By DAVE HURLEY
WON Staff Writer
FORT BRAGG – The first albacore of 2024 off the Mendocino coastline were reported this week as one six-pack operator ran 60 miles offshore for up to 20 longfins. While this bodes well for the upcoming season, most private boaters will be waiting for the warm water to come much closer to the shorelines. Captain Tim Gillespie of All Aboard Adventures out of Fort Bragg has been focusing upon shallow water rockfish and Dungeness crab trips, and he said, “We have been returning with limits of rockfish and lots of lingcod working the shallows. We also ran two crab trips for limits, and the crab are good and hard with the season on Mendocino County lasting until July 30.
Shallow water rockfishing less than 20 fathoms lasts until the end of September, and we have the opportunity for more lingcod in the shallows. Although the grade of rockfish is much larger when we must fish deeper than 50 fathoms in the months of October and December, there is minimal structure to hold the lings on the outside.”
Out of Bodega Bay, Captain Rick Powers of the New Sea Angler has also been focusing upon rockfish, and he added, “We went north with a charter on Saturday for 20 limits of quality rockfish and 5 lings to 10 pounds before making a couple of drifts along Doran Beach for halibut. We didn’t land any halibut, but we did have a 50-pound thresher shark. I had been going south to Point Reyes for rockfish, but with the south wind on Saturday, we went north towards Fort Ross.” Captain Ryan Giammona of North Bay Charters out of Bodega Bay added, “Another day of wide open fishing on Sunday as we headed north into a flat calm ocean, and within about 10 minutes of dropping, landed a hefty 25-pound ling.
After getting some live jacksmelt, we moved deeper and found a wide-open bite for customer and crew limits of quality lings. We then switched over and found some decent quality black and blue rockfish to finish out the day. The lingcod bite has been picking up, and the fish are definitely getting bigger.” The Dungeness crab season ended in Sonoma County on June 30.
Normally, July is the month where boat trailers are lining up for several miles from Highway 1 in order to get in the water at Westside Park as this is the month for salmon out of Bodega Bay, but for the second year in a row, no salmon, and business is slow in spite of excellent rockfishing.
