May 2023 - Queen Charlotte Lodge

We’re almost a full week into the new season and things are ticking right along. Our crew has settled in and the 2023 summer is off to a perfect start.

Typical island weather has provided the full range of conditions, often all in one day! Beautiful sunshine, grey and wet, dramatic and flat… we’ve seen it all, but have had no big winds and very comfortable seas. The whole of the fishing grounds has been open and we’ve been exploring most of it!

Early season fishing has really been very good. While our guests and guides all have their favourite spots, this week we’ve focused a lot on Cape Edenshaw, Cape Naden and Bird Rock 2. There’s been a ton of bait around since mid-May with so many whales, eagles and seabirds gorging themselves continuously. It’s mostly needlefish and we’re finding plenty of feeder Chinook pushing that bait around and stirring things up. The tides have been moderate with only 5 to 9 foot swings so the bite tends to last longer when everything sets up.

Chinook salmon ranging from 12-18 pounds are most plentiful, though we’re seeing fish over 20 pounds every day and we’ve had the Tyee bell ringing a few times this week. Last weekend, Driftwood guest Todd M was fishing solo off Cape Naden and boated a beautiful 37-pounder. Sam and Alana G are fishing with QCL guide Seb this week and have 21, 26 and 31 pound Chinooks on their cards so far. Jose C boated a 27 and Matt F found a 29-pounder on Tuesday. On Wednesday John S joined the Tyee Club with a nice 30 lb Chinook, fishing with guide Jeff G. First thing Wednesday morning, Dan K was fishing off the point at Bird 2 and found a salmon that seriously tested his fishing skills before he managed to get the net under it. The big, bronze-coloured male was quickly taped out to 42-pounds, and Dan was mighty proud when he felt that big Tyee swim out of his grip with strong sweeps of its tail! It’s nice to see those amazing big fish continue their journey back to the river.

Halibut fishing in early season often requires a bit of guesswork! We generally find a lot of halibut move inshore in May to feed on needlefish and crab larvae but return to deeper haunts by mid-June. It’s quite common for QCL anglers to pick up their halibut limit while they’re trolling for salmon! In that mix we’ll see some larger fish and this week Arnold A boated a 30-pounder, Ron C kept a 31 while Drew B hooked a 36 and Glorija T boated a 46-pound halibut.

Prospects for the weekend trip are looking great with light winds out of the south and west with continuation of these really mixed up skies! Tide range will continue to grow through Saturday’s full moon and peak on Monday with a 17-foot swing. Hang on!

We’ve had the whole QCL ‘23 team onsite for the past week and this place is buzzing. They’re in full reunion mode, settling in, catching up and meeting new friends. A solid training week is certainly the key to a successful season up here; there’s much to learn and share, and the enthusiasm is infectious. This will be our 33rd season and what a summer it’s going to be.

Our guide team has been in “guide school” – both in the “classroom” and on the water – checking out the fishing grounds. Veterans are sharing the fine points with some new additions to the team, ensuring they are entirely up to speed with the QCL fishing program.

Staff fishing is another critical part of training week. After all, those guides need to have anglers in their boats, right? So, there’s an amazing opportunity for our staff to experience fishing first class before we officially open!

They found lots of fish, mainly scrappy feeder Springs in the 12–18-pound class. Cape Edenshaw is often the most productive location in early season, and it’s been true to form. We’ve enjoyed lots of sunshine with moderate NW winds this week, so the crew has found very productive water on the west side. On Wednesday we started to see some larger Chinooks around.

The first Tyees of the season!

Fishing Cape Naden on the ebb tide Wednesday morning, Driftwood Captain Dan got his fishing buddy onto a very fine Spring salmon, working down 40-feet on the rigger with his signature “Magic Roller” herring setup. After 30-minutes they boated a stunning Tyee that tipped the scale at 37-pounds.

Right around the start of the flood, another boat worked the edge of the busy water at Klashwun Point, down 33-feet with an anchovy, finding another big chrome beauty. They taped this one out to 32-pounds before sending it back to continue its journey to the river. We’re thrilled to see good numbers of Chinook salmon feeding heavily in the area right now! There’s lots of bait around, with whales and birds everywhere… Heaven.

A number of boats have been out to target bottom fish, and they’ve done just fine. As usual, we often find lots of halibut feeding shallow in May; they’ll hit a spoon trolled slow along the kelp and really take you by surprise!

One big surprise for QCL guests this year, (actually, there are 10 of them) will be our new set of Coho Class boats at the dock this season. These deluxe Bridgeview 22-foot units will be available for both self-guided and fully-guided anglers.

Perfectly set up for 2 guests plus guide, these beauties are in a class of their own – Coho Class – and they’re quickly becoming a favourite.

Tides will be light this opening weekend with swings of only about 4 to 7 feet. Perfect conditions for halibut & lingcod fishing offshore! Winds are forecast to be light to moderate westerly on Friday, easing to light southerly on Saturday, and returning to westerly again Sunday afternoon. Sunny periods on Friday will give way to clouds and occasional showers for the balance of the weekend. Temps are cool… a solid 10 degrees on the water every day. We look forward to an awesome start to Season 33 at QCL!

And just like that, April has gone by in a flash!

Every spring, as the winter storms end and the days get longer, a small group arrives to Naden Harbour to awaken the Lodge. While this time of year doesn’t nearly have the glitz and glam of on-season, it certainly has all the hustle and bustle.

It’s during this period that operations crew, joined by a group of skilled contractors, begins to take on several maintenance and construction projects that have been in the works for months. Everything from paint touch ups and appliance maintenance to major infrastructure projects are undertaken every year to ensure the QCL guest experience is constantly improving.

This year alone our rig up crew, in addition to general maintenance of the property, has taken on log replacements of both the Main Lodge and famed Totem House. They have repaired storm damage and walkways, rebuilt the heli pad, installed new generators and have done major water and septic system upgrades. Perhaps most importantly, our off-season crew has complete key maintenance projects on our docks, breakwater and fleet of premium Bridgeview boats, outfitted with Mercury motors.

It is often overlooked that our team must also put all our marine infrastructure into place during this time as it is all stored away over the winter. A small old, QCL red tugboat, lovingly known simply as “The Tug”, must tow our 4 concrete floats from the opposite side of Naden Harbour back to in front of property. One float at a time “The Tug” hooks on to the buildings and starts to tow; the quiet drone of its old diesel engine humming along slowly until each float is back in place. Heavy equipment and boats are then used to reinstall more than 700’ of walkways and fingers, which are all stored on land over the off-season. Lastly an entire crew of people are needed to pull our water, power and fuel lines down the dock in preparation for the arrival of our gorgeous fleet. The Lodge is almost unrecognizable to most before this infrastructure is in place.

It truly is magical to watch the Lodge come alive every spring. The feeling of butterflies start to kick in knowing we’re just weeks away from the low “whoop-whoop-whoop” sound of a Sikorsky 76 helicopter coming over the horizon and crackling through the radio “QCL, QCL this is Tango”. That first helicopter doesn’t just signify the opening of the season after a hard-fought Rig Up but a meeting of new friends and returning family. It brings with it memories that will last a lifetime and fish tales bigger than your wildest dreams could have imagined. There truly isn’t a place like it anywhere else on earth.

Kingfisher Report | May 31, 2023

The Day We’ve All Been Waiting For….

The first Tyees of the season!

Behind The Scenes | Rig Up

QCL Signatures Series | Ginger Soy Lingcod

World Water Day

Curating the QCL Experience

QCL Signatures Series | Chili Crab

Beyond the Tides | Bird Watching