Every anchovy in the bag got bit today--shoulda taken two bags!  Hit Shelter Cove this morning after a rough bout with a 24' hour flu over the weekend--sorry we couldn't do it yesterday, Pescadore, because they got 'em then too.     Next time for sure.     I thought to go very early due to last night's call of 10-20 knots, but this morning's report was "variable" again   , so I rested my post-flu body a bit more and hit the beach at just before 9.  Started fishing in about 40' on the way out to the bell and had a light hit quick--it seemed more salmony than rockfishy--that was at 15 pulls.  I only had a line out more than 20 pulls once.  The rockfish were all up and down the water column--got a black at 3 pulls once even when I tried to get away from them.  Luckily there were salmon there too.  I landed, photo'd, released a shaker, more rockies, then, at the 30 minutes in mark, got a 5#'er in the net.  How nice to drown the skunk early.  More action for the next 20 minutes when I netted another of about 6#.  I thought about it a minute, decided that I wasn't ready to call it quits at an hour and that if I didn't get another one in the net it would be worth it to keep fishing.  What conditions--wow~!  It was a day to dive too, but I had to go get some work done.  I had several other rockies and salmon, but no salmon in the net again, until I ran out of bait--the bite was still wide-open at that point, so it was rough to leave--I didn't have an artificial with me or I would've stuck it out for another 30 minutes anyway...  At the cleaning table I talked with three PB guys out of Trinidad who had limits of 10# class--they had been about a mile farther out at 40' with lead. 

WTG, Gabekap!  Nice score.    

JohnM:  I too have been wondering about the historical trends of where the fish are at what time of year, how big, how deep...etc.  I wonder if an accurate tracking of salmon in the ocean will be achieved in our lifetimes...  Or, here's a good one, how about steelhead?!!   

Nice job.   

Nice work on the solo effort, John--you'll get 'em. 

I too like the bait better than the lures--more natural, and salmon seem to be kind of finicky...  and it may be true that once the bite is on fish'll come easier on any given offering, but I feel that bait is always better with salmon--probably just because that's how we've been doing it in my family forever...  The hoochie is a great thing to have--my dad had his quick hook-ups running the double hook chovie and a hoochie--he says, "at least you're still fishing if you lose your chovie..." and it's a good point.  After he hooked up so quickly and then bailed to shore I became somewhat uptight about my bait presentation, trolling speed, direction of troll...etc.!  Once I got a fish in the bag I was feeling much more confident.  Again, I feel really lucky to have been able to fish at 20 pulls--checking your bait and other self-checks would really suck when you're fishing deep...

If we get a real period of nice water anytime soon you can call me for a Cove trip!   

Way to go on the abs.   

Nice launch at 10:30AM.

Wtg on your first salmon.  That's a fatty.