Here's a report from Friday: "Hello Willy

Always enjoy reading your reports.
After reading Thursday's report
I called my fishing buddy and said let’s go give it a shot.  We were the fifth rig in the parking lot at west side at 8:30.  Apparently a lot of guys just have preconceived notion that salmon are gone and done at a certain point on the calendar.
Some years back I caught a nice one in front of the Russian River on Halloween.  I was the lone rig in the lot that day.  Anyway, yesterday we followed the tips from Thursday’s report and ran down to Abbots.  Fishing right alongside the New Sea Angler, we hooked a nice one, worked him for a few and bang….gone.  Line broke….no excuse for that, totally avoidable event with basic inspection and maintenance of the gear.  After my 15 minutes in the penalty box, I got back on it with a new rig  and fresh determination.  People were definitely catching fish but it wasn’t wide open.  We fished hard and finally around 1:30 my rod was doing the pump dance.  Jumped to grab it and first thought I might have a snag. Wow did this one ever fight!  Of course I was being extra gentle after loosing the one earlier.  Loosing this one was not an option.  Later on back at the wash down other successful fisherman said the fish seemed to have a lot of spunk in their fight. 

It was a good day, wish we could have done better, but any day that ends skunk free is a good day!" Damn right. Yeah, the fish seem energetic. I kind of miss the suicide fish a few years back. Just drag them in like you snagged a rag. Then again, chasing fish with the boat is kind of cool, too, and makes for better stories than the rag. Even if you lost it, the story is better. I vote for a mix of the two.

     Mike Mack sent in this photo and report from today: "3 salmon on 1 in box. 10 mile lots of bait. Straight bait 50' to 70' - 25 pulls. Ling at elephant. Limits rock fish. Beautiful day on the water. We love lawsons landing." It seems Mike has had similar issues as the rest of us with these hot salmon releasing themselves. It sucks but is exciting. Also, this is supposed to be the time of year when lings move in from offshore to spawn. There should be more fish around like the ling in the photo, or at least more coming. Oh, and Mike, we like you, too. 

    Branden Mendoza sent in this report from today: "Hey willy. Got this guy today trolling in 80 feet of water just before elephant. Caught it on 30 feet on the wire with a crippled anchovy. Got him early at 8:30 am trolled all-day for nothing else but he made the day worth it for sure " You gotta love catching one early. It does take the edge off. That looks like a nice chipped hatchery buck. All of ours were dudes on Thursday and all of these photos today look like dudes, too. I'm sure that means something but I don't know what it is.  I heard of another salmon caught today (and a couple lost; hot fish) but didn't hear of any halibut caught. Swampy is good, but I don't think that he caught the last one. Probably.