Yesterday was pretty slow for salmon and halibut alike. The best salmon bite was North (20 line +) and out in 300ish feet. That big school of salmon that the commercial fleet was working just kept on trucking North with little bits dropping off here and there. A few bits found their way into the shallows, though, and a couple of fish were caught off of Bird in 60 feet of water yesterday. The fish were in the rocks (they ate at least one downrigger ball yesterday) but they were close, so I took an after work run on them. I caught a short king, four undersized lingcod, and a sea urchin (first one on hook and line). I also got as close to falling out of the boat and watching troll away as you can get. I hooked a toe under the center console to keep from going all the way in, but I was over the gunnel from puckered butthole on up. I'm not really sure how I stayed in the boat, but bruises and strained muscles point to some lucky leverage. Yes, you're supposed to wear a kill lanyard, but only if you're running, not fishing. I was trolling and didn't want to yank the cord while moving around the boat. I now feel that maybe shutting off the engine accidentally is a small price to pay for continued breathing. For those of you that knew him, I saw Bob King there for a second and he looked well. 

   Here's a report from Branden Mendoza from Sunday : "Hey willy. Had a little luck over the weekend 2 keepers for 2 days. Got one yesterday off the head in about 280ft of water on a crippled anchovy. Got another one today same area on a watermelon apex. 100ft on the wire for both. Also just thought I'd mention to make sure you are checking your fish lots of cohos out there released 10 for both days. Today at the dock fish and game was confiscating cohos. Just don't wanna see anyone get slapped with a $600 fine it's not worth it. Hopefully people will be more careful. " People won't, Branden, but it's nice of you to think of them. Nice job on the fish. They weren't quite leaping into the boat for most folks over the weekend (well, maybe the silvers were).

   It looks like that school kept going North. Peter Prunuske: "My partner at Spud Point abandoned his captain and went fishing off Albion. While he and his daughters caught 4 25#ers, he left his erstwhile partner to suffer the ignominy of skunking off Bodega Sunday.  How dare he?  You can bet he gets the “bad” side of the boat next time we go out. " Well, Peter, we should all consider skunk trips "learning opportunities." Sometimes it's learning about what does and doesn't work. Sometimes it's learning that your buddy, isn't. All information is valuable. At least your "buddy" put those girls on some nice fish. Maybe next time he can do the same for you.