Robert Rath and his crew went back out today and were able to connect to, maybe not the one that got away a few days back, but one that looked a lot like it. The salmon went 36 pounds on his scale right after landing it and 35 on ours a few hours later. 

     Mike Lincoln went solo today and ended up with this 32 pound salmon from Bird Rock. He lost another fish as well. Landing a salmon by yourself is pretty tough, and doing it successfully in sloppy weather with the large, hot fish that are here this year takes luck and skill. Mike had both going on today.

    Blake caught these two salmon to 33 pounds today by the Trees, I'm told by Kapulani. They had their four at the end of the day. Blake is dedicating these fish to local legend Gerard Fitzgerald. "It's all the things that you said to me that that made these fish possible, and also made fishing without you so much sweeter."

     Branden Mendoza sent over this photo and report: "Hey Willy. Had another good day for us. We fished between bird and elephant all-day today in about 60feet of water 45 on the wire. We managed 1 nice 25lb salmon. " It was a tough day out there today with a lot of guys coming in with nothing more than a whupping from the stiff South wind. The fish that did bite were damn nice, but it would have been nicer if there were a few more to go around. 

    The Fish Raider II boys spent about an hour out in the slop before they realized they had enough salmon and didn't need any more whupping. They caught some jacksmelt and eventually turned those jacksmelt into halibut, a magic trick that has been pretty hard to perform lately. These fish came from North of Hog Island and another couple of halibut I heard of were caught right near the yellow buoy. There were also a lot of boats going home without flatfish today. 

 

    Kapulani and Blake found a spokesmodel to show off their fish today. There were more, but the spokesmodel didn't want to hold more than the one. The big salmon weighed 25 pounds. 

    For those following along at home (and those following along on the water) the crew of the Fish Raider II want you to know that yesterday's fish weren't a fluke. For the record, these guys are salmon catching badasses. And they know it. Big one today was 31? 32? pounds (I forget. I'm sorry, but all these big fish are starting to run together). Guys that didn't catch yesterday mostly caught today. Guys that killed it yesterday mostly had a bad day. The fish have something they're looking for and if you don't have it no bites for you. The special thing they're looking for is a mystery and it changes often.

    Double Trouble went for rockfish off off of Elephant today and it looks like they found quite the variety. Treefish, tiger rockfish, and even some deacon rockfish were in the mix. Who needs those picky salmon when we have this tasty variety just waiting out there for us come catch them? Although, to be fair, the salmon do fight a bit better. 
 

     I like it when people catch, but not so much when I'm not catching. With some regret, here's a report from Lou Zanardi from today: "Hey Willy,  10:30 and headed to the Casino!!  No scale to weigh them on but these are hogs!    Steve Freeman,  Larry Hoburg, and I .   Good luck!!" Later, after a scale purchase, he reported the weights as 27, 25, 25, 20, 19, and 17 pounds. His wish of good luck, while appreciated, did not pan out. 

     Hunter Smith sent in this report from yesterday: "my mooched 20 lbs yesterday bird 65’ water. fished near bottom. only salmon I caught. Hunter Smith" One salmon is pretty darn good right now, and a 20 pounder is excellent, sir. Hooking one with circle hooks is phenomenal. Those hooks can be frustrating but not using them is too expensive.

   

        Tom Brodsky's crew landed two salmon to 37 pounds today. Not sure about the second fish but the big one was hooked early on the mooch.

    Gage sent over a picture of the salmon haul from his boat yesterday. "Alex's biggest salmon at 25 and 18 lbs yesterday" His boat looked like the scene of a murder. After a pressure washing today it looks like the scene of a less recent murder. Note to murderers; clean up as soon as possible as the blood stains really stick after a bit.

