Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
THE FISHING....THE BAD
An interesting month of fishing it was——I did fine on my way north but revisiting the same spots on the way south (once I had gone into non-C&R mode) was a sobering experience. Because I had used the spoon so hot and heavy I had some bait that was getting mushy and I didn’t want to see it go to waste so I went back to bait.
What happened was my catch rates fell off a cliff in some of the places that just three weeks before had produced lots of fish. I caught piles of pinks and juvenile springs but those don’t count. I hooked a few adult springs but nothing like on the way north. Meanwhile anybody with an in-line flasher and an anchovy was doing just fine
I put my thinking cap on—-no way was I going to buy anchovies. No way I was going to fish an in-line flasher. So I got out my blue label mushy herring and did some creative cutting with a pair of scissors.
Voila—-a faux anchovy—-match the hatch without going to the dark side
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...99f90-a863-441d-b29e-8d8aa27a7813-jpeg.47164/
Unfortunately, the bait had sat in the sun for too many weeks and I couldn’t get enough soak time in on my faux anchovies to get any consistent results
But wow, that was a sobering experience—-a whole different menu of bait had pulled in from the ocean and if you weren’t fishing small, forget about consistent spring fishing
What finally drove me south wasn’t so much the drop off in fishing in that area or the bait I was using, however. It was the whole new crop of boats that showed up. Everyone these days seems to have a 30 foot GRady or a 28 foot Kingfisher and you get the feeling these guys didn’t work their way up the boat ladder like some of us did....you know, learning etiquette and boat handling as they got the larger and larger boat? They had the dough and just went out and got a big bad smoker of a boat
And they could give a damn about sticking to the tack patterns the guides use—-it was every man for himself if you got mixed up with them on a tide. Nothing like looking off your stern and seeing a 30 foot GRady two meters behind you in a bay not much larger then a swimming pool.
And the non-fishing behavior I saw was also disconcerting. I had been anchored in a spot for several days in a relatively large bay. A guy shows up in a large Kingfisher, obviously brand new, price stickers still on all his gear. He asks if I intend to camp there for the night. Yes, I say. So he drops his anchor 10 feet from my boat, ties off his brand new inflatable with the price tag on it to mark his spot then goes off fishing
I was on shore walking the dog when this went down so I was stuck just watching his behavior from the beach
Once I get back to my boat I’m thinking, surely this guy understands the term “sea room”, surely when he gets back he’ll understand there will be bumper boats on the first tide change or first puff of wind and surely he’ll pull his anchor and move because he’s savvy enough to know there’s not enough of it between our boats?
Nope. He gets back at dark and ties off to his anchor and while I’m sitting there wondering if he even knows what a dumbass move that is, his buddy shows up with another 28 foot Kingfisher and they raft up, approx. 10 feet off my bow and begin chest-bumping and yahooing and high-fiving about their fishing conquests with nigh a glance in my direction
I remember thinking, I bet if I ask him if he understands what the concept of Sea Room is he’ll ask me if that’s a new nautical blog and how can he log on....
That was my cue to get out of there....the next morning I pulled the plug and headed south....
In retrospect I should have stayed in the North Coast waters and then just side-stepped my old haunts around Shearwater. Last year I had the same reaction——over subscribed, aggressive behavior, who needs it?
One of my Port Hardy customers mentioned that behavior at Sutil had become so bad it almost comes to fisty-cuffs some times due to aggressive guide behavior. Sad story to hear when you’d think it’s supposed to be a relaxing pastime...what are the client’s thinking when they see the strong-arm tactics of their guide?
But in retrospect, you got to have the bad with the good, especially when you're trying to pace yourself and properly make use of that large a chunk of time you have on your hands out there on the water....You do your best to carve out your own territories, even if the fishing isn’t quite as stellar as the over-subscribed spots. That’s what keeps it fun and I probably should have done more of it this trip on my way south after getting so nicely spoiled while up north
Just getting off the water and walking beaches and picking up garbage helped—-definitely made for a better trip and makes me look forward to next year
And you focus on the cool things that happened:
The pod of Orcas that blew into Rivers one night after you lost your big one, and then one of the big bulls separated from the pack and started detonating the water right near your boat over and over again with his dorsal, slapping sideways like his fin was a huge ping-pong racquet, stunning all those poor unsuspecting bait balls beneath...
And the hummingbird that came out of nowhere when I was WAY out on the water....flying right up to my face to check me out, then trying to get nectar out of the red stripe of my DF300 SUzuki then realizing his mistake, going to the little red button on my Scotty rigger, so close to my hand I could have snatched it out of thin air....
And the grizzly that came out of the woods onto the beach while you were fighting a big spring and then you lost the fish because you just dropped the rod tip and gawked at the bear, knowing you’d be walking that same beach in an hour or so to let the dog do its business...
And the howls of the wolves from the beach at night while you were anchored up in your boat trying to get some sleep to get up for the 4 AM tide, saying....please, please.... just give us your puppy.....all we want is your puppy....
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...2eb8a-e6e8-478b-befb-3b9a3b948377-jpeg.47174/
And miracle of miracles——I did a month’s worth of fishing, most of it in new waters, and I came home with the same downrigger ball I left with—-never had that happen before——what more could a fisher ask for?
Oh yeah, I forgot one thing....I could have asked for just one more thing——there was that Rivers slab I lost? .... I wish I’d gotten it to the side of the boat to have had just one teensy weensy look....just one quick peak.....is that too much to ask for?
I console myself.... next year, there’s always next year....
