Saturday September 3rd, 2011 — After taking a few needed days off, I loaded up some more anglers and headed up north where I had some salmon last Sunday. The ocean was flat and the fog was thick. We managed to catch a few fish. Biggest one weighed in at 24 lbs. caught by Bill Hill from Marysville. On the left in the picture is Teresa Jones from Fort Bragg with her 18 pound king. Happy Birthday Teresa. On the right is Arthur Baxley out of Concord. Bill caught the big one trolling at 45 pulls with a 2 lb ball dragging a mini purple haze behind a flasher. We also lost 3 or 4 keepers.

Today, the 4th I headed back up to Cleone again. It seems there are fish being caught pretty much everywhere from Noyo River to Ten Mile River from 50 feet of water to 250 feet. No big scores but keeper kings never-the-less. Today’s spotlight fisherman was Davan Green out of Chico. He is just 5 1/2 years and he landed his first salmon. Davan caught it on a rattlesnake hoochie over a whole Herring 35′ down on a downrigger. Way to go Davan!! Final score for the day; 5 fish for 8 anglers. Local Patty Fereira not only caught her first legal king, but she landed 2 of them! She was fishing with a red rotary killer 35′ on a downrigger. Fish-On!

    Capt Randy

Sunday August 28th, 2011 — I didn’t try mooching today. Didn’t have time. Too busy rounding up some hungry kings on the troll! Just as I was departing the dock I received a call of a 15 pound king just landed right out by the whistle buoy. They also said the reason they were fishing there was because the weather bumpy. So, what the heck, I put in right at the buoy. Hooked up as we’re setting the gear. We weren’t ready for that so quick so unfortunately we lost that one. After awhile we hooked into another one. Landed this one. Not real big, but a keeper. There was quite a fleet of private boats hanging right by the buoy. The fog was thick. I est. 650 feet of visibility. Just what I like to fish in for salmon. After awhile, with no action, I decided to head up north and look for some better action. I put my gear in right off the end of Laguna Pt. 5 miles north. 60 feet of water seemed to be the spot. I hooked up on a nice double. Landed them both. One weighed in at 23 and the other at 21 pounds. I remained in that circle for the remainder of the trip. Final score; 6 kings for 10 anglers. We also lost some nice ones and had 2 shakers. Fish-On!!

    Capt Randy

Picture L to R; Kurt Meelhiem/Grass Valley 23 lbs, Gary Matlock/Ft. Bragg 21 lbs, Ryan Hoyt/Grass Valley 18 lbs, Charles Hoyt/Grass Valley, Bob Funk/Redbluff, and Rick Goodwin from Penn Valley. Good job everyone!!

I went offshore looking for some good fishing. We stopped at about 6 miles NW and put our lines in the water. I was marking some bait but nothing special. The water was warm all the way out. We trolled there for about an hour with no results so I picked my gear up and ran north for a half hour or so. I put in in 250 feet of water off the Winery just north of Ten Mile River. The conditions looked considerably better. Lots of birds, good looking bait balls, but the water is still 56 degrees. Not much happened there so I aimed for the mouth of Ten Mile River. We trolled around there with still no results. When I gave the ten minute warning, (that’s all it took) fish-on!! Landed it, a nice 15 pound king caught by Clint Womack out of Stockton. So I gave another 10 minute warning, and, Fish-On again! Dave May from Sacramento landed an 11 pound king. Eventually we lost one more and finally called it a day. So, that’s it. A couple of fish. We tried hard for them and everyone had a good time (well, almost everyone). I think tomorrow I am going to try some mooching. Wish me luck. Fish-On

    Capt Randy

August 25, 2011 — after taking a well needed day off I’m back. We did go after tuna and scored 9 tuna for 10 anglers. They ranged from 12 to 20 pounds. We ended up getting them inside at about 13 miles. Outside of that it was pretty bumpy. We landed 2 fish out about 18 miles with good water temp but the wind was blowing 20 or so. Eventually we moved in following the inside edge of the temperature break and in about 13.5 miles the weather was a whole different world. Flat and hot. We finally found some birds working some  bait so we trolled through and hooked up our first triple. Finished the day there. Today we went and fished for salmon up in tight off Ten Mile River. We scored one salmon (20 lbs) and one California halibut (12 lbs) both caught by Tim Bruhns out of Nevada City. Tim was fishing with Suzie’s lucky flasher (black/chrome) with a cut anchovy under a purple haze hoochie behind it. We were in 50 feet of water when we hooked the salmon and 25 feet of water for the halibut. We had 4 or 5 other take downs. Fish-On

