Shelter Cove - 6/15/20

Monday at the Cove with David Bradfield.

I met "Dave the Synth Guy" years ago through Nor Cal Kayak Anglers - a web based club where kayak fishing is basically the center of life. Dave has long had Humboldt connections, and some years back he and Kristin bought a house up here and eased into a high quality nor cal retirement. A few years before leaving my corporate life and becoming a guide and before Dave had moved north, I 'hooked up' with him at Trinidad for an offshore day where Dave caught his biggest black rockfish and he watched me do a no-touch release on a coho salmon. "You should become a guide", he told me.

Fast forward several years, and Dave has become one of a few people who have engaged my services many times. We've chased steelhead, cutthroat trout and salmon on multiple rivers, went for ocean chrome out of Humboldt Bay, Trinidad and the Cove, remote launched at the Cape for prehistoric rockfish and lingcod, and together we have strengthened our friendship through a variety of other outdoors pursuits where there was no business deal involved - notably, David is one of my best partners for salmon survey and creek exploration. We've seen amazing things and had lifetime experiences ranging from watching spawning salmonids to bagging a 30 pound king first thing in the morning - Dave holds the record for largest Chinook caught on my guided trips, and his Cape Mendo lingcod and a fatty that Anthony Anchetta caught are tied for that category's biggest at 18 pounds. Ron Saufferer - another long time repeat customer and another of my best friends - has the record for biggest abalone at just over 11 inches, but that's another story...

As a guide, having people who continue to seek out my service is a great gift. I take many kayak fishermen out to show them the ropes of safety, forecasts, specific areas and targets, and I fully understand that they may never feel the need to hire me again. That's fine, and there is a list of accomplished participants of the sport who I helped to get started or who upped their game with my assistance. I love being able to play the role of coach and being the revealer of techniques and subtleties that can take many years to refine - much less just to discover or even know about. The repeat customer though, this person recognizes that what I offer comes on many levels - it's not just instruction on "how to" be safe, catch a fish, navigate specific reefs...etc. - I am, myself, focused on using the sport and the outdoors in general as a way to guide my own life and to derive my spirituality from my experiences. I don't value fish and habitats and my own wide-eyed adventures in nature more than I value society, culture and being a human being. I value those things because they help me to be a better human being - that's the spiritual part.

Dave has his own spirituality, but we have come to know one another on this level that I've described, and it has been a great value to me to be able to run with him on waters where my blood runs more acutely than anywhere else. It's a unique situation to have as a customer someone who is also one of my dearest companions. I try to honor that reality as my own opportunity for learning and growing as a guide while also maintaining a genuine connection and even a vulnerability as a friend. It's about the feel again, and that's how I want it.

So Dave's been, like many of us, devoted to his covid routine and standards that have his list of exposures short and his unwritten adherence to standards very airtight. He seldom shops - always masked, avoids contact with others, encourages the community to work together, and he openly and obviously does the right thing for he and Kristin and everyone in their sphere of influence. Going on a trip with me would be his biggest foray into the outside world of Humboldt since the lockdown, and I could sense that he really needed it. When I called Sunday to let him know that Monday looked like the best day of the week for an offshore run, he was all in.

When I take people out, I hope they catch all the fish. I've often revealed that one of the coolest things about guiding is that I'm trying to get someone else to duplicate what I have found success with myself. If I can pull that off, I end up with a much greater chance that we will find success than if I were alone. The reality though is that my hands and fingers, my shoulders and my torso, my eyes, ears and the hairs on my neck - all of it is tuned to moving through the water, deploying line, feeling my gear through the rod, and responding to stimuli that are so foreign to terrestrial life that I might as well be in outer space sometimes. I tend to catch more than my guests even if I'm devoting much time to showing and telling - pulling my line in to assist with landing and processing, tying new gear, baiting hooks, retrieving snags, or, when needed, getting people back on their kayaks or dialed in with other gear. That's how it should be, but there are days when the stars align, and my guests catch things that light up not just their eyes and their teeth - their entire beings actually glow with satisfaction and wonder! That's my goal, but there are many goals to fulfill on the water.

As I'd said, David has caught the biggest salmon and lingcod on my trips, and he's an accomplished fisherman with a lifetime of experience. He's also a great friend to me, so with me still feeling tired from the past week of trips I couldn't think of a better person to share the day with than the SynthGuy. The goal, as always, was to get him on the best thing going right now - salmon! We would focus on it, and changing our focus to rockfish, lingcod or even halibut would only be after an earnest attempt to hook and land our chrome idol.

