Kenny Priest

The season’s first big storms hit the North Coast over the weekend and the Smith and Chetco both kicked out good numbers of kings. Both rivers have been loaded with kings in their lower sections for quite some time, and when the rivers finally rose, they were on the move. On Saturday, the Smith turned […]

In a press release issued last week, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife projected the Upper Trinity River fall-run Chinook salmon quota would have been met as of 11:59 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21. This triggered the closure of the adult fall-run Chinook salmon fishery on the Trinity River from the Old Lewiston Bridge to […]

Back in April, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) issued a press release restricting the use of crab traps to help minimize risk of entanglement as humpback whales forage in California waters during the spring and summer months. However, the recreational take of Dungeness crab by other methods, including hoop nets and crab […]

While we wait for rain that will fill our rivers with much-needed water and late fall Chinook salmon, the North Coast is not without angling options. Offshore, the boat-based rockfish and lingcod season will run through the end of the year. Beginning Nov. 1, both may be taken at any depth. Angling from the shore […]

If you’re looking to harvest an adult Chinook salmon in the Klamath basin, the Trinity River will be your only option as of Thursday. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife determined last Friday that the recreational fall-run Chinook salmon catch will have met the Upper Klamath River adult fall-run Chinook salmon quota (of 360) […]

If you’re looking to catch big, ocean-bright kings, you’ll want to keep an eye on the Chetco estuary. Salmon have been staging in the tidewater since the beginning of September and they’ll be there until rain allows them to make their way upriver. And according to Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing, the season at […]

It’s been one heck of a season for albacore tuna off the North Coast, and it looks like it’s not over yet. In a typical year, you get a few shots at the warm water over the course of the summer and into early fall. But this year has seen opportunities every week since the […]

There is some absolutely insane offshore fishing happing right now off the Northern California coast. From Fort Bragg to Crescent City, the albacore bite has been wide-open. But that’s just part of the story. What has everyone talking is the number of exotic, warm water species. Fort Bragg has seen the widest variety. A wide-open […]

You couldn’t ask for a better week of weather and fishing leading up to and through the holiday weekend along the North Coast. First off, the weather. While the rest of the state was sweltering and dealing with excessive heat warnings, our weather remained as coastal cool as always. And that was reflected in the […]

The fall-run of adult king salmon are now making their way through the lower Klamath in pretty decent numbers. Despite the water still being off-color, catch rates improved dramatically upriver of the U.S. Highway 101 bridge last week and over the weekend. Boats fishing from the Glen to Blue Creek are catching a mixed bag […]

When the ocean conditions and water temperatures align, there’s always that chance at an epic day of tuna fishing. And Monday was just that day. It was a one-day weather window and those who jumped at the opportunity were rewarded with coolers full of tuna. This wasn’t a day about trying to come back to […]