The month isn’t quite over, but the summary is simple. Things started out hit or miss, with a bit more emphasis on miss. As we come to the end of the month, it’s almost all hit. We’ve seen all the best signs out on the ocean – soupy green water (abundant plankton), great masses of bait, and many whales. We’re now seeing big schools on our sounders. With all the food available to them, the salmon do go on the bite and get full, then they don’t bite for a while. There’s a bit of the right place, right time component to it. For the lucky boats, it’s a quick limit in the morning. For others, the early bite might not deliver so it’s a long slog until the fish turn on again. The kings we’re catching are stuffed with needlefish.
We’ve experienced more challenging halibut fishing this May than in the past 5 years. The inshore waters provide an endless supply of mostly too small halibut, with some bigger ones mixed some days. Offshore has not been super dependable, but we’re beginning to locate better numbers of bigger halibut in deep water. This situation should continue to improve as we explore all our spots and the halibut settle into their summer feeding grounds.