Sorry, I was away for a few days and Cameron was too busy to post that no catching was happening. Well, almost no catching. Most people went without fish, but a few guys did well. I heard a story about an "epic" day of fishing by Miller Time where the boys landed salmon, lingcod and halibut to 29 pounds on a day when most fishermen struggled hard to get any one of those. Today, Ron Johnson landed both a salmon over 20 pounds and a nice halibut. Both of these feats occurred off of McClure's Beach. There are salmon being caught off of the north end of Ten Mile Beach and in the outer bay, too, just not a consistent bite anywhere. You have a better chance of catching nothing in all of those places, but there's little pods of salmon moving through the area, and if you and they meet, life is good. Otherwise, bring a book. The halibut fishing has been the better bet but it is less than excellent. More catching than the salmon fleet, though. 

   So, what was I doing that was so important, you ask. Well,

    Gage I have a new policy. If Eddie Kim invites you on a fishing trip, you go. You don't ask questions. This policy resulted in Gage and I landing seven bluefin on Wednesday night. A couple of them were less than 100 pounds (including the 60 pounder I caught flylining 40 pound gear. My arm still hurts) but most were 100 to 130 pounds. I got off to an early lead, but Gage beat me by the end of the night. Thank goodness fishing isn't a competition, or I'd be losing all the time. Then we came home, and with a lot of help, vacuum packed the fish over the last two nights. Thanks for the help, everybody. It takes a village, as they say.  

    Not only did The Wet Dream catch a halibut yesterday, today they did it again, along with a few rockfish. I didn't see any other halibut come in today, but there were some salmon. High boat from here was Mike Mack with three, again. 

  "28lb,24,18 all at the trees in 104' with anchovies fishing 70'to 80' with 2lb ball. Beautiful day on the water. Many thanks to staff at lawsons for the great service."

Good work. The fish were from Bird to McClure's and really close to the bottom but they weren't biting very well, and when they did bite they unhooked themselves pretty well. Tough fishing is what they call it, but it's way better than the no-chance-at-all fishing of a few weeks ago. We'll take it and wait for the late season bite on the beach. Fingers crossed, as that can be a good time. Soon....

      The salmon fishing was better today. I know this for two reasons. One, Mike Mack told me so. Two, Mike and Spinner are holding three fish in this picture, one more than yesterday. They lost several in the morning as well. Jesse Keilman and his crew landed four salmon, none after noon. Both boats were in a small fleet of vessels between the Trees and McClure's in 70 to 140 feet of water. Some of the fishing was chasing birds. The fish are here again and biting. For now.

      The halibut fishing in the bay was mostly tragic this weekend, but Howard Law and crew caught four halibut today, two on bait and two on jigs. Yesterday our Tim Woerner and Christine had three halibut, a striper and a sand sole on the bar, also about 50/50 bait/jig. I heard that the Wet Dream crew landed a halibut today. There's a few fish around. It ain't good, but there's a chance.

   I know, it's not here, but friend of the report Eddie Kim scored a personal best today out of San Diego on the Poseidon. He landed two bluefin over 200 pounds in a day. One is serious work. Two? No wonder fish fear him.

 

       Mike Mack and Spinner landed two salmon today and lost one more. According to the (mostly bored) fish counter, they were high boat. Jesse Keilman and crew had one salmon and one halibut. They came in after and were a close second. Third place? Everybody else tied with nothing. The Trees to McClure's in 80 to 100 feet of water was the ticket today, if you could take the beating.

 

     Yesterday Gage, Chris Brown, Nathan Duby and I tried for salmon in the outer bay. We finished with two salmon for a long day, then jigged up a couple of halibut (and missed about ten more bites) on the bar just before we had to pull the boat. The limits of salmon from the day before eluded us. There was lots of bait and what looked like salmon on the fishfinder, just not many biters. I heard of some others caught there, a few mooching and a few trolled up off of Doran Beach. There were a few salmon caught today in some less-than-ideal conditions; a couple at McClure's and a couple at Buoy "02". Jesse Keilman and his crew caught a 30 pounder there this morning. The wind is up and is expected to blow for the next few days, but how hard it will blow in close remains to be seen. Even if it doesn't blow hard on the beach the water will be riled up. It seems that there's a few fish around but catching them is almost as hard as staying in the boat.