Humboldt Is Alive - Early August 2016 - Long Read - Lotsa Pix - vid top of pg. 2

Wow - I'm burnt!  But smiling. 

It's been a pretty wild run for the past several days, and more's coming.

Late last week I got to show two good friends and long time NCKA OG's around my home waters of Humboldt Bay. 



Etienne and Ken brought expert salmon skills and all the gear, so I had to convince them that my guide service was worth a modest investment.  To make a long story short, we started early enough to get a good bay tour on the low tide - including an approach on the Jaws of Death that the bar represented that day, and by high tide each of my guys had a salmon under wet burlap.

Etienne is On!









There were even some salmon caught from the jetties.  Here Robert Bray tosses his net to the Jetty Dudes - 20 minutes later they landed a Hog!

Cool move, Rob.

  Glory at the end of the day.

  I had a great time with you guys - thank you for supporting Loleta Eric's Guide Service! 

The following day, Friday, I had to prep for a Sunday paddle-only tour with 8 people and another guide through Pacific Outfitters, so after taking care of that I hit Humboldt Bay where the salmon bite has been hot and cold - mostly cold, but when it's hot...  Anyway, I'd brought along one of my newer model X-Factors which has a really nice deck layout for standing - I wanted an "XUP" salmon!  I launched in a shorty wetsuit and not my usual hat, and there was no tripod or sonar on this yak, so I was incognito!    I had minimal gear and left my radio in my seat so I could jump off the X if I lost balance.  It IS the case, and I say it all the time to people I guide and people I paddle with - I could jump off the X-Factor before it would flip.  So I was ready for getting wet if that's what it took to try to land a salmon standing up.  Well, there was something special brewing for me that afternoon because the dozen or so yakkers there were getting a bite and a fish here and there, but nothing had happened in a while when I got three fish on within a short time. 



The first one was fat and hot!  20 pounder that came right up to my bow shaking its head and looking stout!!  I was standing there fighting it, totally balanced and thrilled, and I realized that I should've had my net in the front holder where I'd ran my trolling rod (I did stand up troll the entire time).  So I reach for the net after only having this fish on for like 30 seconds, and it's gone...  Damn - but that was awesome!  2nd one that I had on I let get a little hotter and do a run - then it popped...  Third one - well, third time's a charm!



Got her played out and netted her while standing up -  what a thrill! 



The bite lit up pretty good for a few people to end that afternoon - including a 20 minute limit for Domenic, who showed up late, Matthew Mayes had multiple fish, and Tony got two bruisers over 20 pounds!







(Oops!!  Exceeded 20,000 characters again.    To be continued...)

Needless to say, I was stoked about the bite Friday evening because if all went as planned I'd have guests back there Saturday afternoon...

Joe and John hit town Friday night.  I'm long time good friends with both these guys - and John's another NCKA OG.  We met for a beer and I filled them with wide-eyed energy about the salmon bite that afternoon - they were eating it up of course...  (can you feel the curse setting in?)  The primary focus for our trip was to have been an ab dive, but conditions and forecasts have been pretty poor this summer - it's like windy springtime weather of April just won't stop...  Anyway, I'd warned Joe and John about this and told them to please opt out if they want to wait for a better forecast.  I was stoked when they gave me a full green light on the trip - we could do the ab dive, or try for salmon or whatever, Joe said.  So I figured we'd dive AND try for salmon. 

It would be a Humboldt Double Day!

Over the years I've posted a few reports with the "double day" distinction on NCKA. It's about doing two trips in one day, and it can be an intense challenge. Today qualified as exactly that.

John and Joe came up from Mendocino County to do their second trip of the year with me for the day. It was planned as an abalone diving trip from the beginning, but the forecast has been so crappy that we turned it in to an ab dive where we were ready for rough conditions plus an afternoon salmon fishing session on Humboldt Bay. Leading up to this trip I found myself thinking, "we're in for some work!"

Got to bed late the night before, so 530 came too soon and I was up and back on task for the day's adventures. My guests arrived early - 610, and we were soon loaded up in my truck and rolling out of Loleta on backroads. The three of us had full diving gear as well as what was needed for a three mile roundtrip on the beach. We'd pull our gear on top of two 12' kayaks on Wheeleez beach carts - don't ever not get Wheeleez if you're in to this sport.

Arrived at our parking spot, got the gear loaded on the yaks and hit the trail by 730. Full gear with weightbelts is work - especially since my Wheeleez were kinda flat.. . We kicked ass on the morning trail, and the fact that the sun was out and the wind not too bad yet really helped.



