Rodney Blankenship of Stockton caught this nice salmon on Saturday. Here's the report from James Hayes; "Hey Willy. Took friend and his wife out and caught nice 25 pounder on slides in 50 feet of water down 50 feet on wire Saturday morning. 

Hit cod out in 188 feet! All nice Fish! 

Had to keep boat in reverse the whole time to keep lines in water when fishing for cod! 

Finally called salmon quits because south swell got so big and short they were coming over the front and kept filling my 25.5 Grady with water! 

Hope all is well with you and the family.

James Hayes 

PS. Been a great year! Lot of fish and big too!" All is well enough, thanks, Jamie. The weather was not good for catching fish on Saturday, and salmon fishing in general has been slow, so this fish (and the unpictured rockfish) are significant victories for Mr. Hayes and his crew. Nicely done, all. It sucks to get a beating, but it sucks a lot less with fish in the box.

    The Dillon Beach Tuna Club had somebody back out at the last minute and is looking for one more for the trip on the Polaris Supreme on October 11 to 16th. Richard Baratta had reached out to me earlier about trips in the fall so I sent the info his way first. He can't go, but he sent a report over instead. "Thank Willy for thinking of me I’m feeling really big right now. No I didn’t book anything in October because there wasn’t anything available. Unfortunately I can’t do those dates it’s my daughter’s birthday and I’m in a suddenly overbooked with work in October now so that’s a no go. Went out on the California dawn out of San Francisco my go to charter boat to the Farallon Islands it’s a Deathly calm out there, and the fish are bad ass big.

Tight lines!"  Thanks for the report, Richard. The scariest thing in those pictures are the happy, lunge-feeding humpbacks. Those magnificent creatures are going to prevent your Dungeness season from opening on time. Probably. For sure, you now need a $2.42 Recreational Crab Trap Validation to drop a crab trap after November 1. Everybody crabbing with a trap does, I believe. So, anybody taking crab from traps, even under 16 years of age on a public pier, needs a Validation. If you buy one this year and it doesn't open until next year, well, the State of California thanks you for your donation to the cause and reminds you to purchase a new Validation for 2022 with your new license. And don't forget your 3" x 5" red buoys.

    Guess who figured out how to use his selfie timer? Gage caught this halibut on a jig in 45 feet of water outside of the bar today. Just inside of him, Tom and Jerrie Carter caught three on jacksmelt in 15 to 30 feet of water. A Tom quote for the day "...it was a target-rich environment." The fact that it's late season and the bar was busting off and on for the last two days should make everybody pause before running out there. There are fish there (or, there were today) but keep in mind that it's the scariest place around, for good reason. On the right day, hell yes, fish it. But keep your head on a swivel. People die on the bar for a reason. We are getting to that time of year when the swell starts to pick up. Alec is cleaning the lens of his camera to catch the next boat trying their luck over a breaking bar. But be forewarned; I probably won't post a suicide film. I say probably because there's a super slim chance that a portion could be educational. Never say never. But I don't want to watch anybody die and I think most people agree with that sentiment. So don't. Just don't.