Tuna Blown Out

[Greg Lafferty]

The NW winds won't let up so we've been fishing inshore. We've been having a pretty good salmon bite in the Monterey Bay. My son got his biggest to date, a 22 pounder and we've caught 8 more between 12 and 18 pounds. It looks like I'm going to have to get a trolling valve (whatever that is) because I've spent the last couple of days with one hand on the transmission lever. Forward, neutral, forward, neutral all day long.

The best part of the story is the whales. There must have been 50 humpbacks feeding in the area I was fishing this morning. A couple of times they startled me, surfacing within 30 or 40 feet of the boat and blowing when I was looking the other way. Awesome!

[Tony]

Greg:

Sounds like you have a good run happening in your area. Are these salmon springs? Sounds like 4th year fish. I'm seeing 2 and 3 year springs in Geargia Straight this month. Our recreational licenses only allow 2 per day per license, and they have to be over 26 inches. Do you have any limits on the number of salmon that you can retain daily? Good fishing.

[Greg Lafferty]

We have Kings (chinook) and silvers (coho). Silvers cannot be kept in California. Kings must be 20 inches but we rarely see them that small. The limit is 2/day. The smallest we have caught this year was 26 inches or about 8 pounds. Most run between 12 and 25lbs. The largest in the Monterey Bay area are usually 35 - 38lbs. A little farther north 50+ is common in the fall.

Here's a good local site for pictures. The first picture is me.

http://www.baysidemarinesc.com/photo.html