     We had a double right at the start this morning and one released itself at the boat. The other weighed 25 pounds. Seven hours and hundreds of narrowly avoided boat collisions later, Gage caught this 26 pound halibut. There was a pretty good mooching bite before 8:00 AM it seemed, and trolling worked for some as well during that time. After that it was grinding. I hate grinding. There were some that ground out a few fish, enough that you'd see a couple caught and keep at it. A few guys killed it. A bunch of guys got killed. There's fish between Elephant and Bird, 60 to 90 feet of water, quite a few of them, but they ain't easy unless you're one of the chosen. When the guys that whack 'em quick one day can't catch them the next, it's less about fishing skill than it is about pure luck. Not that the guys that caught weren't skilled; They were, but also had better luck. Landing these hot, large fish is tough. 

   Alec Bennet of the Shrimp Boat took a few locals salmon fishing today and look what happened. Tom and Jerrie Carter whacked a couple. No more whale stink-eye for them. Jerrie's fish weighed 35 pounds. After that, honestly, who cares what Tom's weighed.

    I didn't get any information with this texted photo, but my expert photo analysis is that the crew of the Fish Raider II did well today. No enormous fish but a damn good average quality. Nicely done, gents.

 

   Here's a picture and report from Tom Carter yesterday: "After trolling through jellies and grass, mooching for nothing we decided to drift the bar and this guy kept popping up and giving us the stink eye, I think he was disgusted with us " This behavior is supposed to be called spyhopping, but it shall be called "giving the stink eye" henceforth, as I think it is probably closer to the truth.  My wife looks at me like that sometimes. Not without reason. This creature's disgust, Tom feels, was due to Tom's lack of fish on the bar or anywhere else. Tom, I don't think this whale knows you well enough to display this level of disgust. But I'm working on my stink eye. 

   Doug Bagley wisely jumped aboard Peter Kim's boat along with Eddie (neither Peter nor Eddie could get him back out of the boat. Doug has a crazy strong grip strength, it turns out) and by 10:30 this morning they were back with limits of salmon weighing 21, 21, 23, 23, 25, and 26 pounds. That's 139 pounds of fish. That's a 46 pound limit average. When they returned early with fish like that I figured that everybody was killing them out there. As usual, I figured wrong. A few guys killed 'em, a few guys got a few, and a lot of guys caught nothing. Again. Even Gage only caught two fish for two guys in the boat (and then pushed the Double Trouble back to port at the end of a long rope. Thanks for returning my boy, guys). The best part is that the word is that the fishing to the North of the Head is very slow, so everybody (no, really, everybody) is fishing below Tomales Point. There are some slug fish (Shrimp Boat had a 31 today) but there are also dudes that don't realize that there are other people on the water. A lot of those dudes. Now, let it be known that it is actually legal to carry a gun while fishing. I, for the record, don't, because I would be too tempted to use it. A jury would convict me of murder, unless the jury was composed of fishermen that trolled in this area. In that case, I'd be acquitted for sure. Just saying, some others actually do have guns aboard. Please get your heads out of the shade and warmth you're keeping them stuffed up and watch for others. I'd say, "You know who you are," but you don't. You have no idea. What I will say is, "See you tomorrow." 

   On the halibut front, the only flatfish I heard of today was a Starry Flounder from the bar and yet another Pacific Halibut from 170 feet of water from a guy rockfishing. He threw the 30+ pound fish (probably) back with a boo-boo lip. I guess the halibut population estimaters and the salmon population estimaters use the same software.

 

 

     Let's start with the good news. Steve Werlin (the former Dark Lord) demonstrated that his mojo was back with this 38 pound hog. The adipose fin on that fish is almost big enough to be a keeper on its own. There was also a 28 pound salmon in the boat, but I assume that it was caught by his boatmate, Chris Wall. These fish were caught near the Trees on the troll.

    Fishing nearby were these gentlemen. Gage says, "Sean Bottomley and James Bratt from Nevada City with a 34 lb salmon at the trees 65 ft of water 60 otw". So, yes, there's some big fish out there. So ends the good news.

    The bad news is that was pretty much it. There were a few other salmon caught out of here but not many. A few more were lost. But by and large the guys that came back with fish had rockfish. Even the boats that slayed them yesterday had none today. Maybe the water was too calm? Is that a thing? I hope not. There was bait, 56º brown, flat water, but very, very few biters. Yes, there were jellyfish. That's just the deal. Maybe tomorrow there will be biters. There'd better be some on Thursday. The only consolation for salmon guys was that the halibut bite was a tiny bit worse. 

