Last updated: August 11th, 2005

Hello everyone and welcome to the fishing report. The end of the summer is fast approaching and our last day is less than a month away – September 5th.

Last week (July 30th), Marc Johnston took the lead in our salmon fishing derby with a 41 pound Chinook. Marc has fished with us for many years and caught his contender on an anchovy while fishing about 25 minutes from the lodge at Castle Point. A few hours after Marc and his fishing buddy Tim Westvang set out, they returned with three nice Chinook weighing in at 41 lb., 29 lb. and 18 lb. Marc now proudly wears one of our coveted “30 lb. Club Hats”.

The bottom fishing has been fantastic this summer and we’ve been seeing lots of Halibut and Yellow-eye coming in. I managed to slip away last week with a good friend Gordon Northcote of Summerland, who hooked into a very nice Halibut weighting over 80 lbs.

Killer whales (Orcas) and Humpback whales have been common sights this summer, spotted while on the deck at the lodge and out on the water while fishing. Black Bears visit the beach nearly every day, turning over the rocks hunting for tasty snacks. This year was especially exciting because we had our first sighting of a group of sea-otters.

At the turn of the century sea-otters were virtually wiped out on the west coast by hunters. About 30 years ago a few of these animals were reintroduced on the west side of Vancouver Island and have slowly been spreading north up the west coast of the island. The sea-otters have now rounded the top of the island are spreading down the east side of the island. Last week we spotted our first sea otters playing near the lodge. I was amazed at how large these animals are! Nearly the size of a seal, they look and behave quite differently from their cousins the river otter. It was a real treat to get to see them in the wild.

Tom Makinson
Duval Point Lodge