Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
THE SCENERY
Part of “pacing” yourself when biting off a chunk of time this long is knowing when to get off the water and do something else. Having a puppy to contend with makes that easier because she’ll drive you stark raving mad if you cheat her of her beach time. I spent a lot of time walking the West Coast of Calvert Island on this trip, both on the way north and then on the way south. It’s an absolutely stunning place to explore with some amazing trails and rock formations
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...4/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...5/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
There are also some of the most stunning beaches in British Columbia in this area. I always look forward to getting a coho and doing a BBQ on the beach:
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...6/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
This year I got BBQ’ing fish down to an art: no sand or ash on the fish, no burned meat, cooked to perfection. I even slummed and kept and ate a pink salmon one day and still made it taste good
This was a beach I found in Rivers Inlet—-it was a sketchy place to drop the anchor with shallow shelves and rocks but no way was I going to pass that beach by and cheat the puppy out of a run...
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...7/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
And you can’t have the scenery without garbage patrol. I picked up stunning amounts of garbage on this trip——with the exception of heavy pieces of commercial fishing gear, I left every beach I visited absolutely spotless
Nowadays, there’s no excuse for fisherman NOT to do that—-Shearwater has a very sophisticated recycling program and everything I picked up either came home with me or ended up properly dispersed at Shearwater. Hat’s off to Shearwater management for stepping up to the plate—-no doubt it costs $$$ to maintain a program like that!
Here is a morning’s haul off the beach behind the boat (including the basket and a human shoe....( yikes....I hoped there wasn’t a sad story behind what happened to the guy who lost it...)
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...8/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
All of this ended up at the Shearwater recycling facility:
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...9/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
I got a bit depressed on one beach I visited: there were several tour boats there from the Spirit Bear Lodge. After they left, I visited the beach and saw stunning amounts of garbage on the beach. How could the lodge or the guides bring their clients to beaches like that without making any attempt to clean it up??? I picked up as much as I could then left it in a huge blue basket on the log where they had eaten their lunch. Hopefully the guides would get the hint the next time they visited that beach
THE FISHING....THE GOOD
When you’re out on the water for that length of time, you’re bound to have the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to fishing success. The trip started off extremely good. My first two drops at Rivers resulted in two mid-20 springs. This was in a fleet of guide boats who were dragging gear around for coho with not much action. I heard one client say, Jesus, he’s got another one!. I wasn’t doing anything very special other then focusing on the few bait balls I saw. A whole fleet of guide boats dragging gear in water without any sign of bait. This is not an abnormal circumstance. I see this every time I go to Rivers.
Once up north towards Shearwater....more springs, but I found I was going deep for them, down to 150 feet. But it happened quick and they were nice fish so it was nice to start the trip off with screaming reels. I will do just about anything to avoid coho (unless I’m looking for a BBQ specimen) so the fact that I was not getting coho was good news. Not good news for the guides, however....I heard anecdotes that there was definitely a shortage of coho in that area for the time of the year so they were a bit late. Lots of pinks due to odd year, but hard to get excited over pinks.
Once I got into true North Coast waters that’s when fishing got completely nuts. There seemed to be an unbroken layer of huge northern coho at 30 - 40 feet of depth just about anywhere I dropped my gear. As a bait guy, this was not good news.
I found myself going to totally unproductive spots just to get my gear deeper then 40 feet then bit by bit getting my offering out to the good places once I was past 90 feet. That worked for big springs—-I was hooking them at 120 - 150 feet at high noon. With several weeks of fishing still ahead of me, I realized I’d better start focusing on artificials during the C&R part of the trip—-my salt ice was dwindling and Shearwater was way south of me so keeping fish was out of the question. I got out a spoon that had been good to me in Barkley Sound and...my oh my....I’d forgotten how effective spoons can be!
One afternoon, hot sun beating down, glassy calm water, definitely the doldrums, I went out into 200 feet of water. Every time I saw a tiny bait ball pasted down on the bottom (small red blobs the size of a raisin on the screen) I bombed the spoon down to that spot and boom, a mid-twenty spring. It was uncanny how consistent it was.
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...0/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
These were nice fish—-lots of shoulders on them, and they seemed to be everywhere as long as you were willing to go deep for them
I fished just a straight spoon—-I have never fished in-line flasher for summer fish and I wasn’t about to start now. This made for spectacular fights—-just you, a tiny spoon, and a pissed-off spring
On one of my drops into the 250 foot level that tiny spoon produced a 15 pound halibut— that fish fed me and my dog for the rest of the week
I got C&R down to an art—-I called it high production C&R: first step—-I swapped the 30 lb test top-shot of my braid to 60 pound test mono. The spoon was tied to another shorter section of 60 pound test attached to a swivel so the Rockfish (which at times could be a plague at any depth) wouldn’t twist the line on the way up. Next to my fishing station I placed a glove for my left hand and a gaff for my right hand. Once the fish seemed to have had its fun I hand-lined it to the side of the boat with the gloved hand, lifted its head a bit out of the water, got the gaff into the bend of my No. 2 Siwash, did a quick shake and boom, the fish swam off like nothing had happened and I flipped the spoon back into the water for the next drop down to the depths, mining for the fame and fortune of another spring.
