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[Fish Assassin]

Waiting for day 3......

[Rodney]

Good to see you got home fine and that the airport sushi did not make you ill.

And Rodney - Why didn't you push the button ??  (He'll tell you....or maybe Nina will).

Yeah, that story will come later, maybe either you or Nina can tell it.

Ok, day three!

After spending over almost 12 hours on the water on day two, that tiny bed in the camper was incredibly comfortable. After the fine dinner that I had cooked up, I laid down on it at 11:00pm. It felt like only ten minutes had gone by when I heard Matt knocking on the window and yelling, "Rodney, wake up!"

You mean we have to go fishing again already?!

I looked to my right, the clock said 5:30am. I looked to my left, Nina was sound asleep. A few minutes later, Matt was at the window again. "We'll be down at the boat, see you there."

What about breakfast?!

I hopped out of the bed, washed up, slipped into yesterday's fishing clothes and ran down to the dock with some pastries that we had bought from the previous day. Nina turned and looked at me just before I left, mumbled, "Enjoy the trip..."

Matt and Ross were pretty much ready to go. I stepped into the boat, offered both gentlemen some food that I had brought down as we had all the food in the fridge. "No thanks, my coffee is good enough.", declined Matt.

The inlet where we were in was flat as glass, making you skeptical about the report of 15 knot wind just outside the sound. We slowly made our way to the entrance of Bamfield, the entire area was blanketed with fog. The water was noticeably choppier out here. Matt cranked up the motor, we were off! As we made our way further out, the water became rougher. The boat ride was rather exciting I thought.

Ten minutes into the ride, Matt stopped to assess the condition. It was fairly rough and we had a decision to make.

"So what do you guys think? You want to head to the 20 mile mark today?"

Ross and I looked at each other. The man obviously really wanted to head out there, to show us where the real fish were. Ross replied, "Hmm... What do you think...?"

"Well, it's definitely doable. We maybe knocked around quite a bit, but it's definitely safe.", replied Matt.

The problem was, the forecast called for even rougher condition in the afternoon, so we were not sure how much fishing we would get.

The boat continued to be tossed around as the planning session took place.

Ross and I looked at each other again, "Hmm... Maybe it is a good idea that we play safe and stay close today."

Matt was probably thinking, "Are you kidding me?? The big springs are out there waiting for us!"

Day three was my only chance to head offshore, so not going out meant we would not have another chance. That was ok though, Ross had many days of fishing after I left, and I could always return anytime.

So we played it safe and turned around to troll around some of the popular spots in the area. The waves, the reefs, the islands and the rocky shoreline were simply magnificant to look at. There was a unusual silence while we drifted on the boat. The swells would quietly make their way towards us. As each swell approached the boat, it seemed as the water was about to take over the boat, then it disappearred underneath us. The boats beside us would appear above our horizon for a moment, only to be hidden behind the swells instantly.



The last time I found myself in such condition was back in Australia. Many times we would be fishing along the shoreline in Bass Strait on the southeastern part of Australia where the sea is also not very forgiving. It has been over a decade since I fished in the ocean, and I remember getting seasick once awhile back then. To be prepared, I slapped on a seasickness patch the night before this outing.

That little patch made the rest of that morning's outing rather interesting. Just as we started fishing, I could feel my arms becoming rather numb. The strange sensation migrated its way down to the legs, the neck and part of the head. It seemed that the dosage of the patch was too strong for me since I am much smaller than an average male (body size ). At 125lb, it didn't take long for me to get rather dosed up. The drug would work in waves. When it worked, I became very numb. When it didn't, the seasickness made its way into my head. My whole body was turned into a circus as I sat on the chair. Matt and Ross could see my face turning from pink to yellow to white to purple and some other very unusual colours.

This was how I looked.



