The words El Niño — or even super El Niño — can mean different things depending on where you are. But for North Coast anglers, they mean one thing: tuna.
We’re already seeing the first signs of warmer ocean conditions as nearshore water temperatures continue to climb. It was only a matter of time before someone found albacore, and on Monday, the wait officially ended.
Running south from Shelter Cove, Jake Mitchell of Sea Hawk Sport Fishing made the run to about 30 miles southwest of Fort Bragg and found hungry tuna in 61-degree water. The crew boxed 22 albacore, including 14 “peanuts” and eight quality fish in the 20- to 30-pound class. That’s an impressive way to kick off the 2026 tuna season, and news of the catch quickly spread through the Eureka fleet.
Ocean conditions can change quickly, but if the forecast holds, Saturday could provide the first legitimate shot for North Coast boats looking to chase albacore. At the moment, the fish appear to be roughly 35 nautical miles offshore.
One thing is certain—tuna fever has officially arrived on the North Coast.
Marine Forecast
According to Eureka’s National Weather Service, “winds and seas will have a low impact for the remainder of the week and trend northerly again by late weekend as high pressure fills back in, and the summer pattern returns.”
As of Thursday, Friday’s forecast is calling for southwest winds up to 5 knots and waves northwest 4 feet at nine seconds and south 2 feet at 10 seconds. Saturday, winds will be coming from the west up to 5 knots with northwest waves 3 feet at nine seconds and south 2 feet at 13 seconds. Sunday, winds will be out of the north 5 to 10 knots with waves out of the northwest 3 feet at eight seconds and south 1 foot at 12 seconds. These conditions can and will change by the weekend. For an up-to-date weather forecast, visit www.weather.gov/eureka/ or www.windy.com. You can also call the National Weather Service at 443-7062 or the office on Woodley Island at 443-6484.
Sport Crab season coming to a close
The 2026 sport Dungeness crab season in Humboldt, Mendocino and Del Norte counties will close after Friday, July 30. The season is expected to reopen Nov. 1.
California Halibut Derby on Humboldt Bay this Saturday
The Nor-Cal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association will be holding the 2nd annual California Halibut Derby on Saturday, July 25. The fishing event will be held within the waters of Humboldt Bay. Check-ins, Weigh-ins and Awards Ceremony will be held at Woodley Island, 601 Startare Drive at the East-I Lot Grass Area.
This is a slot size derby; a measurement will be drawn in the morning before the derby and posted to the event’s Facebook and Instagram pages. Adult payouts will be $500 for 1st place, $300 for 2nd place, and $150 for 3rd place. Youth Payouts – $100 for 1st place, $75 for 2nd place, $50 for 3rd place. Youth payouts will be in the form of gift cards. All Youths registered in the Derby will receive a rod and reel combo! Raffle prizes will include fishing trips, a 35 qt. cooler, rods and reels, fishing tackle and gear, merchandise and more.
Big Fish Prize: entries will be California Halibut 30” and above. ONLY ONE Big Fish can be entered per entrant. In case of a tie, winner will be determined by weight. For the big fish, adult and youth divisions will be combined. Winner to be announced at event.
Entry Fees for adults are $60 (comes with a $30 NCGASA Membership). Youth entry fees are $40, 13 years and under (comes with a $10 NCGASA Membership)
*If you are a current NCGASA member, you will receive $20 in raffle tickets at check-in.
You can register online at https://ncgasa.org. Entrants will need to be signed up and paid for by July 24 at midnight. Derby information and rules can be found here.
Salmon season set to resume Aug. 1
Though not yet official, it looks like we still have some quota to catch starting Aug 1 within the KMZ. CDFW updated the catch estimates through July 15 and it shows we have 914 left. The final update coming from NMFS is scheduled for July 28. Word on the dock, which comes from a reliable source, is we have roughly 900 left to catch.
The Oceans:
Eureka
After leaving the salmon biting last Sunday, boats have been back on the rockfish and Pacific halibut reports Tim Klassen of Reel Steel Sport Fishing. “The lingcod fishing down at the Cape has been excellent,” said Klassen. “I had one of my best days down there Tuesday. We had lings up to 23 pounds and four over 17. The rockfish bite is still good, with a nice variety of blues, blacks, cabezon and coppers. The Pacific halibut are biting as well. Some of the charters were out Wednesday and were able to get limits. There are definitely a lot of fish to be had out there. Most of the boats are right around the 50-line. It looks like we’ll have some excellent ocean conditions for the next few days.”
Shelter Cove
Like the rest of the North Coast, the Shelter Cove fleet left the salmon biting on Sunday. And there were some really nice fish in the mix. With the warm water within reach, tuna will likely take center stage now. Ocean conditions are forecast to be excellent this weekend too. The rockfish and lingcod are still chomping baits at the Old Man. There’s also been a few Pacific halibut caught.
Crescent City
The Pacific halibut bite is still going well, we’ve seen a few come in this week reports Chris Hegnes of Crescent City’s Englund Marine. “It really started to get good last week, so this is a good sign. They’ll probably be some more effort now that salmon is closed for a while. Rockfish and lingcod are both still really good. The Sisters and South Reef continue to produce limits. Crabbing off the pier has been excellent, with lots of limits reported this week.”
Brookings
“Salmon fishing has been good to very good out of Brookings, with a mix of kings, hatchery coho and wild coho biting close to the harbor and offshore,” said Andy Martin, of Brookings Fishing Charters. “Kings are moving into the estuary to feed on massive schools of anchovies clogging the harbor, allowing anglers to enjoy success mooching freshly caught bait. The king bite also is good in front of the beach, and three to five miles offshore. Bigger numbers of hatchery coho also have arrived. Halibut fishing remains slow, but a few fish a week are being caught. Sport crabbing has been excellent.”
Klamath River
The lower Klamath has been fishing well this past week, with big schools of kings pushing in with the tides. Boats trolling spinner blade rigs with anchovies are seeing multiple hookups per trip. The best bite has typically come two hours before high tide through about an hour after, though there also seems to be consistent action at first light, regardless of the tide.
Lower Rogue
According to Martin, the Rogue Bay has improved, and crowds have also arrived with triple digit temperatures in the Rogue Valley. “Nice weather this weekend will allow anglers to troll outside of the jetties, where the best action has been.”
Kenny Priest operates Fishing the North Coast, a fishing guide service out of Humboldt specializing in salmon and steelhead. Find it on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and fishingthenorthcoast.com. For up-to-date fishing reports and North Coast river information, email kenny@fishingthenorthcoast.com.
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