Yesterday was mostly awesome for salmon fishermen. There were guys returning, limited out, by noon. Double Trouble had 12 salmon in three hours of fishing, then caught limits of rockfish (they like cleaning fish, apparently). They were out farther than most (16 by 8) but some guys did well as close as 15 by 3. There were huge schools of anchovies that would black out the fishfinder for five minutes of trolling. That's a lot of tiny fish. I said "were" because today they were mostly gone. The fantastic bite of yesterday moved to off of the Russian River. One of the few boats that caught salmon today made the run up there for a salmon in the box and salmon fed to a sea lion. The question is, will they be there tomorrow? Or will they be someplace closer to Fort Bragg? The salmon bite really died in the afternoon yesterday and did not recover today. A few friends and I have a group text for fishing info. Today's texts read like a suicide note. It's not often that I'd rather be working than fishing, but today I didn't feel too bad about being on the beach.

     I got a text today from Joe Winn with these photos: "The halibut bite was tough this year but we have nothing to complain about, thanks again for the tray bait and numbers." The numbers were easier to get than the bait. We have a couple of dozen trays of anchovies left, and after that it looks like we'll be fishing herring, junk, or catching and killing anchovies. Joe's success is atypical, but Joe and his crew are fish killers, so not unexpected. Any three species day (not counting rockfish) is a pretty good day.

    Gage sent me a photo of an even luckier guy: "Dave from Santa Rosa. Mid-teen halibut from the surf on a Kastmaster" Beach halibut? That's bucket list. Nice job Dave. I'm jealous.

Mara Nursement and Rich Chapin followed a tip late in the day up to the Russian River and caught this salmon and lost another to a sea lion before having to run home.