As you political whores argue the merits of 2 candidates of the ultra
politically connected, I went boating. Off to Ft. Bragg, CA Thursday for
some crabbing for dungeness crabs and salmon. Windy when we got their
Thursday afternoon. and the harbor mouth at the Noyo river was breaking.
Forecast for less wind for the weekend. We booked a trip on Telstar fishing
for Friday http://www.gooceanfishing.com
to learn the area and the harbor mouth. 50' boat and since is off season,
there were only 6 passengers + Randy the captain and Chris the deckhand.
Chris was celebrating his 19th B'day. Isn't it against the law to be that
young? We dropped the crab pots and headed out for salmon fishing. As this
was about the 1st trip of the new season, no one knows the location of the
schools. We as a group hooked 4 landed 1, and released 2 at a distance and
released the other at the boat as it was a protected Silver Salmon. 1
salmon for the boat and limits of 10 crabs per person for all. Did run off
a boat trying to pull the Telstars pots. Da$$%$$%%^% thieves. Saturday,
launch my boat to even calmer seas. Dropped my crab pots and trolled for
salmon using 2# balls and sinker releases as the downrigger electric plugs
were bad. Cannon DR's are nice, but the plugs suck. We hooked 10 salmon,
lost 1, landed 3 legal and released 5 undersize and one silver. Biggest
salmon as over 18# and the smallest about 8#. Will be a season of big
salmon if an early 18# forecasts well. All the salmon were very red meated.
They are eating Krill, and small shrimp and shrimp makes for very red
salmon meat. Could not ask for better weather. Swell a little on the large
size, maybe 8' and long period, but no wind chop most of the day. about 70
degrees until late afternoon, when the high fog formed. Went to pull my
pots and had 1 legal crab and 2 empty pots. A Farallon boat pulled away
from the my pot area when we came to them, so figure that my string had been
poached! Gave the legal to a friend in another boat, as did not want to
cook just one. As we left this morning the ocean was even flatter. The
Mendocino whale festival was this weekend, and lots of Calif. Gray whales
were about. We saw 1 Saturday and 3 on Friday. Could have found lots more
if we really looked. If you are from the West, is a good time to take a
North Coast trip. Reasonable motels and the hills are green and the rivers
full. If you are from the Ice Belt, may still be a good time to get on an
airplane here. Now back to Politics!
Bill