Shelter Cove - 8/13/22

Schwegg hired me up last year for his inaugural Cove tour.  We had a slow to average day, with a decent stringer of rockfish harvested on a somewhat beefy mid-September swell.  It was a good time, but the big three species of salmon, halibut and lingcod were no-shows.  Schwegg did great in his tricked out Hobie PA14, with both the pedals and a Bixpy trolling motor, but I think that both he and I were feeling a little disappointment at the end of the day due to the lack of success in finding any of the bigger fish. 

This season he got on my calendar more than a month earlier - August, when the salmon bite should be stronger.  Some years back, August was also the time for "Thresher Days".  The thresher sharks show up at the Cove anywhere from May to October, but August has been peak season for them for the past several years.  They're powerful fish - bait eaters with small mouths and teeth but a whip of a tail that's as long as the rest of their body.  When one takes your bait, you usually either get some kind of train ride - short or long - or you feel kind of a frenetic tap-tap-tap mixed with some light tugging before reeling in your gear to find no hooks left on your leader.  The small, Chiclet-sized teeth of the thresher are very sharp, so the tapping and tugging was your leader sliding across a few teeth before cutting off.  My guests and I only occasionally hook threshers, and it's always while targeting other fish, like salmon and halibut.  I'd say that only about 5 to 10% of all thresher bites result in the train ride, and only a few of those result in landing the fish - usually after around an hour of fighting it.

So anyway, Thresher Days got its name when, in my early years of guiding, I landed thresher sharks for my clients for three straight seasons - always on either August 11th or 12th.  The bait-eaters had weighed in at 50 to 80 pounds or so, and I'd landed one weighing about 100 pounds myself the year before the streak of guest catches.  For a couple of seasons after the last thresher coming in on my trips, I joked that the early August trips were part of "Thresher Days".  I guess I actually marketed my trips in social media using that phrase, so it wasn't just a joke.  Although, my marketing IS basically a joke, so there's that!  😆

It's been a few years since I've even had Thresher Days come to mind, but last night, after a super long day with Schwegg, I realized that it was back!

When we spoke a week before our trip, Schwegg made it known that he really wanted a salmon, so it was a bit of a bummer to have to tell him that the bite's been pretty slow lately.  I could also see that the forecast called for the potential for wind, so I was almost ready to offer that he could cancel if he'd rather pursue other options.  The wind forecast could be part of my excuse to myself, and the crappy salmon bite could be the elephant in the room...

WTF?!  Who's putting these thoughts in my head?  I must be tired, and the Salmon Torture is getting to me.

Schwegg and I texted back and forth a few days later, and the forecast looked fine.  I told him that a few salmon had shown up recently and that we'd lost a nice one the day before.  He acknowledged that we'd get the weather and bite that we get, and he was fully committed to the trip.  I was stoked to stick to my guns and buck up for a strong day for his second annual outing with me, and I really wanted to find him a salmon.  Really wanting something in fishing can be a tough spot to put yourself in, but it's part of the game.

Our day came, and things looked good - no fog, ocean not rough but not as smooth as recent outings, wind present up on the ridge as I drove in, but typical summer morning stillness down on the water in the cove.  Positive news on the salmon front as well:  a few participants in Kayak Greg's Fish and Chill had scored one fish apiece the day before.

Schwegg rolled in just on time, and by a few minutes before 630AM we were heading offshore to give our best in fulfilling his salmon wish - and mine!  I'd not hooked one since July 3rd myself. 
We rounded the point to find sloppy seas that reflected the prior afternoon's offshore winds.  It wasn't a great surface for trolling, but it was safe and certainly not uncomfortable.  Schwegg and I got reacquainted as we fished, but our developing conversations were constantly interrupted by a pretty insane rockfish bite.  I learned that my guest had gone on to get into flyfishing since our last trip, and he'd been using his kayak on some great trout streams up around Shasta. 

When I take someone out for a second time, it's great because I know what to expect of their abilities and their gear.  That confidence and familiarity is enhanced when they show up reporting that they've gained significant experience on challenging waters.  I basically log data in my mind about what is available to each individual returning client and I, based on what I already know about them.  This allows for maximizing the potentials in our followup trip or trips, and I've noted many times over the years how often increased success and positive growth in skills and abilities are included in the tangible results of the trips.

