For North Coast anglers, Memorial Day weekend provides an excellent opportunity to try your luck at a variety of fish species and locations. With plenty of options on the table, the biggest decision might not be if you want to go, but where. Here are a few of the options that will hopefully make your decision a little easier this holiday weekend:

• Offshore for Pacific halibut and rockfish — The halibut bite is starting to show signs of life, with a few limits being reported the last couple days. Rockfish is always a good option if you have a means to get offshore. Cape Mendocino, Trinidad, and Crescent City are all kicking out a variety of tasty rockfish.

• Jetties for rockfish and lingcod —When the windisn’t howling, the jetties have been providing excellent rockfish and lingcod action. Small swimbaits or scampi jigs are catching fish as well as herring fished under a float.

• California halibut —If bank angling is your only option, check out Fairhaven Beach on the bay side of the Samoa Peninsula. Fishing is best a couple hours before and after high tide. Swimbaits attached to a ¾-ounce jig head is a good bait choice. If you have a boat, a few fish have been caught in the middle channel, with swimbaits working best.

• Freshwater Lagoon trout —Planted regularly with catchable-sized trout, there should be ample opportunities for shore-based anglers as well as boat fishermen. An easy rig to fish is a Berkley PowerBait with an egg sinker.

• Ruth Lake trout and bass —Nice weather and a family-friendly atmosphere make this a great spot for the weekend. Reportedly, the trout and bass bite are heating up.

• Elk River redtail perch —If it’s perch you’re after and the ocean is too rough or not your thing, Elk River Beach is a great spot to target redtails. Two hours prior to high tide and an hour after typically are the optimal times. Shrimp, clams, swimbaits and sand crabs all work.

• Trinidad Harbor rockfish —A great option for rockfish and crab. Launching a small boat or kayak from the beach is fairly easy in good conditions. Typically getting an early start is best before the afternoon wind kicks in.

• Dungeness Crab —Anglers dropping pots outside of the bay entrance are still catching a few Dungeness crab when the weather cooperates, though there hasn’t been a ton of effort. If it’s too rough, there’s some good locations inside Humboldt Bay. Out in front of the PG&E plant is a good spot as well as the flat off the South Jetty parking lot. Another top location is either side of the channel leading into the South Bay.

• North Coast rivers —Many of the local rivers will re-open to fishing beginning Saturday, May 24. Rivers that will open include 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, Little River, Mattole and Smith. Be sure to check the regulations prior to fishing.
• Fisheries currently closed: Red Abalone, Mussels, Razor Clams (both Humboldt and Del Norte Counties), Ocean and River Chinook fishing. Ocean salmon will be open June 7-8.

Weekend marine forecast
After a couple weeks of strong winds, we’re finally getting a break just in time for the holiday weekend. Friday, winds will be out of the north 10 to 15 knots with north waves 4 feet at five seconds and west 3 feet at nine seconds. Saturday is looking better, with north winds 5 to 10 knots and northwest waves 4 feet at six seconds and southwest 2 feet at eight seconds. Sunday, the wind will be out of the northwest up to 5 knots with north waves 2 feet at four seconds and northwest 4 feet at 12 seconds. Monday is looking good as well, with north winds 5 to 10 knots forecast along with west waves 5 feet at 11 seconds. These conditions can and will change by the weekend. For an up-to-date weather forecast, visit www.weather.gov/eureka/ or www.windy.com. You can also call the National Weather Service at 443-7062 or the office on Woodley Island at 443-6484.

Ruth Lake Bass tournament coming June 7
Southern Trinity Area Rescue will be holding the annual “Paul Jadro Memorial Bass Tournament” on Saturday, June 7. Blast off will be at 5:45 a.m. or at first safe light, by draw. 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 $140 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 6 at 4:30-6 p.m. or Saturday 4:30 – 5:15 a.m. For more information, contact Lon Winburn at 707-499-2490.

