The Shelter Cove salmon bite is finally starting to show signs of life. On Monday, a private boater landed four kings just outside the Hat in roughly 150 feet of water. The kings were caught close to the surface and were loaded with krill. On Tuesday, Captain Jake Mitchell of Sea Hawk Sport Fishing boated his first four kings of the season. He said, “There’s a lot of krill showing up and all the fish were plugged with it. If all the bait sticks around, the fishing should only get better.” If you want to get in on the action, you’ll need to make it quick. Sport salmon fishing will close next Wednesday, May 31 from Horse Mt. to Point Arena, which includes Shelter Cove and Fort Bragg. The season will open back up on Aug. 15 and remain open through November 12.

Weekend marine forecast
After a couple days of gale warnings, the ocean is forecasted to lie down late Thursday.  Friday’s forecast is calling for SW winds to 5 knots and NW waves 6 feet at 8 seconds. Saturday’ forecast is similar, with W winds to 5 knots and NW waves 6 feet at 9 seconds. Sunday is calling for NW winds 5 to 10 knots and NW waves 3 feet at 6 seconds and 4 feet at 11 seconds. The Memorial Day forecast doesn’t look too bad, with winds out of the NW 10 to 15 knots and waves NW 4 feet at 6 seconds and NW 2 feet at 14 seconds. These conditions can and will change by the weekend. For up-to-date weather forecast, visit www.weather.gov/eureka/. You can also call the National Weather Service at (707) 443-7062 or the office on Woodley Island at (707) 443-6484. To monitor the latest Humboldt bar conditions, visit wrh.noaa.gov/eka/swan or check out the bar cam located at wrh.noaa.gov/eka/barCam/?cam=humboldtBayBar. 

Pacific Halibut quota update
The CDFW has projected 895 net pounds of the 34,580 pound quota of Pacific Halibut has been harvested through May 21. This season’s open dates are May 1-June 15, July 1-15, Aug. 1-15 and Sept. 1-Oct. 31, or until the quota is reached, whichever is earlier. To view the latest catch projection information, visit Marine/Pacific-Halibut#31670772-in-season-tracking. 

The Oceans:
Eureka
”The lingcod bite at the Cape has been fantastic,” said Tim Klassen of Reel Steel Sport Fishing.  “We made the trip down on Monday and Tuesday, and we had limits for everyone both days. It was pretty rough on Tuesday, so we couldn’t quite finish up our rockfish limit. We did get some nice blacks and a Canary for everyone, but it was a little too sloppy to go looking around. The Pacific halibut bite out of Eureka has been decent, but there were some skunks this week. The Petrale bite has been really good however. I fished Humboldt Bay on Sunday, and it looks like we may have another good year on the California Halibut. There’s quite a few around, but there isn’t much bait in the bay as of yet.”

Shelter Cove
Captain Jake Mitchell of Sea Hawk Sport Fishing reports the rockfish and lingcod bite is excellent right now. He said, “Went to Rodgers Break on Monday for some great rock fishing with lings up to 25 pounds.” As mentioned above, a few salmon are finally starting to show up.

Crescent City
There hasn’t been much activity this week due to sloppy ocean conditions reports Leonard Carter of Crescent City’s Englund Marine. “A few guys have been fishing out front near the buoys for rockfish, but they haven’t been able to get out much further. There hasn’t been any halibut effort either, also due to the rough water and heavy currents. The perch fishing is still really good when the ocean has been calm. South and Kellogg Beaches have been a couple of the hot spots. I’ve also heard quite a few trout are being caught in Lake Earl,” Carter said.

Ruth Lake Bass tournament coming June 3
Fortuna Fire Department CO-2's will be holding the annual “Paul Jadro Memorial Bass Tournament” on Saturday, June 3. Blast off will be at 5:45 a.m. The one day tournament event offers a first prize award of up to $1,000 with payout to 1 in 3 in addition to door prizes, and sponsor products. The entry fee is $120 per team with a big fish buy in option of $10. The tournament is catch and release and all competitors must fish from boats that are required to have operational live-wells on board. Life jackets are required. Check in at the Marina on Friday June 2 at 4:30-7 p.m. or Saturday 4-5 a.m. For more information, contact Lon Winburn at 725-5021 or 725-7880.

River openings
Sections of the main Eel (South Fork to Cape Horn Dam), South Fork Eel (South Fork Eel River from mouth to Rattlesnake Creek) Van Duzen, Mad, Mattole and Smith will re-open on Saturday, May 27th. On most rivers, only artificial lures with barbless hooks may be used. For a complete list of river openings and regulations visit wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Inland/2017-Regulations. 

Lower Klamath springers
Springer fishing on the Lower Klamath is just getting started. The river is still pretty high, but it’s nice and green.  A few spring salmon were reportedly caught on the lower river earlier this week. The season typically really gets going in June and will go through July.

Kenny Priest operates Fishing the North Coast, a fishing guide service out of Humboldt specializing in salmon and steelhead. Find it on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and www.fishingthenorthcoast.com. For up-to-date fishing reports and North Coast river information, email kenny@fishingthenorthcoast.com.