As Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman grilled salmon Saturday at the 36th annual World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue, he marveled at just how perfect conditions were for the event.
“I don”t think there is an unhappy camper out there today,” he said.
The sun was uncommonly warm for Fort Bragg but soothingly cool for the army of visitors who escaped 100 degree-plus temperatures inland for the annual South Noyo Harbor event to benefit salmon restoration causes. Attendance was up more than 10 percent over last year.
A big Coast Guard plane flew over twice, saluting the barbecue and the nearby station and delighting the crowd. To make matters even better, the crowds arrived steadily throughout the day, preventing long lines that have chased some locals from the barbecue. Last year, few came until mid-afternoon, when the crowd seemed to arrive in a huge burst.
“There were several big busses from Santa Rosa that came this year. They didn”t all come in at once, which helped keep the lines about the same length all day and never too long,” said Salmon Restoration Association President Joe Janisch.
The warm weather, and better grade of beer this year contributed to apparent record sales of all the donated beverages. North Coast Brewing provided all the brews this year and Thanksgiving Coffee donated a bottomless free “just cup.” Diet Pepsi, sold by the Fort Bragg Lions Club, ran out and water ran low.
Teresa Dimeola, owner of Coast Copying and Mendocino Stage, organized the volunteers and ran the T-shirt booth. T-shirt sales were a record, with a new design featured. The new shirts sold out in most sizes and people bought up most of the old designs also.
But everything might have been a little too perfect. Although 2,000 pounds of salmon was purchased and another 500 pounds donated, the salmon was about to run out with more than an hour to go.
Janisch motored up and down the docks and purchased four big salmon, including a 30-pounder for sale. Even that wasn”t enough for the hungry crowd of 3,024 ticket buyers and the association had to stop serving salmon at 5:45 p.m. Only a few people were turned away and eight tickets were refunded. Last year 2,700 tickets were sold. However, the amount made for salmon restoration causes will be less.
The real problem this year was with salmon fishing, which has been poor. Why does good fishing matter so much to the benefit barbecue?
A huge volunteer sport fishing fleet was launched for the first time last year, which donated 2,000 pounds of salmon (with about 500 pounds purchased by the Salmon Restoration Association).
This year the same fleet was at work, but hardly anybody was landing many salmon and virtually all of the fish had to be purchased by the association. All the fish was purchased through Caito Fisheries Inc. of Fort Bragg. Half the purchased salmon came from local commercial fishers, but with the sport fishing bad, another half ton had to be purchased from Canada just before the barbecue.
Celebrity chefs
It was the commercial fishers who started the event in 1972 and came up with the idea of inviting influential locals to cook the fish.
In addition to Sheriff Tom Allman, chefs at the barbecue included Congressman Mike Thompson, three judges; several elected county leaders, County Supervisor Kendall Smith and four members of the Fort Bragg City Council. Fort Bragg City Councilman Jere Melo, usually the first person to arrive at the barbecue each year, cleans the grills and organizes the chefs, which included Mayor Doug Hammerstrom, Councilwoman Meg Courtney and Councilman Dave Turner this year.
Allman was upbeat about the return of a Noyo Harbor sheriff”s patrol boat, which will focus on law enforcement issues like catching drunken boaters. The patrol, which will return about a dozen times this summer, is composed of veteran deputies J.D. Comer and Dustin Lorenzo. Allman said the last time the sheriff”s department had a Noyo Harbor boat patrol was during redwood summer — 1991.
But the patrol boat was in the dock on Saturday, despite the perfect seeming weather, for a key reason why the fishing has been lousy — the rolling seas. Waters have been much choppier off Fort Bragg this year than in other recent years, making fishing, boating and patrolling more difficult.
Janisch, who is retired from a career in natural resources work, explained that salmon follow baitfish along the same areas when water temperatures are the same. But following an El Nino year last year, cold-water upwelling has changed currents, scattering the fish. Most of the fish caught this year by sport fishers have been very close to shore, anglers say. Janisch says such ocean cycles that cause the salmon to be hard to catch have occurred in past years.
“You can talk to the old timers and go back in local fishing history and see this happening,” Janisch said.
The World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue got another bonus this year — a U.S. Coast Guard Open House. The Coast Guard station,which performs the rescues on the coast, is adjacent to the South Noyo Harbor Barbecue grounds. The Fort Bragg Fire Department”s new ladder truck was on display at the base, with its huge ladder extended.
Debra De Graw, head of the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce, was another of the “celebrity chefs” once again this year. She said people begin calling the chamber in early spring who are planning their vacations around the World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue.
“This event has so much impact on the coastal economy,” De Graw said.
This reporter interviewed 26 people as randomly as possible and found seven locals and 19 visitors. Visitors surveyed came from Sacramento, Grass Valley, Chico, Sausalito, Milpitas, Livermore, Woodland, Ukiah, Willits and Eureka.
Eleven of the visitors interviewed plan their summer vacations to include a trip to the barbecue, many coming back so many times they had lost count or coming with a repeat customer who had recommended the event. Five of the 19 followed the signs and crowds, while another four had read or heard about it in the media and were all new to both the Mendocino Coast and the barbecue.
Many visitors named their favorite Noyo Harbor fishing boat as part of the attraction.
This year”s “meat fleet” in which the party boats organized excursions to catch and donate salmon, included Patrick and Karen Heavyside at Fort Bragg Sportfishing and Randy Thornton of the Telstar. Tim Gillespie, of the Seahawk waived all fees for the trip.
Mendocino Stage again provided a bus at cost for the event and employees of the Stage and Coast Copy all volunteered.
A crew of three men from the Job Connection, along with the Preisig family emptied trash all day as volunteers.
Mathieu Besnold of France was visiting Californians and came to Mendocino on a whim and the barbecue on another, but the entire group loved the live music and ample portions of wild caught king salmon.
“I have been to California a few times, but never to a place and an event like this,” he said.
