No salmon landed here for two days, then yesterday, one appears. Is this the fish that cracks open the door and allows a flood of hungry salmon to flood upon our shores? Probably not. Then again,....

     Here's the June calendar photo for the Gage-of-the-month club. Gage jumped aboard Kapulani Chong's boat along with Zack Showaker for a bit of salmon catching. He even caught one on a Redrum tube. I know that because Zack came in after they returned and bought out the rest of the Redrums (there weren't many left, to be fair)(more are ordered). Captain Jeff Haley limited on salmon as well. The bite, such as it was, was in the outer bay and didn't last long. Quite a few boats were working the area but not too many caught after the early bite. Let's hope the bite spreads. The halibut need a bit of the same treatment, as that bite has been dead for a couple of days.  

 

     Branden Mendoza sent this report: "This is a late report from Saturday. We fished in 235 feet of water just a little south of elephant rock. The 25lb salmon came on a crippled anchovy 60 feet down and the 15lb salmon came on a watermelon apex 67 feet down. Only two fish we got all day but we weren't complaining. " Thank goodness for this report, as there were no others. Sunday, no salmon. Monday, ditto. Thanks for the picture, Branden. I almost forgot what they look like. 

    There were a few halibut caught today, none for the scale, but fish. Aside from some rockfish, no catching happened. Maybe tomorrow? Let's hope. 

 

    Apologies to Swampy. My information, as I recalled it, was bad. "Hey Willy,

Wanted to share our success from our last trip. Brian Miller and I had a good day Tuesday and while Wednesday wasn’t as good we didn’t get skunked. Big fish was 36 and the little one shown was 28. Also had a 13 and 12 that day. Another great trip and it was good to see all the good folks down there. See you in a couple weeks.

Swampy" So Swampy did well. I only meant to express that the fishing is spotty. Nice damn job, Swampy and crew.

   I found a couple of fish like Swampy's small ones tonight. It was a double and they bit live jacksmelt.

   Here's a salmon report from Wednesday: "Caught one off Tomales point. Wednesday started great at seven am with what turned out to be our one and only. Great conditions. Fish came on blue hoochie 100’ otw in 140’ of water

Hunter smith" There were a few more caught from Bird to Elephant the past few days, mostly closer to shore then Hunter's fish, as well as a better bite in the 7 by 1 to 9 by 1 area.

      Richard Baratta sent over this: "Hey Willy,

Congratulations on your tuna quest. I went earlier this week on a one day on the San Diego and was able to get two they said one was 60 pounds( I ache, )But not as much as I would have if I didn’t get anything! Richard" This is true. In this case the physical pain will pass much quicker than the mental pain would.

 

   Sorry Mike Mack, but but we have a new leader on the big salmon board. Mike's 35 pound salmon has been surpassed by Vance Staplin's 42 pounder landed today. The tiny fish in Vance's left hand only weighed 29 pounds. Vance and crew fished from Bird down to at least Abbott's Lagoon from 40 to 70 feet of water and scratched out five fish in eight hours of fishing. It ain't a hot bite, but if you stumble over the right little school of fish you could be very happy. Or, you could be fishless and bitter like most of the fishermen today. Most fishermen caught no salmon today, but a few have been doing well over the last couple of days. Kapulani Chong and his grandfather, Rudy Ai (you have to love it when the rare person travels from Hawaii to here to go fishing. Maybe it was because of Captain Chong?) each landed 29 pound salmon yesterday. Mike Lincoln had two salmon in the twenty pound range yesterday. There are some fish, and they are big fish, but they ain't easy fish. The halibut fishing is just about the same situation. Swampy had four halibut to 35 pounds on Wednesday and then skunked on Thursday. 

 

    Gage and I just got back from a trip on the Pacific Queen out of Fisherman's Landing. It was a good trip and it killed my bluefin Jonah. Finally. Flylining rules.  

 The salmon's case of lockjaw seems to have improved very slightly today (that's what lockjaw is, right?) if secondhand reports are to be believed, or if you count fish lost. Several folks braved the intermittent fog wind that chopped up the water today, and some even hooked fish. My sources saw a few fish caught in the areas of the Keyholes and Trees, in relatively close to shore within 50-70'. Speaking of fish at the Trees:

Steve Cato took out local legend Bud Adams to show him how the crew of the Odyss boats 30 lb salmon. Bud seemed impressed. It was their only fish, losing another to a downrigger ball, but that was more action than anyone else I talked to today, and that's the kind of fish you want if you only get one. They were fishing the Trees reef trolling herring near the bottom; this one had a scratched up belly.

Halibut and stripers have both been picked up occasionally over the last few days, both from boat and by shore. The surf beach has put out both for some of our more persistent shore fishermen. They are understandably worried about getting crowded out of their spot, so out of respect I'll keep it vague. Just know that a lot of the techniques and gear that have been working for shore stripers this year are still working, in similar areas. I didn't get pictures to share, but the halibut I saw was around 20 lbs, and the grade on the stripers they've been getting have consistently been in the 15lb range. The picture below is of an 18 lb striper that came off the bar. On Sunday, the boat total was two stripers and three halibut. One halibut came on a dead herring, everything else on jacksmelt. Live bait was tricky to get ahold of, but worth the work, I'd say. Weather ought to be decent for the next couple days if the forecast holds up. The SW winds they're calling for always get me nervous, since the magnitude can always be much higher or lower than advertised, but I'm optimistic that there will at least be some very solid windows.