CH Report: Patience is Key - August 17, 2023

Hi again,

Just off the water here on Tuesday night, time to catch you all up on what’s happening here at the Clubhouse. It’s mid August, the summers flying by. Soon enough, we will be packing up and heading our separate ways, reminiscing about the fantastic 2023 season.

Just returned from the dock, happy to run into the fun loving, enthusiastic Kalteneggers dragging up their tote. They had a fantastic day, limiting on chinook to 25 lbs, then off to deep water to grab some decent hali. The hali was a chore as the winds blew all day southwest, making it really sloppy on the outside of Langara. 4 meter seas yuck… so, hali fishing was a grind on the west side.

I had a very quiet morning myself, struggling to land any notable chinook. As stated, we could not angle out west at all. A bunch of guides did well up at the top end dragging to very deep water, limiting on teen sized chinook and the very odd coho.

The afternoon found us fishing in screaming winds, southwest again, so most of us hid near coho point. Fishing deep again, patience is key, a lot of waiting and hoping. 6:35pm rolls around and wouldn’t you know it, finally a couple rods pump away – lo and behold, two chinook on the line. Below is the fish ED landed, a healthy fat 20 lber.

We were rewarded for a long afternoon of wishing, hoping, and feeding the fish gods – we tried about everything.

Earlier in the trip Ed and Tucker had a couple nice chinook, deep again, off little coho point. These are the chinooks we are happy to retain at the moment, 20 lbers.

One bonus? Fishing deep always has you in the halibut game, here is TUCKER with a nice halibut angled off the pin. Downriggers, save us again, shoutout to Scotty, vital product to most of us.

Last week we were fishing more conventional spots out west, namely the Bowl. Several guides whooped on em’ pretty good, Korey had a great couple shifts as did the regulars in there. No tyees I know of, but mid twenties were available if you put in the time and were on scene when they trickled through.  Below is a photo of Mike’s catch, retained at 23 lbs, as well as Johns 26 lber. We were finally on a lucky streak in one of our favorite spots…catching what we love to catch, chinook salmon!  

The first week of August is traditionally a time for tyees, this year somewhat different. Yes we had great fishing, but the fish were more in the 18 to 23 lb range. Perfect table fish, but not the size we saw in June. This could be a result of the very warm waters, surface tempurtures are in the high 50’s-60 degrees fahrenheit in our spots. Sharks are common, blue’s and salmon sharks mostly. Get out in the deep on a calm day you will see them cruising on the surface. The coho fishing slowed down from the highs of July, top fish I saw was Bud’s 15 lb coho. Now the retained coho seem to be running 7 to 9 lbs, this week anyway.

The halibut fishing is consistent if you can get out to the west side. 80 to 90 cm are the standard, with some decent fish 100 to 126 cm in the mix. Think 15 to 35 lbs, with the odd surprise in the 40’s. And of course, the odd monster as well. Below is a pic of John and Stephanie with the standard issue quick stop and jig special from out west.

Lucy is still riding shotgun most trips out and Chelsea is monitoring the docks closely with partner Heidi – thing’s are covered on the dog front. No otters making a mess here lol. We are having a great time here, the fish of course the theme, but the wildlife is a close second. The whales are daily sites for sure, humpback and orca. Eagles at times stacked like cordwood. Most important though are those happy smiling guests walking up that ramp at the end of the day. That’s what we love most here at The Cubhouse. Again, thanks for checking in and the next report is soon to be written.

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Goodnight from the CLUBHOUSE,

Mike Tonnesen, Chelsea, Lucy and Heidi.
Head Guide & Guard Dogs of The Clubhouse