Shelter Cove 3/16 Ace & King showing full boat

Abking and I (formerly ArcataAnglerHSU but now I've graduated from HSU and moved to Fort Bragg) met at the boat ramp at shelter cove today at 2:00 PM. We paddled out to the bell and dropped our lines. Five minutes out and Abking had a salmon in his lap (view the heartbreaking video: ). Abking was trolling a silver flasher, big deep six and a green hoochie over the top of an anchovy. I decided to go with a more simple rig, a 3 oz. banana sinker with a salmon slip rig with an anchovy cut at 45 and 45.
We trolled in left handed circles just north of the green bell buoy staying pretty well in the transition zone between murky and clear water. 20 pulls was about the depth of the bottom and I hooked up on several rock fish testing depth. when trolling at 20 pulls with the line out at a bit shallower than a 45 degree angle to the water We got hit several times.
Abking hooked up and landed one in the distance; I could tell by his hoots and hollers. I caught a little king and Abking pulled in his line to net it for me. A while later I hooked up again and Abking decided not to babysit me so closely; with one in my boat he decided to leave his hooks down for a chance at a double but paddled over and gave me net assistance. This king was bigger and I knew it was just a matter of time before it got off. Abking's kayak was drifting around in the wrong direction so I grabbed the line about six inches in front of the salmon's nose and scooped his tail with a puny trout net. Less than half of the fish was in the net but I pulled him into the yak and pinned him down until Abking could turn himself around and help me whack his head. Abking tried his best to keep me fishing by pushing his yak off of mine, nearly tipping me as I was taking the hook out of the fishes mouth. Abking was eager to get his bait back at salmon depth!
I followed Abking for a little while with my pole out of the water but got didn't want him to feel rushed so I dropped an anchovy to the bottom in hopes of hooking a halibut. Just as Abking was telling me that the bottom might be a little too rocky directly beneath us I hooked something that felt much heavier than the blacks and blues we had been hooking earlier. It ended up being my first Vermilion rock fish. Alas I had to toss it back, but hopefully Abking got a nice picture and will post it in the next few days.

So to summarize:
Shelter Cove
March 16th
Small swell, little wind
Color change around the green bell bouy
flasher, deep-six, green hoochie -or- 3 oz. banana and double hook slip rig with a headless anchovy
king salmon limits

Ah, yes, I must concur!     That had me laughing and re-living every moment. 

What I would've given to have had my camera out to get a shot of Asa getting half of that 10#er into the trout net and shoving the other half in with his other hand as he got it to his lap!  It was impressive!  The bite was back on today after being off this week, but there were powerboats getting skunked too.  I had that immediate hookup and fish landed (that Asa will post a video of at some point), but it was coming out of my net - alas, the king size salmon net becomes a liability as a 6#er or so comes unbuttoned from my hooks once it's in the net flopping and then it's like 8" through the net because it's skinny.  I grab it and get it in my lap and it's in shock and not moving, so I start to mess with my hooks instead of digging out the bonker and taking care of business.  Just as I tell Asa, "this thing's legal, I'm bonking it" it comes unglued and flops out of my lap and overboard and high-tails it out of there - FREE!  I was heart-broken...  Luckily I boated that 12#er an hour later!     Then Asa boats two - the first netted by me, thank you very much!  Asa would have you focus on the fact that I flailed on the second (bigger) fish when he had to use the trout net!     What a good time!!!

I was impressed with Asa's presentation of a straight bait, no hoochie, no flasher - wtg, man!  Can't wait for the next hookup.  And hopefully this means we have a great year to look forward to.

Heck yes...you are on a roll this year!

Way to GO  .......all the way from Sourthern Cail.

AWESOME!!!!!
I need to get a few days off and head up there.
Any camping/lodging in the area?

Nice going.  I wish I were a little closer, and had the time, and ....

Anyway, you've really got me counting down the next three weeks. Although Bodega Bay is actually more of a May-July fishery.  Maybe I'll still need to do some traveling for salmon.

Brian

Thanks, guys!  Some more interesting facts on the fortunate day that Asa and I had:

At Asa's suggestion we met at the Cove so he could check out the Hobie Pursuit I was offering for sale.  It was my first yak, and I bought it years ago without doing much research.  It had been a fun boat, but not as stable as most, not much storage space, and the capacity's only 220# - oops!  I discovered several years back that I was almost under water in this boat with all my ab gear and a couple of large abs.  Asa was shopping for a ride for his girlfriend, so it'll be a good boat for her.  What's really impressive is that Asa mastered this thing and caught his salmon and several rockfish without any problems in a small to moderate swell - no problems... that is, until I almost tipped him over shoving off after that second bonking!    He was pretty happy to have gotten a successful guided salmon trip along with the yak!  Good deal, Asa, thanks for initiating contact and making this trip and transaction happen.

Tote - GoogleEarth in on it and you'll see the boat launch, come up the hill to the cleaning station, cross the street to the store, and you'll see the campground behind the store and at the south end, east side of the landing strip.  It's $27/night for a basic patch of grass, picnic table, and fire pit, but it's a beer-in-hand walk from the action.  There are also several hotels very nearby - some newer ones right on the water's edge with awesome suites with kitchenettes and balconies hanging over awesome tidepools and ab diving spots - I figure those are around $100-150/night depending on the season.  I would vote for splitting a room like that for like 3 or 4 of us and we could feast in luxury, drinking cold brews on our balcony and get excellent rest for more fishing the next day.

Say the following twenty times "I hate you guys".  I guess, I should have stayed the extra day and learned how to catch Salmon from you two.  Well done, nice pictures too!

Boink, Boink. and weather you can take your shirt off in. We're all drooling!!

OMG, what a day you guys had! Great pic of the rockfish! BTW, congrats on your graduation, too, Asa. Does it get any better??? 

Janice aka "Big J"

Freakin' Awesome!!!Freakin' Awesome!!!Freakin' Awesome!!!Freakin' Awesome!!!
Congrats on the salmon. They look way tooooo good.
Z

We need to plan a Shelter Cove NCKA invasion.....soon!

Beauty pic's and nice report!

CHEERS!

I have to get back up there.

SWEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!

Nice! You guys are making me feel like i should start migrating up north sooner than latter!

Great report and pics.