Curly Di Bella shows off what a 23 pound salmon looks like. Curly and Mike Mack had a pair of salmon yesterday, both caught by Curly as I understand it, but I imagine Mike had a bit of input as to putting this fish in the box. Someone has to drive the boat. Today was pretty good on the salmon catch numbers but it wasn't red hot. Better than the last few days will do, though. 

   Jesse Keilman and his friend from up Tahoe way caught their limits before 11:00 AM yesterday after catching only one in the two days before. Good day, good placement, and good job. If it was easy, everybody would do it. The fact that it ain't easy, usually, doesn't make it any less appealing, but in fact makes it more interesting, at least for those of us that are addicted to it. A crappy report calls to me. No expectations. There's only an upside. Sunday night Gage and I gave it try outside. We caught nothing but it was a beautiful evening to be on the water. The South chop laid down to nothing by twilight. It was the nicest water I've been out on this season.  

   Here's an email from our anonymous commercial fisherman: "Tied up mat the dock, waiting for our short 2-week opener starting Sunday, I’ve been listening to disgusted sports fishermen.  Yesterday a friend tried fishing Bird Rock and quit right away because of the way some boats were behaving. I have a couple of suggestions.

1.  When trolling, take a tip from the commercials and try to troll up and down rather than milling around each bait ball.  Commercials usually follow a counter line to keep out of each other’s way.

2.  Keep one person on watch all the time, even when fighting a fish.  Never underestimate the ignorance or just plain pushiness of some people.  Have  a good air horn handy.

3.  If you haven’t taken the Coast Guard Auxiliary safety course, do so.  You will learn a lot. A more extensive course is required of all commercials.

4.  When the commercials get their short opener, a few may brave the crowds and fish the shallows.  Remember that the fish are for everyone.  Commercials will be trolling up and down, along a contour line, and with their gear in the water they are very limited in how fast they can turn.  Keep watch, try to anticipate problems and avoid them.

5.  Guns are legal on boats, but remember that it is illegal to even threaten gun violence, and the Coast Guard is monitoring the radio.  Blustering threats can result in an arrest.

Let’s make it through the season without any accidents."  For the record, I'm not promoting the idea of guns on boats. I just think that it would make it easier for me to act on the ideas going through my head in response to foolishness. So I go without guns, generally. I officially recommend to the public, don't bring a gun. And also, don't give anyone a reason to use a gun. 

   And just to be complete, Brad Stompe said: "Hey Willy,

I saw the picture of assorted rockfish posted on your blog the other day which contained a tree and tiger rockfish.  I caught my first tiger rockfish somewhere between Bird and Pt. Reyes several years ago which I kept.  After getting home I decided to find out more about this fish that seemed pretty rare in these parts, not having caught one in 30 years of fishing these waters.  Here is a Wiki excerpt from the description...  Scientists have dated some fish to be up to 166 years old. It is very vulnerable, with a minimum population doubling time of 14 years.  I don't know why CFW allows take of this fish, but I decided there are plenty of other fish to eat without killing one potentially 166 years old.  I have caught several more since and have sent each one back to the bottom.  I know you are running a fishing based business and don't want to discourage fishermen, but maybe just providing this information to those that don't know would help encourage other conservation minded fishermen to reconsider keeping these unique old timers in our backyard." Something to consider. I don't actually believe the otolith numbers of age. There's no dry season or exceptionally cold season at 300 feet of water to make a ring like a tree. How many growth spurts does a rockfish have in a year? The very similar Treefish supposedly gets to only 25 years old.  But in my eight years on a party boat in the 1980's that caught its share of fish, I never saw a Tiger rockfish.The first time that I or my grandfather (the party boat skipper) saw a Tiger was in 2010 or 2011 off of Bird Rock. After that, we have boated several more, once three Tigers in three drops. Are they rare? Absolutely. Are they less rare than they used to be? It seems like it to me, but what do I know? I'll bet that they expanded their numbers and did some relocating during the Great Rockfish Lockdown of the early 2000's when the rockfish were absolutely overfished and many restrictions were put in place. There was a void in an ecological niche that allowed them to increase, similar to yellowtail/olive rockfish now being a regular catch in shallow water when they used to be only out in the deep. Opportunity knocked, they answered. Would I keep one again? Well, now you made me feel like a jerk, so even after saying all that, probably not. 

     Here's your obligatory Eddie Kim and Doug Bagley with limits of salmon photo for this week. They were back by 10:30 with fish from 18 to 25 pounds at Bird. All fish on straight bait.