So my replacement buddy showed up Saturday late night and we were out for an early fish Sunday. We hit Meares and Austin and had one really good hit but it was a long line release. I actually had a few more of those through the next two days of fishing. As much pressure as I could hold on them and then boom, gone. Maybe light hook-ups, who knows. Not much happening there so we took off to Whittlestone where I quickly realized my buddy can't handle the swell. He was puking in minutes. So no love for the very short morning shift. Went in, had a nap and some food and my buddy was feeling good enough to give it another try. Fished kirby for a bit and had lots and lots and lots of smalls again, super annoying. Made our way over to Sandford but half way there hit a pinnacle with lots of marks and boom double header with nice sized coho. Circled around, another double. Circled around, another double header. We could have just kept doing this over and over, we were literally just doing a circle. Kept 4 nice sized coho and called it a day, my buddy was starting to feel it again. Still no good sized chinook to be seen, not even the tiny keeper size you're allowed here, which we gladly would have kept. Whipped up a Ceviche for dinner from the ling I caught Saturday
View attachment 82501View attachment 82502View attachment 82503View attachment 82504, it was great. Monday I made my buddy chew some pills and we hit Whittlestone again and found a nice pocket of fish. Picked up a 14-15lb chinook and some really nice sized coho again. One again my buddy loses his breakfast and I'm fishing solo with him begging to get out of the swells. Came back in for another nap and some food and by about 3pm he was feeling ok to fish again. We were really keen on hitting a spot with some better chinook action so we decided to try Swale and although they were smaller, we finally got into Chinook. Had several 55cm fish to the boat. We tried and tried and tried to find something bigger but realized that was perhaps just the name of the game over there. Bonked a couple to fill his license but really not what I figured Bamfield would be like. The cookie cutter fish I'm used to on the inside are in the 12lb-14lb range with some spunk. So he went home with 7 fish but nothing to write home about in terms of the fight. He had a great time though and he enjoyed all the exploring and practicing running the gear. I even made him clean his own fish, gong show. Dropped him off this morning with a cooler full of salmon but it really would have been nice to target other things as well. I can see why the guides just get out there on the banks and put meat on board. I've probably released over 200 fish in the 15 hours of fishing. Next time I'm making sure that I'm with someone that can handle offshore fishing. To be honest I think his anxiety was the bigger factor with not going out. And having never done it either, I'm not pressuring anyone to go. So I'm solo for a few days now and then my family comes up on Friday. I might try and find some crab and prawn spots. I'd like to try and get a hali on the inside but I'm not sure if/where that's possible. I know I can go whack a bunch of lings but, as it turns out, freezer space wasn't included with my moorage as all the freezers are inside the cabins. So I'm being charged $2 a bag to bring them over to Mills, after I've already vac-packed them myself. I have another 10 days here with a cabin and freezer as of Friday so I think I'll just hold off on doing too much more whacking until then. Lots more adventure to be had I'm sure, but man having my long time fishing buddy bail last minute sure had put an odd spin on this trip.
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