why dont you fellas take this to nexopia....lol
we need a fishing report!!
Ok Trophywife, here is a fishing report. I probably should have put this out earlier, but most of it is still relevant.
Winter springs are in the sound, we caught some nice ones over the holidays in December and January including this little screamer just outside the harbour on Christmas Eve. Bamfields only remaining commercial troller has been fishing the sound for springs, with some decent days of 10-20 winters. Typical winter spots, gear close to the bottom and needlefish hootchies, coho killers, etc...are the keys at this time of year.
Hard to believe that there are prawns out there after all of the BS on prawns earlier but the prawning is pretty good in the Barkley right now. We did pretty well in several places in the sound, and did a little prospecting and tried some new areas too with some decent hauls. Some areas are loaded with berried females and others more males, and lots mixed, but there have been some good scores on the prawn front. We had one trap that had 204 in it. Maybe the sky isn't falling.
In between prawn soaks we've been doing some dives and checking out some of the areas underwater which is awesome to do at this time of year. The waters gin clear, and there's hardly anybody out here so you can dive at some of the places now that you wouldn't want to try once the fishing fleet arrives. Barkley has some of the most beautiful places, and a huge diversity of marine life...it's pretty cool seeing the underwater haunts that you troll over for what they really are. The rock scallops have been a tasty treat from these types of adventures, and we've also been eating sea cucumber, goose neck barnacles, urchin roe, oysters, digging clams, etc...winter is a different gear out here, and pretty awesome doing some of the things that you aren't thinking about when it's salmon season.
I brought my boys out over the holidays and a couple of their buddies and we spent some sunny days exploring remote beaches and caves. Pretty cool getting the kids out on the beaches and islands and away from the computer screens, they didn't even bring them (poor reception) and after a little withdrawl on day one by the end of the week they didn't even care. Barkley's loaded with cool places to explore, and if you can get in close to the rocks and drop people there are some amazing places to see.
If any of you guys would be more interested in getting out here in the "off-season" and checking more of this kind of thing out get in touch, it's pretty awesome. There's a core group of us who try and go out a few times each month, whether it's Bam or staying in the islands.