I lost count of how many springs I got on that one spoon. The more beat-up it got, the more fish it hooked. I had one moment in Hakkai where I got one big spring and 5 coho in six drops of the spoon, all in approx. 30 minutes. The last fish was the spring and as I was no longer in C&R mode, I brought it into the boat and administered the wood shampoo. The moment it hit the deck the reel broke off the reel foot and fell on the deck—-it was finished...it had had enough....a sad day indeed as this reel screams so loud when you’re in a fleet of boats you don’t have to say a word....they know
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...1/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
The next evening I dropped that spoon into 40 feet of water at the mouth of Rivers on the way south. The guides had all gone back to Duncanby, I was all alone. I was in 40 feet of water, zero bait, a biological desert down there. At least that’s what all my sophisticated sonars were telling me...
I had my rod in hand like I always do and wtf...I get the take-down of all take-downs. What boiled at the surface took my breath away....absolutely huge....it produced a boil two meters wide and showed a spade-sized tail that I will not soon forget......the hook finally pulled....sharphooks had forgotten to do the obvious...but gotta love that spoon...Irish Creme I think they call it.
The next evening I got down around Cape Caution and did the same thing that produced the almost-whopper——: I went into 40 - 50 feet of water—-no discernible bait on the bottom. I dredged the dummy flasher into the bottom, the spoon fluttering a meter above it. Three springs in a row....boom, boom, boom. I was onto something!
This might be a bit hypothetical but I started thinking the dummy flasher, being driven into the bottom, was not only making a mud cloud but was scaring fish out of the sand and bringing in marauding springs that you didn’t see before you made your drop.
I’ve heard the winter spring guys talk about that when they pound the bottom for black mouth—maybe they’re on to something that can be productively mined for summer fish too.
Part of “pacing” yourself when biting off a chunk of time this long is knowing when to get off the water and do something else. Having a puppy to contend with makes that easier because she’ll drive you stark raving mad if you cheat her of her beach time. I spent a lot of time walking the West Coast of Calvert Island on this trip, both on the way north and then on the way south. It’s an absolutely stunning place to explore with some amazing trails and rock formations
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...4/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...5/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
There are also some of the most stunning beaches in British Columbia in this area. I always look forward to getting a coho and doing a BBQ on the beach:
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...6/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
This year I got BBQ’ing fish down to an art: no sand or ash on the fish, no burned meat, cooked to perfection. I even slummed and kept and ate a pink salmon one day and still made it taste good
This was a beach I found in Rivers Inlet—-it was a sketchy place to drop the anchor with shallow shelves and rocks but no way was I going to pass that beach by and cheat the puppy out of a run...
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...7/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
And you can’t have the scenery without garbage patrol. I picked up stunning amounts of garbage on this trip——with the exception of heavy pieces of commercial fishing gear, I left every beach I visited absolutely spotless
Nowadays, there’s no excuse for fisherman NOT to do that—-Shearwater has a very sophisticated recycling program and everything I picked up either came home with me or ended up properly dispersed at Shearwater. Hat’s off to Shearwater management for stepping up to the plate—-no doubt it costs $$$ to maintain a program like that!
Here is a morning’s haul off the beach behind the boat (including the basket and a human shoe....( yikes....I hoped there wasn’t a sad story behind what happened to the guy who lost it...)
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...8/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
All of this ended up at the Shearwater recycling facility:
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...9/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
I got a bit depressed on one beach I visited: there were several tour boats there from the Spirit Bear Lodge. After they left, I visited the beach and saw stunning amounts of garbage on the beach. How could the lodge or the guides bring their clients to beaches like that without making any attempt to clean it up??? I picked up as much as I could then left it in a huge blue basket on the log where they had eaten their lunch. Hopefully the guides would get the hint the next time they visited that beach
THE FISHING....THE GOOD
When you’re out on the water for that length of time, you’re bound to have the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to fishing success. The trip started off extremely good. My first two drops at Rivers resulted in two mid-20 springs. This was in a fleet of guide boats who were dragging gear around for coho with not much action. I heard one client say, Jesus, he’s got another one!. I wasn’t doing anything very special other then focusing on the few bait balls I saw. A whole fleet of guide boats dragging gear in water without any sign of bait. This is not an abnormal circumstance. I see this every time I go to Rivers.