    Capt Randy

Today is Sunday August 21st. I’ve been birdwatching the last couple of days. Yesterday the ocean started laying down real nice. Today, even better. Right now the swell at the Pt Arena buoy is 2.3 ft. Sounds like there’s a chance it might stay nice through Friday. I talked to a couple of friends that were fishing today and I am hearing good reports. The warm water is moving in as we speak. I got my first report this afternoon and it sounded like a wide open bite around 22 to 24 miles straight out. TUNA!!!! I don’t know what the size was, and I don’t care. WIDE OPEN BITE!!!! I talked to another friend who caught limits (4) salmon up on the beach, made a quick jump and got some abalone and then went in grabbed another boat with fuel and headed out to the warm water. He called me at about 6 this evening and said he was coming in the river with 12 or 15 albacore. He heard they were caught into about 16 miles. So… my point, I am scheduling a Tuna trip on Tuesday if the weather holds. If anyone is interested, call me at 964-8770. I’ll take the first 10 anglers. Fish-On!!!

    Capt Randy

Yesterday I got beat-up. I only landed one salmon but some other boats ended up with limits. I think Don went in early with limits for 6 anglers and his kid Kurt had a nice score too. Today I went back up to Ward Av. and fished where Don had his fish. We fished in 40 to 60 feet of water. Lots of bait, brown water, birds everywhere. Now all we need is some fish. We first we have to put our lines in the water. I went to the back of the boat and went to put a line in and I just hit the freespool until it hit the bottom. Boom! One bounce and fish on! We ended up landing 4 salmon by the end of the trip and lost a couple of nice ones. Starting on the left are Jacqui and Bob from Philo and Big Bob Ruddock from Lakeport with his 20 pounder. Nice job everyone! Fish-On

     Capt Randy

Getting some of our last rockfishing trips before the season closes. Figures, just about the time we normally start fishing for rockfish, it closes. Here are a couple more happy fishermen holding up a couple of nice Vermillion rockfish. We caught just over half limits. We had to work for the fish today. They weren’t hungry today. But we had a lot of fun anyway.

     Capt Randy

The Telstar* fished for salmon on the morning trip. We ended up with 3 fish for 11 anglers. In the afternoon we went after rockfish. We had a better luck. We fished down south off the Yellow house in waters ranging from 80 to 25 feet. We had a nice variety with some big reds and 8 lingcod. Pictured here are just a few of the happy fisherpeople showing off their catch. Overall score was 7 to 10 fish per bag for a boat load. Fish-On

    Capt Randy

We found a few salmon today. As you see, the grade was nice today. Biggest one weighed in at 23 lbs! We fished north 6 miles in 100 feet of water on Ten Mile Beach. The water color was great for salmon. Birds and bait all over the place. The salmon were hanging out right by the bottom. The water temp was 54-56 degrees. One of the salmon had been feeding on squid. It’s getting that time of year. Time to go up and fish the mouth of the Ten Mile river. Between halibut, petrale soul, and salmon, I try to get at least one of these per angler. Final score today was 3 keepers, lost a couple of keepers and had a shaker for 11 anglers. Picture from left to right; Shane and Miles Oswald from Ukiah and regular Bob Ruddock from Clearlake. Miles scored the trophy fish today. Good job Miles! Fish-On!

     Capt Randy

The last couple of days have been kind of slow. Catching a couple of fish per trip. Today we had a little bit better luck. We boated 9 keepers and lost 3 or 4 others and had a couple of shakers. We fished northwest of the buoy 3 miles in about 270 feet of water. Most of our fish were caught down deep. 150 ft with 3 lbs. I mounted a couple of downriggers off the stern of the boat. It seems the bigger fish are down deep right now. We’ll see if I can make them work down deep. I did catch one nice fish off my bow downrigger with a red spoon at about 45 feet with a 10 lb weight. I now have a total of 7 downriggers on my boat. With the price of sinkers, I’m trying to cut down on some of every body’s overhead. Darren Hernandez from Cloverdale caught the prize fish today weighing in at 25 lbs. Runner up was Dave Butler out of Ukiah with a 18 pounder and 3 place was Monica Gawin from Covello with a 15 pound king! Fish-On!

     Capt Randy