Was out in kyuquot from the 16-19
Gale force NW winds 25-35 knots predicted for our days fishing.
Drove in on the 16, road was in good condition, launch went well. Stoked for a good trip. Hit spring island for an evening fish. My fuse link decides to self destruct on my down rigger, blowing at least 20 nw, no chance I can fix it. Drop it anyway to 30 and leave it.
Boom other rod goes off...reel is screaming wind is blowing...some how we get a net on the fish and get it in the boat. 22lb spring on my digital scale. We loose a couple more on long line release. I call it done early because I have repairs to do so we head in.
First full day up at 4:30am to try and beat the winds. Down rigger fixed and ready to kill it.
Pull off the dock before sunrise and have spring island all to ourselves for 2 passes lol. Bight starts up and 11 guide boats and us are circling right to the rocks and nailing fish on every pass. One guide boat gets his fish and points the boat away from the rocks and pulls the fish away from the boats. Two other asswipe guides slam their boat in neutral and block the tack? WTF....then dude yells at me while I’m in neutral to pull my lines up....ok I do circle off and shake my head. Ok combat fishing I can play. No more giving way, right to the rocks and we nail 4 springs before 8:15am in the boat. High fives all around. Winds picking up, hit the tack hard again and by 1:15 4 more in the boat with a few long line releases and Broken leaders. Back to the dock for beers. 9 chinook for the boys.
Second full day up early again to beat the gale. Off the dock and running offshore as the sun rises over the steep peaks of the west coast. Anchor on one of our spots that had hallis in 7mins in June. 10 mins...15mins.. wtf ...30 mins...hmm...60mins...I look at my buds, we may have to pull up and move. Bump...bump...goes one of the rods! O ok maybe not! After a solid hour of non stop action we have 3 decent hallis. Only one left for today.....and bam rod bends over like it’s going to snap! F#@&k we got a bigger boys! Tangles in our chum bag...****! I pull it up untangle it and game on again. I see the butt about 10 feet from the boat and say, we got our hands full boys! Halli saw the boat and flip around and headed back down with a few big slaps of his tail the rod almost launched out of my buddy’s hands! Zip zip goes 30lbs of drag...we get him back close to the boat...I grab the braid...measure stick in hand ready...pull him to the boat side...butt launches out of the water, almost took my finger off on the braid, soaks me as he rips back down. Ok that was dumb! Don’t grab the braid! Get him back to the boat...put the stick on him...he’s right at legal.. get me the gaff! I hit a perfect hit in the head, hauled it over the side, bam on the deck....holly **** that’s a fish! We are ready to scatter if it goes nuts...no dead...high fives all around. We are done boys! It’s 9:00am...Caesar’s all around.
Now the wind is picking up and we head north to a ling hole. I’m hammering thru tight 8 second swells at 15mph. We get to our spot drop a couple heavy gigs and I back into the wind. Wave crests over the outboards...slams my transom door open and fills the deck with sea water! I say f@#$k this boys were done! Back to the dock for beers by 12:00pm.
Wind is gale force for our day to leave, we decide we got enough fish and call it a coffee and dock morning before we leave for fair harbour.....another epic adventure on our awesome west coast. We are truly blest.
Cheers fellow fishers...not many get to do what we do...be thankful...