Old fishing pics from Strait of Georgia anyone?

First pic of the thread, Dad Bro and I right in the thick of FULL CONTACT FISHING Active Pass, back in the good old days !

Miss that ....... favorite saying back then " Go home HERSHEY BAR ! " haha

HT
 
Hey HURTLOCKER nice pic of Neil McLean, I worked with him and he showed me how to power mooch firecracker herring around the areas from French Creek up to Deep Bay. He was a legend out there, and one of the best outdoors guys you could meet.
 
tincan said:
This seems like a good a place as any to look for old fishing pics from when the fishery in the Strait of Georgia was humming along before the mid 1990's. Anyone have a few pics of the fishery from back then. I've been asked to dig up a few pics for a presentation the PSF is doing on their project to bring this fishery back and I'd imagine there are a few of you on this forum who were part of that fishery. I google search turned up very little for me other than the pic attached here.

Any pics of boats, fish, old-school moustaches, stubby's, etc would be appreciated. Looking to use a few to help highlight just how massive and important this fishery was. They won't use any pics without your consent so if you are OK with them being in a presentation maybe mention that in your post. Otherwise, I can be the liason via PM. Cheers, tincan.
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Ferry is the Queen of the Islands , they retired it in mid 70's. looks like Active Pass.
 
salmonlander said:
Hey HURTLOCKER nice pic of Neil McLean, I worked with him and he showed me how to power mooch firecracker herring around the areas from French Creek up to Deep Bay. He was a legend out there, and one of the best outdoors guys you could meet.
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He was a great guy, I was very fortunate to have grown up and spent a lot of time with Neil. He was an amazing source of knowledge.
 
Active Pass, workin the Ebb tide of Helen Pt. Was a blast in its day, 2 ferries often passed each other right there, this is also where the freighter plowed into the side of a BC Ferry along with us Crazies rod tip to rod tip, every trip, jigged herring first thing to load the live well, then .... the herring fishery collapsed to the point where the springs just pound through to this day ... they don't hang out for the days to load up for the rest of their migration. After the herring collapsed we all switched to cut plug. Now it's hard to even find a boat fishing the Pass ...... good ( ? ) management being the main cause. Man I miss that place. Biggest our bunch got there was a 55 lb of my Bro's .

HT
 
high tide said:
Active Pass, workin the Ebb tide of Helen Pt. Was a blast in its day, 2 ferries often passed each other right there, this is also where the freighter plowed into the side of a BC Ferry along with us Crazies rod tip to rod tip, every trip, jigged herring first thing to load the live well, then .... the herring fishery collapsed to the point where the springs just pound through to this day ... they don't hang out for the days to load up for the rest of their migration. After the herring collapsed we all switched to cut plug. Now it's hard to even find a boat fishing the Pass ...... good ( ? ) management being the main cause. Man I miss that place. Biggest our bunch got there was a 55 lb of my Bro's .

HT
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What's left of the Chinooks which move through there fast for other reasons....major harbour seals!

6-7 years agoI got to fish there on an Acquaintances new to him Grady. Tons of harbour seals around...hook a Chinook and wave goodbye.
 
Back in the late 60's and 70's we used to think seeing a seal in Active or Porlier was kind of cool. Well that all went for a **** in the mid to late 80's, combined with the over fishing of herring = what we have today. The lack of herring became VERY apparent when you couldn't jig up a one, in what used to be 4 doz or more in 1/2 our on a spinning rig. The Ebb was always worse for loosing the fish to a seal then the flood end in Active Pass. Was a great place to fish if you respected how too and others ....... it was no place for a green horn, trollers or those that just cut there engine and drifted through the Full Contact Fishin Holes, like, the Cable, the Drift, Indian shack, the Arbutus, Helen or Mary Ann.

Sure miss it. Not the illegal guiding though ... that was going on from the USA ....... quite a few made there names very unpopular there. And were never welcomed with open arms.
 
Here is a photo from 1979 showing my brother and I ( me on left) after a typical late summer Capilano mouth outing. We'd toss Rex field's buzz bombs for an hour or so and have no problem taking a limit of coho very quickly and losing track of how many you'd lose and release. We'd launch our dinghy from the roof of our white AMC Gremlin on the native land under the Lions Gate Bridge and row out about 150' and drift around in the back eddy. Almost every cast or drop of 'the bomb' would bring a hook up from a coho.


