I took out a little group of rookies for a taste of salt water fishing over the weekend.
Day 1
This is the gauntlet we ran just outside of Alberni... CRAZY!
After dropping off our excess supplies and gear at Bamfield Lodge and hearing it was rather slow in the inlet near Bamfield we headed out to the open water to one of my marked spots from a previous trip. We did a little jigging for halibut and all we got was a BIG dogfish
I noticed two of the three were getting pretty green. To mitigate the damage I started to get us moving with some trolling. I dropped the first rod and bang, fish on, after a short battle I landed a nice hatchery northern ~12lbs.
Shortly after that we landed a smaller wild coho which we sent on its way, the next one was a ~6lb hatchery coho which I tight lined into the boat as it was wrapping itself around the rigger line left a couple feet below the water line. It was pretty hot, all the action happened with in 20 minutes. At this point, 2 of the 3 were now tossing their cookies over the side... so I strapped them in and we made the hour run back in. Did the evening fish and I landed one coho on the inside near Poets Nook Marina.
Day 2 - it was a little rougher out there, and I warned the group of this, making sure they took their Gravol... we headed out to the same spot... and again, as soon as we dropped the lines, fish on. We c&r a few wild coho before landing and dropping 2 ~6lb hatcheries into the box. One of them had a HUGE herring lodged in its throat. It was half digested and the other half (the tail end) was almost sticking out of its mouth. Greedy thing, there was no way it could swallow anything in the near future and it still went after our purple haze hootchie.
Then, 20 minutes into the troll, I get "can we go back...", keep in mind it's an hour run out and $130 in gas for the return trip. So... I have two on the back deck tossing their cookies again (one for the first time during the trip and a repeat from the day before). Well... I pin it and take them in. The one guy that was ok and myself went out in front of Folgers Island for an hour and landed a ~16lb spring and lost a couple coho at the boat.
Day 3 - me and one other went out to the same spot, and... feeling confident, he decided not to take his gravol because he's 100% positive he has his "sea legs now". Guess what... 20 minutes into the troll "can we go in"... being our last day, I said "NO, not untill I can play a few fish and maybe get a few in the box". I fished for about an hour, working the deck, two rods, steering and navigating in a 2 - 3 meter swell with ~1ft chop. Again, the fishing was hot, landed one ~17lb spring and 3 hatchery coho. I played and c&r several (I lost track). We did the evening fish on the inside with no luck - I think we had one bite.
So... it was a learning experience for myself AND for my rookie crew. I learned that I am NOT cut out to be a fishing guide. They learned that the sea is a lot bigger on the west coast and that the dream of owning a sail boat and sailing around the world is probably not a good life choice.
I will post pics later - there are a few good ones before the chumming started.
One side note regarding Bamfield Lodge, I would not recommend staying there. The hospitality from one of the owners was less than friendly. Imagine going to stay at an irritable relatives place who likes to micro manage and then paying $250 a night for it.
Cheers
Justin.
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Topic: Bamfield - Sept Long Weekend (pics added) (Read 2089 times)