July 27th, 2011 — We fished 6 miles northwest of Ft. Bragg today. Not many boats out. I think the forecast scared them off. The ocean turned out to be rather nice today. The south wind picked about the time we headed in. We had some pretty good action today. We landed 6 salmon and lost several, had a couple of shakers and a couple of silvers. The fish were feeding today. Their teeth were sticking straight up and sharp. We had three salmon chew through the leaders. I’ve already ordered heavier leaders. For now, I will tie up some myself until they get in. Biggest fish was landed by Wally Walling out of Wallace Ca. weighing in at 25 pounds. Fish-On!

    Capt Randy

 Picture left to right; Linda Mathews/Modesto, Jacqui Johnson/Philo, Wally Walling and Joan Bohl/Wallace, Chuck and Doreen Fletcher/Grass Valley.

Today is Saturday, July 23rd 2011. Yesterday I salmon fished close to home. The bait and water color looked really good there the day before. We ended up with 4 salmon and lost 5 nice ones. The fish are wild, acting like silvers. Jumping out of the water and everything. Today we fished the same area. The weather wasn’t the most appealing. The wind was blowing out of the south and it was foggy. The ladies had the most luck today. Linda Lambert from Sea Ranch caught the first limit of nice kings weighing in at 15 & 16 pounds! Local Wendy Boise caught the big fish pot winner with a 25 pound fish. Nice job by Wendy. Wendy was fishing with a Tom Mack spoon that was brown and purple with no flasher behind a 2lb lead at 40 pulls.  Overall, we landed 6 fish for 17 people and lost a few. Fish-On!

 Pic from left to right; Linda Lambert, Wendy Boise, Justin Duti from Tempe Ar.; and Ed Hagen from Mendocino Ca.

    Capt Randy

Fished up north where all the salmon were being caught a couple of days ago. Not much traffic out on the ocean today. The winds are just offshore so the ocean is a bit bumpy. Only 3 other boats out fishing salmon besides us. Over all it was pretty slow. We ended up with 2 fish for 8 anglers. Both were caught by David Montgomery from Oakhurst. I guess it’s dinner at your house tonight Dave. We lost a couple of nices one as well. I’ve got a hot tip for tomorrow. Fish-On

      Capt Randy

The Telstar* went hunting for rockfish today. Nice day to be on the ocean. Started off foggy and the farther south I went the sunnier it got. I bounced several rock piles on the way to the town of Mendocino. Stopped just short and fished between Mendocino and Pt. Cabrillo lighthouse in about 50 ft of water. Nice steady bite of rockfish. Ended up with a few lings but mostly throwbacks. Some nice blacks and some exceptionally large china cods! And then we had a variety of other rockfish. Our bags ended up with 8 fish around and 3 lingcod. Suzie Copeland got the big fish pot with her limit of lings. Good job Suzie!

    Capt Randy

Picture left to right; Bob Barthel/Lake county, Suzie Copeland/local, Lee and Diane Alexander/Sacramento, and Steve Gannon from Stockton Ca.

Summary report of the remainder of the week. On Wed. the salmon really started to bite. Most of the fish were caught Northwest of Fort Bragg about 5 to 6 miles out in anywhere from 150 to 250 feet of water. The fish would go on and off the bite throughout the day. If you were in the right place at the right time you would score. If you were not in the right place, it was too late. By the time you get to the spot, it would be over. Lots of private boaters went in with limits of 20 pounders while others struggled to land a fish. I heard of a ton of fish being lost. Some guys ran out of bait and had to go in to get more. We fell under all of the above. On Wed. I scored one around. On Thursday we did a crab/salmon combo. We scored limits of crab (110 for 11 people) but fell short on the salmon. We landed some, but it’s tough doing both this late in the season. Today, 7/17, I went rockfishing. We had a great trip. The lings were scarce, but quality rockfish were filling the bags. The ocean has been flat calm for a few days now, but I think that will come to an end by Wed. or Thurs. Yesterday a couple of private boats brought in the first albacore of the season. 25 fish scores caught out at the noll 35 miles. Weather should hold for that a couple more days. Fish-On!

    Capt Randy

Today is the 10th of July. My season is half way over. We went salmon fishing today and scratched out one fish. The fish were biting for a few days. On Thursday we scored one around again. With the size of the fish, it only takes one!! Both salmon and rock cod fishing are hit and miss. Rockfish prefer 55 degree water and clear. If the brown water (plankton) moves in all the way to the beach, the rockfish don’t like to bite. If I can find clear water, we end up doing real well. Yesterday we fished rock cod and the people who fished went home with some nice bags of fish. For the ones who didn’t feel good, it was a tough go. The salmon fishing is about the same. It seems when the current switches out of the south, the bite picks up for a couple of days. Then the current switches around to be coming from the north and they seem to vacate. The ocean has been sloppy for a couple of weeks too. Of course, that doesn’t hurt the salmon fishing, but it sure is making me tired. It’s supposed to calm down tomorrow. Fish-On!

         Capt Randy

Picture left to right; Bill Hill , Shannon Anderson from Napa,Dennis Castrillo,  with a 28.5 lb and also a 17 lb. salmon is taking home the prize and then some!! Next is Dennis Lawrence, Alan Marshall, Steve Osborne and local Jack Thomas. Other big fish catcher’s that are not in the picture are; Troy Mellot with a 18 lb king and Jeff Bon with a 23 lb king.

July 2, 2011 — I had two trips today. Fished salmon both trips. We fished up north where we had fish yesterday in 170 ft of water. Conditions the same. This ocean is beating me up. Not much of a swell but the winds are staying close and the wind waves are steep and close together. Thank goodness for some fish showing up. We had 12 people each trip. On the morning trip we ended up with a fish per rod. In the afternoon we ended up with 8 keepers of about the same grade as the morning. Of the 12 fish on the a.m. trip, 5 were over 20 pounds. Biggest fish was 24 pounds landed by local Wayne Giannini. Fish-On!

   Capt Randy

Picture from left to right; Norm Bashore/Willits, local Suzie Copeland, big fish catcher Wayne Giannini, Dennis Lawrence/Cobb, John Baker, local Dave Strode, and Doug Cannon with his three boys.

1st day of July fishing starting out well. We went up north to 10 mile beach and ran our crab gear once and scored 47 crabs! Good enough. I made a quick phone call to a buddy of mine who was fishing down closer to home and found the action to be slow, so we put our gear in up off 10 mile in 170 ft of water. The conditions looked fishy. Right off the bat we had a fish on! Lost it. Trolled back through the spot and bam! Double hook-up. 2 in the box. We stayed in that same spot the rest of the day. Final score; 7 keepers for 6 anglers!! Beautiful grade too! Nice to see my gear still catches fish. Fish-on!

    Capt Randy