Coastal Reports
Prince Rupert
Gerald Burtch from Ft St John hit the Rupert water with his fishing crew in July. They did very well but then they were there for 3 weeks! I can't even get fishing for 3 weeks! Anyways, fish like the one on this page was taken by Dave Cooper and his son Ethan, just a small sample of what they caught. David Steiner caught this (photo) monster! The best "stuff" they used were cut plugs and green hootchies, on riggers and down 30-90'. Thanks for the report Gerald!
Prince Rupert
July 30 2010
Al and his wife Deb (from Calgary) did another Rupert trip, they just can't get enough of this place! They cleaned up on Coho, as seen by this (photo) tray of fish. No big secrets on bait, cut plug or anchovies down at 45-50' did the trick. I do believe they just go out in front of the town for their fish, they don't usually travel to far. I was supposed to make a trip there this coming week but am waylaid with "stuff" on our street! Nice fish guys! (Got a trip coming up to the Haida Gwaii though, courtesy of Mr. Kimble and the Oak Bay Marine Group!!)
Shearwater Resort, Denny Island
July 21 2010
Well, Kevin and his crew which included wife Doree, Tim, Braden and Tom, got back from their fishing derby at the Shearwater Resort. The Resort is 60 miles west of Bella Coola on Denny Island, which is right across from Bella Bella. Glad I never got transferred out there!
Anyways, they had one helluva trip, salmon for all and one of the members of his team, Tom, took a 174.5 lb hali, a record for the Lodge. Kev was kind enough to break down his trip for me so I'll just copy it out. You do have to watch the You Tube video on the hali catch but, there is some "adult" language in it so keep the little ones away!! Thanks Kev!!
Fishing crew
Tim
Braden
Tom
Doree
And myself (Kevin Linkletter -editors note)
The road to Bella Coola is very interesting and tests your skill behind
the wheel. Waaahoooo!
July 16th
On the water at 5 a.m. boated from Bella Coola to Bella Bella, Dropped
our gear at Shearwater and fished till 5. came back with 4 Salmon
10-12lbs range
July 17th
On the water at 6am off the water at 6pm. 10 salmon ( 2 in the 14lbs
range)! We ventured out in the big pond only to hook up 2 ling cod. It
was really bouncy so we came back in around 12.
July 18th
The sun was still shinning and was a repeat of Saturday. 10 Salmon and 2
more bottom fish
July 19th
Last Day of the BC Outdoors fishing derby, and we still didn't have any
thing to bring to the table for the derby. We came back at 11am with 4
salmon. Mike Mitchell did the awards for largest fish. A 24.5 lbs
Chinook won it. The BC Outdoors crew took off and we had an afternoon
to kill. At this point we were skunked for Halibut So we hooked up with
Steve a Guide from Shearwater. 1.5 hours after the derby finished, Tom
hooked up his first Halibut 30 minutes later this (photo)
beast had a nice meet
& great and welcomed aboard Slayer IV.
This is a record Fish for Shearwater fishing lodge. Braden got the
whole thing on video here is the YouTube link. ( FYI some language on
the video) 20 minutes later Tom hooked up another Hali in the 15lbs range.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H17SkOdVUE
We had best results with Green / Silver flasher and glow hootchie at 55 &
80ft. Cut plugs where working well. We lost lot of fish on hook sets and
few broken lines. We ended up with 28 salmon, 3 ling cod, 2 rock cod, 2
Halibut
We had great adventure and the crew at Shearwater treated us like Kings!
Nootka Sound
July 20 2010
Well, the big trip to Nootka Sound has come and gone, again! Greg and I were in his boat, Bruce took his boat and fished solo while Jordan was accompanied by his dad Ralph and his bro Lee again. Long story short, we missed the big run of Chinook by a day or so.
The weather was great, have I mentioned that yet? To hot really, sunny every day with a pretty stiff breeze, even up the Sound. For the first two days there, the radio was steady with whining and complaining about no fish, from everyone. There was the odd one taken here and there but it was pretty slow by last years standards.
Bruce took a 21 lber on day 2 and Greg a 16 lber. Jordan's boat managed 2 nice fish, a 24 and a 18. Me, zip, but, lost a ton of fish. Strange thing, I wasn't the only one that had problems hooking up the fish. They'd beat the heck out of the rod while the line was still in the clip but when you went to set the hook they were gone!
As day 3 came and went, so did any hopes of getting any more fish! We went "out front" for two days and the best news there is that I didn't do any chumming this year! Jordan took one hali and that was it for the bottom fish. It got pretty snotty out front but, I have to say that it was better than the previous years that we have gone out there. As day 3 closed out and no more fish caught, we figured we were doomed for sure. What really got our dander up was when all the Washington-ites showed up and were catching fish when we weren't! Sameo gear and everything but the fish seemed to like the Americans better!
The last day we were there I was still getting fish on and losing them, finally on hook style change number 4 I hooked into a nice clean 13 lber, but that would be it for me. Jordan's crew got into 4 fish in that 12-14lb range all in about an hour, including one double header. Greg had a slab on but lost it not to far from the boat and before you knew it, it was dark out!
It would appear that a run of fish had just started to come in on day 4 as many of the boats were starting to hook up with fish. We heard the same complaint though on the radio, that the fish just weren't sticking for some reason. Reports like "had 5 on but only 1 to the boat" were common. As far as gear, my best setup was again the grn flasher grn hootchie, it had at least 10 fish on it. Greg took his fish (photo) on a big Tomic plug while Jordan's crew did best with bait behind a flasher. Bruce fooled all the fish and took this (photo) nice fish on a rubber herring lure he bought at Crappy Tire! Best depths seemed to be in that 28-40' zone, all the same as last year. We took more fish by Camel Rock this year and less out front.
Regardless, we had a great trip out there, always nice to get back onto the salt water. For myself I'm going to try some other areas this year or next year and give Nootka a break. When I got home I had email from Rick who was fishing at Bamfield while we were at Nootka, 30 fish in one day!! That's fishing, but, can't always be in the right place at the right time. Kevin Linkletter was out at Shearwater Resort this past weekend as well so we'll see how he made out. All I know is I have some fresh salmon in the deep freeze to feast on!
July 6 2010
My sled buddy Gord, did a trip up to Rupert, taking his Dad with him and meeting up with his brother and friends. They had a great trip, weather actually wasn't bad and fishing was good! They got their limits of springs and hali (photo) and, got a heck of a feed of crab (photo)! Best setup was an anchovy pulled behind a green flasher or a grn Coyote spoon behind the flasher. Best depth in that 40' range. Thanks for the report Gord and we just might see you up there in August!
Well, the season for the salt has started again and Marek is the first to get a post on this page. He and family and friends hit the West Coast, staying at Ucluelet, here's his report:
"Fishing was fabulous on the coast! here are some pics from my buddy's dad. We got our limit in Chinook, Halibut and also kept one Octopus to try out as well as some nice dungeoness crab to take home. Largest spring was only about 18lbs, but expected when you go this early in the summer. biggest Halibut was 50lbs caught by yours truly. Purple haze hootchies behind a lime/yellowish flasher seemed to be the best flavour for the springs, but really it was a matter of what not to put out. We were off shore about 6-7 miles everyday, and because we limited out, came home a day early! the weather co-operated and we had decent waves and minimal swells except for one day."
Thanks for the pics and report Marek, my turn soon!
