A spell of classic Northwesterly weather last week certainly brought sunny skies and some “busy water” down from Shag Rock, but along with it came a noticeable change in our fishery. That “change for the good” was defined by greater abundance of migratory salmon in the twenty-plus class and an increase in the Tyee count throughout the fishing grounds. Our guests this past weekend enjoyed some intense salmon action inshore, in the early hours of the morning ebb tide.  From Yatze down to Cape Naden, double-headers were common with a healthy mix of teen-sized Chinooks, 5 to 7 lb Coho and enough larger Chinooks to deliver a major surprise every half hour or so! The Tyee Bell has been tolling nightly for notably large salmon, some coming to the scale and some caught and released. The largest salmon on the dock this weekend was a 35-pound beauty for Laura P, fishing with friends on the 89 with veteran guide Braeden H.  Michael F and Darren S each boated 34-pounders last trip while Michael M released a 31 and Ray P sent back a big chrome buck that taped out to 35 pounds. Great work!

A huge highlight of the weekend trip was the arrival of our first 50-plus Tyee of the season!  Fishing the famous kelp bed off Yatze with Robbie C at the helm, angler Andrew A battled a stunning big Chinook for 20 minutes before Rob slipped the net under it. A quick measurement and careful revival saw this amazing fish return to the safety of the kelp… having taped out to 52 pounds!  It’s nice to see those giants returned to the water in hope that they will find their way to the river this summer!  Congratulations Andrew!  Well done!

The offshore fishery may have seemed a little slow from the start this summer, but recent catches have proven that all is well on the hali-grounds!  All the favourite benches and pinnacles are producing excellent results for anglers in search of tasty halibut and lingcod.  Finding the bottom on the ideal stage of the tide is an art that all guides work hard to perfect, and the rewards are certainly worth the effort.  So far this season QCL anglers are finding good success with consistent catches of keeper-sized halibut from 15 to 50 pounds.  But there are those who go offshore to the deep, hoping to feel the weight of something bigger!  They were well rewarded this week with some seriously large fish!  Brad G started it off on Wednesday with a “barn door” that taped out to 75 inches or 224 pounds!  On Saturday Wayne B and Dan T tag-teamed to haul up its twin, also in the 75-inch class!  And yesterday Matt L got his annual halibut workout, doing the tug-of-war with yet another halibut in the range of 76-inches!  Admittedly, seeing these giants alongside the boat is most impressive, but what a lot of work!  Congrats guys!  It’s a good thing our massage team at the Twin Creek Spa are here to help you recover!

Until next week, Fishmaster