Sund's Lodge

Burger Boat day on the food and fishing trip.  After the great cuisine during the dinner service, the burgers on the water tasted just fine.  Amazing how good a burger or dog can taste when cooked on the back of a boat! 

Fishing was slow again but all the boats were able to get into a few fish..whether halibut, wild coho (catch and release) or chinooks.  Big fish of the day went to John Sundstrom.  How fitting that guest chef John Sundstrom would catch the BIGGEST FISH OF THE TRIP!  Way to go John!  He caught this 25 lb fish. trolling patiently on the shores of Vancouver Island with his son and the Stout Boys.  After a mighty run which almost spooled him, John retrieved his fish expertly.  It is the biggest salmon of his fishing career.  Quite a thrill.

On the food front, Chef John did a neat food demo on the back deck with filleting salmon and how to make a cured salmon very easily.  All were impressed.  During the dinner hour, guests got to try the dish (pictured below) of cured sockeye salmon with fresh dill, Creme Fresh, caraway salt and lemon zest.

Course three was a braised lamb shoulder with green olive and purple basil Bulgar wheat, heirloom cherry tomato salad and green basil puree.  It was a m a z i n g.  Dessert was a salted toffee house-made ice cream with dark chocolate cake and brown butter cashews.  The entire meal was heavenly.

Great food and great times on the food and fishing trip!!!!
 

Example 1:  Seared halibut with razor clam chowder with sweet cicily

Example 2:  Full Circle Farms mixed berries with vanilla bean panna cotta and lemon verbena shortbread crumbles

Fishing was slow today for salmon.  Luckily the hali fishers did good.  Congrats go to Michelle who got the big fish of the day- this 37 lb. hali, with a team limit of halis with Big Jim Wolf Duddridge.  Even with the slow fishing, the calm water and Beach Bistro equalled a great day on the water! 

Day 1 of the Food and Fishing Group and the weather was beautiful!  (If you like overcast and rainy!)  Lots of rain on the Inside Passage this afternoon, so bad that one floatplane didn’t get past Campbelll River and guest chef John Sundstrom and others had to take a taxi up from Campbell River.  Nevertheless, the spirits were high tonight during cocktail hour.  Chef Paul had some fresh sea asparagus harvested on Malcolm Island this afternoon and added it to the Vancouver Island trout dish.  Both he and guest chef John Sundstrom have worked to create an amazing menu..I’ll be blogging some of the dishes and thoughts in the next few days but here is a quick pic of the Van Isle Trout dish, sea asparagus and potato hash, and roasted corn cream sauce.  Mmm….

The fishers got into some sockeye, some good catch and release coho, and Bob managed a small spring with Capt. Spenny.  More fun to follow!

We woke to about a 15 knot wind that never quite subsided during the day.  The early morning bite was quiet and the guides began to get restless.  Then the action started…and by lunchtime, 2 boats had limited on chinook and 2 others had fish boxes half full.  It turned into an awesome morning bite.  Big fish of the day honors went to Michael Sprangers who banged this 25 lbr with Capt. Mikey.  Good job one and all!

The weekend boys arrived with the many Father/Son Combos and the Todd Nelson Bday Extravaganza.  Good fishing for catch and release coho was experienced by all.  The chinook fishing proved unsuccessful but a few boats did well on the sockeye- particularly Team Ribary with Captain Jim.  Big fish of the day went to Jason “Big Fish” Fligor.  A beautiful afternoon of fishing.

Today definitely felt late late August with patches of clear and sunny sky, a sunrise punctuated by a full moon, and towers of rain-filled clouds passing over the area drenching everything in sight.  Despite the threat of rain, we had a great beach bistro in the Islands.  Great sockeye fishing persisted with many of the boats limited out on sockeyes.  The chinook fishing was slow but luckily Manov caught this 25 lbr to get big fish of the day honors.  Others pulled in lings and halis to round out a perfect Inside Passage day. 

Day 2 of Team Trail started off with a bang with lots of chinooks caught early.  Wally B, whose birthday we celebrated at night, limited on chinooks with Capt. Millar and shared big fish of the day honors with Kevin.  However, the bite couldn’t be sustained as whales passed through the area and disrupted fishing.  Many boats switched to halis by mid day with over half of the jiggers coming in with nice halis in the 20-30 lb range. 

The day ended with Capt. Dudds’ boat nailing the sockeye in Double Bay- 16 fish in the last few hours of the day. 

Capt. Mike’s boat had gone hours without a fish when all of a sudden they hit a triple header and landed them all!

All in all a solid day on the water punctuated by a great burger by Capt. Paul!  Good times….

Big day as the Trail Appliances Award Winners showed up for their 4 day fishing festival with Whirlpool Canada.  A # of fish were caught including a dandy by Mr. Broderick.  Big fish of the day went to Greg who nailed the big one of 17 lbs with Capt. Millar on the Vancouver Island shore.  An awesome first afternoon of sun and calm water!

Boats were out at dawn for a calm water fishing experience.  The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous and the expected winds and rains never arrived.  Sockeye continued to scratch the surface and chinook fishing improved a small bit from the day before.  Rich and Madison both got nice chinooks with Capt. Millar and had a few other nice fish on.  Max Ostrove continued his wizard like fishing ways with another big chinook.  And big fish of the day honors went to Benn Spiegel who challenged his guide, Mr. Sund, to guide him into a 15 lbr and he would return in 2011.  Well Mr. Sund guided him into the biggest fish of the trip- a 27 lbr caught at Point No Point.  I guess that means Benn has to bring a whole group!  

The guests departed and the staff fished the 7th annual Staff Fishing Derby.  The Winning Team was Millar, The Hag, Chef Paul, Chef Rafe, and Sheena with 2 chinooks and 2 sockeye which won them free dinner at the Sportsman Steakhouse.  A great day for sure!

Big day today at Sund’s.  The rain finally stopped by dawn and the morning fishing was a bit disappointing for big fish.  There were some nice fish taken….big fish of the day honors went to Jeff Ostrove.  Doug Keane had a great day with a limit of chinooks and there were other tales of the big one that got away.  We had an amazing beach lunch in the islands and then in the afternoon is when the real fireworks started.  The boats ended up near West Cracroft Island for some of the hottest sockeye fishing we’ve seen in years.  Hundreds of fish splashed the surface and danced on the rods.   Half the boats limited on sockeyes and the others caucht a bunch and then went hali fishing.  Robert Speigel caught the biggest hali of the trip on Capt. Mike’s boat with this BIG 44 lbr.  A great day for sure!