Fished Sunday and Monday.
Sunday in the EA derby - great time but what a mess at the wall! The number of boats was sickening but the crap in the water was just too much for me. Did one pass then headed up to clover. Hit a couple pinks up there. Trolled back and headed towards albert head. Top rod went off (naked spoon) and I had a wicked battle with a 15lbr. First it came to the boat, looked at me then shot straight up out of the water about 5 feet into the air. There I was jaw wide open, line slack stairing at this fish it seemed like it got so high I almost had to look up at it! It was an incredible jump that i've seen small rainbow trout do but never a big (well ok medium) size chinook salmon! After the super jump the fish took off under the boat and surfaced on the other side where it jumped twice more. It swam back to the other side and jumped again before heading to the bow. There about 10 feet infront of the boat it jumped once, jumped twice and AWWW the spoon came flying out of it's mouth mid air. I wanted that fish but I was also not sad to see it go it was a spirited battle that the fish won with supremem technique, stamina and determination. I've got no doubt that fish will climb any set of falls it comes across in the river.
I circled the area but didn't connect again so I continued on towards albert head. Some action deep on the sounder caught my attention and with my balls dragging bottom I hooked some small springs and (I think) two halibut. One came up and was around 20 lbs the other felt like moving bottom and I pulled the hook trying to convince it to come up and stop wasting my derby time. I think I had 5 spring hits all together plus the pinks and two halibut so it was a fairly busy day for me but the majority of the salmon were small. I did get a 12lbr to weigh in though and kept a 10 near the end of the day to round out my limit. I had my eye on one of those big coolers on the prize table but at 12.0 my fish was not cooler worthy. I settled for a nice scotty bag that fits my trap puller perfectly with room for some more prawning gear.
Monday I took my girl out and we fished around the area I had the deep action the day before. I took my halibut levelwind out and hoped to get her into a fish. Like a dodo dad puts his rod down first and before I even had it buttoned up it popped off. Fish on! It was another little guy about 8lbs. I was just thinking of getting Emily to try some reeling when the fish peeled out some line. Even an 8lbr will rap your knuckes if your not careful so I decided I better play this perfect kid size fish instead of risking a bad first experience for my girl. The 8lbr was easily released and dad got the next hit too which was an even easier release because the fish shook the hook mid way through the fight.
It slowed down after that but finally Emily got her fish on. I grabbed the rod, reeled in the slack and plunked it down in the rod holder at the back of the boat. My 3 year old did a good job not getting upset at dad saying "reel reel reel" and at her own pace she cranked the levelwind and got the fish near the boat. At times she did it on her own other times I pulled the line like I was on wicked tuna while she reeled in the slack. This fish was no slouch, as it got near the boat it took off and almost pulled the line into the prop so I thought I better move the rod to one of the side rod holders. That didn't work for Emily because it was up a lot higher so she proclaimed "I'm done" and it was up to dad to finish it off.
Thankfully I was able to do my part in landing what will be a memory forever. Took me until I was 17 to catch a teenage spring my kid did it on her first day! 15.3 pounds!
Thanks to all the volunteers at esquimalt anglers. I met a nice kid from Bermuda who volunteered to help launch boats and he was in the cook shack serving burgers after the derby too. Really nice of him to take time out of his vacation to help his Grandpa. The other volunteers did a great job keeping the launch running smooth in the morning and the chaos in the afternoon. Thanks as well to the guys who used the middle of the ramp to pull their boats it was cool seeing three boats getting pulled at once that deffinetly helped shorten the line up. Everything about the event was great and I think next year I'll have to bring my ringer with me. Had she been with me and caught that fish the day before it would have won the junior catagory and had I caught it myself it would have been a cooler fish for sure!
