hi guys.
Ok.
Got on the water at 4:30 pm looking to fish the high tide tonight with 15.5 foot flood at 7:15pm. The wind was out of the west at maybe 10 knots which made for fine boating. The water was clear, and there was no algae bloom in the water. We cruised out to the last mile marker off Spanish Banks and dropped rods and proceeded to troll to the West. 3 anchovies on one side at 93, 73, and 53 feet and the other side fishing 1 white hootchie, 1 Coyote 4 inch in the Glow Flow, and another white hootchie stacked at 65, 45, and 25 feet respectively.
We trolled past the Pt. Grey Bell Buoy about a mile, turned around and fished back and forth a and made a couple of passes in the company of a couple of seals visible over the area, with no birds diving, no birds on the water, and no fish to be seen jumping. Had the Si Tex on, and ran across a few balls of bait, and saw positive ids of fish, but no strikes. We saw a couple of other boats fishing the area and each of them had their flashers in the air once, but I believe they were just checking their gear or releasing a shaker.
630 pm and it was pretty quiet so we figured it was time to change things up so we headed over to the fisheries station across the bay, and dropped lines in the company of 3 other boats, and it didn't look like much. We trolled in with the tide to the Pink Building zig zagging all the way....then we were bored out of our trees as the sounder marked plenty of bait balls, but none of the tell tale Red Marks around them indicating salmon. I was just thinking ..."man, its getting late, tide change has already occurred, and we're done for, skunk city, then the Port Side Bottom Rod doubles over, and the reel just starts HOWLING. WOW!
Haven't had a fish rip the line out of the release clip and start SCREAMING out the line in quite some time, and there was no doubt about it, FISH ON! "IT'S A SPRING!" I hollered over my shoulder as Dad started clearing the lines off the one rigger. By this time we were close to the Pink Building.
After about 30 seconds of the line just peeling off the reel, the fish stopped running and I started reeling furiously to maintain steady pressure on the fish, and I knew something was funny..it just didn't feel right. At that point, whatever it was started heading for the surface and the reel resumes screaming and about 10 seconds later about 300 feet out a Seal Comes out of the water its JAWS locked on my decent sized mature Spring 15-20 lbs. What the HECK and WHERE THE HECK did that seal come from? We didn't see any SEAL!
UH OH, it's all over. Next then I know, the Seal disappears and my line pops free. I wind furiously and I can see my flasher skipping the surface as I reel in. There is my anchovy teaser head with what was the head and entrails of the Seals Fresh Spring Salmon. Ah well, seals gotta eat sometime eh?
So, back down with the rods, and we made another couple of short tacts and then headed further offshore into deeper water in search of larger concentrations of bait and salmon. No birds, no seals, no diving birds. No fish jumping. NOTHING!!!
Thus with the sun sinking lower in the sky, and darkness beginning to encroach upon us with the long shadows starting to be visible from the trees on the shore, we elected to pack it in, and make a quick tour over the QC marker right off 3rd Beach and the Teahouse and see what the sounder would mark and there was little showing on the sounder. No birds or nothing. Yikes. There was another large boat trolling the area, but we didn't stop to ask questions.
All in all a nice night on the water, but little in the way of action.
We put the boat on the trailer and saw 4 boats promptly arrive to pack it in. We talked to 2 off them and we recognized 2 of them from West Van, and 1 from Pt. Grey. No Keepers for either of them
That's it, the report, and it sounds like last weeks slow fishing is carrying over to this week.
Tight lines Everyone who manages to get out.
FM.