As we came over the last rise and saw our dive spot I was stoked to see pretty flat seas with just some heavy wind slop on the outside. The forecast had called for 8 foot swells at 8 seconds and 15 to 25 knot winds with gusts to 30, so we knew it was coming. The viz looked good too at a couple feet or so - really good for this spot, and that's why there are big abs there.

We'd completed The Trudge, and now it was time to dive!





We quickly suited up and got in the water, ready to search for that elusive ten inch ab. I showed the guys around at a spot I've dove on for over 25 years, and we were able to access some great habitat while ducking raspy wind waves up to 3 feet and gently breaking here and there.

Right off the bat we were finding abs including some fat 9+'s, but we all had a focus. We weren't interested in a meat hunt - we were here for a ten. We spent an hour or so sampling a few different spots which I felt held our best chances of seeing big abs, and we did find some dandies that were passed up. An hour and a half later we were making our way toward shore when we located a little honeyhole - several abs under a rock about the size of a coffee table, and one of them was a toad!

We took turns checking it out - it was in a tight crack. After confirming with the 10 inch gauge that it was our target, we decided to take it home. It was a blast to team up with my guys to get this ab - ten and a half incher in the bag! In the process, Joe finds an empty under the same rock or one nearby - it's nearly an eleven and in great shape! Great way to end our session.







We hiked back up the beach with a now stiff north wind in our faces, but that didn't keep the smiles down. On to the truck, back over the hill to the Eel Valley and we were soon lunched up and on to Humboldt Bay for salmon trolling.

  The 3 of us used 5 different kayaks for the day.

Friday's hot bite had us full of high hopes for a mega-crusher of a day, but it wasn't in the cards! Considering the morning's heavy workout, we had a good time just doing the much more leisurely activity of kayak salmon trolling in calm water for the afternoon. Saw a few fish caught, had a real opportunity, but like many others out there we found only the skunk!







  This young lady scored though!

Overall, this day was an outright spectacle of energy and passion in the outdoors! I was beyond stoked to have done that trail hike and dive with John and Joe, and following it up with salmon fishing was high quality stuff - catching or not.

Thank you guys so much for hiring me up for what was an awesome day and an incredible experience! 

So that was Saturday.  Sunday was just going to be that easy paddle-only day at Trinidad with another guide, so of course I had my gear with me so I could hit the bay afterward.  The paddle trip was fun - it was cool to introduce some younger people to the ocean, and they did well in SIK tandems to keep up with me and my X-Factor in a stiff north wind that came up.  Working with my teammate, Michael Owens of Pacific Outfitters, was also a great time - Thanks, Bro!







We finished cleaning gear and I was off to the bay for a quickie to close out the afternoon.  Saw some friends out there in a cool fog. 



The bite was slow, but guess who bagged another one?... 

  Matthew is The Clinician now - come to him for a salmon clinic!  It was a nice one too - 24 pounds and 36" - his best of the year so far.  As we admired Matt's fish at the trucks, Kiet and Rob and I were all talking about whether to fish today (Monday) or not.  I was leaning toward not - feeling pretty burnt, and the bite had just been a bit slow that afternoon...

Then the NCKA factor kicked in again.  I got texts from the Lost Anchovy about a hog he'd caught before I got there - and he was outside the bay in the ocean.  This had me considering getting up to fish again, but I was 50/50 - then Bob called.  Bob's a long time NCKA member too - don't know about OG - I think he basically only comes on here and there.  Correct me if I'm wrong, Bob!    Anyway, I'd quoted a trip price for him, he called me back, and now he was like, "Eric, I'm on the road to Humboldt - can we go tomorrow?!" 

And I'm like, "Oh fuck yeah, Bob!!"  Ok, that's just what I was thinking, but we were down - this was happening.  Bob hit town late and crashed at a hotel in Eureka.  We met up at 730AM at the launch



The ocean looked good but was forecast to blow up to a small craft advisory by tonight. We geared up and got on the water headed for the Jaws. I felt like our best opportunity would be outside the jetties, and we could hear the charters on the VHF confirming that as we made our way to the northwest where the bay meets the ocean.

A pretty hot bite yesterday north of the north jetty was now over - the charters and other boats bailed out of there right as we were hitting the end of the channel. We headed for the south jetty where we could see birds working, and soon we were on some hot action. We set up mooching right at the tip of the south jetty, and since it wasn't a really flat day being at that place was pretty hairy! Big swells were coming in and smashing the jetty right behind us, and the light breeze was pushing us toward the Death Zone...

