I’ve been really behind on making reports for the past month of salmon. We’ve been fishing both boats 7 days per week and it’s been busy, very busy, which is good. The fishing last week was a little hit or miss, a lot of fishing the beaches (Bird Rock—Abbots) and basically average a jumbo fish per person in 60 feet of water. A lot of guys really enjoy that style scratch fishing for big fish, but I’m a bigger fan of the past week of chasing birds and multi-fish hookups. We got limits or close to it most days this week and the fish were still plenty big in the low to mid teens, but the action was good, so I’m just going to do a daily breakdown of the past few days.

Bodega Bay – 8/13/26

Capt Ryan- Bigeye

Capt Josh– Sorta Salty

We fished up north and found an OK bite, with a lot of boats and some biters willing to eat here and there. We started off Carmet and finished by the river in 60 to 100 feet of water. Some boats did really well, some boats had zero, and we ended with 10 fish per boat, just a few shy of limits. I think Josh had a 5-person trip so he had limits. Fish were in the 12–25 lb range, overall really good-sized fish, and the number of bags full of fish per person was really good. Earlier in the week, Capt. Mike and Capt. Brian had some crazy wide-open fishing on big fish in the same area, so the bite had slowed from the previous days, but the fish were still there, and there were a lot of boats there too, which messed things up.

Bodega Bay – 8/14/26

Capt Ryan- Bigeye

Capt Josh- Sorta Salty

Josh and Billy flip-flopped between boats and ran the mid-week trips. The bite was hit or miss as there wasn’t a large migration school but just lone wolf packs, so if you were at the right place at the right time you could do well on big fish. There was a day with more hot bites and not so hot bites. Overall, most trips averaged a fish per angler, give or take, with a few 8 to 10 fish days. The grade remained hit or miss, some monster fish and some little guys all side by side. Overall, inconsistent fishing and a little tough. The fish stayed local, pretty much from the harbor down to Bird Rock was where 90% of the action happened. The weather didn’t allow for much searching outside of that area as it was pretty windy all week.

Bodega Bay – 8/15/26

Capt Ryan- Bigeye

Cap Josh- Sorta Salty

As the weather improved and the fishing did the opposite, I knew it was time to roll the dice and go find a migration school somewhere else offshore. Capt. Billy was set to stay local and fish right in front of the harbor, where he had caught some big fish the day before, which was my backup plan. But with several days of good weather and the busiest holiday weekend of the year approaching, I wanted somewhere less busy to fish for the weekend. I set off to the north, sitting in the tower driving along and tried a few spots for nothing. Eventually, I look over my shoulder and a bird tornado and dozens of whales on the horizon. We put in and picked up 6 nice fish and lost almost as many, even with some experienced clients. The fish were there but just not biting well. The bites were soft and careless, and the fish all came up with bellies stuffed full of anchovies, so they really weren’t super interested in our baits. Overall, a good start and we were happy to find some turf with basically no boats in sight but some close buddies who had helped us search. Billy grinded it out close to the harbor and found 6 really nice fish up to 25 lbs. Unfortunately, a swarm of boats found him and turned off the bite by the early afternoon. The fishing pressure was crazy by the early afternoon with hundreds of boats going all directions, crossing into the MPAs and just an overall nightmare for us in Bodega who are used to fishing in solitude with only a few buddy boats around. Luckily, Billy had the area to himself for most of the morning and did well while he was there.

Bodega Bay – 8/16/26

Capt Ryan- Bigeye

Cap Josh- Sorta Salty

We charged out of the harbor with the 4th of July in full swing. I was expecting madness but, surprisingly, boat traffic was moderate compared to the day before. We charged north and Capt. Josh wasted no time finding the biters north of where I was the day before that a buddy had located. He had an old friend and ex-charter captain Jeff on board as a deckhand, and they corralled up limits for clients and crew in a hurry. Once they got on them, I actually only had 3 fish when they were headed home with a full boat. It took us another few minutes, but we found a school that was willing to eat and we got our 16 fish in as well. Once we were on them, it was doubles, triples, and even a quad, I think, with fish from 12 lbs to our biggest at roughly 30 lbs. A really nice average grade of probably 15 lbs, just tuna-style madness. They were not picky at all, biting anything you put in the water from bait to spoons and hoochies. We were all wrapped up by noon, as were our fellow other boats who joined us. A few boats heading to find rockfish saw the team of 6 packs working and put in and had the same results. It was simply wide-open fishing and close to zero boat traffic.

Bodega Bay – 8/16/26

Capt Mike- Bigeye

Captain Mike fished off arch rock in 90 feet of water and had limits of big fish by 11am. Overall epic fishing. Sounded like the ticket was spoons and hoochies. Capt Mike has been hammering them this year on the days hes running, so we are glad to have him running.

Tuna Update

If you have any form of social media, you know the Bluefin is crazy wide open from Cordell to Monterey. And trust me, as a tuna fisherman it hurts sitting on the sideline chasing salmon, but we offered salmon trips through the rest of the season and it’s the majority of our income, so I have to honor and run those salmon trips for the folks who booked months ago. I do always offer the option for tuna, but unfortunately it wasn’t a fit for the groups we had over the past week. The second we get a free day and decent weather, we will be chasing those tuna. Ft. Bragg has been a little hit or miss with albacore. The north winds this week should help clean up the water and get them going. It’s going to be an absolutely insane fall offshore fishing-wise. Things could get interesting as the water warms up—things like yellowtail, marlin, bigeye, and even dorado and a rogue yellowfin are all possible. Hopefully, my next report will have some dead tuna as the trailer is prepped and we have one more week of salmon before it’s tuna time. Also, here’s a photo dump of the past few weeks I missed in reports. It’s been good and its going to keep getting better.