Humboldt Bay - 6/14/19

With the ocean salmon not happening quite yet from the yaks I turned to bay halibut for an opportunity. Managed to book a few dates, and today was my first bay guided trip of the year. It can be a tough fishery with lots of hours spent waiting and re-baiting, as you're often dealing with bait munchers like sculpin, crab and bat rays. There are ways to avoid those unwanted biters, but the waiting is a universal.

Ben and Ian came from L.A. and the Bay Area, respectively, and they were looking for an adventure. Neither does much fishing or ever has, but they're camping out for a few days down in the redwoods and wanted to fish. These guys have known each other since middle school and were on a guys' trip away from the wives and kids. They were in good shape, had great attitudes, and both did well to follow my instructions on how to run their gear. We were right around the 2nd bridge at high tide - along with about a dozen other guys either on yaks or powerboats. No one was getting a touch. We gave that another hour, everyone else cleared out, and we took a break on a nice beach of shells and mud crabs on Indian Island right as the sun came out.

As we worked our way back down the channel with the tide I had to have the guys paddle against an unforecasted west wind, and our gear was getting pulled by the tide, so it was like walking the dog! Our gear was out in front of us as we paddled down-bay. Love it. About 3 hours in we got on the west side of the middle bridge and I got a bite. It stuck, and soon we had a 25" hali under some burlap. The guys went from chilling on a fun paddle with a fishing potential to being more focused on catching a fish of their own. Ian had been getting down on it all day - lots of crab bites, a couple minor snags. Ben was more conservative and kept it off the bottom, but I was confident that we were all right in the zone - that's what the waiting is about. You never really know who will get the bite, and the best policy is to focus on having maximum exposure.

About 30 minutes after our first bite and fish, Ian thought he snagged the bottom again, but I saw his rod tip go down so fast and we weren't drifting that quickly. Then it pumped. Oh yes! I cleared my line and got up on him quickly - coaching him on the rod tip, the drag, letting the fish have a little room to move... He did fantastic - went from buried under the yak to moving the rod tip around the bow to let the fish run. He had it back up by us for a good look and another run, and then it was ready for the net. I absolutely love netting fish for my guests - it may be my favorite part of guiding. I'm OK with that, as long as the process plays out properly. It's about fulfilling my guests' adventure, and retaining a fish is a huge boon.

It came together for us, and Ian's fish - a beautiful 30 incher - had the guys really stoked to have gone on the trip. I know that I am the lucky one to be in a position to facilitate and to help people build their confidence and their skillset. I will continue to work hard to fulfill the goals of this pursuit, and I thank you for sharing it with me. That's really what life is all about, and the outdoors pursuits help to manifest that.   

Nice work! Nice write-up, too. Great to see the guys’ happiness in their trip and catch. Thanks for sharing, it reinforces that I need to get up to Humboldt again, soon.