The group of guests that came in for the Food and Fishing Trip this year were great. They brought the right “mix” of fun, and genuine interest in the area, the fishing, and the food program, that John, Andrew, Simon, and Terrell, put on for us this year. They brought the right ingredients for a successful trip(I tried Sheena)!

Marshall and the South Dakota groupies!

Nick had a nice surprise when he brought in this fine sockeye.

Bob lands a rare hatchery coho!

Tom is beaming with this nice coho!

Scott's chinook was the only keeper of that species that was brought in.

Skillet sized pink will be a nice snack for someone!

   The crew on Sam’s boat hooked up early, when the plug got sledge hammered off of the rigger, before John Tsivanolis reeled in a nice 19lb. chinook! All the boats had a measure of success throughout the morning on pinks and coho, and the odd chinook, until just before lunch break, when the bite came on heavy. A staple of our lodge’s success is the Beach Bistro, so we didn’t want to miss it, but the bite came on, and everyone started nailing fish! The Cureton’s and the Jebson’s, fishing on Cpn. Harold G. Millar’s boat, had a quick flurry of chinook, mixed in with the pinks, where Alan and Tim finished out their limits with 19, 20, and 17lbers! John banged another high teener with Sam, and Tom Myers caught a nice chinook with Burgenheim during that flurry.

   Finally, things tapered off, and the boats headed for Tsuiladas to have lunch, and the crew did not disappoint, taking the experience to a whole new level this time!  The food was excellent, and the atmosphere in the cove is always great. The crew regrouped, and headed off again.

    Jim and Shaun took their crews out for salmon, while Spenny did a combo, salmon/halibut. Salmon fishing was slow, but a few wild coho and pink salmon hit throughout the afternoon. Spenny took his guys, Randy and Colin, for halibut later, and they hooked into something very large! Randy had a crazy battle with the fish, which ran several times to the bottom before they finally boated it, It turned out to be a gigantic Big Skate! Somewhat disappointing, but a fun fight, nevertheless. Sammy and Millar had other plans, and they both headed for the mainland side to look for yelloweye, ling, and halibut. Sam hit the tide just right on one of our great ling and snapper spots, and the lines were plumb to the bottom, allowing them to quickly limit on large snapper, with the big one topping our largest in a couple of years, weighing in at 19lbs! They then hit a bump on the chart nearby, where Sam hooked what he thought was bottom and the line snapped! Then, on the next pass, Don hooked into something strange. There was obviously a fish tugging on the line, but it felt unusual. They finally brought up a quillback rockfish, but still tangled on the line was the other line that had broken off previously. Sam decided to tie the broken line onto a cleat to try to salvage his gear, but after pulling and pulling the line would not come undone. That is when they realised they had a LARGE fish on the line, and that is when Sam’s blood pressure went “through the roof”!  No sooner had they spliced the line back together, when the fish headed to the bottom. Whatever they had on felt like an I-beam, and they wished they had a crane to haul it to the surface. Don began working it to the surface once again, but suddenly, the line parted and Sam and the guests were left feeling sick. The huge behemoth was gone!

   Millartime was nearby with his crew and they weren’t doing well.  They left the area and headed to one of Millar’s secret spots. When they dropped the lines onto the pinnacle, Geoff noticed that they were going to miss the hot spot. He was frustrated when he had to ask the crew to pull up their lines, yet again, with no success. That is when 3 lines hammered down simultaneously, and they were into 3 really nice halibut! They managed to boat all three fish, and they were all dandies, weighing in at 42, 42, and 55lbs! What a way to end the day!

Geoff drills the guests with the importance of not getting pinched.

Eating the crab butter gave Tim luck, today!

Mmmmmmmmm!!

Don Couture makes a friend!

Cpn. Burger hammers back a few glasses of wine, while watching Anne-Marie pet a crab.

Good stuff.

This one should be framed!

Anne caught this 15lber with Old Dutch, on the Emelio.

Colin picked up a teener at the Bluff with Spenny.

John with his limit of chinook!

Sam put these guys into a feeding frenzy of Yelloweye Rockfish, including the largest of the season, Don's 19lber!

Tim, Molly, and Winnie had an incredible triple banger with these sheets of plywood to end the day! There was so much blood on deck, they were losing their footing.

Tim brought in the largest halibut of the trip, which complimented his big chinook of the trip! What a stud.

This group filled their stringers today!

Pope Tim blesses the masses!

   Cpn. Shaun took Anne-Marie and Peter up to Bond Sound for a fun flyfishing adventure. They had good action with the pink salmon there, and had a good-sized coho on briefly, before long line releasing it. Anne-Marie picked up a real nice cutthroat, as well, which are hard to pick out amongst the many salmon at this time of year. Sounds like fun! Sam, Spenny,and Jim took their guests to Lady Ellen Pt. in the morning, where action was fairly slow early, but picked up as the morning progressed. Cpn. Madman Millar had his guests fishing in Mitchell Bay, where they had a bit of success, including Don’s 13lb. chinook. The Burger Boat came around, with guest boat captain, “Big Wave” Dave Sund, and they quickly had everyone munching on leftovers from the previous night. Everything tastes better on the water (kind of like camping), so the stale food wasn’t too bad.

