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.