An interesting month of fishing it was——I did fine on my way north but revisiting the same spots on the way south (once I had gone into non-C&R mode) was a sobering experience. Because I had used the spoon so hot and heavy I had some bait that was getting mushy and I didn’t want to see it go to waste so I went back to bait.
What happened was my catch rates fell off a cliff in some of the places that just three weeks before had produced lots of fish. I caught piles of pinks and juvenile springs but those don’t count. I hooked a few adult springs but nothing like on the way north. Meanwhile anybody with an in-line flasher and an anchovy was doing just fine
I put my thinking cap on—-no way was I going to buy anchovies. No way I was going to fish an in-line flasher. So I got out my blue label mushy herring and did some creative cutting with a pair of scissors.
Voila—-a faux anchovy—-match the hatch without going to the dark side
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...99f90-a863-441d-b29e-8d8aa27a7813-jpeg.47164/
Unfortunately, the bait had sat in the sun for too many weeks and I couldn’t get enough soak time in on my faux anchovies to get any consistent results
But wow, that was a sobering experience—-a whole different menu of bait had pulled in from the ocean and if you weren’t fishing small, forget about consistent spring fishing
What finally drove me south wasn’t so much the drop off in fishing in that area or the bait I was using, however. It was the whole new crop of boats that showed up. Everyone these days seems to have a 30 foot GRady or a 28 foot Kingfisher and you get the feeling these guys didn’t work their way up the boat ladder like some of us did....you know, learning etiquette and boat handling as they got the larger and larger boat? They had the dough and just went out and got a big bad smoker of a boat
And they could give a damn about sticking to the tack patterns the guides use—-it was every man for himself if you got mixed up with them on a tide. Nothing like looking off your stern and seeing a 30 foot GRady two meters behind you in a bay not much larger then a swimming pool.
And the non-fishing behavior I saw was also disconcerting. I had been anchored in a spot for several days in a relatively large bay. A guy shows up in a large Kingfisher, obviously brand new, price stickers still on all his gear. He asks if I intend to camp there for the night. Yes, I say. So he drops his anchor 10 feet from my boat, ties off his brand new inflatable with the price tag on it to mark his spot then goes off fishing
I was on shore walking the dog when this went down so I was stuck just watching his behavior from the beach
Once I get back to my boat I’m thinking, surely this guy understands the term “sea room”, surely when he gets back he’ll understand there will be bumper boats on the first tide change or first puff of wind and surely he’ll pull his anchor and move because he’s savvy enough to know there’s not enough of it between our boats?
Nope. He gets back at dark and ties off to his anchor and while I’m sitting there wondering if he even knows what a dumbass move that is, his buddy shows up with another 28 foot Kingfisher and they raft up, approx. 10 feet off my bow and begin chest-bumping and yahooing and high-fiving about their fishing conquests with nigh a glance in my direction
I remember thinking, I bet if I ask him if he understands what the concept of Sea Room is he’ll ask me if that’s a new nautical blog and how can he log on....
That was my cue to get out of there....the next morning I pulled the plug and headed south....
In retrospect I should have stayed in the North Coast waters and then just side-stepped my old haunts around Shearwater. Last year I had the same reaction——over subscribed, aggressive behavior, who needs it?
One of my Port Hardy customers mentioned that behavior at Sutil had become so bad it almost comes to fisty-cuffs some times due to aggressive guide behavior. Sad story to hear when you’d think it’s supposed to be a relaxing pastime...what are the client’s thinking when they see the strong-arm tactics of their guide?
But in retrospect, you got to have the bad with the good, especially when you're trying to pace yourself and properly make use of that large a chunk of time you have on your hands out there on the water....You do your best to carve out your own territories, even if the fishing isn’t quite as stellar as the over-subscribed spots. That’s what keeps it fun and I probably should have done more of it this trip on my way south after getting so nicely spoiled while up north
Just getting off the water and walking beaches and picking up garbage helped—-definitely made for a better trip and makes me look forward to next year
And you focus on the cool things that happened:
The pod of Orcas that blew into Rivers one night after you lost your big one, and then one of the big bulls separated from the pack and started detonating the water right near your boat over and over again with his dorsal, slapping sideways like his fin was a huge ping-pong racquet, stunning all those poor unsuspecting bait balls beneath...
And the hummingbird that came out of nowhere when I was WAY out on the water....flying right up to my face to check me out, then trying to get nectar out of the red stripe of my DF300 SUzuki then realizing his mistake, going to the little red button on my Scotty rigger, so close to my hand I could have snatched it out of thin air....
And the grizzly that came out of the woods onto the beach while you were fighting a big spring and then you lost the fish because you just dropped the rod tip and gawked at the bear, knowing you’d be walking that same beach in an hour or so to let the dog do its business...
And the howls of the wolves from the beach at night while you were anchored up in your boat trying to get some sleep to get up for the 4 AM tide, saying....please, please.... just give us your puppy.....all we want is your puppy....
https://www.sportfishingbc.com/foru...2eb8a-e6e8-478b-befb-3b9a3b948377-jpeg.47174/
And miracle of miracles——I did a month’s worth of fishing, most of it in new waters, and I came home with the same downrigger ball I left with—-never had that happen before——what more could a fisher ask for?
Oh yeah, I forgot one thing....I could have asked for just one more thing——there was that Rivers slab I lost? .... I wish I’d gotten it to the side of the boat to have had just one teensy weensy look....just one quick peak.....is that too much to ask for?
I console myself.... next year, there’s always next year....
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