Situation 2:

I went out with a friend who catches 10”-12” rockfish (preferably blacks and blues) to use as live bait to target lingcod. He uses a dedicated RF bait-fishing rod with a smallish diamond jig, catches a RF bait-fish and transfers it to his treble/single-hook/8-ounce-ball-weight/bottom-fishing setup on another rod.  Not sure how many RF baitfish he went through on the day, but I’m going to say it was a lot (more than 10). At the end of the day the only RF he came home with were two big vermillion.

Legal?

...micro locations like Tomales get hit extremely hard, and most locals I've spoken with up there say the fishing has deteriorated in recent years.

Looks like big winds predicted at FR.

I've been experimenting with pressure bleeding and I am impressed so far. I normally clean salmon on the water, but last weekend it was rough and I was close to home so I bled them but didn't clean them.

When I got home I used a clean garden sprayer (only ever used for water) with a pipette tip and a salt solution. You can see the blood that came out of an already-bled fish, and how there is almost no blood in the meat when cut.

Obviously you want to be very careful about the cleanliness of the water you are bleeding with since it will permeate the meat.

Thanks for your response. I will try to fish on Tuesday Aug. 16, if anyone is around? Heading to Albion/Mendocino on Wednesday Aug 17, unless (?) Sonoma is fishable and is doable?