Kenny Priest

The widely anticipated Pacific halibut opener was slated for Monday, but good ol’ Mother Nature had other plans. Ocean conditions up and down the coast were horrible, with gale force winds keeping fleets from the Bay Area to Brookings tied to the dock both Monday and Tuesday. That’s the bad news. The good news is the seas have since subsided...
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The boat-based rockfish season on the North Coast won’t open until May 15 but that certainly doesn’t mean fish tacos can’t be on the menu. The jetties, the breakwater constructed to protect Humboldt Bay, are starting to provide some good fishing opportunities for both rockfish and lingcod. Over the last couple weeks, the North Jetty has started giving up some...
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In what was a mere formality, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) put the final nail in the coffin of California’s 2023 ocean Chinook salmon fishery April 6. The PFMC acted unanimously to recommend a full closure of California’s commercial and sport ocean salmon seasons. Options put forward by the PFMC last month for public review, which were developed by...
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Spring, along with the accompanying nice weather, will arrive eventually. At least that’s what the calendar says. And when it does, a new set of angling opportunities will come with it. As the number of storms begin to lessen, we’ll see some much-improved ocean conditions. With that, anglers will head to the jetties and beaches in search of rockfish and...
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It’s looking like this year’s winter is refusing to end, but unfortunately, the winter steelhead season will. Enough rain has fallen over the past few days to keep the majority of the coastal rivers high and off-color, essentially washing away the last week of steelhead season. As of Wednesday, all of the coastal rivers, already swollen from an extremely wet March,...
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Other than the Smith and Chetco, all of the coastal rivers are currently running high and off-color due to an extremely wet few weeks. And with the potential for more rain and plenty of snow left in the hills still to melt, it’s likely most of the rivers won’t clear in time prior to closing for the season. These extremely wet...
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