Sushihunter
Active Member
http://www.canada.com/Close+encounters+shark+kind/5197206/story.html
Close encounters of the shark kind
By Jeremy Maynard, Courier-Islander August 3, 2011
As is now customary in my work year, I am now over in Kyuquot for a run of guiding. And as past readers of this column will know I like it here, with the out-ofthe-way ambiance and small coastal community lifestyle about as close in feeling to being in Haida G'waii as you can get while remaining on Vancouver Island.
There's an enviable and usually reliable level of abundance of several important finfish here but, in common with many other locations, the main attraction is chinook salmon. It's fair to say that 2011 is turning out to be a good year for those who like to catch them all around the south coast of BC and especially so along the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The forecast earlier this year by Pacific Salmon Treaty staff of higher chinook abundance in the offshore waters of WCVI appears to be coming true. As well as the recreational fishery there's a significant commercial troll fishery active at times, and the commercial fishermen caught about 80,000 chinook salmon in seven weeks starting in mid-April this year. That's a veritable mountain of fish but it's authorized and accounted for under the terms of the treaty with the USA, in large part an offset for the Canadian origin chinook salmon harvested in Southeast Alaska.
I started fishing my Kyuquot fishing this year in the second week of July, just in time to get a few days of near shore action before the now annual "chinook conservation corridor" comes into effect on the 15th. This area along and both inside and outside the surfline, out one mile, is in response to the low abundance situation that local chinook stocks are in, with the various size and time and area restrictions aimed at lowering the harvest rate of these fish close to their rivers of origin.
So now Kyuquot is for the most part well into its offshore summer fishery program unless bad weather obliges otherwise. Broadly speaking this falls into two distance categories - the reef and adjacent areas three or so miles out from Lookout Island and then the 50-fathom line, in a wide arc some 10 to 12 miles out.
As in every other fishing centre, every year is different, albeit with common themes between years. One big difference in 2011 has been the presence in a sustained way of coho on the reef right from early summer onwards, in contrast to recent past years when they haven't shown up until early August. And coho there are, hooking several dozen or more in a day isn't uncommon. Only hatchery fish are allowed to be retained and I'd say as an average the wild to hatchery fish ratio is about 8 or 10-1, so there's a lot of catch and release action going on.
There are a couple of interesting developments regarding baitfish. As an almost iron clad rule, the needlefish along the surfline are always small while those found out on the reef are large, jumbo's almost like little snakes. This year for reasons unknown there's both small and medium needlefish in the reef area, something so unusual that my fellow guides here, local natives all, are commenting on when we're around the cleaning table.
In addition this summer we are routinely finding small herring in the stomachs of fish, an uncommon occurrence in recent years. Unlike the Strait of Georgia herring stock, which is in very good shape, the WCVI herring population has been in a low abundance phase for quite a while. Evidence would suggest that there was a better than average spawn this past spring, a good omen for the future.
Fishing on the reef is a soup to nuts proposition and you never quite know what is going to hit your lure there - chinooks from small to large, coho aplenty, lingcod and halibut of all sizes, as well as passing waves of pink salmon. When the bite is truly on at the reef, running a boat and trying to keep two lines in the water can become a borderline athletic exercise!
Fishing further out at the 50fathom line, sometimes referred to as "the salmon highway", is a very special experience and something I've written about here before. Practically speaking it really is the frontier for recreational fishing, except maybe for some albacore tuna fishing in late summer a little further out over the continental shelf when the surface water achieves maximum temperature.
This is the edge of the open ocean ecosystem, somewhere to encounter creatures as varied as albatross, humpback whales and different sharks on a fairly regular basis. Oh, and the chinook salmon too, they all seem to hit like freight trains out there with even medium size fish testing angler and tackle to the max - must be something in the water.
Sightings of blue sharks are common and actual encounters not terribly unusual but never before have I knowingly seen, never mind hooked, a salmon shark. These are genuine predators, members of the same family that includes porbeagle, mako and great white sharks with looks to match. Recently my boat encountered a salmon shark two days running.
The first we actually hooked, on a hootchy no less - thank god for stout leader! After an epic 40-minute battle with a high-speed adversary of which we had no idea what it might be and which wore out both my anglers, we brought an estimated six-footer (150+ lbs.) alongside. I was able to tail it and retrieve my gear before releasing it. And no, I didn't bring it in the boat!
The following day in approximately the same location but with different anglers, we were fishing surrounded by hundreds of Pacific whiteside dolphins, scattered over a large area.
One angler hooked a nice chinook salmon and played it close to the boat. Watching the fish on the surface just astern it appeared that one of the dolphins was swimming alongside it when suddenly it became apparent by savage jerks on the line that it was instead a shark trying to eat our fish!
A frantic tussle ensued, with the angler managing to almost "water ski " the now helpless salmon into my waiting landing net, into which tried to follow a now agitated salmon shark of a similar size as the previous one.
We had a really good look at it as it swum around boat side for a few seconds, quite a magnificent animal. Needless to say the tail end of the chinook was in less than pristine condition!
