The outer bay bite was in the afternoon after everybody left. The morning was dead and only a few fish were caught. We had one at 10:00, one at 1:00 and four between 1:30 and 3:00. Two on the bottom and four 25 ft down. Other fish were caught on Ten Mile, off of Mussel Point in 210 ft, and further North near the Russian River. There's so much bait in the outer bay and the water has some decent color to it, so it seems pretty difficult to me to run past it. But, after a few hours with no bites, I understand looking elsewhere.

     These guys limited on salmon today. Nothing on the boat at 2:00, limited by 3:00. It's probably a secret spot, except that you could see all the boats from the beach (as far as secrets go, this one needs more fog). Just West of buoy "02" was a small fleet of boats trolling back and forth, and when the school came in the nets were waving all over. With luck the number of boats won't increase to the point the school doesn't come in tomorrow. What are the chances, though, really? It's a secret.....

     Bryan Steward sent in this report from last week:"Sorry for the delay, as my son Matt caught this the 8/31 on a Jacksmelt. Great fight, the shark jumped out of the water 3 times as he chased him around the boat. Location of the catch was 1/2 mi. south of Hog Island. "

     Then there's this Monday report from Kevin Fogal:"Fished with Paul Boley today ,like the good old days. We caught 4 salmon to 14 lbs ! 2 on watermelon apex 1 on blue / chrome Rhys Davis head with a anchovy and one on a green Krippled anchovy, with a sardine . We fished between tomales point and bodega head in 200 feet of water 100 feet down OTW!!" So the salmon are still out there in the cold, clear water that the wind blew in. Lots of bait still in the outer bay where the water is a bit warmer and colored. Salmon? I don't know, but there's several commercial boats trolling right in front of Dillon Beach where the bait has been. Lots of bait back by Hog but only a couple of halibut yesterday.

     Well, the cold water seems to have shut down the halibut bite, so it looks like the salmon have come in to feed in their place. This 18 pound king was caught by marker number 7, near Hog Island. The current thinking is that it followed some of the schools of anchovies back into the bay. There could be more of them back there, but probably not enough to target.

Derby, and the big one that thankfully got away

   
     And here's a report from last weekend, from Kevin Evoy:"1st time writer, long time reader.So last Saturday, we are trolling for salmon in 130 ft of water off Bird Rock. We hook a salmon at 90 ft OTW, rod gets picked up , salmon on .Then there is some weird tension and loseness on rod.3 seconds later, 40 feet behind the boat, a 10-12 foot long Great White shark flies 6 feet in the air behind the boat.AWESOME!!!! Scary!   Salmon gone, bring line in.FBR still there, bait and salmon gone.....Most incredible thing I've ever seen.   We stopped bleeding the fish over the side of the boat, stopped sitting on side of boat too"