Tales From The Tyee Pool........2017...

Dave H

Well-Known Member
Greetings and Salamanders to all and welcome once again to my annual attempt to sustain my desire to keep at this activity called Tyee rowing by sharing the events from here almost as they happen and by meeting new rod-holders and rekindling relationships with some of my regulars, most of whom now fall easily into the "long suffering" category as a result of my spectacular albeit so far fruitless attempts to get any of them a Tyee.

Now that's a sentence!!

I'm hoping none of you mind a brief recap of last year plus some new updates regarding tackle and changes to the pool structure. If you do mind, stop reading.

Last year my trusty group and I managed four strikes in the pool with three fish boated, none of which was 30 lbs.
We might have boated the fourth one but circumstances involving a new rower who didn't get out of our way and me going the wrong way to escape him rather than yelling at him coupled with the fish arriving boat-side in a highly agitated and energetic condition on a short line and in the dark allowed it to escape before I could net it.
I'd blame my rod-holder but he's too darn big so in this case, it was all the newby's fault. LOL

Nobody out that I saw this morning but had a good catch up with Randy K and a couple of other rowers as we registered with Bob at the Clubhouse and Randy and I confirmed what I had suspected might be the case after the heavy rains of last Fall when Hydro ran the Campbell as high as they could without flooding Campbellton.
That action allowed massive amounts of gravel, most placed the last few years at no small expense, to be carried out to sea and distributed on the bars north and south of the river-mouth main channel.
Common sense told me this had to settle somewhere so last week I went out in my boat with a depth-sounder and basically recreated my routine when we're fishing to check the depth we're mostly in plus I wanted to see how much the bar north of the Clubhouse nearing the "marker" tree aka "Van Egan's tree" might have moved.

Wow!!
It has moved considerably towards the south and it starts getting shallow at least 100' or more south from where it used to. I shall bear that in mind this year for sure. Also, a lot of the Eelgrass that used to cover the bars is now itself buried, although if that will affect fishing is unknown, plus the whole rip of the flood has changed locations off the bar too.

Talking with Randy about this just a couple of hours ago and he noted a couple of changes in the bar shape and structure as well as a reversal in the signs some old-timers used to use as time tellers as to when to go out on the flood tide. Quite interesting info and somewhat confirmed by my observations too.

In the tackle department for this season I'm pleased to announce a slight upgrade in reels as I've been gifted with a pair of Hardy Longstones that will replace the Daiwa 275B ones used before.
As exciting to me is the fact that yesterday I picked up a new-to-me original Minser (Lucky Louie) Shovelnose plug in excellent shape. I'm stoked because now I have two Shovelnose plugs so can swim them together and hope they balance each other in action. Hard to effectively fish a Shovelnose on one side and a more standard Chinook nose on the other.

Anyway, I'll be keeping a beady eyeball on the Pool and will yell out when I need a rod-holder because fish have showed up. Should anyone know that they will be around in August or September on a specific date feel free to contact me and I'll save a spot for you on my calendar.

Hope you all survived the past year as good as I have and I'm looking forward to meeting up again this year.

Until then.......





Take care.
 
Dave H
Nice to hear from you. I look forward to reading your reports.
Adios Amigo
Stosh
 
Excellent!
This is the One Thread I look forward to so much each year!
Allows me to live vicariously right through the season!

Many Thanks Dave! I'll be watchin'...

Cheers,
Matt
 
Yep I enjoy reading this thread too and hope one day to get up there to give it a whirl.
 
Good luck to you Dave.I also enjoy this thread each year as this is high on my bucket list.I'll be watching this intently throughout the next 2 months.
 
Hey
I am one of the lucky ones. I got to fish the Tyee pool for the first time ever with the legendary Dave H - great experience.
I waited way to long to do it.
Do yourself a favour and get up there.
It's not always about just catching fish.
Stosh
 
As always Dave, one of the best threads of the year. Thanks for bringing the Tyee Pool experiences to life for all of us to share. Maybe this is the year I can hook one and check off that bucket list item. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the update Dave, I was searching the forum looking for the new thread couple days ago. Love the thread and hopefully one year I can check off joining the club and landing a Tyee from the pool.
 
