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.