So Schwegg and I were trolling the slop, feeding tray bait to the rockfish and lingcod, and all the while I was scanning the horizon for birds and waiting for some word of a salmon bite on the VHF.  Not much was happening, but it was nice out, and within an hour or so the sea surface mellowed.  Whether a salmon showed up or not, I was enjoying the rapport between us.  Schwegg got on a limit of lings to go with some nice rockfish, so I was pleased to have at least raised the bar from last year. 
I was in a good place - happy to have pushed through what has been a lot of fatigue lately, with a sore back, dried out and cut up hands, and that sour outlook on the salmon bite!  Schwegg was having fun too.  The stars were aligning in a way - progress was happening, and I felt relief and joy in my good fortune to be taking people on these adventures with unknown outcomes but such a myriad of possibilities.

The Salmon Gods smiled on me in my moment of healthy resignation.  K A B O O M !  I was on a hot one - only the 8th salmon I'd hooked this season, and it soon became my 7th one landed. 
Schwegg had kept trolling near me as I fought and landed my fish, and I was so stoked to be ending a streak of no chrome in my life, but I really wanted my guy to get one too.  I wouldn't have to wait for long.  Within a minute or two my second year guest on a salmon quest was getting his own chance to fight the king.  As I watched his rod pump and then saw and heard as line peeled off his reel when the fish sounded, I was thrilled.

He did everything right, and after a few runs Schwegg had his salmon tired out enough to lead it into my net.  We'd fulfilled his top objective on this trip, and the day was still young.

Within another 5 minutes I was on a second, and now I'm 8 landed out of 9 hooked this year - with none lost at the net since summer before last.  Who's counting though, right?!  This is part of how salmon fishing is pretty much a total mind-f***.  When you can't get one, you want one so badly, and when you do get one, you want another one so badly!  Salmon fishing becomes an obsession because it's so damn pleasing to challenge yourself in the pursuit and the fight and the net job, and to get the reward of capturing this superstar of the waters of the Eastern Pacific along arguably the most majestic coastline anywhere adds to the power and mystique of the experience. 

With 3 salmon under burlap, we trolled on, hoping to find Schwegg's limit fish, but the school we'd gotten on seemed to have passed along with the current and the bait they were chasing.  Before long we headed back toward the buoy with intentions of getting the fish ashore and iced, and then maybe we'd look around for a halibut closer to launch.  Several more rockfish came up, and then, while Schwegg was climbing up to his front hatch to retrieve a sandwich, his rod was going off in the holder.  He knew it, and we both laughed as it seemed to pump a bit, but we both thought it was surely another rockfish.  Schwegg sits back down, calmly retrieves the rod and easily reels in what isn't a rockfish at all, but a small Chinook.  It was probably right at 20" - it looked legal for retention.  But Schwegg didn't even want to net it.  I leadered it up, lifted the barbless hook from its lip, and it swam off strong.  My guy had gotten his limit, and now my guests have landed 3 this year. 

We're building stats down here at Loleta Eric's Guide Service!  Come on down for The Salmon Have Returned Days!

We made our way in to the ramp, shuffled some cooler contents and scored some fresh ice from up top, and our catch of 10 rockfish, 2 lingcod and 3 salmon was secured in Schwegg's camper shell.  It was time to go look for a halibut, and even though I was feeling it after 6 hours on the water, I knew I had some days off coming and had told Schwegg to start the day that I'd be game for overtime if the conditions allowed.  The salmon stoke was powering me for sure, so it was a no-brainer to at least do another couple of hours.

We re-launched and headed down the coast right before the 130 high tide, and a bunch of the yakkers from Greg's gathering were either heading in or fishing close by.  Right outside the moorings we saw Sky, and he'd continued his list of great catches for the season by landing about a 70 pound thresher shark.  We'd heard of a few being around, and we'd even lost a set of hooks earlier that was likely a thresher.  We congratulated Sky on his catch and continued on our way, and I still wasn't even remembering Thresher Days.

