Tuesday 31 July 2018

one for dinner


 It is another beautiful morning in paradise at Super Island.  Carter had a fairly busy time with five releases and this hatchery marked coho to bring back for dinner . 


  The morning sunrise over the coast mountains was coloured with the smoke of distance forest fires while I traveled to the pickup dock. 


 A humpback whale just wouldn't hold still for a good photo , but he gave this teaser wave of his flipper . 

 


Monday 30 July 2018

hot afternoon


  This family from New Mexico likes the heat.  The fishing was pretty hot, too. 

 

keen fishers from Holland


 Peter and son Gus.  It is Gus who is very keen for fishing , and what an exciting fish for this pair !

 



Sunday 29 July 2018

zigged






 A calculated risk .  Bob gets his fish , sort of. 
 Bob contacted me from New Zealand to plan this trip.  He was coming half -way around the world for a re-union of friends and planned to catch a fish and make that a dinner for all. We exchanged several pleasant emails about his other fishing , and I just knew he would appreciate the wilder scenery experience of the north passages.  He was staying at the B+B across the street from my house. I expected this to be a special trip. 
The fishing south had been more productive , but I gambled that we would catch at least one fishing where we wanted to fish , in the north passages .  Bob did get a bite in each of two spots, but not enough of a grab to get the hooks in .  Such a gentleman , he was very dignified about it , and understands that fishing is ... well ... fishing .  Getting skunked is rare, but it does happen . With confidence , I had zigged when maybe I should have zagged. 
 The next day , I had Europeans in the boat who didn't plan on taking fish home , and they were very glad to give a fish to Bob .  I made a phone call and Bob met us at the cleaning table when we came in .  A fish big enough for a couple of banquets with his friends. 
 I wish I could have averaged the fishing out over those days. After giving that fish , I went out again for the afternoon with a family of four , and caught four beauties.  See the following posts.  Okay, I am almost getting over this .  Thanks for great company on a lovely day fishing, Bob. 




Saturday 28 July 2018

some like it hot


Ricky and Aoi with Justin and Sinabu , started the morning with good action. There was no wind today and it got hot out there.  Owi liked that . 
Ricky and I had emailed about big plans for the chinooks , but they eluded us today , although we did have one dazzle us at the net.  Some cohos and a couple of hatchery marked ones to keep plus a nice lingcod make some great dinners.  I think Owi wished that one on to the line. Mmmmm, love lingcod. 

 


Friday 27 July 2018

caught fish , lost tooth


 Six year old Hugh and his Dad Zack had the funnest time.
 Hugh caught his first salmon , a lovely hatchery clipped coho.   Whenever he felt fidgety he shot invisible pirates in the face with the water bazooka , and he also used it to pressure wash the floor .  
 He might have had some help from his Dad , especially with the chinook salmon .  In return he sort of kept out of the way when Dad got the big one. 
 His favourite fish was a lemon sole from jigging after salmon fishing . 
 An to top off all events, Hugh lost a tooth  !   








 





Tuesday 24 July 2018

Old Timers ?


 Here is an unplanned reunion of four old timers , all fishing from the Dent Island dock on this day.  Harley , Jim , David, and me .  All Quadra Islanders , ( well I did move to Campbell River recently )  and all influenced profoundly by our time at April Point in the golden years.  Dave and I started in the same year , so we have been guiding 37 years , which makes us the junior guides in this bunch. 


Monday 23 July 2018

Stuart Island neigbourhood


  Staying up in the Stuart Island area for four days , guiding for Dent Island Lodge and Nanook Lodge.  
  There is guide JR , still hot after netting a 44 pounder a couple of days ago.


 





Saturday 21 July 2018

Friday 20 July 2018

losing track


 We're losing track of how many years we have been fishing together.  Michael and Beth have only missed a couple of years in the last decade and a half, or so.  And , we have been losing track of the number of fish caught and released on this trip.  Steve and Bessy have joined in , as they have in several recent years, for these two day fishing trips, and this time fishing with Eiji again. As is in previous years, Bessie has been the standout fish catcher , and if we knew the secret we'd bottle it. That boat released a lot of fish. 
It's wonderful , you have made your reservations for next year ! 




 There was lots of herring and krill around , and two humpback whales came by . 





 


Monday 16 July 2018

loves Campbell River fishing


 David loves fishing from Campbell River.  He is very interested in all the details, and of course catching a chinook salmon like this one. 
  

