North Island Lodge Report: June 24, 2010

Richard Lock and Friends joined us last week for the first annual Reeling for Ronnie tournament.  Honoring their good friend Ron Brown, the group to continued on with one of his favourite sports while raising money for charity. Of course, there was a little friendly competition and few laughs along the way.

“The trip will also be a fundraiser for a scholarship program that Gwen, Ron’s wife, has created on Isla Mujeres where they were living for the last 12 years.  Gwen will be awarding scholarships to exceptional students who cannot afford to continue on to high school, as Mexico only provides for elementary education.”

Have a peek at the website they created.

http://www.reelingforronnie.com/

What a great combination and a great idea!

The winning team Richard Lock and Kieran Longworth show off their hardware.

On the weather and fishing end, it was a little cold but the wind let up enough to explore most of the Langara favorites. Fishing was fairly consistent with guests finding several Chinook in the 18- 25lb range.

Not to be overshadowed by the Lock group, Dennis Goulet and young Brendan Hannah both added Tyee’s to the board, while Steve and Nickolas Serbic had a great day chasing halibut out west. Check it out.

I snuck out myself a couple of days ago, coaxed into a guiding session by some longtime guests. I swung for the fences and headed west. A bit of a gamble, but we were looking to avoid the crowd and hoped to hit the patch of those hungry Lacy Island Chinook. Our first tack at Lacy Island we saw very little life and we were the only boat there. I could not help but think I may be a little out of tune as we worked it for an hour hoping for a reason to stay…No dice. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach, wondering of where I could try next to save our afternoon. It’s not always how you pictured it once you’ve untied from the dock.

I heard the radio crackle with reports of a few fish being taken at Cohoe. We crawled back to “the usual” setting our gear at 5pm, not a lot of time to make up for a bad call. Second rod in the water pounds with a bite and we get a solid set on it, a small Chinook but nice to get on the board. 3 quick Chinook later and the sense of urgency had lifted. This is something all guides feel even if you can’t see it on their face. I was not the hero this day, but I’ll still gamble and head west again soon.

Overall, a fairly strong week of fishing as late June approaches. It is time to start “hog hunting” around here as this is one of the best times to get a prized Chinook over 50lbs at Langara. The clock continues to tick on the Spring Salmon Challenge which will make for fun week ahead. Special mention to Outpost guest Kelly Owerko who entered a 47.3lb Chinook, just a hair shy of the current leader. Great fish Kelly and well done on the release. Check out Ken’s Blog for more details.

I might just try and get out for the tide myself tomorrow. Guinia Point on the high slack..We’ll see!

Todd McIntyre