After an hour of trying for a halibut, missing some bites, landing another nice ling and a few rockfish as well as about a 4' smoothhound shark, Schwegg got a screamer on - he was on the train ride! 

The thresher jumped twice about 40 yards to the south, and memories of threshers past flooded my mind.  If the hooks stuck a bit longer, the odds of being able to fight this thing would be decent.  That's what happened, and Schwegg battled this 60 to 70 pound fish for about 45 minutes before it was tired.  I was trying to get a few photos and video clips, but even when one of these predators is tired you don't let your guard down around that tail - it could take an eye out or even worse.

With the fish tired enough to grab the gear and cut the leader, that's what we did.  If Schwegg had wanted it, I would have landed it and put in a whole bunch more overtime getting it to shore and butchering it up into about 40 pounds of very high quality meat, but I was glad when he expressed his wish to release it, not wanting any bad karma related to sharks.  Schwegg actually dives with sharks, so it was a great move to let this one go.

With the shark swimming off to recover, Schwegg's leader cut and the overtime meter pegging for the on the water part of the trip, we headed for the barn.  Got ashore, loaded the gear, jumped in the ocean for a refresh, and it was time to get to work at the Tailgate Fillet Station.

Processing three salmon, three lings and a limit of rockfish while enjoying a cold beer in the sunshine of the Cove is hard to beat - the tide was even going out!  Schwegg and I enjoyed some tunes along with great conversation as I processed the catch.  The rapport we'd developed during our time together, along with the day's amazing catches and releases, added up to the type of joy and satisfaction that I strive to achieve on these trips.  I can derive those feelings no matter what we catch, and I've had to lately!  But milking this day's triumphs at the TFS with Schwegg's cooler overflowing was Level 2 for sure.

Thresher Days is back, and Loleta Eric wants to get you on a train ride!   

...

Beautiful report. Looks like an awesome day out!

Epic day!!

I just wanted to make a list of fish landed this weekend at the cove by kayakers:

Thresher
Pac Hali
Cali Hali
King
Ling
Cab
Greenling
Black
Grass
Gopher
China
Vermillion (many verm limits of 20+ fish)
Smooth hound
Smelt
puked up octopus
(not sure if this is a complete list but the diversity was crazy this weekend)

My very first drop on Saturday resulted in a 10-15 minute thresher fight that ended up popping at my banana weight after he made a violent turn at me... ill be thinking about that guy for a while lol. Beautiful lil window of weather we had, nice meeting u Shwegg, glad you had such an epic trip!

I just wanted to make a list of fish landed this weekend at the cove by kayakers:

Thresher
Pac Hali
Cali Hali
King
Ling
Cab
Greenling
Black
Grass
Gopher
China
Vermillion (many verm limits of 20+ fish)
Smooth hound
Smelt
puked up octopus
(not sure if this is a complete list but the diversity was crazy this weekend)

Don't forget the beautiful blue rockfish, browns in the hali zone and a few olives out by the whiss too.   

The perch seemed to be a no-show...   

Nice trip and write up Eric. Glad the cove is finally picking up

Great trip report, Eric! Love the thresher action and all the rest of it. Impressive list of species...

...how salmon fishing is pretty much a total mind-f***.  When you can't get one, you want one so badly, and when you do get one, you want another one so badly!  Salmon fishing becomes an obsession because it's so damn pleasing to challenge yourself in the pursuit and the fight and the net job, and to get the reward of capturing this superstar of the waters of the Eastern Pacific along arguably the most majestic coastline anywhere adds to the power and mystique of the experience. 

No trueer words ever spoken.

Man!  We had it so good...  I feel so fortunate, while also hoping to get another shot at chrome and more full days of catching at the Cove.

Those were the good times.  It'd be a miracle if we ever get salmon back lol. 

I miss the Cove, such an awesome place.

Bad ass pics of that thresher!

Those were the good times.  It'd be a miracle if we ever get salmon back lol. 

I miss the Cove, such an awesome place.

I hope you and the guys are coming up for GS, RB.