© Copyright (c) Postmedia News
Close encounters of the shark kind
By Jeremy Maynard, Courier-Islander August 3, 2011
As is now customary in my work year, I am now over in Kyuquot for a run of guiding. And as past readers of this column will know I like it here, with the out-ofthe-way ambiance and small coastal community lifestyle about as close in feeling to being in Haida G'waii as you can get while remaining on Vancouver Island.
There's an enviable and usually reliable level of abundance of several important finfish here but, in common with many other locations, the main attraction is chinook salmon. It's fair to say that 2011 is turning out to be a good year for those who like to catch them all around the south coast of BC and especially so along the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The forecast earlier this year by Pacific Salmon Treaty staff of higher chinook abundance in the offshore waters of WCVI appears to be coming true. As well as the recreational fishery there's a significant commercial troll fishery active at times, and the commercial fishermen caught about 80,000 chinook salmon in seven weeks starting in mid-April this year. That's a veritable mountain of fish but it's authorized and accounted for under the terms of the treaty with the USA, in large part an offset for the Canadian origin chinook salmon harvested in Southeast Alaska.
I started fishing my Kyuquot fishing this year in the second week of July, just in time to get a few days of near shore action before the now annual "chinook conservation corridor" comes into effect on the 15th. This area along and both inside and outside the surfline, out one mile, is in response to the low abundance situation that local chinook stocks are in, with the various size and time and area restrictions aimed at lowering the harvest rate of these fish close to their rivers of origin.
So now Kyuquot is for the most part well into its offshore summer fishery program unless bad weather obliges otherwise. Broadly speaking this falls into two distance categories - the reef and adjacent areas three or so miles out from Lookout Island and then the 50-fathom line, in a wide arc some 10 to 12 miles out.
As in every other fishing centre, every year is different, albeit with common themes between years. One big difference in 2011 has been the presence in a sustained way of coho on the reef right from early summer onwards, in contrast to recent past years when they haven't shown up until early August. And coho there are, hooking several dozen or more in a day isn't uncommon. Only hatchery fish are allowed to be retained and I'd say as an average the wild to hatchery fish ratio is about 8 or 10-1, so there's a lot of catch and release action going on.
There are a couple of interesting developments regarding baitfish. As an almost iron clad rule, the needlefish along the surfline are always small while those found out on the reef are large, jumbo's almost like little snakes. This year for reasons unknown there's both small and medium needlefish in the reef area, something so unusual that my fellow guides here, local natives all, are commenting on when we're around the cleaning table.
In addition this summer we are routinely finding small herring in the stomachs of fish, an uncommon occurrence in recent years. Unlike the Strait of Georgia herring stock, which is in very good shape, the WCVI herring population has been in a low abundance phase for quite a while. Evidence would suggest that there was a better than average spawn this past spring, a good omen for the future.
Fishing on the reef is a soup to nuts proposition and you never quite know what is going to hit your lure there - chinooks from small to large, coho aplenty, lingcod and halibut of all sizes, as well as passing waves of pink salmon. When the bite is truly on at the reef, running a boat and trying to keep two lines in the water can become a borderline athletic exercise!
Fishing further out at the 50fathom line, sometimes referred to as "the salmon highway", is a very special experience and something I've written about here before. Practically speaking it really is the frontier for recreational fishing, except maybe for some albacore tuna fishing in late summer a little further out over the continental shelf when the surface water achieves maximum temperature.
This is the edge of the open ocean ecosystem, somewhere to encounter creatures as varied as albatross, humpback whales and different sharks on a fairly regular basis. Oh, and the chinook salmon too, they all seem to hit like freight trains out there with even medium size fish testing angler and tackle to the max - must be something in the water.
Sightings of blue sharks are common and actual encounters not terribly unusual but never before have I knowingly seen, never mind hooked, a salmon shark. These are genuine predators, members of the same family that includes porbeagle, mako and great white sharks with looks to match. Recently my boat encountered a salmon shark two days running.
The first we actually hooked, on a hootchy no less - thank god for stout leader! After an epic 40-minute battle with a high-speed adversary of which we had no idea what it might be and which wore out both my anglers, we brought an estimated six-footer (150+ lbs.) alongside. I was able to tail it and retrieve my gear before releasing it. And no, I didn't bring it in the boat!
The following day in approximately the same location but with different anglers, we were fishing surrounded by hundreds of Pacific whiteside dolphins, scattered over a large area.
One angler hooked a nice chinook salmon and played it close to the boat. Watching the fish on the surface just astern it appeared that one of the dolphins was swimming alongside it when suddenly it became apparent by savage jerks on the line that it was instead a shark trying to eat our fish!
A frantic tussle ensued, with the angler managing to almost "water ski " the now helpless salmon into my waiting landing net, into which tried to follow a now agitated salmon shark of a similar size as the previous one.
We had a really good look at it as it swum around boat side for a few seconds, quite a magnificent animal. Needless to say the tail end of the chinook was in less than pristine condition!
© Copyright (c) Postmedia News
