Well, the salmon can relax now, as the Treadways (and Machados) have have gone home. But they're taking home salmon up to 31 pounds and the memories of the big, hot fish that broke off or spit the hook. And there were more than a few that got away. These fish may all be hatchery fish but a lot of them don't seem to know it. Thanks for the visit, Team Treadway.

    Most of the salmon fishermen did well today. We were even graced by the presence of Local Legend Gerard Fitzgerald and his Legend-in-Training, AJ Masters, who returned with limits to 31 pounds before 9:00 AM. Eddie Kim was pretty pleased with Gerard's backhanded compliment when he returned ("Eddie who?"). Other folks also did pretty well, with most of the boats from here that fished Bird to McClure's catching at least one salmon. Halibut fishing? There were a couple caught today but the boat that caught them spent way more time chasing halibut for two than he did chasing salmon for four. I've kinda given up on the halibut coming in. In fact, it sounds a bit like some of the littles in the back are moving out of the bay now, without even having the decency to grow to legal size first. 

    Okay, the comments came in from yesterday's rant on otoliths and fish age and Tigers and I'm surely wrong. But, I guess if I'm out there catching fish that were spawned during the first big American pandemic (Spanish Flu, February 1918 to April 1920) I must be a better fisherman than I thought. Also, I would have to guess that the infant mortality rate of rockcod is appalling, as they seem to make lots of eggs every year but only a very, very few of them ever make it. I mean, hey, they live with lingcod. That's gotta suck. You thought you had crappy neighbors. Rockfish would happily take your meth family Robinson down the street in trade for lingcod. Could you imagine dodging lingcod and other eaters for 100 years while 100,000 (100,000,000?) of your contemporaries get eaten, only to bite a jig on a rod held by some 50 year-old bald dude that needs a shave? What an emotional rollercoaster.