IMG_6961cap coho.jpg
 
r.s craven said:
Apparently Cowichan bay was the salmon capitol in the 1940's and 1950's long before Campbell river was graced with the title.
The local run eventually succumbed to the heavy pressure and Campbell river took over in the 60's.




oldfish.jpg
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Just noticed this and the fact nobody has corrected it yet so here goes:

Campbell River has been famous for big fish for over a century and the Tyee Club was formed nearly 90 years ago so it hardly "took over in the 60's."

The term "Salmon Capital of The World" is used by a couple of other places but I believe it originated here.

Not taking away from Cowichan Bay and area but no revisionist history please.


Take care.
 
Might just be one man's opinion, but a few of the old locals still remember the glory days


even though Cowichan Bay was known for its lumber shipping it was a great place for fishing. We were actually a destination long before Campbell River. Our close association to Washington State brought many famous people. John Wayne used to keep his boat there. He was probably the most frequent famous fisherman seen in the area. His chums, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and others all came up here to fish with him. They frequented the Buena Vista Hotel, on the hill overlooking the harbour. The Buena Vista was a grand sprawling old wood hotel. The view was fantastic; the bar was the biggest and best in town. But it had a very strange demise. The word was out that it was full one weekend, no reservations were being taken. That weekend it caught fire and burned to the ground. What started the suspicion was that the owner was seen removing the cash register just before the fire happened. The hotel was empty at the time.
The building we now know as the Masthead started life as a road house for the narrow trail down to Victoria. In those days it was a couple of days trip up the island (or more). However new transportation in the form of the E&N Railway took its toll. It was then owned by Giovanni Ordano. He built the Cowichan Bay Shipyard next door and turned out row boats to rent to fishermen. His boat house was down on the docks behind it. With the closing of the road house the place was converted to a fishing tackle store. The Stewart family had a dock where they also rented out boats. The present location of the Ocean Front Grand Hotel was the Cowichan Bay Inn. It was the absolute height of luxury. It had an outdoor swimming pool, shuffleboard court and a few cottages for summer rentals. And, it rented fishing boats.
On the subject of celebrities and fishing; one of the old time residents, Al Fault, tells the story of working on the log booms. A group of folk were on the shore making home movies. They waved him over and one of them identified himself as William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy for you old timers). They wanted him to do a fall into the water for them. He never did admit to me if he did, but he did say that from that day on when he fell in the water he shouted “Geronimo”.

Fishing in The Bay has been closed for a number of years. When it closed the anglers went north to Campbell River. But at its peak Cowichan Bay was the place to be. The Premier at the time, James Dunsmuir, an avid fisherman and founder of Ladysmith, builder of Hatley Castle, suffered a fatal heart attack right in the middle of Cowichan Bay in 1920 at the age of 68.
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I will see if I can get some pics of Brentwood Bay where we used to fish in the 80's, and other spot on the east sides along the straight,and of course Cow Bay/narrows...Yes a lot of you have no idea how good it was. Fish everywhere. It is actually sad I remember going out to fishing spot and having coho jumping all around us......Was fairly common, and limits on all species were fairly easy to do.

We all sure were lucky to experience fishing like that.... Just for old times sake I am going to take my boat down to Bamberton a couple of times before summer...I miss that old cement plant.
 
Sorry still looking for pics......Anyone have a pic of old saanich inlet chugger fishing? Brentwood boat rental (yellow boat) or gibson's marine (blue boats). Those things were classic the joke is they use to take an hour one way to bamberton.....
 
TheHurtLocker said:
Dont get me started on old steelhead pics out of the Little Q!
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I grew up on the Little Q. We had 25 acres in Dashwood and the river ran through our place. Right past the Texada store. We had a great steelhead hole and I caught my first one there. I spent every day in the summer fishing and traipsing through the bush hunting.. A great place to grow up.
 
Skookumchuck said:
I grew up on the Little Q. We had 25 acres in Dashwood and the river ran through our place. Right past the Texada store. We had a great steelhead hole and I caught my first one there. I spent every day in the summer fishing and traipsing through the bush hunting.. A great place to grow up.
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It sure was. Your not related to Vern are you?
 
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