Cameron sent me this report from today: "Also promised these fellows I'd get them on the report. Trekked into town early for live anchovies, and it paid off. Bait proved hard to catch, besides giant smelt. They got these three over the course of several hours off Pelican Point, right in the channel. Also lost what was either a really nice halibut or a ray/shark. Mostly a slow day from what I hear otherwise, but I heard of some guys doing good with jigs in the same general area." That about sums it up. The bait didn't want to play today and the halibut won't play with you if you don't have good bait. Well, unless you're a good jigger. I saw Jigger John pull in today, so I guess we'll see what proper jigging can do. Giant smelt can work for bait but you're looking for a very particular halibut (a large one) to be able to eat the bait and you still need to feed it a lot of line. And then some more line. And then maybe a little bit more. And then....well, you get it. That smelt should show signs of digestion. Most halibut fishermen today had 0- to 2 fish and not too many more anchovies than that.

   Salmon sign is present outside but the salmon themselves were once again not forthcoming. There's some bait (in some places, more than some), whales and birds feeding, a little color to the water, but no biting fish. We must be between groups. It is not uncommon for a slump in the salmon bite around now. This would be the time when (in a normal, non-Covid year) we would hold the Salmon Derby. The salmon fishing is so bad now it's like the fish didn't get the message that there would not be a derby this year. The weather did get the message, at least, and should be calm this weekend (Cameron and Gage now call rough water "Derby weather").