesting video of crabbing at Lawson's Landing by a rather nice fellow. Here is the link. While marveling at the crabs, notice the door the camera can see. It is wide open and if "wrybread" hadn't pulled up his pot shortly, he wouldn't have any crabs. I cannot stress enough how important it is to weight the doors on the crab pots.

With krill on the mind, I want to tell you how to catch the little morsels. I used a five-gallon bucket, but that's because they were practically jumping out of the water. They usually don't do that, so I would suggest a shrimp pot.

Though very similar in design to the crab pot, the mesh is much smaller. Crab pots are legally bound to have a significant hole to let out the undersized ones. These have no such boundaries. Will you catch krill with it? Nope. Krill are far too small to not fall out of that mesh. That's okay though; you want bigger ones. My suggestion is to get multiple pots and spread them out in deep water (100-250 ft). Come back in an hour, pull them up and put them all where you found the majority of them.

Salmon Regulations and How to Report Poaching

Currently, salmon have been spotty. There was a bite a couple days ago and people landed a few salmon. However, the fact that they are biting at all this early in the season bodes very well for the season.

Here are the official Department of Fish and "Wildlife" king salmon limits:

Point Arena to Pigeon Point (San Francisco)

April 6 - November 10, 2013

• Seven days per week except June 1 – July 9 when closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
• 2 salmon per day of any species except coho
• Minimum size limit: 24 inches total length through July 31; 20 inches total length thereafter

In completely unrelated news, the clam tides were extraordinarily low. The Landing was completely slammed for the weekend. I heard various complaints of poachers carrying entire backpacks of clams off of the clam beds even though the limit is ten apiece. Eventually I started handing out the following number. It's the number used to report poachers to Fish and "Wildlife." Later on, wardens did come and performed "courtesy" checks on a few folks. But it isn't enough. I think we need more people reporting. The lowest tides of the year are on May 25th through the 30th. It will be one of the busiest weeks of the year. If you are coming and witness poaching, call this number. Please, I hate clichés just as much as the next guy, but it's for the future generations.

Here's DFW again:

To report unlawful activity, call CalTIP at (888) DFG-CALTIP ((888) 334-2258) or Contact the CalTIP program via e-mail.

More Quarantine News

I recently ate 24 cockle clams. Now, these are the ones that are supposed to have much higher levels of PSP. Again, take that as you will.

Hook Types

Weather is significantly better, but it is still iffy. No one has tried salmon because they weren't able to get past the bar. However, the ospreys have done very well on surfperch. For humans; a bit less impressive. I tried at 6:00 Wednesday for them. Met some fellows who caught two in an hour. Shortly thereafter, I got some nibbles and lost my gear on a rock. But, you'll never know if you don't try.

There are several distinctive types of hooks and it is very important to know them. Some are more effective than others, but more importantly, you don't want your friendly local warden to write you up for "poaching" with the wrong hooks.

Barbless circle hooks with the tip  pointing to the shank are required for salmon drifting. However, for trolling you don't have to doom yourself by pointing the tip to the shank. Pulling the tip to the left slightly and attaching it about a foot behind your leader can hook those frustrating fish who keep their distance and eyeball it. 

Your basic jay hook. Barbed ones aren't permitted for salmon and aren't allowed at all if you're drifting.

Ah, admire the beauty of being able to hook a fish from literally any angle. These babies aren't allowed for use on salmon, but they haunt the nightmares of most other fish. Also make terrific trailing hooks.

Salmon season started off on a good note. The bar has been nasty recently, preventing many from going out. Those who did were not disappointed, however; I know of two parties who went out on opening day. One limited out and the others were one short. The limits on salmon are two apiece and 24 inches from the head to the triangle of the tail.

Here's the weather right now. The bar is keeping everyone in the bay for now.

 

Abalone season started on April 1. One group went out on the Point and did all right. Water was murky which is great for fishing, but not abalone diving. Abalone, according to Fish and "Wildlife",  "is open from April 1 through June 30, 2013; and from Aug. 1 through Nov. 30, 2013. The daily bag and possession limit is three abalone, with a maximum of 24 abalone per year. The minimum size limit is 7 inches along the longest shell diameter."

Krippled Anchovies

I think it is time to show you how to hook up some rigs for salmon fishing. A cheap and reliable starting rig is the green Krippled Anchovy. The package you want is shown below.

Ideally, an anchovy is put in the head and the red pin sticks all the way through. A finished product is shown right here, as well as a diagram of how to do it. More on rigging lures later.

Unfortunately, it appears there will probably be some mid-season closures for salmon. Apparently, there aren't enough winter run salmon. This news is especially disappointing because a very bountiful season has been forecasted. Closures in past years have included closing salmon on certain days of the week (for example, no salmon fishing on Mondays or Tuesdays). Or, they might just close the whole season halfway through. So, enjoy the salmon fishing while you can get it.

