As soon as they got to their destination, they marked fish all over the graph. "We had fish showing from 40 to 110 plus feet and decided to start shallow and work our way down to the bigger fish," Kneeland explained. "As the bite came on, all three of us scrambled to keep on top of the fish, hooking one fish after another. The only problem was we couldn't get any big fish. Most of the fish were 20 to 22 inches long and we released them to try for larger salmon."

After boating several fish, Paul and crew moved five miles south and landed a few more fish before moving on. "We couldn't get one fish over 10 pounds the whole day," said Kneeland. "We kept going deeper and deeper, hoping that we would hook a big one during the trip."

That dream never materialized, but the three still managed to have a blast catching fish. "It was great to catch that many fish, especially considering we used light tackle," said Kneeland. Paul used an 8 foot Vance's downrigger rod with an Avet reel spooled with Yozuri 15 pound test. He also used a Fenwick Triggerstick rigged with a light reel and line.

The other hot spots for the day included Elephant Rock and Bird Rock, ranging from 200 to nearly 300 feet of water.

"All together, we boated well over 25 fish, keeping five chinooks," he added. "The biggest salmon of the day - a 12 pounder- had to be released because it was a silver (coho). We also released two dozen salmon in the 18 to 20 inch range."

Most of the fish that day were taken on lures with flashers, while only a few hit solo running plugs.

"The boats that we could see around us were all hooking fish throughout the day, but we didn't see very many big fish boated," he replied. "All in all, this is a perfect time to go fishing on the ocean for salmon, despite the size."

Charter boats out of Bodega Bay Sportfishing also took part in the limit action, but chose to troll at Point Reyes for some larger fish. "The New Sea Angler took out 22 people for a trolling trip near Point Reyes on Sunday, July 25," said Jason Herum at Bodega Bay Sportfishing. "The passengers returned with limits of kings to 25 pounds."

On the same day, the Sandy Ann limited out on king salmon for 7 people. The boat experienced the best fishing trolling bait near the Whistle Buoy During the week, the New Sea Angler had limits of chinooks before noon each day. The New Sea Angler will be offering combo trips out of Bodega Bay for salmon and rockcod/lingcod starting on August 1.