While this entertainment was going on, the fish were also biting. Repeatedly the rods started to pop off the downrigger. Most of the hits were lost or turned out to be a small fish. About two hours into the outing, Matt solidly hooked one and handed the rod to me. There I was, half conscious with spasms going on in various body parts, holding onto the rod, cranking the Islander MR2, stumbling into Ross or Matt at times while the boat shook. Eventually a pretty good size chinook made its way to the boat. Matt grabbed the net, gave it a clean scoop and the first fish of the morning was in the cooler.

Here is the photo of the fish, taken a couple of days later back home. I was in no mood for a hero shot at the time.



I jumped back into the chair almost as fast as the fish hopped into the cooler. The numbness came on and off, I started falling asleep and waking up whenever Matt was screaming about a bite. At times I looked up and there would be a reef in front of us, or thick fog, or big swells, or land, or some other boats. It felt almost like an amusement park ride, going up and down, rotating in one direction only to switch to another instantly. Despite of how awful I was feeling, the situation was still somewhat humorous.

The swells were getting bigger as we approached noon. It turned out to be a pretty good call that we stayed behind as most boats that went out turned around not long after. Finally at one point we went over the crest of a swell, and I could feel last night's dinner wanted to show itself. I said, "That's it, you gotta take me in now." I already had my fish, so it made sense for me to go in so the two of them could fish some of the rougher water in the aftenroon if they wished.

As we made our way back, Matt stopped at a couple of "calmer" places and asked "Rod, you wanna try here for awhile? It's flatter."

I just wanted to go on land!

We decided that they would come back at 5pm to pick up Nina and I for a few hours of trolling in the calmer sound.

I made my way back to the camper, Nina was happily enjoying her tea and TV. She looked rather surprised to see me back so early. I went for a nap after telling her the entire story. That afternoon, the two of us walked around to see Bamfield. It is just so remote and quiet, hopefully it remains that way for a long time. While we were waiting for the boat to come back, we watched a couple of perch feeding just under the floating dock. The large pile perch was certainly not afraid at all, bobbing its head on the surface at times. I took out the video camera, managed to capture some of this activity.

The inlet was so calm, quite a contrast to what was happening out in the open water.



While trolling in front of Bamfield that evening, we encountered a couple of coho, some small springs. We ran our rigs through many thick schools of bait, most of the time something would grab one of the offerings. Until that afternoon we had been using artificials. Matt decided to troll one of the rod with bait that evening, only to find dogfish chewing on it everytime.

Here is a photo of Ross concentrating on steering the boat while looking at the sounder.



We called it quits at around 8:30pm and made our way back to the camp. Matt cleaned up our fish by the dock while Nina and I went back to cook dinner. The menu was instant pasta and pre-cooked roasted chicken, it was again absolutely delicious.

[Rodney]

After a very interesting day three, it was time for Nina and I to go home on day four. I had to go home and catch up on work, and anymore hardcore fishing would result in Nina strangling me to death I think. Our battle plan was pretty simple, fish our way back to Alberni Inlet.

After a couple of days of salmon fishing, we thought some rockfish fishing would be fun. Nina had never tried it and the last time I targeted rockfish was back in 1996 around Port Hardy. One appealing thing about groundfishing is that you never know what you might catch on the end of that line. The unknown factor is rather exciting. The downside of it is that this is not so much a catch and release fishery, so we intended to just keep some fish and move on.

Our morning started at 6:00am. After packing everything up quickly, we parted from Island Fish Camp. It was yet another misty morning. It seems like this thick layer of fog just doesn't leave Bamfield.

Here are some scenary shots as we made our way back.



As we left the inlet, we spotted a school of baitfish directly in front of the boat. Among the school, we could see some larger splashes, indicating some feeding frenzy. They were not too big though, possibly some small coho or cutthroat trout.

We motored our way out, passing a dozen boats or so. Matt suddenly stopped the boat at one point, as he spotted yet another school of baitfish but this time the feeders seemed to be bigger. The four of us looked all around us, hoping to see the frenzy continued. Luck wasn't on our side, it appeared the feeding was over very quickly, as they usually are. Matt continued to our fishing ground.