California Halibut Derby on Humboldt Bay coming July 19
The Nor-Cal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association will be holding the first annual California Halibut Derby on Saturday, July 19. The fishing event will be held within the waters of Humboldt Bay. Check-ins, Weigh-ins and Awards Ceremony will be held at Woodley Island, 601 Startare Drive at the East-I Lot Grass Area.

This is a slot size derby, a measurement will be drawn in the morning before the derby and posted to the event’s Facebook and Instagram pages. Adult payouts will be $500 for 1st place, $300 for 2nd place, and $150 for 3rd place. Youth Payouts – $100 for 1st place, $75 for 2nd place, $50 for 3rd place. Youth payouts will be in the form of gift cards. All Youths registered in the Derby will receive a rod and reel combo! Raffle prizes will include fishing trips, rods and reels, fishing tackle and gear, merchandise and more.

Big Fish Prize: entries will be California Halibut 30” and above. ONLY ONE Big Fish can be entered per entrant. In case of a tie, winner will be determined by weight. For the big fish, adult and youth divisions will be combined. Winner to be announced at event.

Entry Fees for adults is $60 (comes with a $30 NCGASA Membership). Youth entry fees are $40, 13 years and under (comes with a $10 NCGASA Membership) *If you are a current NCGASA member, you will receive $20 in raffle tickets at check-in.

You can register online at https://ncgasa.org/shop. Entrants will need to be signed up and paid for by July 18 at midnight. Derby information and rules can be found here.

The Oceans:
Eureka
The Pacific halibut bite has been hit and miss so far, but there are some fish around,” said Tim Klassen of Reel Steel Sport Fishing. “There’s been some limits, and some skunks. Without a hole lot of time on the water, it’s hard to tell if the fish are concentrated or not. They could be out in deeper water. Most of the boats are fishing between 270 and 300 feet of water between the 48 and 50 lines. The Cape rockfish bite has been good the few times we’ve made it down. Monday, we hit Blunts Reef and the rock fishing was excellent. We caught a wide variety along with some really nice lingcod.”

Trinidad
Ocean conditions are looking good for the holiday weekend out of Trinidad. It looks like small boats and kayakers will have a window of opportunity to launch off the beach to target rockfish and crab. The boat launch is scheduled to open sometime in June. For updates and current information, you can call the bait shop at 677-3625.

Shelter Cove
“The rockfish and lingcod bite has been great all week,” said Jake Mitchell of Sea Hawk Sport Fishing. “We’ve been able to sneak out and get limits every day before the wind really gets on us. The weather has kept us pretty close to port, so most effort has been from the whistle down to White Rock. We haven’t had the weather to try for halibut yet. Sunday and Monday are looking good, but we’ll see how that turns out.”

Crescent City
The rockfish bite has been excellent, but the ling cod fishing has been slow reports Chris Hegnes of Crescent City’s Englund Marine. He said, “When the boats can get out, the Sisters has been decent for rockfish. To the north, Star and Long Rock have been good as well as the lighthouse. There hasn’t been much effort at all for halibut yet, I don’t think any have been caught so far.”

Brookings
Ocean salmon has been slow out of Brookings, which is normally the case in mid-May,” said Andy Martin of Brookings Fishing Charters. “A few kings have been caught in 200 to 250 feet of water, around 100 feet down. Some coho also have been caught, but they can’t be kept until early June. Halibut fishing has improved, mainly off of Thomas Creek Bridge. Lingcod and rockfish action is good.”

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, Little River, Mattole and Smith will re-open on Saturday, May 24. On most rivers, only artificial lures with barbless hooks may be used. Click here for a complete list of CA river openings and regulations. The Chetco opened to trout fishing Thursday.

Lower Rogue
According to Martin, the Rogue is slow for spring salmon, with better action near Shady Cove and Gold Hill. More boats are trolling the bay, but catches are few and far between. Wild salmon can be kept beginning June 1. 

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.