  Would've gotten better pics and vids of the Death Zone, but I was too busy living!

Soon Bob hooks up on a hot chinook - yes! He gets it up by his yak and it's all over the place - we both know we're drifting toward the Death Zone, so Bob horses it a bit and has it in the net. Right on!!



We deal with his fish and soon I have one on for myself. Got it in the net, and this was a great start to our day. Went on to fight and lose a larger fish right in the milieu of the Death Zone before we had to bail out of there due to strong currents. We fished for a while with the fleet just south of the south jetty.





Saw some fish caught, lost one on the troll and eventually headed back up the bay. We were pleased to have a couple fish, but there was more fishing to do!

We got setup on an inner bay spot that's been producing and not much was going on for the half dozen or so kayakers there. My number came up though, and soon I was fighting a stout king into the net for a limit.





Bob was happy with his intro to Humboldt Bay trip



got him on the road for home with the two big fish of our three



 and I was really stoked to have gotten his last minute call for fishing today.



Tomorrow I rest and catch up on home duties, but the next adventure will come soon. Maybe you'll be on it...

Love it, you guys are killing it this year!  I keep telling myself to just drop everything and bomb over...how many days left in the season? 

Love it, you guys are killing it this year!  I keep telling myself to just drop everything and bomb over...how many days left in the season? 

I think it's open until the 16th, but someone yesterday said the 15th is the last day.  It opens again for a few days at Labor Day.

To be fair, good fishermen are getting skunked with regularity - it's not as easy as the reports may look. 

Love it, you guys are killing it this year!  I keep telling myself to just drop everything and bomb over...how many days left in the season? 

I think it's open until the 16th, but someone yesterday said the 15th is the last day.  It opens again for a few days at Labor Day.

To be fair, good fishermen are getting skunked with regularity - it's not as easy as the reports may look. 

Hahaha, oh I know that for sure!  But just a chance at hooking something other than a 14" kokanee sounds really, really enticing right now.  Keep slaying em'!

Excellent!!

Eric, your reports keep getting better and better. This is above and beyond. You are truly living the dream. Bravo.
David

Thanks for the great report and fish porns Eric!

I agree with Eric. There have been a lot of experience fisherman getting skunked but the fish are there if you put the work in. For those on the fence, HIRE ERIC, and get in on the action before the season closes. He's a good guide, good person and crazy addicted to chrome. He'll get you on fish if they are there. Great report Eric. I'll post mine in a few days, and not on your thread cause i know how you get about that. Lol. 

I am really considering driving down there Friday Night and fish hard Saturday. I need a place to stay.  Thanks for the report it makes it seems impossible to resist.

Awesome report Eric!  Looks like you are definitely in the zone!

Great report Eric! Favorite time of the year for kayak fishing is right f'in now. Love it [emoji7] [emoji106] [emoji226] [emoji3]

I'll post mine in a few days, and not on your thread cause i know how you get about that. Lol. 

Hahaha -   I haven't reached my "Crying like a Little Bitch" threshold with you, Keith.  Yet. 

I told Rob I was sorry for being uptight - he's a good guy and just likes to talk shit on the boards.  It's all good.

Thanks for the nice replies, guys, and thank you, Lost Anchovy, for the recommendation.  I look forward to getting people on this salmon bite, and Shelter Cove has gotten hot and heavy too - it's open for salmon until early November, and I got my personal best in mid September - 38 pounds. 

I'm a pusher right now - Humboldt's hot!

damn HOT!

Etienne and I were going to Depoe Bay OR to fish tuna with GB2. We thought we may try Humboldt on the way up for a salmon or two. Not knowing the area we made the right decision by having Eric guide us. The mouth of  the bay is especially nasty. Getting in and out at the right time is critical. Eric made the extra effort to get me up to speed the night before with the where, why and tides. This made a big difference. It was nice for each of us to get a quality fish 10-14 lbs. First one in the yak in a couple of years. The tuna trip was cancelled due to weather before we left Fortuna on friday. We made the best of it and fished Friday and Saturday in the bay. It was amazing to see the life there, sardines, herring, chovies and a mixed grade of salmon 20+ inches to 20+ lbs. Ice chest full of fresh salmon made the trip back go quickly. I missed shelter this year so I had to settle for a Lolita Eric Guide Services T shirt