BY DAVE HURLEY
WON Staff Writer
FORT BRAGG – Nothing gets northern California hard core anglers’ blood boiling more than a showing of albacore off the coast, and first blood hit the decks off the Mendocino County coast this week.
Captain Trent Slate of Bite Me Charters along with Captains Ryan Ash and Christian Cavanaugh of the Outer Limits joined Captain Kevin Browning on his 43-foot Delta, the Viking out of Noyo Fishing Charters in Fort Bragg for an epic first tuna trip of the year on Thursday, July 23. The trip combined four captains and four experienced deckhands, returning with a total of 74 longfins before collectively saying, ‘That’s enough for today.’ Browning said, “We found the cold-water break at 17 miles southwest of the harbor, and you couldn’t ask for better color and chlorophyll conditions.”
Slate added, “We picked away at them throughout the day, and the water was this purple/blue tropical color. You could see the albacore chasing our iron below the boat. Cavanaugh brought three scoops of dead anchovies, and we chummed them up every time we hooked up on the troll. I landed nine on the jig during the stops. Most of the albacore were in the 8- to 10-pound range, but there are a few over 20 pounds. After loading the boat, there was a huge bird pile around 10 miles offshore on the way back in. We checked it out and found plenty of hard marks, but we had our work cut out for us with all the fish to fillet. Fortunately, the four deckhands made fast work to process all the fish. It was a great trip and more than worth the quick turnaround from San Rafael to Fort Bragg.”
Browning followed this up with more outstanding tuna action on Friday, and he will alternate between salmon and albacore starting August 1 when the salmon season reopens with 1465 fish left in the harvest quota of 5100 salmon between the 40/10 line and Point Arena. Browning has been running north to Shelter Cove to take advantage of the huge salmon averaging 14/15 pounds up to 30 pounds with limits on all but two trips up north.