    

    Let's start off with a report from yesterday. "Hi Willy, Here is a pic for ya...  Glenn Hakola of Windsor caught this 25lber(?)yesterday 140ft off the point.  First bait ball we saw heading south toward the fleet.  Hoochie 90 ft." Today the hootchies didn't work as well (for almost everyone) but it is good to see that they do work, usually. Everybody today reported jellyfish problems of varying difficulty. A lot of guys didn't catch anything but jellies (but they caught a lot of jellies). A few boats found a way to make them bite, nonetheless. If you had a hard time today, look away now. These pictures will be painful.  

    When you don't have room to store all of your fish, you've had a good day. These guys on Double Trouble were tripping over their fish when landing the last salmon of the day because the previous fish wouldn't all fit in the fishbox. First world problems. They would not comment on where they were but it wasn't too far away from here by the timeline I was told. "We found a fishable hole in the jellyfish and stuck with it." Straight bait was the weapon and they were back just after noon.

     I heard a few complaints about this crew. "We were fishing right by them and watched them keep hooking up and landing fish and we never had a bite there." Fishing next to Kapulani is like fishing behind Jake Showaker. There's no fish left there for you. I've tried it. It is brutal. I've had more fun at a funeral. Last year, in a spot I called him to fish, he shut down my bite until he was done and left. Then we finished our limits in short order. It was kind of spooky. I'd dislike him except for the fact that he's such a damned good person. He, Mike Gonzales, and Rudy Ai limited on salmon  to 27 pounds in view of many boats not doing nearly as well. Kapu was in the Bird/Trees area. Your results there may (probably will?) vary. 

     On the halibut front, I didn't speak to anyone with halibut the last two days but Gage tells me that there's been a few caught on this side of Hog Island. He said it was pretty good fishing but I think he's an optimist. Nobody has hung a halibut on the scale since June, so it can't be too fantastic.

     And Unknown commenter with too many expletives in your comment about the squid boats to be published, I sympathize. Luckily the squid aren't forming up in groups thick enough to show on a fishfinder or be interesting to the squidders. They were looking but if they set it wasn't on the ones I was fishing on. At least, not in the daylight they didn't. 

 

   Here's a Saturday report from Branden Mendoza: "Hey willy. Ran south today to McClure's and caught a nice 25lb salmon. Lost 3 more. This one and 2 others came on crippled anchovy at 40 on the wire the other came on a hochie at 45 feet on the wire. We were fishing in about 60-80 feet most of the day." That's a nice fish, Branden, and you've got the right-sized model to stand next to it for proper scale. The fish have been kinda hot and I've heard quite a few tales of lost fish. They're also running kinda largish, too. For the record, I am unopposed to stopping the boat and chasing fish. It may not be manly, but it seems to put larger fish in the box when they may have gotten away otherwise. When I hook a fish (it does happen every once in a while) I am devoted to landing that fish. It usually works. I've had people yell at me for not dragging my fish in, but I've had ducks quack at me before, too, and it causes me the same concern. 

Brandon Hodson says there's some good ones out there: "Hi There again! 

I think that sending you an email is my favorite thing to do, as it means someone got a good one:)
Thanks for all the info and keeping the derelicts like me informed!

Noah caught this fish that weighed out at 28.3 on a naked herring, in 115’ of water with 60’ OTW…  it was a redemption fish after losing one that looked like it had 5 or 6 pounds on it at the net… The person on the net only seems to get the credit when something goes wrong, but this time it went right.  Proof that little boats might not shine like the big guys but can bring in some fish if the occupants don’t mind riding in a teacup…
Thanks again!!" So here's a maybe tip, depending on how you feel about gaffing. Big salmon are very (physically and legally) gaffable and doing so can put a fish in the box that you may have not successfully netted. My fish last night was gaffed, as a gaff can be wielded much easier one-handed than a net. A good person would wait until the fish was played out and belly up, but I stuck him. That's a nice fish, Brandon, but I'm betting that you remember the lost ones even longer than the caught ones. The ones that got away will always haunt you. 