A few minutes later, Nina yelled out, "Bear! Bear!"

Matt stopped the boat yet again. "Where? Where?" We questioned. Nina pointed towards the shoreline where a tiny black dot was slowly moving along the edge of the water.

I looked on closely as we slowly moved closer. "Hmm... That's a pretty small bear...", I said.

"That's a huge bear!!", Nina disagreed.

Matt took a look, and said, "That's last year's cub."



Civilized Europeans, never experienced true BC wildlife I guess.

Nevertheless, it was exciting to observe a coastal bear seeking for food along the shoreline.

A few minutes later, the bear wandered back into the woods, off we went again. Not long after that, we spotted a couple of sea otters floating freely on the surface. We were only thirty minutes into the trip and this had already turned into quite a wildlife tour.

After several pit stops, we finally reached our fishing ground. According to Matt, it was apparently a pretty productive groundfish spot. Here is the day's choice of weapon.



Matt was right, my first drop produced a fish even before the jig reached the bottom. I slowly brought the fish up, it was a small quillback rockfish. Because we were fishing in pretty shallow water, that fish went back into the drink and was very alive. If a fish comes up from much deeper water, its chance of survival is much smaller. The air bladder would normally expand, preventing a release fish to dive back to the depth where it comes from. To prevent this from happening, it is a good idea to slowly reel in your catch, so the pressure change is gradual. If the fish that are caught don't survive, it's best to stop fishing after obtaining the daily quota. After all, there is no point releasing a fish if it is not going to survive.

A fish on the first drop was certainly not a indication of a banner day for me. It was quite the opposite. Beside bringing in a couple more small rockfish and the odd sea anenomes, I was coming up blank. Meanwhile, Ross and Matt were both having a hoot, engaging in double headers at times. Ross brought up a couple of really good sized yellowtail rockfish, which we decided to keep. Finally Nina was getting tired of filming me holding the rod motionlessly, she wanted a piece of the action too.

We moved to a new spot where the water drops off quite fast. Several minutes into the fishing, Nina was into a slightly bigger fish. After some brief tugging action, a lingcod surfaced! It was however undersized, so a quick release was performed over the boat while I captured it on the video camera.

A few minutes later, Nina hooked something bigger from 150 feet deep. The fish put a good bend on the jigging rod. Meanwhile, Ross and Matt were going on about eagles coming down while I was trying to film. I got confused a bit, held the camera up to get an eagle shot, trying to film by pressing on the record button, forgetting that it was already recording prior to that.

Nina's fish was approaching the surface, so I turned the camera back to her. It was a bigger lingcod. This one was over the limit, so Matt wasted no time to grab it for Nina. Nina's first ever lingcod was successfully landed. Everything was captured on film too, right?

Uh... As things settled down, I looked onto the screen of the camera, why on earth did it say stand by?

Well, this wasn't good. I looked up to see Nina still joyfully describing her catch of the trip. "Um... I don't think I got that on film."

"You what?!"

Well, you can guess what happened after that.

The question of the rest of that trip was, "Why didn't you press the button Rodney?"

"Why didn't you press the button Rodney?", Ross threw that in again too just to tease me.

Matt too, "Remember to press the button now."



Anyways, we ended the fishing just after noon, so we could be back in Port Alberni in time since Nina and I had a ferry to catch. In total the four of us kept seven rockfish and one lingcod. The lingcod was a green lingcod, which has green flesh, but will turn white when cooked. Fishersak always raves about how much he loves to eat green lingcod, so it was obvious who we were going to give half of the fish to.

Here are some photos of our catches.



Time to go home.



As we made our way back to Port Alberni, the blanket of thick fog suddenly disappeared. It was as if we just came out of the lost world. The sunshine was so welcoming.



This was how I looked on the way home, quite a contrast to the previous morning.



