@Ho Hum what boat were you in?
We set out from Secret late morning yesterday and quickly opted for South Thormanby. Pretty damn lumpy. Set the lines in the lee and trolled the ~80-120' contours from around Fraser Rock over to Pirate. Tumbleweeds until Dennis Head, then bait and marks started to pick up and coho jumping all over from Dennis Head to Bertha Island, so we stayed there and lapped for a while.
Doubled up on the first pass out to Bertha from Dennis in the midst of an awesome humpback whale show. It was feeding and stuck around for about an hour before heading north towards Epsom. Whoever was in that small tinny got quite a show as well! Naturally, Sigge landed the wild coho for a quick gaff release, and I lost a really nice hatch ho 10' from the boat. A few more laps produced undersized chinook and coho, then about an hour later we doubled up just east of the Pirate Rock channel, and similar result except I lost the fish of the day - high teener chinook which fought like a coho and spat the hook 2' from the net jumping and frolicking at surface. One of those moments you'll never forget - ha!
That compelled us to stay out a while longer. Bite was definitely inconsistent, but we managed to double up one last time just west of Pirate with a nice wild coho and (finally) a keeper hatch. Did a few more passes after than and saw a few more undersize, then called it a day. Fish were hitting from 21' to 99' on the riggers. Smalls spoons produced best. Stomache was empty in the hatchery we brought home.
NW is lighter this morning. I see about 5 boats on the Bjerre and a humpback. Remarkable abundance of whales out there right now! Amazing to see. Kiiind of has the feel of a waning NW, although it's back up to 20 kn at the Sentry Shoal. Halibut Bank has been waning consistently about 1 kn per hour every hour since 9 pm and is down to 13 kn - good sign!! Suppose to swing to SE Thursday, so hopefully that's comes early and there is some glass in between.
Spines and bellies on the Q did not disappoint. Tight lines everyone.
