Rant - Tofino

trophy fisher

Active Member
So I’m out in Tofino fishing for the week with my son, brother in law and father in law. My 14 yr old son hooks into and lands a 115cm Hali off Portland. Head to the dock with it and a local guide (don’t know his name and won’t mention his outfit) proceeds to measure our Hali on the hook and says it over length by 10cm. Makes a big show and calls us poachers. I lay the hali back on the dock and measure it for the 5th time. Still 115cm. What a **** head, or am I wrong. Then we set traps for crab and go back to pull them up. Gone. What a ****** place to fish. Don’t know if I’ll ever come back. Kind of ruins the whole trip.
 
Thanks Trophy2, that’s what I thought. Of course it’s going to be longer when it hanging. I guess he was just jealous cause he only had 5 small 45-50cm hali.
 
Congrats on your Halibut. If it was indeed 115 cm then that guide was way off base doing what he did. I would be interested in who it was.

As far as your crab traps, many go missing in our area without lots of weight due to big currents and lots of floating kelp & eel grass thst carries them away. Were they in a high current area?

Sorry you didn’t have a good visit to Tofino
 
Sorry to hear that. We are headed there toward the end of the month, and always have a good time, often because the few guides and others I have met offer good info willingly. I lost a pot there once when I set it at slack tide and came back to a river of current.
 
I had a good time the one time I have been there. 2006 I think? Parking was expensive but I caught my first fish out of the ocean there. We were traveling with no boat and I was standing there with a fishing rod in my hand and had asked a local dude where a guy could maybe take a few casts off the shore. He says right here is where the natives cast for sea run cutthroat but I don’t think you’ll get anything right now. First cast I caught about a pounder. I’ll never forget it.
 
So I’m out in Tofino fishing for the week with my son, brother in law and father in law. My 14 yr old son hooks into and lands a 115cm Hali off Portland. Head to the dock with it and a local guide (don’t know his name and won’t mention his outfit) proceeds to measure our Hali on the hook and says it over length by 10cm. Makes a big show and calls us poachers. I lay the hali back on the dock and measure it for the 5th time. Still 115cm. What a **** head, or am I wrong. Then we set traps for crab and go back to pull them up. Gone. What a ****** place to fish. Don’t know if I’ll ever come back. Kind of ruins the whole trip.
Dont let one butt hat ruin it for you, there is a few of those at all marina, i used to get all worked up all the time, anger management is working lol. You no you did nothing wrong f... him, let him make a fool out of himself
 
ive heard of 10 cm overs in very public derbys lol , they were disqualified , but....
no fines , they even got to take the fish home ,
id feel like a complete loser if i measured someones fish regardless of size , and that he was !!
leave that to the authorities , that could get ugly at our docks...
if i see somthing totally off at our tables , i will politely let them know ,
if i see it again , i make the call.....

fd
 
I was told by a fishery officer, the way to measure your catch is to lay the tape on the floor and then lay your fish on the tape and measure nose to tail. not over the back head to tail because there is a big difference between the two. He also said that is very hard to do when the fish is at the side of the boat flapping around, but once it's dead that is how he was going to measure it. Seeing as this asshat was not DFO he would tell him to pound salt.
 
Update, went out late last night and found 1 half a mile away. It was dragged by kelp. Will look again tonight for the other one. On an other not that same guide said good morning to us as we were walking to our boat. Guess he must have just had a bad day.
 
agree with casper very hard to measure a crazy halibut sometimes at side of boat in rough seas - dfo told me if close to size they wont charge and for a guide to berate you on the dock is totally uncalled for in front of people especially your son!!!
 
I was just up at Langara and here is how Bill the manager told all the guests how to measure a Halibut.
First have a pole or stick with the 115cm and 83 cm sizes marked. That way you can do a quick check in or out of the water.
For an accurate measurement he recommends measuring on the dark side as is a slight curve and your measurement will be slightly longer. You must also measure from tip of nose to hump in center of tail.
A Halibut can grow 2cm once completely dead and all the muscles relax so you don’t want to keep a 115cm on the white side.

He said DFO checks the measurement on white side. RCMP have been checking lodges and guests are being fined. He was very adamant that guests and guides properly measure fish.
 
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