Noyo Harbor Confidential

Fort Bragg Found a Salmon

by Jim Martin

I fished with Brad Clark, President of the Salmon Restoration Association, last Saturday. We had some dismal reports from the local party boats who faithfully flogged the water since the middle of February, with little more than one salmon per boat to show for the effort. Lately, the scores had dropped to zero fish, zero strikes. Maddeningly, the fleets of Bodega, San Francisco, and Half Moon Bay have been getting early limits of quality fish. To the north, Shelter Cove has reported steady action. Who threw the dead skunk in the Noyo River?

Brad and I agreed that the salmon "could show any day now." It's this eternal optimism, borne of long years of experience with intermittent rewards, that keeps us interested despite little evidence of fish. We study the charts, consult the weather report, and look at the sea surface temperature scans on the Internet. Should we run north or should we run south? I marked a sharp temperature break on April 29th in the vicinity of Usal and mentioned it to Kurt Aken, captain of the Rumblefish, and he thought it would be worth a shot.

Saturday morning at o'dark-thirty, Brad and I met at the dock. He didn't want to run all the way up to Usal, no matter how hard I lobbied. It was a perfectly flat day with low cloud cover. We went up to Cleone Reef, just off MacKerricher State Park, and put the baits in the water. There was no sign of birds or bait, and we didn't get a bite. "Usal!" I cried, sounding more like the Albatross than the Ancient Mariner. Brad just laughed but agreed to run north until we saw some indication of fish — dark colored water, diving sea gulls, bait marks on sonar. Several boats, including the Rumblefish and Double Vision, were headed north and toward the temperature break. Kurt Aken and Kevin Browning kept in touch on the radio and said they would let us know when they ran into fish.

At the north end of Ten Mile Beach, we saw some birds sitting on the water and flying around. Not the best sign, but it was something. Brad slowed to a trolling speed and we put the gear back in the water. After a while I spotted a pack of diving birds and a lone sea lion slashing around the surface with a fish. We quickly picked up the gear, ran over and cautiously edged around the working birds so as not to disturb the ball of bait.

Bingo! Brad's rod popped loose from the downrigger and started doing the dance. I yelled "Fish On!" Brad leapt out of his chair and by the time he had the rod out of its holder, the fish was leaping on the surface. I got my gear out of the way and grabbed the net. In no time, Brad had the fish at the side of the boat, and I netted it. It was a fat, fifteen pound Chinook salmon, a perfect "football."

We trolled around that area hard for the next hour without another bite. By then it was 11am and time to head toward port. Later we heard that the Kevin Browning and Kurt Aken found a steady bite up by Westport, with herring and needlefish in the area. They ended up with 14 fish for the day.

Back at the dock we met some local regulars who came by to look at the fish; for some, it had been the first they'd seen of the season. Any day now, it could bust wide open.

Norcal Rockfishing Closure Affects Private Skiffs and Partyboats

But recreational rockfishing from SHORE with rod and reel is OPEN through August 1st between Point Piedras and the 40.10 latitude line near Cape Mendocino. There is a one lingcod bag limit — with a 30 inch minimum size limit. Rockfishing with rod and reel from boats is closed until August 1st. There are many other changes scheduled when the season re-opens for the NorCal skiff fleet, but for now, spread the word that rockfishing from boats with rod and reel — from a boat, anyway — is closed off the Mendocino Coast, and all over central and northern California from Cape Mendocino down to somewhere north of Morro Bay. Spearfishing is open.

Connecting the Dots

Every once in a while there is a flurry of articles in the press about fishing, the state of the fisheries, the depletion of fisheries, and last week was one of those weeks. The Press Democrat carried the story about the "emergency" rockfish closure, and another one about the US Commissions on Ocean Policy report. George Lawry, President, Sonoma County Abalone Network, wrote a letter to the editor reporting that the Department and certain Commission members were actually considering opening a commercial abalone fishery north of the Golden Gate. There was a "Close to Home" Op-Ed piece about SB 1319, the so-called "California Ocean Policy Act" (COPA). The author wanted tourists to see sea otters on the North Coast. She said COPA was an opportunity to tap private foundation money to jump-start the Marine Life Protection Act and create no fishing zones in California. I could argue that many ocean species are at abnormally high levels, historically speaking. Abalone are profuse, and will be as long as sea otters and the sale of abalone are prohibited. Sea lions and harbor seals are multiplying. I've seen blue rockfish skip across the surface for acres along the nearshore coast last month. All of the species of deep water, shelf rockfish that are depleted (canary, bocaccio, cowcod, etc.) have been trawled to death and sportfishing has nothing to do with the whole mess. Now we are expected to go die.

And then, like a parable, was the story about the recreational diver on a charter boat who had been left behind offshore from Southern California, adrift at sea, praying "don't let me die." A three-masted schooner, manned by a troop of Boy Scouts, happened along to that area in the dead of night. An alert scout on night watch spotted the guy in the water, and all hands were on deck to pull him out.

Got a fishing report, story, recipe, or a comment? Contact me at 707-964-8326 or www.noyoharborconfidential.com, or POB 2420, Ft. Bragg, CA 95437.