Sunday 15 July 2018

take a break


 Chris and Cindy are super busy , but they squeezed in a drive and fishing trip to take a break.  They make a trip every year, and it has been different and good every time. 

 

Saturday 14 July 2018

Three Generations


It was three generations of fishing fun over two days . We came in at each midday for a crew change so that everyone could get some of the action . Aidan , the teenager , is the keenest of all , and eagerly assisted from setting the gear to netting the occasional fish. 
 Thanks everyone for coming again this year. What a wonderful excuse to get all the ages together . 












 

Thursday 12 July 2018

off hand remarks


Brent and Tom made it all work out nicely , on this sunny breezy day. Brent is left handed , but that doesn't slow him down, and Tom has an injured wrist so he gets a bit of help.
 At one point Brent had a fish on when a humpback whale surfaced near us.  There has been talk in the news recently about keeping a 100 metres distance from those animals, but this one didn't read the paper. I tried but couldn't get a shot of both of them together.  There are lots of herring around for whales and salmon.

 

Sunday 8 July 2018

come for a visit, come for a fish


 Bill and Bernie expected a visit from Eric and Linda , so what could be better than getting together for a day's fishing ?   Fresh salmon for dinner ? 

 

Saturday 7 July 2018

deep, shallow


 I don't generally post about trips when I am subcontracting to a lodge or working with other guides' guests, so there are gaps in my blog . Fishing has continued to be great .  
 After catching a chinook each , for three anglers , on the deep troll, we headed into the shallows and caught and released a slightly bigger chinook in just 30 feet of water, as well as releasing a few cohos. 

 This day we caught an incidental " Red Snapper".  Fish often have common local names and this one is really a Yellow-eye Rockfish.  There is concern about these, the largest of the rockfish family .  They grow nearly as old as people do, and they can get caught faster than they reproduce. Rockfish are built to live at depth and their swim bladders cannot cope with being brought to the surface. They usually die when released , often looking horrendous with eyes bulging out and with the stomach pushed inverted out of the mouth.   This is especially a problem for by-catch in commercial fisheries  in other areas of the coast , but it is a growing issue here , too.  The limit for rockfish is one per person, per day, but the intention of that was to allow retention of an incidental catch, so keeping one is legal, and so some people target them . 

 A new development is the descender device.  It seems hard to believe, but solid studies from California and Australia show that if the rockfish is lowered back down to the original depth , it can probably survive.    Even if the eyes bulge out and the stomach is inverted.  I've been given a sophisticated descender to try out. It opens it's grip at an adjustable depth based on the water pressure. So now we have the option to return these beauties to the dark depths they came from.


 


Tuesday 3 July 2018

cohos for science


Scott and Sharon came fishing this morning specifically to target cohos. We are taking tissues samples which will be examined by biologists to see the DNA in order to learn which rivers they are  from.  We sampled and released 5 cohos, of which one was a hatchery marked one which is legal to keep. In addition Sharon caught a fiesty, bonus, chinook salmon , which will make some delicious dinners as well.  At 9 am we headed in. 

 All the fishing this morning was in less than 50 feet of water , and Scott was holding his rod, his favourite rod, with a one or two ounce weight and spoon.  This reminded us all of fishing years ago when fishing for cohos on light tackle ,  trolling with fly rods , was the popular norm. This past winter was the first in decades that significant numbers of cohos stayed over the winter in Georgia Strait , and we are watching them grow quickly. In springtime they are called bluebacks , and now we are at the beginning of July when they are getting to be bigger and stronger on the line. 

The DNA from the fish we release is useful because wild fish need to be released , so there is not much information about them .  


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Monday 2 July 2018

Canada Day Fireworks from the fish cleaning station




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This fish looks good on me !


Matt had such a good time fishing earlier this year he came back for more, and brought Jessica , and his twin brother Mark with Veronica.  This is July 1 , Canada Day, and we are fishing the evening and ending it with seeing the Campbell River fireworks. 

The twins started it off with a double header of twin chinooks !  





 The girls got caught up and everyone caught one . 



It was a particularly beautiful evening with contrasting clouds and blue sky .


 As the sun moved lower,  a rainbow grew brighter in the opposite direction.  What a lovely moment to savour before starting the big motor to head back in. 
















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