Fishing Spots

 With salmon season just around the corner (April 6), I feel like I should give a glossary of fishing spots you will hear the regular fishermen talk about. When in doubt, consult any of the wise- looking fishermen folk sitting in front of the boathouse. However, whatever they tell you might be difficult to understand because they could say, for example, "I caught a 20-pound salmon off of Bird yesterday." Hopefully you can figure most of that out, but you might not know what Bird is. That brings us to the subject of this post: fishing spots. "Bird" is short for Bird Rock, a barren rock located to the east of the northern tip of Tomales Point. There are many others and it would take a lot more posts to describe them all. That's why I created this handy chart.

Esteros

Day Beach

The Bar*

Hog Island (Hog)

Bird Rock

The Trees (east or west of should be specified)

McClure's

Ten-Mile Beach

Point Reyes

*The bar can be highly dangerous to the inexperienced. For an example of the results of foolish boating and bad weather, click here. 

No offense intended, but I'm afraid I can't tell you my favorite spots just off of principle. However, my chart covers most of them. Use this information wisely!

Clam Quarantine News

I've got news on the clam quarantine. We have tested eight gaper (horseneck) clams for Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning. The gapers do not have harmful levels of the toxin. However, Washington, Geoduck, and cockles have not been tested. Washingtons and cockles are on the watch list. If I get another update, I will let you know as soon as possible.

Crabbing

      If you're not interested in clamming, crabbing is also a viable recreation choice. This is the low point in the crabbing season. However, some folks are still managing to get dinner and sometimes more. Just like clamming, you're more likely to get dinner if you do. No matter how you do it, you need to know some things about crabbing. If you want to go crabbing, you're probably looking for Dungeness crab. They are few and far between this time of year. If you're going to find them, you are going to want to look for them near underwater rocks, but not in them. They like the shelter rocks have to offer, but their main diet, shellfish, live in the sand. Don't be discouraged though; the bait available at the Landing will be sufficient. If you happen to be looking for red crab, which are more plentiful, you will want to look in said rocks. Both, however, can be found at the Landing's pier. For both species, we should be coming out of the low point soon. Any time now is when they should perform their spring molt and more will become legal-sized. Dungeness crab size limit: 5 ¾ “ along the longest point on the shell, not counting the horns. Limited to ten per license (or child under 16). Red crab is 4” and 35 apiece. If anyone tells you otherwise, just smile and nod. Trust me; I've seen some dirty “discussions” resulting from limit disagreements. Other than that, good luck!

     Left: My personal favorite crab pot (Crabs have no way out). Priced at $79. Right: Hoop net; most commonly used off the pier so crabs can get in quickly and be pulled up at 15 minute intervals to prevent escape. Priced at $30.

Clamming

     This time of year is the overall low point in the fishing year. With salmon and rockfish out of season, halibut AWOL, and the crabs starting to run thin, the only thing to look for is low tides for clams.

     Clamming is an exhausting, filthy, and incredibly fun sport involving going out onto exposed seafloor and digging holes to look for clams. Anyone who wants to clam must wait for a low tide and walk out onto the previously underwater mud. Then you find a hole that fits your index and middle fingers. Start digging! Move quickly, as clams can't move side to side, but they can sink. Make sure someone sifts through the mud you dig to check for clams. One prevents the hole from collapsing in on itself with a “clam pipe”, a device available at the boathouse. Finally, a sportsman will fill in the hole so no one else has to trip in the hole. Boats are preferable to travelling on foot because boaters can get to the main clam island that shows itself to the south of Lawson's Landing on low tides. The clamming is generally better there than anywhere else. I should also mention that in recent months, the California Department of Fish and Game has been cracking down on those of us who don't want to stick to the ten per license limit. I have heard of wardens discovering clams in the pants of some determined clammers. Hopefully, everyone reading this isn't going to go that far. Clamming, however some may try to disgrace it, is one of Lawson's Landing's oldest and most famous traditions.

Blue: sub-optimal clam zone

Red: ideal clam zone

     However, I must warn you, the CDPH is warning folks not to eat recreationally caught shellfish in Marin County for fear of PSP (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning). Click here for their press release. However, I ate clams (and they were delicious) not long before the quarantine began and I can move my fingers to type and my voice isn't slurred. However, they could be right.  Take this warning as you will. Keep looking for the next post because clams are being tested in the near future and I will alert you to any changes.

Just one example of a good day brought forth by experience, hard work, and a whole lot of luck.

     So, this would be my first post. I'm writing this blog because it's to my understanding that many people do not know a lot about fishing in the Dillon Beach, CA area and would if they possessed the know-how. In this blog, I will share fishing expertise, recommend good setups, and let you know what is biting at Lawson's Landing. Everything in my power will be done to make an archive of fishing knowledge to any who want to pick up a rod and give it a shot. I am going to try to write up new posts often enough to keep fresh material on the page. You are welcome to comment on posts to request clarification. If you do happen to be a more knowledgeable fisherman (or woman), constructive criticism is accepted, as long as it is good-natured.