Mergansers herd schools of herring into the shallows.
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Wednesday, 29 October 2014
Monday, 27 October 2014
Saturday, 25 October 2014
Steve and Sandy
Sandy wants me to make a point of describing my prediction for the day and how it turned out as expected, and more so. This isn't magical, I've just been saying what any local guide would know fits a pattern, although this was an extreme example.
We started on the the ebb, changing locations in steps, moving north as the fog lets up. In recent days the chum fishing has been slow but there have been fair numbers of cohos coming in. This should be a good time in September for both, but it seems the chums have been travelling by and not biting very much.
I describe our fishing for the first and biggest part of the day as searching, and picking away at it. (This ebb would be a great time to be south fishing for chinooks on the deep ebb drift off of Cape Mudge , and that fishing has been good and steady , which has attracted many of the other boats to there.) We hope to come apon a concentration of fish tucked in, but never do. But we are moving in a strategy to arrive at one of a couple of spots that could turn on when the flood starts.
We are in position , patrolling a favourite section of coastline, when the tide turns. Right time, right place. At the first push of the flood we start to see travelling salmon on the surface, some tight to shore, along the kelp, some in clusters off of our deep side. A large school of chums shows porpoising toward us and I turn the boat downstream in their path, and suddenly we have two fish on. Two good fights , from two nice cohos. Suddenly action. In short order we have caught some, missed some bites, lost some , and have caught all that is allowed or needed. We happily bring in the gear and tidy the boat for the ride back. Interestingly, while we are seeing chums, and have some gear specifically targeting them, we are catching only cohos, but a couple of bites did look like chum bites. Schools of salmon are porpoising southward, homeward bound, as we leave.
Aussies
Alistair and his wife are Australians, exploring BC and ,for a time, joined on this trip by two more Aussies, his brother Chris , and a good friend, also Chris. They really love the BC wilderness and are making a trip with a schedule. Today is the day for fishing, because they have just come from grizzly bear watching up-coast yesterday, and tomorrow they are travelling down -island . Unfortunately, Alistair's wife caught a bug and isn't feeling well enough to join in.
Sept 22. The weather forecast is for rain and wind, the first storm for a long time. We head north and as you can see, we are in a very sheltered spot. The rain comes, but eases off, and stops.
That is a nice mature coho in the photo. It is late enough in September for chum salmon to be migrating through here. We see the top of schools of them on the surface several times, but the moody chums are not biting very much. We do get a couple of good bites that don't stick. Tricky rascals. Two pink salmon also come to the net. Not a bad day for a day with a nasty forecast.
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Friday, 24 October 2014
Michael and Beth , Second trip !
Michael and Beth were so enthused by their fishing trip in early July that they came back again ( from the Okanogan ) in mid September and brought along Beth's son Steve and wife Betsy. The weather was perfect and calm. This time there were prime cohos as well as chinooks. ( We weren't really competing, but we did notice that the other boat caught more chinooks than we did. Good job, Hugh.)
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Thursday, 23 October 2014
Planning ahead
The morning salmon fishing produced action, cohos to bring home, and then trying harder and deeper for chinooks turned up some dogfish sharks and a hake before it was time for a lunch break. It turned out that the restaurant at Gorge Harbour , Cortes Island, was already limiting it's hours by mid September, so a flexible plan was in order. So we stopped at Dick's Fish and Chips, a floating eatery on the Campbell River waterfront. Then north through the Narrows for a change of scenery, a view up the Straits , and fishing close to the hard edged shore for the big one, which didn't come. There were a couple of bald eagles checking us out, especially our released undersized chinook, gorgeous scenery, but not a lot of wildlife really. But there would be an encore.
We were tying up back at the dock when we heard from CR Whale Watching that there were Orcas coming nearer on the south side of town, So, we headed back out, toward Willow Point, slowed when we saw a couple of boats holding position, got a fleeting look and then positioned ourselves at a respectful distance. It was a pretty nice showing of an Orca family, lovely calm conditions, and still it isn't easy to get a great photo, especially without a long lens. Everyone was delighted to see these Orcas, which made a fine end to the day.
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