I think this is your year Dave. All the good karma for taking people out will pay off for you. Look forward to the updates over the next couple months and look forward to getting up there again this year. Cheers and good luck!
 
Sunday evening and I'm just home from the Clubhouse where I caught up a bit more on some of the regular rowers and who has retired and who is new plus heard from Jules how he managed a small Halibut last evening on a spoon caught down near the mooring buoy south of the Pool.

In addition I watched as a rower and rod-holder worked away against the brisk NW wind and flooding tide. Wondering who they were and why were they out in such adverse conditions so early in the season I asked Bob, the Weighmaster, if he knew.

"Yep", he replied. "It's the Tyee Man from last year rowing and his son on the rod."

The Tyee Man for last year is one Drews Driessen-VanDerLiek from Vancouver and I've just learned he was so excited by his most serendipitous win last year that he bought himself a Tyee rowboat and is planning to buy a place locally to reside in when he retires soon. Tonight he was rowing for the exercise and enjoying time with his son too. Not a bad deal and obviously we have a new keener.

I'll finish up for now with this: As a normal human guy I much appreciate all the kind things that have been said about me and my annual thread here. Heck, who wouldn't?

But, please never ever use the word "legendary" and my name in the same sentence with regards to the Tyee Pool. I shuddered when I read that.

I know Stosh meant well and I do appreciate it and just for the record it's the second time I've been called "legendary" on a website, the other one being on a surfing website and related to my living at Jordan River from 1975 to 1987 more or less and meeting a lot of travelling surfers to whom I was always nice and welcoming, as opposed to some other locals who were less than that.

The accolade wasn't deserved then nor do I feel worthy of it now so please, no legendary stuff for me as there are real legends here, given the 90 plus year history of the Tyee Club and all that.

Will probably launch my boat tomorrow and start hoping for windless evenings so I can row a bit for the exercise plus try a couple new spoons and my new shovel-nose.

Stay tuned and thanks again for the kind comments.

And the overall return of Chinook to the Campbell-Quinsam system last year was conservatively estimated at 8,000 and could easily have been more. Sadly, the high water event of last Fall eradicated a lot of the gravel that salmon had spawned in so spawning success was severely compromised one assumes. In addition, the high water precluded getting accurate counts except for those fish that came into the hatchery. Lots of gravel lost last year.

Lots of fish but mostly small, reflecting poor pasture conditions what with The Blob and an El Nino cycle in play.

Anyway, off for now.




Take care.
 
By far one of the better threads on here and one I look forward too reading and watching. Just always wish I could partake in the action.
Thanks for stepping up again this year Dave H. Hoping a biggy jumps on your line when your Solo! You greatly deserve it!

Good luck to all the other Fishers too. Will be watching for the biggies to return hopefully. Maybe the political bs will stand down this year.

HT
 
Well all I can say Dave is your truly a stand up guy and what you do for people is great especially in today's world kinda makes it "legend", I know the odds were not in our favour when you took me out last year but it was still and chance to cross one of the two things off my bucket list. And lord willing one day I will get to cross that one off lol. Until then I get to keep watching and dreaming through your updates on here! I looked at Tyee boats myself and might have to buy one and start taking time off to be out there at better times of the year! Anyway "legend" or not thanks for what you do!
 
Good morning all,

Here's how to use the word "legendary" in the correct manner.

Last night the legendary Bruce (The Goose) Aikman was out rowing an optimistic rod-holder around the south end of the pool under lovely evening conditions.

Word is they saw a fish roll down that-a-way and Bruce favours that area so they put in some time there then waved at us on their way back in.

After catching the very first Tyee last year Bruce is ready to go already it seems and I certainly wish him well.

Bruce is one of those classic old guides who has been there and done that around this area for years and has many stories to share when he gets going.

Great to see him out last night and good to be able to apply the word "legendary" where it belongs too.

Launched the boat last night so ready to go now.

Anyone who would like to go out for a tour around the pool can PM me and we'll put something together.

No fish yet but ya never know when one will come along.

Kayak guys have tried here lots of times but I've not seen anyone hook-up yet but no reason it couldn't happen. Give it a shot but make sure you're registered and have legal gear.




Take care.




Take care.
 
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