Shelter Cove - 8/14 and 8/15/20

Shelter Cove - August 14th and 15th.

Friday I took Humboldt locals Heather and Jose out for their first offshore run.  Heather did great for an hour before the power of motion sickness took over - it's a strong force and nothing to mess with.  We got her back to the beach where she would hold down camp and take good care of a few cold beers.  She'd treated Jose to this trip as a birthday gift, so she was still super stoked that Jose could go on to do the day with me.

Jose and I soon headed back out and got to fishing again.  My guy caught on quickly and was running the gear and catching with proficiency in no time.  We hung with the salmon fleet for a minute, but it wasn't hot and heavy and I wanted to get him on a more steady bite.  We headed offshore a ways and found the cloud, where we built up the stringers and had fun getting to know each other a bit too.

Jose went on to catch his personal bests for lingcod and halibut, and we ended the day at a crowded high tide ramp, filleting the fish and drinking cold brews with people playing all around us in the hot sun.  The afternoon summertime scene down in the launch area has always been a big part of the vibrancy of Shelter Cove, and with covid it's become even more of a sanctuary for sanity.  It was fun to share with my guests as we filled up gallon Ziplocs with many dinners for their freezer.

When we parted ways I was smiling ear to ear, and it was largely due to the positive vibe that both Heather and Jose had brought along with them for the trip - a fat tip feeds in to that as well!

Thank you, Heather and Jose, for engaging me and sharing your stoke for life!

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Saturday was a trip I've been looking forward to all summer.  Old NCKA friends Joe and John from Mendocino booked up a room at The Tides Inn, and we were focused on finding a salmon.  With a big fleet parked on the usual spot from the past few weeks, we didn't see any nets flying and only heard of a few on the radio all day.  After a bit we decided to get more action, so it was offshore to the cloud for stringer building.  We put up 3 limits of blacks and managed one really nice lingcod - Joe's personal best at 34" and near 13 pounds.  The south wind was a bit nasty out there, but with all 3 of us on X-Factors it was only a nuisance and a workout - staying on the cloud with the wind and the current both pushing us toward Alaska was a chore.

When we headed in it was a good 40 minutes straight of paddling steady to get around the point with all the drift.  I told the guys that we should consider beaching at the trucks, having lunch and then re-launching for an afternoon on the hali grounds.  We went with that plan and I got 15 fish filleted and put away too.

By the time we settled in to the halibut zone the morning winds were gone, the sun was blazing, and we had Disneyland glass for a couple hours of chillin'.  You may recall that last week I had to release a big salmon because I was running barbs for hali when it hooked itself in the ass!  Well, we started out this hali session with an abundance of caution - didn't want to have to release another fatty chromer.  I hooked up on a nice halibut, got it up, saw it avoid my net, and it was gone - shook the barbless.  Damn...  Then Joe gets one, and the same thing happens.  "Barbless all summer" has an asterisk now too...

I put us all on barbs and also hung a second rod myself, and soon we had 3 nice ones under the burlap.  While having a salmon obsession isn't a bad thing, sometimes I've gotta go with the odds and just do my best to get my guys on the fish that will fill their coolers and fulfill the trip.

We did a second fillet session - halibut only - in the late afternoon at my tailgate with the hottest sun of the summer, flocks of tourists who love to look at fish, and 3 big smiles planted on the faces of dudes in their 50's who not only love to fish from kayaks - they also love to share their stoke for life (and cold beer  ).

We parted ways by early evening, and I ended up getting home at 945PM and finishing washing my gear by after 11PM.  I seem to be falling into a pattern of burning myself down over and over this summer, and I'm fucking loving it!

Thank you, Joe and John, for allowing our friendship to grow through this endeavor that I've taken on.  I didn't know it going in, but these adventures that I've been facilitating and working so hard to refine and to maximize, they've changed my life profoundly.  I'm going with it.

If you feel it and you want it, come and get it.  I'm ready.

Saturday with Coho Joe and Fisherman X:

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Thanks again for the great reports and fish porns Eric.

Great seeing you all down there and awesome pictures as usual Eric! It was really great to meet you Joe and John and hope to see you on the water again sometime soon.

Thanks for the report, Eric.  Now i won't get any work done all week....again.   

Take care,

Norm

Another great report.