Pastor Ray decided to give the surf on Dillon Beach a try and he caught this nice striper a couple of days ago. There was another, larger one caught today but nobody felt the need to share a photo with me. I heard of a few salmon caught today, not many, but a few. There were far more halibut taken, mostly by Hog Island but a few from Ten Mile. Most of the halibut were recently legal, but at least one 24 pounder was caught by the island by Mike Morgan.

     Here's a nice mixed bag landed by the crew of the Predator. They were fishing the North end of Ten Mile yesterday. There were also a couple of salmon caught by Pelican Point yesterday, so there is a chance for smaller boats to maybe get a salmon in protected waters. It's a big maybe, but you never know. Also, the bar report for halibut is not good. At 10'+ visibility you can see far enough to know that there are no fish there. Yet.

     Nicki Vogler caught a 19.5 and a 22 pound salmon yesterday, despite her strong feeling that she might vomit on them. The water was sloppy and our fishfinder was broken, so we tried McClure's for a halibut at the turn of the low tide. Apparently some salmon had pushed a school of anchovies up into the breakers and were feeding when we trolled by. Two in two passes, then we had to take the fisherwoman home. Our return trip caught only the fish pictured below. At least the fishfinder worked that time. We caught in 24 feet of water, danger close to the surf, and saw a salmon jump out of a breaker. Should have been surf fishing, I guess. Sean Bottomley limited out on salmon off of Tomales Point today, but other than that I haven't heard too much about salmon. Halibut back by Hog Island has remained pretty good, although the side has been a bit small. Although, not as small as Gage's fish. 

     This 16 pound halibut bit on a live jacksmelt drifted by the yellow weather buoy at Pelican Point. That and a bit of beginner's luck. More miss than hit today for the salmon fishermen. Looks to me like the better catching was in the bay.

     Here's some Monday reports :"clarence wilson of sacramento while fishing with r. duke, of sacramento.   caught these on watermelon crippled herring and crowbar/anchovie.  they ended up with 3 fish after dropping the devil fish 3 times."

     Big fish of the day (at least, that got hung on our scale) was this 22 pound halibut caught by Matt McCullah of Clayton. 

     And then these guys. I was told that the salmon fishing was difficult, but hey, how hard could it be? Just kidding. These guys worked their butts of for these two salmon 80' OTW out in 180 feet of water off of Elephant Rock yesterday, just outside of a huge pod of feeding whales. The pod of whales had moved South today but I'm not clear on whether the salmon had followed.

     While most of the salmon fishermen didn't do all that well today, all these fellows had to do was wait for Gerard Fitzgerald to call them in on the fish. Two limits, no problem. Gerard is planning on installing a second radio so that he can call himself in on the fish....

     These folks stopped in to show off their halibut catch for today. The fish ate a live jacksmelt. The halibut bite has slowed but not stopped by Hog Island. There's a rumor of a few halibut from Ten Mile today but I haven't seen one of these fish. This is the time of year when there should be both halibut and salmon showing on the beach, so it may be true. 

     So, since it looks like there's a few salmon around, who's up for a salmon derby? The Fifth Merle Lawson Memorial Salmon Derby will be held here at Lawson's Landing on September 10, 2016. Gage is planning on winning again, but it could still be anyone's game.