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[FISHIN MAGICIAN]

Hi Folks,

It's the Fishin Magician here again. We launched about 9 am, with winds from the Southeast blowing at a brisk 15 knots under overcast skies--warranting a light fleece jacket! . Not rough at all in the bay and we ran out and dropped at the 2nd last mile marker and dropped lines all in--keeping with rule number 5, never run over a fishing spot to go to another fishing spot. Hot on the heels of yesterday's success, we dropped in the similar gear, only modifying our gear somewhat to be more selective and conducive to finding Big red springs. On the one side we ran 3 large Anchovies, some real beauties, that we had picked up a couple of months ago from Berry's, Stacked at 92, 77, and 62 feet behind flashers. On the Port side we dropped 5 inch Coyotes and top secret "commercial" coloured hootchies , Stacked at 75, 55, and 35 feet, behind flashers of course.  First pass to the Bell Buoy, a loop around, and back and not much was happening, although the Si Tex was marking a few decent fish in the deeper depths--known to be "fish" I had the gain cranked right down. and a quick Zoom in determined them to be something of the spring variety.  We did a tight loop and made a similar pass right up the tide line, and promptly had a hard hit on the deep line. Popped it off, reeled into the fish, and set the hooks. FISH ON! Lots of head shakes, and a nice run and there was no doubt about it, Spring on! A few minutes later, with the other 5 rods in the water, we guided a nice 12 lb Red Spring into the waiting net--a bit of a darker fish, definitely one destined for the river, but still beautiful red flesh. What  a start! Fish number 1 in the box in the first 40 minutes! YES!

We continued on, and had 3 other undersize spring all on the chovies. But weren't marking any fish. After the second pass to the last miile marker we headed out for deeper water, and we hooked up again, this time on the 62 foot chovie, it barked out some line, stopped, gave a few head shakes, and was gone. Oops, guess it didn't get all of the last hook. RATS! We made a few more passes, and the tide began to push--and in the usual Pt. Grey fashion, the fish disappeared, and we carried on past the Bell towards the QA and looped over toward the North Arm. Quiet. Then we hooked up with a couple of pinks in short order--both released beside the boat, but no springs, and we did mark the odd bait ball.  All in all, the wind picked up, and it didn't make for easy trolling with the tide pushing cross ways and the wind coming right out of the East.

We then wandered distant, past the QA and trolled South, quiet, quiet, quiet, but we did see a couple of fish jump out there, smaller fish though, salmon type variety. Then we picked up a tail, SALLY the Harbour Seal, who persisted in following up for a good 15 minutes--and that's a bad sign. The ONLY boat in town, and this seal was counting on us to deliver dinner. We pulled rods and packed it in for the day, at 140 pm, with the winds still from the Southeast. That's the report.

[lucky]

 great report, cant wait to get my boat out on the water.

[Straight Runner]

It sure is good to see someone reporting from the chuck fm. Thanks for taking the time. I can't wait to get out there. Sounds like I've been wasting my time south of the fish lately.

I trolled Sandheads for 2 hours Sunday Aug 8 from 5 to 7 pm, but got nothing but one dogfish of all things. I tried fishing North a couple miles, and South a couple miles, and right out front, then cruised out about 5 miles just to look. Didn't see any fish anywhere. Didn't report till now because my computers were hooped. I also had a look around the West side of Pender Island Aug 3, and inside Active toward Montegue Aug 5. Nothin showing anywhere there.

[FISHIN MAGICIAN]

Very hit and miss out there man.  It's not like there are tons of fish out there. I have a pretty sophisicated colour Cathode Ray Tube fish finder that tells me quite accurately what is in the water, and there isn't much out there. Having used the sounder in the Queen Charlottes where there are lots of fish and you are hooking them very often one after another, I know how to use the sounder. Many times I will go out fishing, for example, say, West Vancouver, and I will be fishing along and there won't be ANYTHING out there, and then we will run over one, and within 20 seconds we have a fish on. Then NOTHING. On the other hand, the opposite has happened often where we don't see anything on the sounder and we hook up.

Part of the luck is being at the right place, at the right time. Without that, during slow times of fishing, no one catches anything. Where you were fishing there is MILES AN MILES of water, and the fish don't hold in any area for long, they are swimming around....and unfortunately, it isn't often that I have found myself hooking up in "la la land" as I will call it in the nowhere way offshore. That's why when you are fishing out there you more often than not hit one, and only one, because they don't travel in super tight schools..the springs anyways..

The T10 is a very successful area on certain tides, when the fish are abundant, where there is structure either bottom or current structure, and feed. Sorry to say but the T10 is one of those spots that running to has become a very costly venture, especially for someone like myself who is running a 150 hp Mercury on the back..and at $1.07 plus GST from some of the local gas barges is sheer bunk---so going fishing there is a bit of a crapshoot and it is a bit early.  The fish really move around out there, and to give you an idea, I get a lot of my information from fishing experience of the area, and from having talked to a couple of commercial old salts that used to fish the area for springs. 

However, about 3 to 4 years ago the T10 was on fire, and that was the place to be.

When the fish are sparse, try to fish structure areas more, closer to higher slack tides before the push, and I think you will find that you will tend to do better. Otherwise, you have to get some larger Cannonballs and troll a lot faster to fish the open water and to find the fish. Just a few thoughts on the T10, and I am sure that a few people will contest this.

By the way, the T10 hasn't been very productive as of late, as a local operator knows someone that has gone down there for 5 longer trips recently and there wasn't too much to report. I am hoping to get out tomorrow again as I won't get a lot of fishing done after this week, maybe 1 time per week IF I am lucky and get a chance to go for the next month..which sucks as the highlight weeks are coming up very soon for Red Springs.

If I get down there tomorrow, I will post a report...and it's a bit of a gamble when it is this early. Hope the weather cooperates tomorrow as fishing has picked up locally here.