Eddie Kim caught these halibut yesterday near Hog. He said it was where he figured Swampy had been fishing during his stay here. We have no way of knowing that it's the case, but it seems likely that this pair of 17 pounders should have Swampy's name on them. Live anchovies, for those playing along at home.

     Bruce Loukonen sent this report, and while this report is not from here, we all like to see fish pictures, so...:"Jeremy Jamie Bruce trip to Albion on Labor Day 60 fish with 5 lingcod"  That's a lot of large, dead fish, Bruce. The size of those vermilion kind of makes me want to make the run. Almost. Well done.

    Mike Mack sent me report from today: "John 2 Mike 2 late afternoon bite picked up after tide started moving 4 good eaters." Well, Mike, I can see from the photo who caught the larger ones. That's all right, them smaller ones are better eaters. Live anchovies and candy bar jacksmelt were the weapons of choice today. With the thick smoke/fog most fishermen didn't want to or just plain couldn't leave the bay. That's just good sense when you can't see more than a couple hundred yards. There's a few guys running around out there on the "big ocean, small boats" theory, blazing around at full bore when they can't see the bow of their own boat. Staying in the bay seems safer to me, too. However, some folks ventured out (most after the smog had lifted) and caught a few salmon. There was a radio report of one off of Bird in 60 feet of water, but better than that, Beth and Peter Honebein caught three keepers and had numerous hits that didn't stick (two trays of bait's worth) north of Bodega Head out in the deep. Sorry, all I remember is the 16.5 north line. Since the fish up that way have been coming in 240 to 300 feet of water and down deep, I'd try letting out all my cable in 260 feet of water and hoping for the best with an Apex. But I've been spoiled by shallow salmon and my views on deep water fishing may be tainted.