Shelter Cove:

Captain Trent Slate of Shelter Cove Sport Fishing had clients from Friday through Sunday during the past weekend, and he was cleaning his boat on Saturday evening after putting his clients on to easy limits of rockfish and lings to go with 9 Dungeness crab apiece (limit is 10 in this area on a charter boat), and the private boats starting coming in around 5:00 p.m. with limits of big salmon to 29-pounds. He went to the same area on Sunday morning; and after trolling for 3 hours with only one 14-inch shaker to show for their efforts, they pulled the crab pots for 6 limits before picking up rockfish limits and 5 ling cod on three drifts. After returning to trolling for salmon, they put two fish in the box, losing another salmon in the process. He is expecting the salmon bite to go off this week, since the high winds in the 12 to 18 knot range have scattered the bait over the past couple of days. There is room on the boat this current weekend of May 19^th which is an unusual occurrence. The weather hasn’t allowed them to rockfish far up the coast, but the local bite has been very good.

Fort Bragg:

Slate said, “I heard that Fort Bragg went off today with huge fish,” and a little research uncovered a wide open bite at the Whistle Buoy with most of the skiffs coming in with early limits of big fish. The wind was rough, but since the fish were biting, most of the boats toughed it out. This is the first good report from Fort Bragg on the salmon front so far this season. It also one of the rare reports we have received.

Shelter Cove:

Captain Trent Slate of Shelter Cove Sport Fishing took a ride on his motorcycle down from Garberville on Wednesday morning, and he arrived at the Cove with all of the boats returning to the tractor launch. Thinking the winds pushed them back into the harbor, he drove down to find that all of the dozen boats but one came back to the cleaning tables with limits of salmon in the 10 to 12-pound average. The lone boat that didn’t limit was John Santella on the ‘Psycho Ward,’ who farmed five fish during a frustrating day. Slate is starting his season in earnest with his first chartered salmon trip on Friday as part of consecutive trips through Monday.

Shelter Cove

Trent Slate of Shelter Cove Sport Fishing said, “The salmon bite is on, as all of the boat limited out on Wednesday 5-2.” The fish were found south of the Red Can near the Tolo Banks. Slate was down at the harbor working on his boat, and he got to see the dozen boats come in with quality limits in the 12 to 15-pound range. Slate said, “It was difficult to keep working on the boat when I knew the fish were out there.”