Shelter Cove - 4/1

Pulled in to a slightly foggy Cove at 9AM and looked around for Sonny/Sailfish.  He was off sightseeing with friends, so I headed out.  The word was that the salmon bite was slow yesterday just like Friday - 2 fish landed all day...  The water was still brown.  The wind was light early, and the waves were small but some steep little sets were moving through to keep it interesting.  I landed a few blues and had a few other strikes that were probably rockfish.  The radio was dead - no one was catching salmon.  Sonny showed up and I was ready for lunch, so I soon headed in.  4.3 miles trolling to start the day.  I've got to keep my GPS with me on all trips.  I hung out at the beach, had a sandwich and a beer, and watched the locals slaying the perch!  Sonny came in and caught some perch with his friends.  At one point I was gazing out toward the Bell Buoy and a whale breached 3 times - that was cool!  No pic though!     Around 2 I heard talk of blue water approaching the Bell and it looked glassy, so I went back out.  I trolled another hour or so, but the conditions quickly eroded to waves-in-your-lap, so I headed in again.  Still no fish being caught, and now the fleet was all heading in due to wind.  My GPS paddle/troll total for the day was 7.3 miles.  The party had just gotten even livelier at the ramp - there were a couple dozen rigs on the beach and people having a good time everywhere.  I headed up to find Sonny and go ab diving to finish the day.  I found he and his friends at the Tea House getting ready to go rockpicking.  I was suited up first and needed to hit the road, so I went down and grabbed an 8.5"er before heading home.  It was a long day and a good one.  With a salmon bite (non-bite!) like that I'm ready to build WAF and not go back until rockfish is open.  Let's see if I can show that kind of will power!   

Catch and release, Shelter Cove local style!

Laying in the sand without a care in the world felt nice for awhile...   

Sonny.

Cove kid with a fatty perch.

damn, that's some clean living up there.  wish we had a local spot like that.

and I like hte running start on that kid's release.   .  kids playing with fish at the beach, great images.

Good to hear I'm not missing out on the salmon. We must of caught the last of them!

I need to work on my Ab pickyness. The first one I grabbed was just a little over "squeaker" classification. After getting one in the kayak I backed off a bit and went after fish until I spotted some relatively nicer abalone. I can't resist the "deep dish" ones.

Ah yes, the "potroast", "cannonball", "helmet"...  They are hard to resist!   

Thanks for the report and pics Abking!
You'll get em next time! Just keep building up that WAF.

PK