The Fishing Fools gang, a small group of retired gentlemen who have chartered the QH pretty much every other Monday for several years during past salmon seasons, were finally able to climb back in the saddle and ride again. It didn't take them long at all to get right back in the swing of things. By 7:15 this morning they had already hooked three salmon, but the score was: Queen of Hearts 2, sea lions 1. With noone else on the water to steal from, we had the joy of dealing with these furry critters stealing salmon from us all morning long. The sea lions came back to tie the score at 3 and 3, and by 8:30 the battle raged and remained tied at 4 and 4. They munched a total of 7 salmon, but we ended up landing more than they did by the end of the day with 11 salmon in the box for our 8 anglers to 17 pounds, along with another handful that won their way to freedom. The salmon were all a nice grade of fish with not a single shaker in the lot. Darn good fishing, especially considering that the weather was pretty snotty, with a stiff wind from the south that just kept increasing as the day went on. This past weekend we had a private rockfishing charter on Saturday and an open load rockfishing trip on Sunday that enjoyed some of the best weather on the ocean we've had so far this season. Both trips saw good Pigeon Point fishing with some folks going home with their 10 fish rockcod limit and an overall average of about 6 fish per person of just about 100 percent hardhead bottomfish: gophers, black and yellows, a few vermillion and a sprinkling of seatrout. One 8 pound lingcod was landed on Saturday and another one on Sunday, and we also had five cabezon on Saturday with a 12 pound whopper taking top honors. Weather looks good for our rockfishing trip on Wednesday; if you're interested in going, try to let us know no later than noon on Tuesday so we know if there's enough interest in making the run. We have salmon trips scheduled for Thursday and Friday, weather permitting.