Larry Laakman hopped in the boat with me and my wife Monday evening for a troll on Lake Pacific. Usually flat water makes for a slow bite for me but we ended with with three salmon again, the largest, caught by Larry, weighing 28 pounds, again.  We seem to have plateaued. It bit a tiny hootchie behind an 8" flasher in front of Bird.

   Tom and Jerrie Carter limited on halibut to 25 pounds on the bar yesterday. Live jacksmelt and a bit of skill was the ticket. Tom's not supposed to be lifting heavy things, so Jerrie may need to adjust her fishing methods.

   A fishing report from yesterday: "Evening,

Spent the day sweating under the hot sun. Turn the thermostat down. Ended up with 3 fish for the two of us on the bar. Had enough action to be done early but obviously we didn’t want to sweat in camp. Will try again in the AM.

Swampy"    Seems like there are (maybe were?) some biters on the bar. Nice work, Swampy, but I bet you can do better.

    My wife and I went out again last night but couldn't get a 28 pounder. She was okay with this 26 pound fish, though. Bird Rock again, small hootchie again.

   Today is the last day of the early salmon season here. The fishing was mostly not awesome, which sucks for the guys that fished it but bodes well for a second chance in August. We shall see if the guys that waited were correct. Albacore started biting at Fort Bragg just in time, as their salmon season has ended. I guess we'll take a week for halibut and rockfish and hope for another salmon chance.

  This is Rich Nacarelli with his 17 pound halibut, one of seven caught on his boat on the bar today. The halibut are stepping up as salmon take a break.

    Last salmon for nine days or so. Paul Giese caught this 25 pound salmon off of the wreck on a watermelon Apex  this evening. He was fishing with John Daleuski and Alec Bennett, both excellent netters. Catch numbers of salmon have just been released up to 7/15 and it looks like we will have August for salmon, or at least a good part of it. Poor fishing, now, means more fishing. Good?

     I knew Swampy could do better. His report from today:"Afternoon,

Took Al and Brian out to chase some flatfish. Had leftover shiners from yesterday and hit the bar early. Done by 8:45 to 17 pounds. Great day."  That seems great to me too. 

 

    Big fish (salmon, at least) for Sunday goes to Carrie Brewster with this 30.5 pound slug. The salmon catching today was, again, mostly early and late in the day. This one was a morning bite but definitely not crack of dawn. So, there's hope if you can't hit the water early. At least there's hope if you're Carrie.

     Pennley Brunkhorst caught this halibut off of Dillon Beach right in front of Cannon. Nothing like a bit of sibling rivalry to keep things on the boat interesting. 

    There were a lot of zeros in the fish counts yesterday but not for the Evil Twins. Reports Larry Varela, "Picture from yesterday got six

Lost a few and had a couple other pumpers no stick 

All in all a pretty darn good day😀" I would agree. Nice start to your salmon season.

    Cameron caught this 28 pounder last night. We had three fish total. Hootchies and bait for all our bites at Bird Rock. 

     Flat water, again, or should I say, finally. The salmon bit, for a while. Gage says it's like a full moon bite, when the fish bite early and late. True. But it ain't the full moon. I think it's a pressure bite. Little pressure early, little pressure late, but midday, pressure, lots of boats trolling.  Not so much with the biting fish in midday. But a few guys caught some before the pressure shut them down.

   

     Todd Gentry caught this 21 pound salmon today, one of three for the boat. The fish came early in the day. His boat was the second one launched today. Early birds and worms.... Nice fish, sir. Largest today, here. Not a lot of contenders. Nice work, Todd and crew.

     Jody Stover has been here a few days and suffered from the bad weather and crappy fishing. Today he caught a nice salmon. What a difference a fish makes. Jody looks much happier today.

     Halibut has been slow as the bar has cooled off. Hog Island has improved as some of those fish have relocated there, but even an improved Hog Island fishery is still slow. There's fish, and you can catch them, but you're probably not catching limits for multiple people. 

 

    Cameron sent me this: "Missed his name, but a 14 pound striper yesterday afternoon from shore on a live smelt".  Good work, missed name person, as stripers from shore have been pretty rare lately. Especially fourteen pounders.

   Ah, the comment says this is Robert Baker of Folsom, who tricked his father into going to get lunch while he caught fish. Another Gage.... Good work, Robert, and nice gaffing, Robert's mom. And I'm sure the lunch was really good.

 

     Gage hit the water at 6:00 this morning and was able to scratch up a few bites before the wind hit the beach. The two stripers he kept weighed 19 and 32 pounds. He missed several short halibut bites on the bar.