The Clubhouse Report - Now that's 50!

A sunny night in here, Bud is throwing a party for himself on Pats Deck, ya you read that correctly. Bud guided his party from the Kingsdown group to a nice mid 40,s release and a 32 lber this am so he was feeling pretty good about himself. That grin was huge, and his head swelled, we had to order in a new red ball-cap for him, well done Bud. Bud was working over Douglas and found a few more too.The pocket in between Gunia and rock was the place to be this am.Shaun angled a low 40,s for the Kingsdown group lead by Hugh Owen, Hugh supporting us with beds and fishing trips since we started up here. Hans had a 47 lb fish as well for the same group what the sam heck is going on? Fishing seemed slower today, but that is three fish in the 40,s!Our trip started on Sunday, Myself guiding Don Elkington owner of Coast Spas, and his guest Eric Kownaki. We started out at Cohoe Point in a cesspool of sea-lions, catching cohos and watching springs being gooned. A quick call to my most trusted source Korey, and he invited us out to the West Bank. Korey was on fish, 60 to 80 feet on his rigger, towing a dummy flasher....the coveted BETSY SILVER. I roared out there and worked into the mix of boats, a couple passes what the heck? Me thinks I missed the bite. Fletcher was trolling alongside me, some friendly banter about his boatload of red heads, the Beattie family, and my port rigger thumped. A crazy screamer heading for China through the maze of boats, the rod buckled, me screaming instructions, could this be the illusive Hippa?Funny how fast you can work over a Hippa with 450 horses, my skiff was on plane at times. Unguided boats stacked like cordwood, Dons Hippa still screaming, me trying to avoid confused dazed self-guided boats, all capable of shattering our dream. Excellent work by Eric, needed the deckhand on this one. You have to be on it in a fleet of boats, team effort. Don wound up with 100 yards of slack line on my Hippa saving maneuver, he was cranking the reel like a wounded duck at times.The fish showed itself, but after two amazing runs, she momentarily rolled on her side and she was ours, in the net, holy shite, this one looks pretty good. Don grabbed the net bag with me and into the Hippaquarium she went for revival and a measurement, and a photo-shoot. Dammit, 45 x31 this is a Hippa. I was pretty excited, 54.1 on the table, and we let her swim, to hopefully keep her jaw closed to she gets home. What a beautiful fish, on a gorgeous sunny day, one of the nicest fun fish I have guided out at Lacy.See pictures below if they can be posted here, look at the weather and the girth on that fish!

So an eventful first couple days on our current trip. The big boys are here, that is a seven hippas over 50 lbs released at this point from the Clubhouse guides, a great season so far and lots of time left to add a few names to the over 50 lb chinook club. The over 40,s are way up from last year, guessing we are over a couple dozen now released on the season.A reminder the halibut rules are in effect. 125 cm is about a 50 lb halibut and is the max. size we are permitted to harvest. There is no leeway on this, no fudging, this is the rule! So if a hali is close, it must be handled with care, taped and released if over this size. The deal is that many halibut in this area out west of Langara are over this size limit, it might take you a shift or more to find one small enough to harvest on the west-bank. Plenty of chickens on the east side, but you might be reeling up a half dozen monsters only to be releasing them, which is no easy task.Being that it is prime Hippa season, me thinks it is the Chinook and coho most will be targeting.This is a special place and one of the only places you can target these monsters day after day, for four months! Why would a guy anchor for catch and release halis when over 50,s are cruising the pass? It is Hippa season now, we are excited, I hope to see you all working the kelp, the reefs, and rock-piles searching for these incredible fish, off to bed now, goodnight from Langara, Mike Tonnesen, Head Guide, Screamer.