I'm going to declare the inshore salmon bite over for now. That way the fish can prove me wrong (yet again!) by going back on the bite. As it is now, though, it's pretty pitiful. There was a small, early bite this morning with a few fish hooked and far fewer actually landed between Bird Rock and Elephant in 60 to 100 feet of water. Jellyfish were luckily available to substitute for salmon and did so with gusto. One boat from here had a salmon caught in 70 feet. Two other boats had salmon but they ran out to 240 feet of water to find them. Birds and whales showed the way. The current is still running North and the wind is forecast to blow from the Northwest tomorrow, so my suggestion is to go out and North and look for sign. At least the ride home will be less horrible. For now, though, the inshore salmon fishing looks pretty bad. This can and will change, maybe tomorrow, maybe in August, but it seems like the deeper waters are the way to go for now. Wanting the fish to be in close won't make it happen. I tried.

    Well, at least there's halibut. Wait, what? Oh yeah, that's worse than the salmon fishing. No keepers landed here today. One nice striper, but stripers aren't flat. There's bait starting to flow into the bay, anchovies, herring and sardines, so perhaps a few flatfish may be entering for a nosh. You couldn't tell today. The beach and bar have had hundreds of pelicans pounding the shallows after all the baitfish but fishermen have been catching mostly snagged anchovies instead of stripers. I heard rumors of surf stripers but my go to guys didn't catch any. It is definitely exciting to run up and down beach chasing birds and bait and casting like mad but it has surely been better for cardio than for filling the freezer. For the record, it is difficult to cast accurately when your vision is blacking out.