On September 15, 2001, a group of co-workers from General Chemical Company chartered a boat for their annual salmon fishing trip. I'm not much of a fisherman (no patience), but thought it would be fun, and really just wanted to ride a boat under the Golden Gate Bridge and take some photos. We left Berkeley Marina around 6:00 am and motored out to Point Reyes.

I ended up with a major dose of beginner's luck: within five minutes of dropping my first line, I caught a 16-lb salmon. A while later I caught a huge 30-lb salmon which ended up being the second biggest fish of the day by just a tiny bit. Then finished off with a third 16-lb salmon.

You're only allowed to keep two, so I gave one to Jack Casares who helped organize the trip but unfortunately didn't catch anything. I ended up smoking the 30 pounder which was absolutely delicious.