Kenny Priest

Offshore options became a little scarcer this week with the closing of the Pacific halibut season. Without a salmon season, we’re down to rockfish and tuna along the North Coast. Unfortunately, both of these options require some pretty good ocean conditions, especially if you’re fishing out of Eureka, where the rockfish grounds are nearly 20 miles to the south. The...
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Calm seas and 60-degree water within 20 miles — the ideal scenario that will make any fanatical tuna angler go nuts — or not show up to work. North Coast fishermen have been devoid of an ocean salmon season this year, but the current tuna frenzy has helped ease that pain. Screaming drags will do that. Since Saturday, boats have...
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Calm seas and warm water has descended on the North Coast, and boats headed offshore from Fort Bragg to Gold Beach, and all ports in between, were coming home with coolers full of albacore. Fort Bragg was the place to be last weekend. Flat calm water made for an easy run to where the tuna were schooled up, and the...
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Our neighbors to the south are currently enjoying a pretty good salmon bite. Charter and sport boats alike have scored limits since the weekend on some very nice sized kings. Out of Shelter Cove, Jake Mitchell of Sea Hawk Sport Fishing mooched up limits of salmon for his customers on Tuesday fishing in 60 feet of water. A few sport...
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Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. The Klamath River, for the first time that anyone can remember, is completely closed to salmon fishing as of Tuesday, Aug. 15. With only 12,000 adult fall-run Chinook expected to return, an all-time low, the closure was needed to help protect the stocks. The Klamath fall-run Chinook are currently classified...
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Triples, doubles, limits, back to the dock by 10 a.m.! No folks, we’re not talking about salmon or California Halibut  — we’re talking Pacific Halibut. The bite was fast and furious over the weekend out of Eureka, the type of action that is rarely seen in this neck of the woods. Charter and sport boats alike were landing on large...
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