I don't want to brag, but it has been literally years since I got skunked while salmon fishing. That ended today. In my three and a half hours of trolling off of Bodega Head I released a shorty and a silver and lost a small but probably barely legal salmon before I could decide to net him. I was not the only skunked boat, but overall the fishing and catching was better today than yesterday.

     I have to say that I enjoy getting texted photos of fish being caught while I am not catching. I have to say it because I want pictures, but in fact I tried not to look at my phone at a certain point. Mason Lessard sent the first hurtful photo: "Owen put this 25lb into the box 

Straight bait 150 OTW 288' off bodega head...

No other bites so far for us"  My understanding was that no other keepers followed this one, but one keeper is the difference between success and failure, so good on you, Owen. Very nice fish.

     Bob Brodsky caught the top 17 pound salmon yesterday. Good thing he got to catch one Saturday because today Natalia went with Bob and Tom and she caught all the fish. Bob got to net, at least. They were off of Bodega Head both days.

     Branden Mendoza sent in this report: "Hey Willy. We trolled both days out with the fleet. Nothing yesterday. But today we got lucky. Fishing 150ft down with 2lb balls straight bait resulted in 2 fish for us. Happy that we had some success in our short season. As always thanks for the reports." Thanks for your reports, sir. Straight bait did seem to be the ticket for a lot of fish this weekend. I guess we all have to keep that in mind for September.

    Gage sent me this picture at about noon today: "Robert and Nate Baker with this nice striper from the surf. Live jacksmelt" Surf stripers are the best stripers. Nice job. Makes you want to catch another, doesn't it?

       So another fish it was. Nate Baker reports, "Hey Willy, 

Gage got a pic of a striper Robert landed this morning off the point. He nailed this one this afternoon at the tide change in the same spot. 

stay fishy, 

Nate " I'm pretty sure that I'm not as fishy as Robert. Really nice work there, Robert. Two in a day from the surf is pretty special.

     Not from here, but nearby, Kelly Roy reports: "Willy

6 limits by 10:30. Some smalls and some nice high teens with a high 22 pounder.

Came in flurries of triples doubles and a few singles.

HMB great day great ocean" It sounds like it was a little slower down south today and little better up here, but south was still the place to be. There are a lot of salmon out there and we'll get another shot at them in September when they will count against next year's salmon count. Yeah, I don't get it either, but if I get to fish I guess it doesn't really matter.