Fort Bragg:

Kevin Browning of the new "Noyo Fish Company" reports the winds are still howling here on Friday 5-25. They had limits of salmon last weekend but high winds have kept them off the water the past few days.
The Noyo Fishing Co is a small group of young but well known p and coming local captains (Kevin Browning, Kurt Akins and Scott Hackett) who just today announced they are open for business. They have three boats, the 35' 6 pack FishON, the 43' Delta "Ambush" which is a 15-18 passenger boat and 56' Trek II, plus a commercial fish dock and coming soon a fish and chips joint. We love working with businesses like this: experienced young captains who we know, who invest their hard earned savings, S fish catching, hard working, people pleasing pros. We are happy to have Kevin, Kurt and Scott as new sponsors of this page and we hope that readers support them in their endeavors! To book trips please call 707 964-3000
 Rockfishing has been ‘awesome’ with limits of ling cod on both private and party boats to go with limits of quality rockfish. They are planning on heading out for either salmon or rockfish once the weather cooperates, and Sunday looks like it might be the day.

Shelter Cove:

Captain Trent Slate said, “The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed,” and you know the rest of the story – they haven’t been on the water since Tuesday. There was a huge salmon landed on Tuesday by Shelter Cove resident Susie Fox while trolling near the Red Can with her husband Steve. Slate said, “They weighed in at the Lost Coast Landing scale, and it came out 34-pounds, but that salmon looked absolutely huge!” He thought the fish was much larger than 34-pounds, it confirms the larger fish showing up in the northern portions of the coast. I will be fishing with Trent next Wednesday and Thursday, and since I haven’t landed a salmon in nearly 6 years, I am very much looking forward to the trip. Hopefully, if the weather gods are smiling, the wind won’t be blowing. The forecast is for 20 to 30 tomorrow with gusts to 40 mph, so Slate cancelled for Friday. He is planning on going out on both Saturday and Sunday.

Shelter Cove:

Captain Trent Slate of Shelter Cove Sport Fishing said, “The wind has been up until Sunday, and salmon fishing had slowed down.” However, Sunday 5-20 was a new day with Slate putting in limits of salmon to 16-pounds for his five passengers after running a big circle from the Shelter Cove harbor south to Bear Harbor and back again. He started by searching for brown water in the morning, traveling 5 miles offshore only to find turquoise blue ‘albacore’ water. They turned left and went south to the area around the Hat, along finding more blue water. Putting in the lines for rockfish near the Hat, they found the fish unwilling to bite, so they traveled south to Bear Harbor to fish the shallows for 14 ling cod and a handful of rockfish. While they were south at Bear Harbor, he got the call to run back up at to the Red Can since the salmon bite was on. They arrived only to find the fish off the bite with the boats that were on the fish limiting out. He said, “The Armada was all around the Red Can, and there were several boats who limited.” He trolled for another 2 hours without a bite before ‘Psycho John’ Santella called him into the shallows since he had landed three limits within 10 minutes. Upon arrival in the shallow water, Slate put his customers on to 10 salmon within 45 minutes, and they had 7 fish laying on the decks within minutes. In all, they had 14 lings, 10 salmon, 47 crab (3 shy of 5 limits), and a handful of rockfish. Slate has purchased a set of spinning rods to go ‘ultra-light’ for the rockfish down at Bear Harbor in the shallow water, and he said, “It is quite an experience to land a 12-pound ling cod on the light gear.” He had another surprise on the water today with Captain Chris Smith of the Smith family showing up along the Humboldt coast in the crab boat, “Mad Dog,’ to pull a string since they are commercially crabbing out of Fort Bragg. Slate is pretty excited about the salmon bite, and he predicts larger fish will be arriving within the next two months. If you remember, last July’s salmon action was phenomenal.