Hopes were high in the morning as we launched onto a perfect ocean - the only kayaks and largely having the entire nearshore Cove area to ourselves as the poweboaters headed south to what had been a pretty epic bite Sunday 8 miles from port. We moved over the reef and looked for signs as I showed David where fish have been caught this season and talked about some of the methods that were producing. High tide came and went, and there weren't many biters. We had a couple of black rockfish on the clip, and I was thinking of changing us over to conventional trolling gear with some flash when I got picked up by a hot fish. The way it grabbed my bait and moved across the bottom very quickly had me thinking salmon for a second, but then it dogged me and shook its head as I pulled and reeled it up from the bottom. This was either a ling that got hooked in a weird spot and had reacted strangely, or it was a halibut - either way, it was heavy, and we were due. When I saw the wide, brown form of this beautiful fish appear below me I was electrified! I try to stay pretty flat and calm when I'm with guests and catch a nice fish - I want them to know that it's in the cards for them too and that it's not some anomaly! With David though, I was free to let my emotions flow in real time. I got the big flatty in the net, and we celebrated the moment together as our success. It would prove to be the biggest halibut caught on any of my guided trips at 15 pounds and 36".

That kept us on the prowl along the bottom for another couple of hours, but things were pretty slow. We moved out deeper where we knew the rocks and lings would be more abundant, always presenting our barbless tackle in ways that would allow us to legally keep a salmon if it showed up. The fog had been a factor all morning, and David had told me that it gives him pause to move farther offshore when visibility is so limited that no landmarks are attainable - it's called wisdom! He knows me though, and he trusts me. We did our thing, and when the fog lifted our view from out at the Whistle was a glorious part of our day.

We enjoyed beautiful conditions and a fair bite for another couple of hours before slight breezes from the north indicated that we should start heading inshore before the typical afternoon whitecaps showed up. We kept hooking more fish and progress was slow, but we were basically making our way in and wrapping up a great day. We were both stoked about the halibut, but I really wanted David to hook a salmon. I try to convince my guests that we're all doing the same thing and that there's a randomness to who hooks what, but I also believe in 'mojo'. Sometimes it's your turn to hook up, and sometimes it's your turn to spectate. In life we try to put ourselves in position for the hook up, and as we gain wisdom I think we do better with finding the half-full part when it's our turn to spectate. Mojo has to do with that balance.

I say the fishing was fair on the outside and 'slow' in the morning, but we caught lots of fish. Remember: it's salmon we're after, and they're hard to hook, let alone catch. We'd had lots of bites that we'd hoped were salmon, and finally there was one that I knew it for sure. The 'pumper' reveals itself when your rod starts going off in a way that is distinctive - not just the tip, but the entire upper half of an ocean rod with backbone will start to bend and relieve over and over. It's a mature Chinook, shaking not just its head but its entire body, and it's one of the most amazing things to feel. I had a pumper, and I announced to David, "SALMON!" He gave me space as I worked the fish to the surface, and he acted as more than spectator as the king went all directions and I responded with arm and shoulder movements learned over decades and my hands busy and ready - he was cheerleader now, and I felt free to feel all of it.

Finally got the hot 14 pounder in the net and celebrated with my friend, and the wind was ready to really turn on. I bled the fish as David got glory photos, and we moved on toward the lighthouse point with the wind escalating to whitecaps very quickly. The hard work of keeping ourselves safe after almost 9 hours on the water felt great - we were both very satisfied with our efforts in exiting the water as conditions became unfishable. Part of that was the salmon high, and later we were both 'fried' from the long day and the abrupt ending. We review these things and use the knowledge and experience from every trip to help us to progress and to find the wisdom that will, one day, assist us when all we can be are spectators. You can't just do these things forever, and that's a good reason to keep your eyes on the prize. That 'prize' has many facets - just like a guided kayak trip. Ability and desire get us out there to do amazing things and to feel as deeply as we choose to; while time and age progress unstoppably and ultimately show us the door. My advice is to find what you love and share it. Work on your mojo, value your friendships and incorporate your spirituality into those things that make you feel alive.

Thank you, SynthGuy - not just for being a genuine friend, but for helping me in my pursuit of guiding as well as my focus on mojo and spirit. Much love to you and Kristin - I can't wait for our next trip.

 

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Awesome!

I especially like this part: "Nor Cal Kayak Anglers - a web based club where kayak fishing is basically the center of life..."

Damn. Well done.

Badass!

Awesome story telling, thanks for sharing!

Great read. Sounds like one of those days that you will remember for a lifetime. Thanks for sharing it in detail. Looking forward to getting some WAF points accumulated and booking a trip with you, something I’m long overdue for.

Always a pleasure reading one of your reports...almost like I was there! 

Thanks for the fish porn Eric.  Shake n bake.   

nice catches!

Nice write up, Eric!  Thanks for the story and sounds like you guys have lots of fun!

Cool Report
I have a friend or two like Dave
They are special people to more than just me

Thanks for another great write-up and fish porns Eric.

Thanks Eric, beautiful report as usual. 

Literally killing it like always. Great report and heck those are some nice fish. Congrats my friend. One of these days I’m going to make it up your way for some fishing.

Deva