Alec Bennett told me that "fishing is easy." It took him less than an hour yesterday to land this limit to 21 pounds in 50 feet of water at the Trees. They bit anchovies under a VK head, no flasher.

   Joe Downing made no comment on the relative complexity of the sport of fishing but just smiled and weighed in a pair of 23 pound salmon yesterday. He also mentioned the Trees. 

   Nathan Porter and Charise Corpe caught more fish than they could hold today. I believe that halibut went 24 pounds and the largest salmon 23. All fish hit bait behind an 11" green Hot Spot flasher. I'm told they were at McClures.

   Lou Zanardi and George Cinquini were one short of limits on salmon today but still caught enough to overheat the Foodsaver. The big one was 22 pounds. North McClure's Beach was the general area. The bait has moved into the nearshore waters and, while surely attractive to salmon, there's so much of it that it most bait schools are unmolested by ravaging salmon. Finding bait doesn't mean you found the salmon.

     Jeff from Sebastopol caught this slug that weighed 26 pounds and was caught close enough to my fishless boat to make me momentarily hate two really nice guys. I got over it. South of the Trees, 60 feet of water.

    

   Gage, sensing my skunked discomfort, made sure to send me this picture of another fish I neglected to catch this evening. His salmon weighed 23 pounds and a bit a straight bait. Yes, it is legal to gaff a keeper salmon in the ocean.
    Now, a critique of the report as submitted by Doug Vincent: "I'm guessing that the fishing reports page main purpose is to encourage more people(customers) to visit your business. I find it a rare occurrence when there is actual usable information there that would encourage me to go out there and go fishing(spend $ with you). For example, so and so caught these fish off Bird rock in x ft of water this morning. Or, these halibut were caught in 20 ft in front of Hog island. When you post photos of grinning people with nice fish, without any usable info, I feel like you are just saying to everyone, "nah, nah, too bad for you, we caught fish and you didn't" and "we don't want your business". Feels like you are trying to be a
smartass when you say things like "they were caught out front, or somewhere sandy, or off a beach, or in the water". NOBODY LIKES A SMARTASS. The least you could do is caption the photos accurately. Like this:
"These greedy smartasses would not tell us the location these fish were caught so that we could help others to be successful as well. They are not nice people and might think that only they should be allowed to catch fish.
Helping other fishermen is what good fishermen do and withholding valuable information shows a total lack of sportsmanship"
There should be consequences for that sort of selfish behavior
OK, I feel better now
I still don't know where to catch halibut in Tomales Bay though"  Well, Doug, a lot of people don't like playing bumperboats (except at Scandia) and would rather keep their spots to themselves. They may also feel that, having put in the time and effort to find the fish, maybe just handing that information over would be cheating both you and him. For the guys that do share, thanks. Also, a lot of the time I don't get a chance to talk to people but just get a picture from another employee. For the record.though,  Doug, as far as the smartass thing goes, my dog still likes me. And if you don't know where to catch halibut in Tomales Bay, I can't help you. There are fish from one end of the bay to the other, from 6 feet to 40 feet of water, in the rocks, mud, sand and along the eelgrass beds. Probably the least concentration of fish is under the fleet of boats near the yellow buoy and Pelican Point, yet a few guys limit there pretty regularly. If you are trying lots of spots and not catching then you need to change the only constant- your technique. If you are waiting for some guy on a computer to tell you where to go for instant limits then you are in for disappointment.