We arrived back in Port Alberni at 2pm, a quick filling lunch at the local cafe with the crew, we were off to the ferry.

Despite of the seasickness, I had a lot of fun. It was a pretty new experience so next time we'll be more prepared. Matt is truly a fishing nut. Don't say you LOVE fishing until you have fished with him. I thoroughly enjoyed the sockeye trolling too, something that I would want to come back and try again. Most guides' day trip ends after the 8 hour mark, Matt's day trip ends when you can't see your rods anymore. If any of you want to fish until your arms drop, I would highly recommend you to send Matt an email or private message, or visit his website. I believe the chinook fishing will conitnue to be good offshore, then the chinook and coho fishing will be good around Barkley Sound and Alberni Inlet in late August and September. October he'll be busy with chum in the ocean, so book your trip now if you are interested since not many spaces are left.

Ross can tell you what happened in the rest of his trip. He basically summed it up for me at dinner two nights ago "You should have been here for a few more days."

[Fish Assassin]

I love bottom fishing. Love eating rock cods

[Ross UK]

Before I finish the story of the trip with Matt I've just got to go into a little more detail about the time when Rodney forgot to "push the button" 

When we moved to that spot we noticed an eagle perched in a tree very near to where we were fishing. Matt does a passable impression of an eagle whistle, so the two of them had a short chat. Matt had promised the eagle a fish next time we caught a small one so when a small rockfish came aboard with its swim bladder bloated it was donated to the Eagle. Matt threw the fish about 20ft from the boat and we waited for the eagle to swoop. The idea was that Rodney would film it coming down and taking the fish.

So we waited patiently when suddenly Nina hooked a ling cod. Within 30 seconds of the fish being hooked the eagle was on its way. This was going to be great video footage, an eagle swooping down to take a fish just 20ft from the boat. Rodney was quick to switch his attention from Nina's fish to the eagle, then back to Nina as Matt pulled the ling cod aboard the boat. What a brilliant 60 seconds of video....Not !!  . The cameraman had forgotten to actually set the machine in motion   

To his credit, Rodney immediately admitted that he'd messed up (I'd have blamed an equipment malfunction  ). I've got nothing but admiration for such actions...it made me remember back to a day back in the UK when a bunch of us were having breakfast before a fishing competition. Our fishing club treasurer liberally sprinked sugar all over his cooked breakfast thinking that it was salt, and then admitted that he'd done it to the rest of the lads. I'd have eaten sweet breakfast and kept very quiet !!.

Anyhow, Rodney's admittance of his error brought the immortal words "Why didn't you push the button Rodney" from his "other half" 

OK a quick look back to the remaining days of my trip:

When Rodney and Nina had left for the ferry we intended to fish the inlet for sockeye that evening. Sockeye was closing at midnight the following day, so opportunities were limited. However the wind just kept getting stronger and stronger and we had to settle for a "planning session" rather than any actual fishing that evening.

Friday
Next morning the wind had dropped and we were out bright and early to try and get some sox. All went totally to plan and we had our 4 fish in the boat by 06:30. We then waited around until the shops opened, stocked up on a few provisions and set off once more for Bamfield. We fished a few spots inside Barkley Sound that afternoon but the fishing was very spotty and we only managed a few rockfish. The forecast for the following day was excellent, at last we were to get offshore 

Saturday
We had invited a couple of Matt's buddies out with us, and they were to drive from Port Alberni to Bamfield and meet us at 6:00 at the dock. It's a 70km gravel road to Bamfield, and it's in a really bad state. They had to leave at 3:30 to get to Bamfield, no wonder everybody there seems to have a boat. The plan was to go out to the "big bank" some 23 miles offshore from Bamfield. Rodney had taken the bad weather with him to Vancouver and we made good time out to the fishing spot. It was amazing to motor all that way only to find literally dozens of small sport fishing boats out there, in fact there were so many small boats that the coastguards were warning shipping to keep a close eye out for us.

