Shelter Cove - 9/4/21

Mark scored an Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro several months back, installing some rod holders and adding it to his fleet as his first fishing boat.  Having found some success with shore fishing rockfish and lingcod, he looked me up hoping to learn more about targeting fish from the yaks and accessing more productive offshore reefs.  We went over some options and landed on a plan of putting him on one of my X-Factors for a day at the Cove - I love outfitting guests on my ultra-stable platforms with plenty of room as well as sonar.  He wasn't opposed to catching a salmon, but his desired targets were the bottom dwellers - a big ling or a vermillion were at the top of the list.  This was a refreshing change for me after two straight months of salmon focus.  Of course we'd still run barbless and hope a Chinook showed up, but going onto the reef first thing and doing the offshore tour sounded great.

Saturday was our day.  I thought the crowds of salmon-crazed boaters may be back for the holiday weekend, so we met up early and got on the water shortly after first light.  Traffic wasn't too bad, and the salmon bite seems to have cooled off in general.  We passed some bait over the inshore area before heading out into the fog to find some rocks.  It wasn't long before we were on a nice grade of black rockfish.  We loaded a few on the stringers, and within an hour Mark had a lingcod up too. 

I remember transitioning from spearfishing and shore fishing to the kayak and how revolutionary it was to be catching so many fish from the plastic compared to the hard to access shore spots that I'd long ago worked to find and fish myself.  This revolutionary feeling was now Mark's domain, as he expressed how stoked he was to be catching quality fish in numbers.  Guests catching fish is an ideal for any guide, and guests feeling revolutionary joy is even better.

As we mined the nearshore, I was monitoring the radio to see how the salmon fishing was going for the fleet and a few friends on the water nearby.  Other than one nice fish that Jay Webster picked up early, it sounded slow.  As the fog lifted we could now see a small fleet, and by mid morning most people were peeling off to go rockfishing.  I was feeling content with that since our focus was bottom fish, and then Mark hooked up on something that started running up to the surface away from his yak. 

We weren't there to get one, and the bite was slow around us, and I was even feeling like I was in a therapeutic place, moving away from my own salmon obsession with this trip...  and Mark's on a hot one.  This is probably the opposite of what I call "salmon torture" - where you do everything you can and burn down your day just to skunk or to miss a hot fish.  Salmon torture got turned on its head here - we got this fatty in the net within 5 minutes or so.  Mark had suddenly been exposed to not just a better rockfish and lingcod bite than can be found from shore - he'd now felt how a salmon fights.  If you know, you know.

Thank you, Fish Gods, for this gift of good fortune and the accompanying psychological relief.  I needed some kind of shift away from the obsession - if only briefly...

We went on to do the Whistle Buoy tour - hadn't been out there in 2 months I think (Twilight Zone compared to hundreds of other guided trips here over the past 8 summers).  We got on around 10 species, found another decent ling, saw a whale nearby, and Mark got the proper intro to targeting the reef species that he was seeking - along with a 23 pound chrome bonus.

I'm looking forward to more well-rounded trips with multiple targets, and a few more salmon to the net will be welcome too.  A big thanks to Mark for a really fun day where his open and authentic expression of joy at catching the reef species helped me to put it all in perspective, and we got the bonus too.

I'm stoked to get more people progressing in this sport and to look around for all the species while always having a chance at the top targets.  I'm feeling ready for more awesome catches and inspiring attitudes.  Summer's not over yet.   

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Thanks for the report, Eric. Awesome as always.

Great Report!  I’ve gotta get up there!

Another fine report of fun fishing at Da Cove    Thanks as always Eric!