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.