This evening I took the wife out for her first salmon of the season. It wasn't big. Gage took out a couple of buddies and ended up with three salmon to 23 pounds. Bird to the Trees, 80 to 110 feet of water. There was another bite earlier between 160 and 200 feet of water off of Bird. There's a few salmon scattered all around in the shallows. Clumped, really. You're either in them or you're totally not. It's kinda like fishing.

  Here's a yesterday picture of Shrimp Boat Alec with his limit to 23 pounds by 9:00 AM. Look at his expression. Even he can't believe it. To top it off, he took Cameron out for his limit to 22 pounds. Why won't he take me?

  This is Rich Chapin demonstrating how to properly show off a large salmon. It doesn't really matter how many you've caught in your past, every nice fish you catch in the present is still a joy. This fish came from, I think 200 feet of water. Off Bird? Sorry, wasn't paying close enough attention. Sleep deprivation will do that.

    Here's a Saturday report from Cliff Whitmore:"Hello Willy, here are two that did not get away from us. Trolling on the south side of Hog along with the flotilla of boats and kayaks Saturday morning. Stayed on the outside of them. Lost one at the boat and missed a couple of good take downs. Take care!"

 Whine and ye shall receive. I asked for surf  striper pictures. Sean McCarthy sent this one:"Threw a metal spoon out where birds where diving didn’t take long! 26”. Right out in front at Dillon. Must be my lucky shorts! Thanks for the great reports!" Those are great shorts.

    

  Mike Mack and crew put the hurt on the salmon last Sunday. 

Amanda Rocha went fishing with the Gage yesterday and caught her first two salmon, 16 and 22 pounds. The fishing has been pretty good on Gage's boat lately. 

 These fish came from off of Bodega Head. It was wide open for these guys. Wyatt and Lou's big fish weighed 18 pounds on our scale and they were done relatively quickly. For a lot of guys it wasn't wide open. Welcome to fishing! Sometimes it sucks.

   These guys went to Ten Mile. They nailed them, catching limits of salmon. On the way back their outdrive grenaded. In a bad way. Sometimes. even when it's good, fishing sucks. Eddie Parsons towed them in, so obviously, he doesn't suck. Today.

  These guys didn't even go out until almost 4:00 PM and they were still back by 7:00 with these three fish. They look like nice guys, but obviously, for a stunt like that, they suck. They actually are nice guys, but dudes, this is hurtful. I am simultaneously happy for you and jealous. Mostly the second thing. I don't have a location on where these fish were caught but it couldn't be far from the mouth of Tomales Bay. I heard about a few more stripers caught in the surf on Dillon Beach today. It's not too surprising with the anchovies moving past like they are. Last year the 'chovies didn't play ball but this year they decided to scroll past the beach. Well, good for those of you that caught the stripers. As one that didn't (that little one I let go hardly counts) I'd like to see pictures of your fish. Send them to lawsonslanding@gmail.com . 

Captain Kyle and Jersey John of Healdsburg came by to (correctly) show off their white seabass. They had been trolling for halibut by Marshall and ended up with these critters instead. They didn't seem disappointed. These came as as a double hookup but after that the WSB went back to lockjaw status. They bit anchovies behind flashers (I think; It was a busy day) and the slightly larger one weighed 13 pounds. These guys probably should have bought lottery tickets instead, but then they would have won millions of dollars instead of getting their pictures on this prestigious blog. I think they chose wisely. 

After a bit of a warm-up yesterday with one salmon in the box, Paul Page correctly called in Tony Roa to assist him in putting multiple fish in the box. Good call, Paul. These fish were caught on the edge of the fleet working Bodega Head. The bite there wasn't as good for everybody (it really never is) but most fishermen picked up one or more on the troll. The hot bait/lure? Everybody I spoke with had a different method, so I'm thinking you should go with whatever has worked for you before. You're likelier to catch with something you have faith in since you'll work it better and fish it longer. 

