CH Report: Nicer sized Chinook have shown up in numbers... - June 15, 2022

Hello again from the Clubhouse here at LANGARA island! Our season is well underway and things are happening here in Haida Gwaii. We are well into second week of fishing so here is a quick summary of the last few trips.

We opened up on JUNE 2, greeted nicely with very nice weather, much nicer than what the south coast has been seeing. Our first two trips were spotty on the chinook front, with most of us scattered around Langara Island searching for the creamery, but finding just small schools in general. Most consistent seemed to be the EAST SIDE, Andrew’s Point and Coho Point, with the secondary hotspot being the SHAWN Crawford Memorial Highway. Tucker found a nice 28 lb specimen here, 140 on the downrigger.

Below is a picture of TODD yes ROD, of NORTH ISLAND LODGE fame helping us out on the guiding front, mooching along side a feeding humpback whale in tight at ANDREWS. TODD out-fished me pretty bad, and let me know about it daily.

Norm P. and his family fished with us the first week of our season, below is a shot of Norms effort, grabbed in the Pleasure Dome, out west.

Lucy joined us for a halibut session out west, with moderate success. Here is the PITCHER group with a nice one on the way up.

Next up we have Regan. H and Jeffrey. T with a nice halibut ready for the oven, there seems to be plenty 90 to 100 cm halibut here this year, with the limits being one over 90 cm or two under 90 cm, max size 133 cm.

The chinook fishery heated up in short order, as the week progressed we starting hitting consistent chinook mostly 12 to 18 lbs, some topping 24 lbs.

Below is a shot of DANIEL L. with a typical early season chinook here at LANGARA.

Below is a pic of Martin P. and a very burned out Lucy, she likes the port side chair for sure for afternoon naps.

On our current trip some nicer sized chinook have shown up in numbers, low twenties now a common sight at the dock. Here is KURT P. with a decent effort, low twenties chinook.

We found this one on SHAWNS highway, 85 feet down.

Kurt P. grabbed another one the following day at coho point, this one at 60 feet off the rigger. Here is son JACK P. sharing the spotlight.

We hit the halibut grounds today, light winds and calm seas. We landed our take home halibut pictured below, with not a huge effort to say the least.

We did battle a monster 250 lb Brute we safely shook off at the side of the boat, now that was an effort, stripping our Avet reel to the knot before we managed to stop the thing. Team effort we succeeded once again, all taking a turn.

Finally after a hard day battling the fish, nothing better than this, here guide BRENT is showing us how to live a little, on the deck overlooking LUCY island.

Good night from The Clubhouse, back at er' tomorrow!

MIKE TONNESEN, HEAD GUIDE