Shelter Cove - 12/23/17

The Guided Trip:

Initiation. Correspondence. Forecasting. Further communication. Customization. Confirmation. Fine tuning.

Then comes Game Day! Today was one for the ages. The forecast looked sweet but iffy with a 5 to 10 knot south wind threatening to wreck a port like Shelter Cove. After steadily wavering for days in their typical fashion, NWS turned it to a 5 knot NW call at 3AM today - this was way past when I'd already confirmed the trip, but what a sweet gift to wake up to.

The Cove was a LAKE today! The charter guys and all the locals were commenting on the radio about how nice it was - so smooth, no drift, and the bite was outstanding. We could not have asked for more.

I was honored to be the guide for a father and sons trio today, and these guys tore it up! We caught 10 species and did the full nearshore tour - Bell to Whistle, B&B and back across the front with fish biting everywhere. At times the ocean's surface resembled Tahoe on a calm afternoon, and the only thing that surpassed the grandeur of the King Range rising up off the water was the consistency of the smiles and joy flowing from my guests. What an absolute pleasure!

We closed out our session chasing a spouting whale and leaving the fish biting. My guys got all the fish they wanted and gently released quite a few more - I got to handle a salmon that they got a picture of, so hopefully we'll see that one pop up in a comment.

Thank you, Kevin, Lindsay and Dylan, for engaging me for this excellent adventure!

Clean up, healing, rest, appreciation... and the cycle continues.

I put my blood, sweat, tears and my whole heart into these trips.

NCKA is where I come from.

...

Mill pond.
Nice to see great days OTW like that. Usually experienced few and far between.

Awesome as always Eric!

Thanks for sharing and Merry Xmas

BTW: You should be sponsored by Cheerios 

Awesome! How's the flows on the Eel? The Russian is super low. I did a short drift the other day in a pram. Not many fish around yet. Soon, very soon

Wow!

That pic of the yakker in the water with the clouds in the background is awesome

Thanks, fellas - Merry Christmas to you too! 

Awesome! How's the flows on the Eel? The Russian is super low. I did a short drift the other day in a pram. Not many fish around yet. Soon, very soon

Eel is upside down - 90% of the time at this time of year I'm watching spawners in very small creeks - those creeks won't get spawners this year unless we get 20 inches in the next few weeks.

The good news though is that the November rains allowed for spawning in the mid sized creeks, and those redds are getting ripe and should have good viability as the alevin emerge.  We could use some rain to cloud up the water and get flows up helping those little guys get to the estuary...

Sloppywood - I hope we get a chance to do my lower South Fork trip this season.

Sounds like a blast!

Eric, thanks for sharing your pictures and telling us of your adventure on the water. Hope you have a good and prosperous new year.