Larry Rogers caught this 28 pound salmon today, also on the edge of the fleet at Bodega Head (two guys probably don't make a pattern, but?). I don't know what it bit but I do know Larry had a bit reeling to after the initial hookup. The hook came out right at the net. Those of you that lost a few fish today (Cough, Bartons, cough) notice the hooked jaws of this salmon. That soft, curved flesh sheds hooks like my head sheds hair. Well, not that bad. Clearly the hooks will sometimes still stick. But these fish bros that have the river on their mind get tougher to get into the net. The forecast looks good for the next several days and the water is warming and getting a touch of color near the shore. There will be fish caught in less than 100 feet of water in the next few days but possibly a red tide by next weekend if the wind doesn't blow for a day or two. All the wind we've had has pushed up a lot of nutrients from the deep, but let it warm up well and the plants and animals will bloom. There will likely still be fish under the muck. It just won't look like it.

Eddie Kim and his rotating cast of family and friends (and Doug, apparently) smacked them again today. Eddie's father assisted in the take of four halibut to 21 pounds and he caught the first striper on Eddie's boat. Now that he's broken the ice, I'm sure Eddie will be able to catch his own. Probably.

Sorry, Gage, I forgot this picture yesterday. Amanda Rocha shamed her boyfriend yet again by catching more and bigger fish than he. This was definitely a Gage-gaffed fish as identified by the "center-of-mass" gaff shot. This technique was shown to him by his father. It's not where you really want to gaff them as you waste a bit of meat, but then again, it gets them in the boat. Nice job, Amanda, but maybe let the Gage get one sometime. In other halibut news, most halibut fishermen today did pretty well but the "back-bay" bite seems to have slowed. Fish caught nearer the mouth mostly have the white spots possibly indicating fresh ocean fish. Most of the anchovies seem to be centered around Hog Island and the halibut seem to heading that way to eat. Catching live bait seems harder that catching the halibut since a small live bait has a short life expectancy on the bottom. The anchovies know this and are understandably nervous. Quiet seems to be key. Splashes and other loud noises are scary when everything is trying to eat you. The Owner #12 or #14 pink "shrimp skin" sabikis seem to work best.

The salmon bite off of Bodega Head today slowed in inverse proportion to the increase in the number of boats fishing there. What I mean to say is that the bite slowed down and there were more boats there. There's about a half-knot current running North which is probably contributing to the bait and fish collecting on the South end of Bodega Reef. This could also mean two other things: 1. There may be fish and bait on the South sides of Elephant reef and Bird reef. 2. Some of that bait and fish may be moving North. Just some things to consider tomorrow. 

    

The halibut were snapping again today, most particularly between Pelican Point and Number 5. These fish came from the Fiver. Eddie Kim took Doug out top show him how large halibut are caught. Doug watched and learned. Eddie had 20 and 27 pounders today. Quite a few boats did well in the area described, although most did not have fish of this caliber. The anchovies were hard to catch for the most part, even though there were quite a few splashing around the surface. They were serious teases today. On my boat, after a failed salmon mission we returned to the bay and started trying for bait at about 10:00. After finally catching three 'chovies I dropped a live bait over the side at 10:30. By 10:35 we had two halibut in the box. By 1:00 PM we had our limits but the bait was the limiting factor. 

So I couldn't catch any salmon out front in 230 feet. Luckily these guys didn't go there. 17 and 7 off of the Head worked well for these men among men. Team Alexander limited out on salmon, as well as several other boats working the same area. Here's the report I got from the fella actually working the launch today "Alexanders limited on salmon. All in afternoon, off the head within the commercial fleet. 30-80' depth. Straight bait. Lots of guys tried salmon, and I kept hearing "lost 1." The head had whales, porpoises, some bait, everywhere else had an odd salmon hit here and there, with few, if any, landings. Bay put out quite a few halibut, plus some striper."

And then, from the files of "you wish", photos from Alaska:"Hello Willy,

   Cliff Whitmore here, aka High Times Fishing. Had to show you these from the Cook Inlet Alaska from last week. First time after the Pacific Butts and was spoiled. I will be looking for their cousins this Saturday out in Tomales. See you early Saturday. Never too much fishing,,,or hunting."Don't be too disappointed, Cliff. Our flattened fishies aren't even close. But, they're here and catchable, so there's hope for them.