Salmon Fishing

We've had three awesome weekends in a row now...

and I'm going to share in reverse order.  

Saturday we went salmon fishing off the San Francisco coast.  It was my anniversary gift to W, though I was just as excited as he was.  

We were awake and down at Fishermans' Wharf well before sunrise.  

Pulling out of port, we had some incredible views of the city before the sun rose.  

 

We left the Bay and passed under the Golden Gate bridge, rounded Point Bonita, and were just pulling up to salmon territory when the sun came up.  We fished off the coast of Mt. Tam most of the day.

 

The boat captain explained that salmon season was drawing to a close, and the salmon were just not biting much lately--they're full after a summer of eating.  

We had gorgeous weather the whole day--in the 80s--and the 10 people on our boat got very excited with each of the fish our boat caught.  

The fourth time a fish took the bait, the deckhand selected me to reel it in.  I was a little nervous, especially when he guessed the fish had hooked itself through the chin/neck area instead of the mouth, making the chances of the hook slipping out and me losing the fish very high.

W helped me hold my fishing rod steady, because we were in for a fight and my arms got tired very quickly; it seemed like I reeled and reeled and fought to gain ground for 20 minutes.  (It was probably <5). 

The deck hand was able to net my salmon at the very end, pulling it into the boat.  I was thrilled!

Biggest salmon of the day--25 pounds!

That was the final fish our boat caught, and after no bites for several hours, we called it a day and headed back to port.

Salmon roe. 

We got some great views of the city on the way back.  It was such a beautiful and clear weekend.

Back at the dock, the deck hand filleted the four salmon and divided it between the fisherman.  We returned home with two huge bags of gorgeous salmon filets.  

I enjoyed some last night; it was the best salmon I've ever had.  It was incredibly tender.

This guy got several bites too!  The boat captain hand-fed him.

We're planning to fish again next year, this time at the beginning of the season.  I can't wait!