   So it seems that Eddie Kim is not the only catcher n the family. His brother, Peter, and his family, caught these fish this morning. The Eddie Kim caught his solo limit today (22 and 27 pounds. Very well done, sir) but Peter's 29 pounder was the largest. That's a heck of a fish.

    Remember those squid that the salmon were eating? Well, the squid boats have arrived to vacuum them up so that you don't have to worry about salmon choking on too many squid. I worry about that constantly. Thank God for these guys. Squid-be-gone. Also, the salmon bit late tonight. This one came at 7:30.

    The Shrimp Boat sent me this picture at 8:25 this evening. It appears that there's an evening bite. A few minutes later they lost a second fish.

 

 

      Karen Walker caught this 24 pound salmon today in 180 feet of water off of Tomales Point under a bunch of pelicans. Unfortunately, there were no encores (unless you count jellyfish; then there were a lot). The salmon bit an Apex, I think I was told Kevorkian colored. 

   Fish die when the Hawaiians show up. Kapulani took his his grandfather Rudy and another out for a salmon trip on his new (to him) Parker. They caught five salmon to 27 pounds and quit before they limited. If that was enough salmon for Rudy, they did well. 

      Dale Chaffin caught this 26 pounds (gutted and gilled) salmon today. I didn't get a precise location but it wasn't far away. This would be the largest fish weighed in today. Boats from here fished and caught salmon (or didn't) from above Bodega Head down to Elephant. A few did very well, a few more caught a fish or two, and a whole bunch caught nothing. Salmon bit hootchies, bait, and Apexes, or they didn't, depending on the boat. 

   This one bit a hootchie. It weighed 27 pounds and was my second bite after 8:00 pm. The first one didn't stick. This fish had very small milt sacks and an overstuffed stomach. His stomach held six squid (full-sized) and thirteen anchovies. I weigh 180 and I'm not sure that I could eat that much. I like squid and anchovies, so I'd give it a try. But more importantly, why would a fish whose stomach should be hurting bite a hootchie? Or anything? My guess is that a darting hootchie looks like something getting away and the fish bites out of instinct. It ain't for calories, although this guy reminded me of people I've been behind at the buffet. He was batting cleanup wherever he went. You magnificent, chubby bastard. 

    One boat had two halibut and a striper today, another had a keeper halibut and pretty much everybody else had nada. Thy halibut fishing is hard. Don't go if you have a thin skin, as chances are you're in for disappointment.

 

 

     Ron Johnson collected a limit of salmon to 25 pounds today. The salmon weren't easy to come by for most (not Ron, he whacked 'em), nor, I have found out, were they very easy yesterday. I guess I had a skewed sense of reality. I guess a lot of boats did not catch them. In retrospect, it's not surprising. Our salmon had bellies so full of squid that they couldn't have eaten anything else. It is generally difficult to catch fish that aren't feeding. Today's body count for salmon from the Landing was seven fish that I heard of. Seven fish for twelve boats (One boat had two and another had three) ain't a good average. My suggestion: If the fish there aren't biting for you, maybe go looking elsewhere. Do the Keilman from last Monday. If the fish here don't like what you have to offer, maybe find the fish that do like it someplace else. Jesse Keilman found his friendly fish at Abbott's Lagoon in 70 feet of water. Before the blow the fish were thick (and so were the jellies at the end) off of Salmon Creek in 230 to 280 feet of water. There have been mobile schools of anchovies passing by in the deep (150 to 300 feet of water) with salmon in the mix more often that not, when they are found. Don't go all-in on a hand that isn't working for you. Fold and try another hand. Sometimes they just aren't your fish. 

    This is his fish. Doug didn't get me name but the photo says a lot. The story is that this gentleman caught this fish that he kept and one other striper that he released today. Judging by the shadow it was this morning which would put it on the incoming tide following a pretty good low. This photo was taken at the tent sites so he was likely at the Sand Point half of Dillon Beach fishing in the surf. The only other thing I can tell from this picture is that he's pretty happy. He should be. There haven't been many stripers in the surf this year. And now there's one less.