Once up north towards Shearwater....more springs, but I found I was going deep for them, down to 150 feet. But it happened quick and they were nice fish so it was nice to start the trip off with screaming reels. I will do just about anything to avoid coho (unless I’m looking for a BBQ specimen) so the fact that I was not getting coho was good news. Not good news for the guides, however....I heard anecdotes that there was definitely a shortage of coho in that area for the time of the year so they were a bit late. Lots of pinks due to odd year, but hard to get excited over pinks.
Once I got into true North Coast waters that’s when fishing got completely nuts. There seemed to be an unbroken layer of huge northern coho at 30 - 40 feet of depth just about anywhere I dropped my gear. As a bait guy, this was not good news.
I found myself going to totally unproductive spots just to get my gear deeper then 40 feet then bit by bit getting my offering out to the good places once I was past 90 feet. That worked for big springs—-I was hooking them at 120 - 150 feet at high noon. With several weeks of fishing still ahead of me, I realized I’d better start focusing on artificials during the C&R part of the trip—-my salt ice was dwindling and Shearwater was way south of me so keeping fish was out of the question. I got out a spoon that had been good to me in Barkley Sound and...my oh my....I’d forgotten how effective spoons can be!
One afternoon, hot sun beating down, glassy calm water, definitely the doldrums, I went out into 200 feet of water. Every time I saw a tiny bait ball pasted down on the bottom (small red blobs the size of a raisin on the screen) I bombed the spoon down to that spot and boom, a mid-twenty spring. It was uncanny how consistent it was.
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...0/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
These were nice fish—-lots of shoulders on them, and they seemed to be everywhere as long as you were willing to go deep for them
I fished just a straight spoon—-I have never fished in-line flasher for summer fish and I wasn’t about to start now. This made for spectacular fights—-just you, a tiny spoon, and a pissed-off spring
On one of my drops into the 250 foot level that tiny spoon produced a 15 pound halibut— that fish fed me and my dog for the rest of the week
I got C&R down to an art—-I called it high production C&R: first step—-I swapped the 30 lb test top-shot of my braid to 60 pound test mono. The spoon was tied to another shorter section of 60 pound test attached to a swivel so the Rockfish (which at times could be a plague at any depth) wouldn’t twist the line on the way up. Next to my fishing station I placed a glove for my left hand and a gaff for my right hand. Once the fish seemed to have had its fun I hand-lined it to the side of the boat with the gloved hand, lifted its head a bit out of the water, got the gaff into the bend of my No. 2 Siwash, did a quick shake and boom, the fish swam off like nothing had happened and I flipped the spoon back into the water for the next drop down to the depths, mining for the fame and fortune of another spring.
I lost count of how many springs I got on that one spoon. The more beat-up it got, the more fish it hooked. I had one moment in Hakkai where I got one big spring and 5 coho in six drops of the spoon, all in approx. 30 minutes. The last fish was the spring and as I was no longer in C&R mode, I brought it into the boat and administered the wood shampoo. The moment it hit the deck the reel broke off the reel foot and fell on the deck—-it was finished...it had had enough....a sad day indeed as this reel screams so loud when you’re in a fleet of boats you don’t have to say a word....they know
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...1/&temp_hash=9d56a72a10b1a0f949fd33f488ba29dc
The next evening I dropped that spoon into 40 feet of water at the mouth of Rivers on the way south. The guides had all gone back to Duncanby, I was all alone. I was in 40 feet of water, zero bait, a biological desert down there. At least that’s what all my sophisticated sonars were telling me...
I had my rod in hand like I always do and wtf...I get the take-down of all take-downs. What boiled at the surface took my breath away....absolutely huge....it produced a boil two meters wide and showed a spade-sized tail that I will not soon forget......the hook finally pulled....sharphooks had forgotten to do the obvious...but gotta love that spoon...Irish Creme I think they call it.
The next evening I got down around Cape Caution and did the same thing that produced the almost-whopper——: I went into 40 - 50 feet of water—-no discernible bait on the bottom. I dredged the dummy flasher into the bottom, the spoon fluttering a meter above it. Three springs in a row....boom, boom, boom. I was onto something!
This might be a bit hypothetical but I started thinking the dummy flasher, being driven into the bottom, was not only making a mud cloud but was scaring fish out of the sand and bringing in marauding springs that you didn’t see before you made your drop.
I’ve heard the winter spring guys talk about that when they pound the bottom for black mouth—maybe they’re on to something that can be productively mined for summer fish too.
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