CH Report: "Not A Bad Week!" - August 1, 2018

The fog has finally lifted and the Northwest winds slowed somewhat here at Langara. It has been a rougher week weather-wise with gale force North Westerly winds, relentless at times, combined with a dense fog blanketing our favourite fishing holes.Our trip July 26 to July 29 was foggy for sure, although by noon the weather would break, and there was some brilliant sunshine to be had. A lot of the guides worked Graham Island pretty hard and some of the hot spots were busy to the point of combat fishing. Boulder Bay was especially busy, sometimes 25 boats packed in there. It is shallow in the bay, 25 feet at the back of the bay at high tide. There was some bait and whales working in amongst us, and at times lots of hookups.Below are a few pics of a very nice tyee angled by Duane Woods. This fish went 31 lbs and was released. We hooked it 20 feet off the rigger, tight on the beach. The fish was hooked on the side and screamed through the fleet, soon entangling six or more guide boats lines, what a frantic mess. A lot of lines cut, some high rpm with 400 horsepower churning up a wake, we finally hacked and whacked through the fleet and landed our fish in Pillar Bay.

Duane Woods and his 31 release.I included a photo of the recovering hatchery tyee in the tote of sea water, which insures no sea lion issues or for that matter the guide losing a limb.

A 31 lb tyee recovering in the fish tote before a careful release.We had a great afternoon in the bay, as did Owen and his guest, here successfully landing a 26 lb chinook in the pictures below.

Owen about to slip a nice mid twenties in the bag, Boulder Bay.

Safely in the net bag, Owen and guest with a mid-twenties.The chinook were right on the beach, here one of our 27 foot whalers is scraping the rocks looking for chinook.

Scraping the rocks searching for tyee in Boulder Bay.Overall quite a few nice chinook were taken, lots of low twenties and a number of high twenties as well.Our current trip ending Aug 2 started off with a very nice tyee at 32 lbs for Kathy Johnson. Although the day was slower, we were ecstatic to angle and release this fish off the slide. This tyee hit us at 9 pulls off a stern mooching rod, and with the high winds beating us up, Kathy did a fantastic job. This fish was not easy to catch, and with the presence of lions all around, we were pretty happy to see the fish in the bag. Below are a few pictures of Kathy's tyee.

Kathy Johnson and a very nice 32 lb release.

Off goes Kathy's 32 lb'er to return to the river and preserve the superior genetics of the tyee!Tuesday the fog finally broke by 9 am and the winds have slowed to 20 knots. That said the morning was slow, low water and all. Once we had some water and a tide change mid afternoon things heated up for a couple guides. Korey had a nice box full out on the west side up to 27 lbs. I saw Christian sneak in four nice fish from Marchand Reef.We fished the calmer water out from Coho Point and grabbed a couple nice chinook for the Johnson's, Eric and Kathy, pictured below. We avoided Boulder as there were Lions in all quadrants.

A pair of chinook for the Johnson's angled off Coho Point offshore!So it looks like things are coming around again on the chinook front. The afternoons are the better fishing at the moment, the Ebb Tide a favourite on the Graham shoreline. Nice to see some chunky chinook hitting the dock, and the odd coho to 13 lbs as well. I am off to bed, it's almost 10 pm haha. Guides need all the sleep they can sneak in, 65 straight days searching for kings will catch up to you if you don't make sleep a priority.That said, goodnight from the Clubhouse.Mike Tonnesen, Head Guide, Screamer