   On the halibut front, a few were caught today but they were very few. The good weather forecast for this week will hopefully allow the water to warm back up and the fish to loosen their jaws. 

 

       Deborah, Chris and Alec joined me for a salmon trip today. After a tour of empty water (Where'd the bait go in the outer bay?) we went to the Trees. There, we caught four salmon pretty quick, until the Dark Lord (you know who you are) arrived and the bite shut down, around 9:00. We caught one more in the shadow of Sauron and then, later, around noon, stumbled over one of those acorns that a proverbial blind pig eventually finds. By 1:00 PM the weather started to turn towards what had been forecast, so we left. Slowly. It looked like there may have been a bite in close by Tomales Point, judging by the bird activity earlier in the day and the small group of boats trolling the area when we ran in. Our fish weighed in at 22, 20, 20, 18, 18, and 17 pounds. All fish caught on a hootchie/flasher combo, and not because that was all that was offered. The beauty of taking more people is that you can try different things with your extra lines. Four offerings and the fish picked door number one six times. It's more compelling than four out of five dentists choosing Trident. Probably have a hootchie somewhere in the mix. 

      Fishing takes me away from the boat launch, so I am unaware of any direct reports from anyone else, except for Cameron's report that the guys he spoke with that fished the bay did not have good days. He didn't talk to everybody, but the ones he did weren't happy. Even the man who went out just to catch some anchovies to freeze for bait wasn't happy. The halibut this year just don't seem to want to play ball. Mostly. The seeming randomness of their mostly nonexistent bite is frustrating at best. It does keep it interesting, though. 

      At this point, I would like to thank the Golden State Salmon Association, whose advocacy got salmon smolts trucked past the failed river system and into the bay. The success rate of fish that don't have to fight in the Thunderdome is high. We can't all be Mel Gibson. The season forecast for the commercial fishermen was something like 62,000 fish. By the end of June they had caught over 120,000 salmon. Is it because they're such badasses? Maybe, but also maybe there's a whole lot of fish in the ocean, way more than predicted. It could be that factory fish, Amazon delivered, skew the numbers. Pretty much any salmon you have caught this year is a factory-made (hatchery) fish. It fought pretty good, didn't it? Tasted good, too. The powers that be have pretty much killed the rivers and the drought is batting cleanup. If you're not already a member, check these guys out: https://goldenstatesalmon.org/     They got the smolts trucked past the river. That alone is enough for me, but they do more than that. As far as I'm concerned as a salmon fisherman, shut up and take my money. And, oh yeah, thanks. And, one more thing; is there a Golden State Halibut Association? Because we maybe need one. 

     Nobody from here went out to the ocean today because of the wind. One boat from here had two halibut. A couple boats ran back to Marshall and trolled and had steady action but no keepers. Mostly people fished near Hog and considered the fact that if they had at least brought a kite, then they'd have something to do. At least after tomorrow the wind is supposed to give us a break. 

   Here's a report that got lost in an email shuffle. It is from a fishing trip on Saturday the 17th: "Hello, my name is Rob Ishihara and I caught this 43 inch, 28.5 pound halibut off Hog Island yesterday with Captain Daniel Martinez.  I thought you might want to add it to your fishing report. Thanks." Sorry about the late post, Rob, but nice fish. If I were you I'd probably go fishing with your Captain again. 

   The ocean was unpleasant early and then got really nasty today. The successful fishing happened in the bay. Gage sent me a photo of some successful fishermen that fished the bay: "Campbell group with 4 nice specimens from north of hog. All but one on dead bait" That's real good news, because it turns out I kill bait really well. Without even trying. Since we're pretty much out of tray bait and have received no word of when such bait may be available, I'm probably going to have to stick to live bait (or killing live bait).  If you're coming out and have access to tray bait, bring it. 