   After lunch, everyone went off in different directions, looking for their intended quarry. Jim Duds took the Cureton’s and the Jebson’s for more salmon, taking them into a little nook of his, where they smashed a ton of pinks, and limited out, and were only a few minutes late this time! Cpn. Millartime took his crew, John, Don, and Alexis, to the Beach, where they got into some great action, landing all five species of salmon, a very rare feat! Alexis caught the largest salmon of the day there, but unfortunately, it had to be released, due to being a wild coho. After they caught their salmon, they went for a short jigging session, looking for flatfish. As they were heading to the spot, a pod of Orcas interrupted their trip, passing right through their path! When they finally made it to the first spot, they stopped and dropped gear, before noticing that they were surrounded by Humpback Whales. There were 5 of them, all surrounding the boat in different directions! With no success there, Millar moved to another spot, and instead of finding halibut, they found more whales. This time it was a lone Minke whale, and a small pod of Dall’s Porpoise, that passed by! Sam and Spenny took their crew for butts in the afternoon, too. They headed west, and though the fishing was slow, they managed to pick up a couple of fish. All in all, it was a fun-filled day, and we are looking forward to even better things tomorrow!

Alan caught this chinook with Cpn. Jim at the "Lady".

Alexis caught and released this hawg coho!

Don's 13lber came out of Mitchell Bay, early.

Grand slam! 5 species of salmon for this crew today. Way to go!

Anne-Marie caught this pink, amongst many others, on the fly!

Fishing the shores of Bond Sound.

Ahta River pink

Peter holds his pink outta the Ahta!

Heaven!

What a slaughter fest!

Tom got one of the few chinook today.

Reid has a small butt in his hand.

Randy cuaght the 2 biggest keepers today, a 15lb. nook, and this halibut hung on the hook!

These guys selfishly caught the biggest fish, again!

Randy's turn.

Burgenheim, the master fly fisher returns!

Twins!

   Quite a pack of boats were working Lady Ellen, but fortunately, there were enough fish for all, as people were hitting them left, right, and centre.  The Goemans guys from Ontario, had a great morning, fishing with Captain’s Samsquanch and Jim “Old Dutch”. They nailed a good sized chinook each, as well as sockeye, pinks, and  coho, including the biggest one of the trip, Brad’s 23lber! All of the boats got into good action, and beautiful weather really made the last morning special. We look forward to having you all back here again someday soon. Thanks for a great trip!

Brad "the inventor" got the largest salmon of the trip, at Lady Ellen Pt., which weighed in at 23lbs.

Jason lands his first chinook of the trip

Shane got this 22 with Cpn. Wolfman Duddridge!

The twins pose with their dad, and their near twin chinooks! What a morning, eh?

Jeff slipped this 22lber into the Samsonite bag on Sam's boat!

Greg enticed this 15lb halibut into 50ft of water, to take his anchovy.

Burger's guys had a bit of unfortunate luck this morning, but were able to bonk these nice fish!

Fishing remained active as most boats had steady hits from pinks, with a few coho and chinook mixed in. Lady Ellen seemed to be back on today, and White Beach Pass produced again today. Cpn. “Smokie” Horning took his guests to the north shore of Malcolm, for the first time in at least a week, and he found some decent action there, with pinks and the odd chinook, too. The boats at Lady Ellen Pt. had good action early, which tapered off for a couple of hours, but came back on as they fished up to the high tide. White Beach produced for Cpn. “Mr. Chinook” Logan, again, when he took Rich and Carol Capps there today. They caught a nice 19lber early, and after the picnic, picked up a double header of Nooks weighing in at 19 and 21lbs! What a day, especially when you add several nice pinks, coho, and a big halibut that eluded them, late in  the day.  A couple of the boats headed to some halibut grounds this afternoon, and 5 nice halibut came in, with Sandra Davis catching the largest, right at the last minute, with Cpn. Spenny, which weighed in at 44lbs! The last morning could be when we finally get a tyee on this trip, as the chinook seem to be making their way back into the area in numbers. Wish us luck!

Another teener for Joe.

Sandra bagged the largest halibut of the trip at the last second today!

Tom hammered this chinook at the very end of the morning at Lady Ellen point.

Sam's guys got 'em today!

The twins get similar catches.

Jim poses with the Goemans guys.

Greg and his "tyee" pink!

What a crew!

Taylor pulled out his private stash of dynamite, today!

The Goemans guys were a lot of fun!