To a fishing father, this is pure happiness. Fishing at dawn this morning my 6 year old daughter Avery caught her first chinook- a beauitful 22 pounder. On her bucket list for the summer was to “catch a fish and feed my family.” Check that one off the list! Way to go girl! Your papa is proud of you!
The wind which stopped fishing on Tuesday merely slowed us down Wednesday as it slowly dissipated. It was a bit cold but it didn’t matter for a few boats that had tremendous luck. Peter joined the tyee club with this beauty 35 lbr caught with Capt. Dudds on the northside of Malcolm Island.
Linda caught a 23 lb salmon as her and husband Chris limited on chinooks on the morning fishing session.
Walt had a beauty 20 lber and there were many other fish taken. Despite the weather it was a great morning out fishing!
The first annual wine and fishing trip with guest winemaker Bob Pepi started with a bang today. The sun was shining but high winds kept us away from the fishing grounds. So what do we do on the wine and fishing trip when the fishing is unavailable? Drink wine of course! And in today’s case…guests drank almost 4 cases worth! A very fun day. Bob Pepi hosted an hour long Wine Hour on the back deck and we tasted 3 different wines from around the world and discussed basics of wine making and wine tasting. It was a great day with a bunch of fabulous guests!
Wow- great morning out on the fnal morning. Guide Capt. Dudds guided Jess and Pete into a limit of chinooks. All of the fish were big 22, 24, and 29 pounds but the big Kahuna was Jess’ fish weighing in at 40 pounds. It is the bigest fish of the season so far.
All of the other boats had some great luck too and it was the perfect in for a fantastic first trip at Sund’s Lodge for the 2010 season!
The rain which pounded us through the night gradually relented and by dawn, sunny skies prevailed. The morning bite cooled off a bit some nice chinook were caught. We had an amazing picnic in the islands and good times were hard by all!
Stacy Kittams got the big fish of the day with this nice 24 pounder which gave her an epic fight off the back side.
Cap. Bill Ferguson finally got on the board with this nice chinook.
And Team Nova Scotia did it again with a limit of chinook for Cody Shand!
And Jon Tucker did it again with another nice spring salmon caught off Cracroft.
Day 2 at Sund’s Lodge and a very strong morning bite. All of the boats had pretty consistent action through the morning tide. The biggest salmon was once again caught by fishing legend Peter Evans. Peter was able to use a combination of mind power, superior physical strength, and an uncanny ability to know where the fish are going to bite to produce great results. Great job Pete- big fish of the day twice in a row!
A limit of Chinooks for Jess Arledge:
Lots of other good fish were caught including Cody Shand from Nova Scotia. Cody won the award for biggest salmon caught for a person under 20 years of age and had a great fight out of this chinook salmon.
Jon Tucker and Stacy Kittams with the Father and Daughter team. Great job!
Dave and Murrell doing the father and son thing.
Gary’s big one:
The first guests arrived yesterday- 18 from different parts of the US and Canada. The seas stayed calm and the the weather was great. As the boats headed to the grounds a humpback greeted them in Double Bay and many guests sat transfixed as the whale breached over and over again.
Guest Peter Evans of Portland, OR took top honors today with this nice nearly 20 lb salmon taken off Swanson Island. Pete is a veteran of Sund’s Lodge so after he lost the first couple of fish he was pretty down on himself. But when given the 3rd turn on the rod, he made good by nailing this hog.
On Capt. Dudd’s boat they didn’t have much luck for salmon so they switched over to halis and lo and behold, caught a small rockfish. On the way up the rod got heavy which signalled something bigger had latched onto the cod. Dudds thought it was probably a ling cod but as it turned out, it was almost a 16 pound octopus caught by Jon Tucker.
The Hoodsport Crew of Mike, Dave, Bill, and Gary got into some nice halis off the backside of Malcolm Island. All in all a very good way to start the season of 2010.
The first guests fly in today and while much of yesterday was spent in our service training meeting, the guides all did some test fishing at dawn to continue to locate the incoming fish. All the guides had some action and continue to be impressed by the strength of the early returning chinook runs.
But the top guide of this day? Nick Teichert, lovingly known around the Lodge as Tiny Dancer. While fishing along on the backside, Tiny was able to hook, play, and land these two chinooks over 20 lbs all by himself. He was a big deal today and he was pretty darned excited by the time he hit the dock.
Later, while cleaning the boats, fishmaster Geoff asked, “anybody seen the Fantastik?” which they use for cleaning the boat’s interior. Nick’s response: “Yup, he’s standing right here!” It was Tiny’s big day!
Lodge guide Geoff Duddridge had quite a thrill last week while fishing in Queen Charlotte Strait. Geoff was doing some pre-season fishing and exploring one of the favorite Sund’s Lodge hali holes when he dropped his spreader bar down 300 feet with a pink salmon head on the hook for bait. The guides often joke about pink heads being the perfect bait for the BIG HALIS and Geoff had saved pink heads from last August in his freezer all winter for the express purpose of fishing halibut this spring.
The fishing was actually slow at the spot and he, his father Jim (also a Sund’s Lodge guide) and friend Mike were discussing making a move to an alternate spot when Geoff’s rod bent over. Geoff knew it could only be 1 thing: the trophy halibut he had been dreaming about.
After over 30 minutes of fight, the halibut slowly surfaced. Geoff maneuvered the fish beside the boat and Jim got the measurements: 81″ inches long which translates to 287.8 pounds! After getting the halibut beside the boat and taking measurements and photos, Jim was able to release the halibut without any complications and the halibut promptly swam strait back to the bottom. Geoff, exhausted and thrilled by the experience, knew he would rather this big fish stay in the ocean to keep spawning instead of seeing it hang on a scale. Decisions like this, made by Geoff, are the right ones to take and ensure we’ll be able to catch halibut for a very long time. Congratulations Geoff- your fish is the largest we’ve heard of in the area in over 10 years and is truly the fish of a lifetime!
Got the boats out at dawn and slipped into a kayak to watch the sun come up. Saw tons of wildlife and it was perfectly silent except the sound of my paddle sliding through the water. It was amazing.