We started by bottom bouncing (no not THAT TYPE of bottom bouncing  ) for Halibut. Both of the other lads caught halibut but I just missed a few bites and got thoroughly bored with reeling a 1.5lb ball up 200ft every few minutes. After a couple of hours Matt decided that it was time to get the trolling gear out. We were soon fishing two rods on each downrigger and it didn't take long before we were into a selection of small springs, big coho and quite a few halibut. Coho were everywhere, goodness knows where they all go to, I thought that numbers were dropping on the Fraser, Stave etc.

As Rodney has told you earlier, Matt likes to give his clients a full day's fishing  . Luckily we had to be back in Bamfield by 8pm so that we could fill up with fuel for the following day's trip. As it was, we were cleaning fish in the dark and it was gone midnight when we sat down to dinner.

Pictures of the catch, plus the final chapter in a day or two

[Ross UK]

OK, here's the Saturday catch



Sunday
Only Matt and I on the boat today. There's not a breath of wind at the fish camp but I wonder what it's going to be like once we get onto the ocean 

I needn't have worried, it's a wonderful day with no wind and just a slight swell rolling in from offshore. We motored straight out to Big Bank and started trolling. The fishing was really good as soon as we started. Lots of Coho, although today they were mostly wild (I wonder why we caught so many hatchery ones yesterday?). We also picked up a couple of halibut around the 10lb mark, a ling cod around 20lbs and a couple of springs around 10lbs. Once again there were amazing numbers of small boats out there, in fact just about the whole fleet from Bamfield and Ucluelet, you had to be careful to keep an eye out for other boats whilst you were playing fish.

Matt hooked a coho and suddenly there was a huge eruption in the ocean and a 700 lb sea lion had grabbed hold of the fish. I grabbed the video camera and started to film this unequal struggle. There was the odd yelp of pain as Matt got his knuckles rapped by the reel handles as the sea lion roared off  . The sea lion had several attempts at getting the fish off the hook by throwing it through the air but each time the fish stayed firmly hooked and even though Matt was reeling for all he was worth, the sea lion caught up and grabbed the fish again. All the time the sea lion was getting closer to the boat, letting me get some great pictures. After around 10 minutes the sea lion threw the coho again and it came off the hook. Matt was happy to get his spoon back (even though the hook was now a very funny shape) and the sea lion had his meal.

I thought that was the end of things, we started fishing again and there was no sign of our "friend", then I hooked a salmon and it was immediately seized by the sea lion. He got that one very quickly and it was obvious that sterner measures were called for. The sea lion was surfacing only 20 feet behind the boat, almost saying "where's my next fish ?"  . He could sense that we could do nothing to harm him and he was popping up every few seconds to see what was going on. Matt was saying that these animals can recognise a particular boat by the noise given off by the prop and that it was going to be tricky to get rid of him. He suggested that we do a little tour of the fleet in the hope thatr somebody would be playing a fish and the sea lion might swap his attentions to another boat. Nobody else was catching and even though I asked a few of the other boats if they'd like a pet, very cute and furry, they all declined 

In the end we had no option but to stop fishing and start the main engine to roar off 4 or 5 miles at great speed. He didn't follow us but it was a shame that we had to leave that spot, the fishing was hot !!. Here's a picture of our furry friend, I'm afraid that it's not too clever because it's actually a single frame from the movie (which is on the members section of this site).


The fuel dock closes at 6pm sharp on Sundays, so we had to stop fishing at 4:00, that's a half-day in Matt's book. Our final tally that day was 4 springs, 4 halibut and a couple of coho, a superb days fishing in perfect conditions.

Monday
My last day before flying back to the UK. Wind was much stronger and in a different direction to the swell, so quite uncomfortable and difficult to hold the boat steady using the kicker motor. We started by fishing a couple of the smaller banks that are closer to shore (12  mile and 15 mile) but neither seemed to be loaded with fish although I did catch a chum salmon on one of them. Didn't realise that chums could be so silver, I'd only ever seen them with their tiger stripes in the rivers.