 

   These guys deserved these fish. They deserved more, really, but these are the ones they caught at the 11th hour, as they say. Jesse Keilman and his crew fish up and down the California coast and generally do well, but they arrived here just in time for the slowest period of salmon fishing since the opener. Saturday, nothing. Sunday, nothing. Monday, nothing, until, at 2:00 PM, double. They finished with five up to, I think 28 pounds. They found them at Abbott's in 70 feet of water. Then they hauled butt to get back in time for the tractor pull out in some water that was not as nice as one would hope for. Please note Jesse's shirt, on the right. It looks wet, and it's not all nervous perspiration. I was almost as happy as they were when they came in with fish. Nice work, gentlemen, and good to see your effort rewarded.

    I don't have much information about this sixteen pound halibut but it was caught in the bay and landed by Margo Cooper of Roseville.  I would guess it came from Hog or points North of there, but Margo tends to catch bigger fish so it could even be a Marshall fish. But I doubt it. I caught one this evening not too far from home on a jig, not as large as Margo's fish but not too bad. It had white spots.

    Yes, it's that time again. Jim and Scott Alexander and Larry Varela worked the water near Bird for these three salmon weighing 20.5 to 28 pounds. It ain't limits, but they're here for a bit and pacing themselves. Not here for as long, not pacing themselves, and not pictured were the crew of Miller Time, who came in with three limits of salmon to 30 pounds (again!). The bait ball they were working was out a bit deeper than everybody else was fishing (120-150 feet) and moving around a bit. To be fair to the anchovies, they were hustling to avoid the salmon eating them, but if they had just held still the Miller Time boys would have helped them out quicker. Bottom line, the fishing ain't hot but there's possibilities. 

 

   Here's a report I missed from yesterday. Branden Mendoza emailed : "Hey Willy. Ran north today to the river in about 260ft of water. Managed 1 fish and 2 bites. Fish came very deep on a crippled anchovy 200 feet on the wire." From other reports, it sounded like the North bite fizzled (kind of like the South bite) with fish being replaced with jellies. Way North, near Gualala, the commercial guys have been catching some fish really deep, but they don't have to worry about jellyfish knocking their lines out of the releases. 

    Sean Bottomley has had a problem with leaders breaking lately, and I believe that this photo may shed a little light on why. Today Sean and crew landed five salmon with the largest weighing 40 pounds. If you're going to hook fish like that, there's an increased chance of line breakage. My recommendation to Sean is to stick to smaller fish and leave all of the Tyees for me. My guess is that Sean will wisely ignore me. My understanding is that he was fishing near other boats near Bird, only he was doing much better than most. Most boats had no bites, but several guys I spoke to said," I was right by him..." when they heard the news of team Bottomley's catch. Today they had the mojo. Tomorrow? Well, let's keep talking about today.

    Today the crew of the Miller Time discovered that which we all search for: biting fish. They told me that it is easier to catch fish when and where the fish are biting. I guess I have to believe them, as they have three fish to 30 pounds to prove it. These were all caught after 2:00 PM in and around a bunch of feeding birds and whales in 100 to 140 feet of water. This is why you keep your head on a swivel when you're out fishing. A chance glance in the right direction can make the difference between success and beans for dinner.

     Another crew paying attention to the horizon was the crew of Andrew's Deplorables. They fished the same bait pile in the late afternoon with birds and whales, and, apparently, salmon. They caught three salmon to 27 pounds, two of which bit the Curly Di Bella Ocean Extreme Hootchie Koo. They didn't find the bite until 3:15 PM and were hauled out of the water before 4:45, so the three fish happened pretty quick. 

   One more salmon picture for the day. Who is that masked man, you ask? I'm actually not 100% on who it is myself, but I'm sure his last name is Kim. Probably Harry. The salmon weighed 25 pounds. When there aren't many fish coming over the rails it's important to catch big ones. 

   On the halibut front, there were a few caught back by Marshall and maybe even a thresher shark hooked for a few seconds by one fisherman. One boat had five halibut, all nice fish, and all from the North side of Hog Island. The fish were caught while the water was warmer, towards the lower part of the tide. I'm hoping that this means we have a fresh batch of fish entering the bay, as we are kind of running out of ones we started the season with. A good number of baitfish entered the bay recently and it seems likely that these flatfish may be following their food source.