Tom Mulderrig and I made the 4-1/2 hour drive from Sacramento and arrived at Noyo Harbor just before the Easy Diver, skippered by Jason Rossetto, arrived back in the harbor. The three anglers fishing with him, Ron Haag of Rocklin, Glen Iwamoto of Sacramento, and Dick Wilson of Sacramento, had caught five big salmon ranging from 8 to 25 pounds.

About 15 minutes later, the Lady Irma II, skippered by Brandon Van Dine, Rick's son, tied up at the dock with 5 chinooks for 7 anglers. "We caught our biggest salmon of the year to date, a 29 pounder," he stated.

Ron Mitchell of Fort Bragg landed the jackpot fish, while Karl Johnson nailed a 27 pounder. Al Johnson of Foresthill and Mike Lakich of Sacramento also caught quality fish in the 8 to 18 pound class. They fooled all of the fish 2-1/2 miles out, at 35 to 40 feet deep, with Hoochies and Apex lures behind flashers.

After the passengers were unloaded and Rossetto cleaned up his "six pack" boat, Mulderrig and I fished with him for several hours. The fishing was slow for the first two hours, but then I hooked up a fish on my hoochie. After a short fight, Rossetto netted my fish, a fat 9 pound chinook.

Mulderrig was the next one to hook up. This was a much larger fish, as evidenced when the fish went berserk, jumping out of the water four times. Finally, after several long runs, Mulderrig got the fish near the boat and netted it, a fat, chunky 25 pound king. Just after Rossetto netted the fish, the reel on another rod started screaming with another big fish on the line. I slowly worked the fish to the boat and all of a sudden the line went slack; the swivel on the flasher had busted loose on the big fish!

On the following day, I went on a salmon/crab combo adventure with Brandon Van Dine aboard the Lady Irma II. After Van Dine motored the boat up the coast off Westport, the 12 anglers aboard the boat took turns helping Antonio Serrano, the deckhand, put out the crab pots in 30 feet of water with yellow buoys indicating their location.

"We're going to try trolling off Westport and see if we get some salmon," he stated. "There's a lot of good bait marks here."

Although there was a lot of bait showing on the graph, nobody hooked up a fish. However, Van Dine heard a report from another boat fishing 2 miles outside the harbor that ended up with 14 fish, so he made the hour trip up north.

Unfortunately, the bite had shut off by the time we arrived, even though we fished the area for over two hours. "We're going to go back and bring up the crabpots," he stated. We pulled up the first crab pot and Van Dine sorted through many crabs. He checked the borderline legal ones with a crab measuring stick, throwing the obvious keepers in the fish box and releasing undersized ones back into the water.

This process was repeated again and again until we had 70 dungeness crabs in the boat. Van Dine and Serrano were careful to separate the female crabs from the males. "That will give us five crabs for each person if we throw back the females," said Van Dine. Meanwhile, the captain heard over the radio from Rossetto that he had just put several chinook in the boat. Rick headed out to the hot spot 2 miles out of the harbor for a final shot at salmon.

The fish finally started biting for us. Cecil Sims of Placerville landed the first salmon of the trip, while two other anglers hooked and lost fish. Laura Martin and her husband, David, both hooked up salmon at the same time, with Laura landing a fat 20 pound-class fish. We ended up with 4 chinooks for 12 anglers and at 5:15 p.m. went back to the harbor.

"This is typical spring time fishing, good one day, slow the next," said Van Dine. "Three of us caught limits in 20 minutes on Wednesday, while today the fishing was slow. However the good crabbing made up for the tough salmon fishing."

When we arrived back in the harbor, Valerie Thornton, Van Dine's mom, was boiling a big pot for the crabs. After the crabs were all cooked, Van Dine and Serrano dressed the crabs for those that wanted them cleaned. Valerie also vacuum-packed salmon for the people that desired it.

The hottest salmon fishing is generally found in the summer, when private skiffs from throughout California descend on Fort Bragg. Local salmon hot spots include Cleone Reef, Pudding Creek, off the harbor buoys, the Jughandle and 10 mile Beach.

The salmon season off Fort Bragg runs from the Saturday nearest February 15 through the Sunday nearest November 15. Van Dine noted that the PFMC is closing the salmon season for several weeks this year from July 7 through July 21, supposedly to protect Oregon coastal coho. During this time Van Dine, with the help of a larger propeller on his Caterpillar engine, will be able to make the 30 mile trek to Point Arena, where salmon fishing remains open.

Although salmon are the "glamour" species off Fort Bragg, rockfish and lingcod are the "bread and butter" fishery. Rockfishing will reopen in shallow water - less than 120 feet - below Cape Mendocino on May 1. Anchor Charters offers morning trips from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m., afternoon trips from 1 to 6 p.m. and longer trips along the Mendocino coast as far the famous Gordo Banks.

Noyo Harbor offers two boat ramps on the south side of the Noyo River. The harbor is located in a natural estuary protected from the wind.

Campgrounds and RV Parks include Dolphin Isle Marina, Woodside and Pomo. Call the Fort Bragg Chamber of Commerce at (707) 964-3153 for motel, campground and general information.

For fishing trips out of Anchor Charters aboard the Trek II, Lady Irma II and Easy Diver, contact (707) 964-4550. Other party boats booking salmon and rockcod trips include Telstar Charters, (707) 964-8770, and the El Patron, Rumblefish and ProFish'Nt at the Noyo Fishing Center, (707) 964-3000.