Anyhow, it was back to the Big Bank again.

Yesterday was perfect....today was a nightmare !!. Everything that could go wrong did so  . Flashers simply fell off the clip to flutter gracefully to the bottom of 200 ft of water  , the wire on one of the downriggers frayed to a single strand and had to have running repairs  , the balls on the downrigger lines managed to tangle themselves together under the boat  and I lost count of the number of times when we were blown totally off course by the wind  . It seemed that we spent more time with the lines out of the water than in it . 

The ocean seemed to be infested with coho (mostly wild  ) and every time we got one of the down riggers down and fishing a coho would pop the top rod 

We were sitting sorting out a tangle one time when a bird of prey (brown and not much bigger than a seagull but I've forgotten its name) decided to catch a seagull. We were treated to 10 minutes of amazing aerial dog fighting as birds swooped and dived in a deadly chase. Last time I saw them the seagill was still flying (albeit with a few ruffled feathers) but I'm not sure that the show had actually ended.

We finished with a number of fish including a couple of small halibut. It had been an amazing week and I can't thank Matt enough for being such a great guide (and a truly nice bloke !). I'll see him again in October for the Chum Derby at Browns Bay and in the meantime if anyone wants a great (long) days fishing on the beautiful west coast of Vancouver Island then Matt's the man to talk to.

Ross

[kellya]

well done sounds like he got you into a good number of fish out there

[flyfisherman]

Thanks for the report(adventure) Rodney and Ross, was out at big bank a couple weeks ago, lots of legal lings and good halibut fishing but in the morning only, just a couple of springs. got into 8 dogfish one day, hate when they slam the herring with their tail and get foul hooked, with the wind out of the west and an tide comming from the east drifting with the wind or was it the current made for some tough work to get the fish in. That may of been your problem on that one day Ross, strong current on the bank and a wind from another direction.
Sore arms are from fishing or beer

[pepsitrev]

  good story rod i enjoyed it alot. cant wait for the next one untill then tight lines and sharp hooks

[IronNoggin]

Would have replied sooner to this, but I just returned late last night from another week of offshore efforts...

I had a truely wonderfull time hosting Ross, Rod and Nina out on the Wild West Coast! Can't think of a better crew this summer, and the FUN was something I'll remember for a long long time!! And of course, the coast did indeed live up to it's unpredictable reputation, providing rather rough water for Rod and Nina, then calming down to the point you could have been out 25 miles in a rowboat, and suddenly swinging to rough again the next day!! BTW Rod, I never knew a fella could turn so many different colours in the space of an hour 

The Banks had a lot of coho, a few springs, and enough hali's to provide us with some reel entertainment when we could get out there. The larger springs were noticeably absent though, which suggested they were adhering to last year's program of rolling in a tad later than "normal". Even now the Sound is rather slow for this time of year. But, the Biggies have arrived on the outside Banks, and we saw a lot on the gear and sounder in the usual approach lanes from Tofino down through Ucluelet this last week. Appears the conveyour belt is starting, and although they are chiefly holding offshore as of yet, shortly now they will roll into the Sound and Inlet and provide some fantastic short-range action! The run forcast for this year is brilliant, so very much suspect we'll be creating some sore arms and silver smiles for the crews that tag along 

Again, that was a wonderfull week! Not many I take out are prepared for the Limits of Endurance runs as much as I, but I can honestly testify that this crew was capable!! I have yet to download the pix from that trip, but will try to get to that later today or tomorrow. Will post as soon as I do.

Ross, I'm VERY much looking forward to chasing the chumlies with you in October! Suspect we'll be having a reel hoot yet again!

Rod, any thoughts about late August  Oh, and BTW, Why didn't you push the button??? 

Cheers,
Nog

[drift]

Great stories and pics guys,I was along for the ride the whole story.