P.M. trip for salmon proved to be successful. I received a report yesterday that there were some salmon caught right out front but down deep. So I spent some effort and mounted two downriggers on the stern of my boat. This afternoon I went looking for the salmon deep. It turned out the salmon decided to come up for the afternoon. We caught most of our fish on the mid ship rods. They were fishing 40 to 60 feet down with a 10 lb lead on a downrigger. Smaller fish than we’re used to, however with the slow bite we’ve had lately, any keeper is a nice sight. We ended up with 9 salmon for 11 anglers. We lost a few and released a couple of silvers. Overall, we had lots of action. Gabe Newbrun-mintz landed the biggest one weighing in at 13 lbs. Gabe is seen here showing off our catch. Nice job Gabe!! Fish-On!

   Capt Randy

A.M. trip — The last couple of days have been slow salmon fishing, but today was a very successful rock cod trip. We fished back down below Pt. Cabrillio lighthouse in 50 to 90 feet of water. The weather still very nice and the big lings were out feeding. We ended up with 8 lings topping the scales at 19 pounds! Eric Stolpe from Redwood Valley landed the big one. There were a few others over 10 pounds. Rockfish scores were from 7 to 10 per angler. We had some nice Vermillion’s and quite a few big black rockfish.

We decided to give the salmon a couple of days off. Today we went south down by the town of Mendocino. The ocean is still flat. I’m getting used to this nice ocean stuff. The rockfishing is not a wide open bite, but we didn’t have to work too hard to get nice bags of fish. We ended up just short of a dozen lings and nice bags of fish. It was very enjoyable to be on the water. Josh Admire won the big fish pot with the first fish landed on the boat. A 12 pound green ling cod! We had some kids on the boat today. They all caught nice fish and had a great time! Fish-On!

Picture left to right; Caitlinn and Chloe Price fromLarue Oh., Thomas Baker from Craig Co. and in the back with deckhand Kris Kraft is Hayden Wright from Cameron Park

Salmon fishing slowed down. The ocean is calm and winds are light. There’s no problem finding the birds and bait in the water. Plenty of it to go around. Maybe too much. The salmon don’t seem to be hungry. On Friday, the first fish we hooked was too big to fit in our fish box. It was a Thresher shark. There was no stopping it with the gear we were using. It came out of the water like a sailfish at one point. My best guess is it was 300 to 400 pounds. Incredible sight. The woman who hooked it ended up being the only angler to land a salmon. It was a nice one too! 31 pounds caught by Sharon Albert out of Sea Ranch. Nice job Sharon!

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