Fishing the North Coast

from North Coast Journal 11-11-2021 Edition

by North Coast Journal

Poem

Plenty and Full

An excellent start to sport crab season

By Kenny Priest

fishing@northcoastjournal.com

In a typical year, the sport crab season can go one of two ways. If the crabs are plentiful, the meat content is usually on the lighter side. If there are fewer crabs around, they are typically fuller and in better shape. This is all due to their food source — more crabs means smaller shares of food, while fewer crabs usually means plenty of food to go around. Five days into the season, it’s looking like we may have both quality and abundance. Last Saturday’s opener produced limits of big, healthy crabs both o shore and inshore.

Tim Klassen of Reel Steel Sport Fishing fi shed the opener and reports the crabs are in good shape, and there seem to be quite a few of them. “After an overnight soak on Saturday, we averaged about 12 to 22 keepers per pot Sunday,” said Klassen. Though not o cial, the quality testing shows the crabs out of Eureka at 22.7 percent. A typical year will fi nd the meat content at around 20 percent, with the theory being that crabs will add one percent of meat a week and reach the 25 percent mark for the commercial opener of Dec. 1.

According to Klassen, both the north and south sides outside of Humboldt Bay fi shed well. “Pots dropped in 80 to 130 feet did well,” he added.

Crabbing in Humboldt Bay was also excellent, with plenty of limits reported. Up in Trinidad, the kayaks and small boats reported quick limits of crabs on very short soaks.

Weekend weather and forecast

According to Scott Carroll of Eureka’s National Weather Service o ce, we’re looking at a fairly dry week. “Very light rain is in the forecast for Wednesday and it doesn’t look like it will a ect any river levels,” he said. “After that, we’re looking mostly dry the rest of the week and through the weekend. The next chance of rain will be Monday.”

The weekend marine forecast is looking good for o shore crabbing, rockfi sh and halibut, with very little wind in the forecast. As of Tuesday, Saturday’s forecast is calling for north winds 5 to 10 knots with west waves 6 feet at 11 seconds. Sunday is looking similar, with winds coming out of the north 5 to 10 knots with west waves 6 feet at 13 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. To monitor the latest Humboldt bar conditions, visit www.wrh.noaa.gov/ eka/swan. You can also call the National Weather Service at 443-7062 or the o ce on Woodley Island at 443-6484.

Tim Klassen of Reel Steel Sport Fishing with a nice pot full of Dungeness crab taken Saturday on the sport opener.

Photo courtesy of Kenny Priest

The Rivers:

Smith River

The Smith blew out Tuesday but should drop back into fi shable shape by Wednesday. Scores over the weekend weren’t great, with just a handful of fi sh caught each day. Boats are spread from the forks to the outfi tters. Hopefully the latest rise will bring in some new fi sh. A few coho have been caught, which typically means the king run is getting close to the end.

Chetco River

The Chetco River fi shed well last week before blowing out with the latest series of storms, according to Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing. He said, “After being high and muddy all weekend, the river is expected to be back in shape the second half of this week. A nice mix of wild and hatchery kings have been spread throughout the river. Now that low-fl ow regulations have been lifted, anglers can backbounce or run plugs with treble hooks.”

Elk/Sixes Rivers

With the high water over the weekend, the Elk and Sixes were in good shape for salmon, reports Martin. “Action has been fair, with good numbers of hatchery kings on both rivers. All wild adult kings must be released on the Elk. Flows reached 8.5 feet on the Elk Thursday, and were down to 5.7 feet Friday. Saturday and Sunday were prime. The Sixes has been fi shing since Sunday. Both could be very low and clear by this weekend.”

Read the complete fi shing report at www.northcoastjournal.com.

● Kenny Priest (he/him) operates Fishing the North Coast, a fi shing guide service out of Humboldt specializing in salmon and steelhead. Find it on

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and www.fi shingthenorthcoast.com. For up-to-date fi shing reports and North Coast river information, email kenny@ fi shingthenorthcoast.com.