I recently learned about the Skinner box. It was an experiment run by B.F. Skinner to learn how animals learn through rewards and punishments. A pigeon that tapped a button and didn’t receive a reward quickly lost interest in the button. A pigeon that tapped a button and always received a reward quickly learned that it only needed to tap the button when it was hungry. But if tapping the button only resulted in food once in a while, the pigeon became addicted to tapping the button.

Scrolling on social media and YouTube is like that. It’s occasionally rewarding, which is why it is so addictive.

It has occurred to me that fishing is like this too. Fishing can be quite boring. I go to the beach at Crissy Field about once a week during the season. You make cast after cast without a bite. But catch an eight-pound halibut just once and you’re hooked. It’s an indescribable addiction. Which is why I keep going.

This year, 2025, has turned out to be not so rewarding, at least not yet. I’ve caught a number of undersized halibut in the 10-inch range, but no keepers. (Minimum is 22 inches.) The water coming in from the Pacific is several degrees colder than normal.

To stave off the boredom, I try to focus on other things. The beauty of the Bay. The rays of the sun beaming through the clouds. The people and the dogs. The jetboarders. The birds.

I don’t know if I’ll catch a halibut this year at Crissy. And maybe that’s the whole point.