The ClubHouse Reports

August 16 - 24, 2007

Good news from Langara, the Chinook are building in numbers again and the action has heated up! I am excited to pass on Greg Martin caught, measured and released a 55 lber, fishing with Guide Happy Jack! This monster was jagged at Gunia Point, first pass in the am. A very happy Jack was screaming on the VHF with measurements.....I think he squeaked out 47.5 inches by 30.5 inches. Well done Greg. Both Jack and Greg’s smiles were huge, and built all morning, very proud of the monster tyee release! Way to go!

The same trip but a day earlier Devon Brown, fishing with World Famous Kenny Tsang snuck a 42lber into his tote, only to be one upped by Kim Roy who released a 47 with the Mortician, guide Jarod Ridge. Ridge and Kenny guided these monsters right out of the sweet spot at Gunia, nice going boys. Kory Fletcher had a nice morning guiding Fred Auch to a nice pair of releases, a 31 and 32 lber. Guide Jordie snuck Geoff Streeton into position for a 36 lber as well, excellent work everyone, lots of great releases.

In the last week, we are seeing Boulder - Gunia, lighting up and the Chinooks are being hit regularly shallow on the riggers and 12 pulls on a weighted rod. This is fun fishing as often we are only in 60 feet of water, so the fish cannot dive, but scream out heaps of line often cart wheeling in the air! What a sight to see your tyee, two feet in the air, twisting and turning, trying to throw that barbless hook. We have some needlefish in this area now and the fish tend to come threw in waves, dead for a period of time then look out, big Chinooks hammering your cut plugs. There are lots of red jellyfish in this area so make sure you check your lines often. You know you’ve hit a jelly when your mooching rod takes a heavy dip in the rod holder and the line screams out 10 feet. No that’s not a monster, but you now need to redo your bait and clean the jelly off your cable and hooks.

As of today, August 22 John Simpson fishing with the Screamer has, the largest chinook of the trip, 37 lbs, caught on a whole herring teaser, 38 feet on the downrigger. We were trolling at a brisk pace, 2.4 mph. to get these teaser heads rolling nicely and having great success. You do not lose many fish when they clobber your herring at this speed, and the hit is awesome. Huge headshakes and a corked rod, with a screaming chinook, wow. The teasers seem to keep the pinks away too, although most of them seem to have passed threw the area now. This trip is seeing good tyees hitting the docks; with guide Todd McIntyre putting on a show, helping Jackie and Debbie Charles land two tyees, one of them coming from Andrews Point, which I saw them land today. I also saw Cecil Lewis with a 33 lber, and Jeremy Van Staalduine with a 33 lber. This looks like a good tyee trip with a day to go.

The weather sure is helping too; calm no wind, warm and sunny for the most part. I have never seen it this wind free up here. I made a classic guide error on change day though and got cocky, went out with no rain gear or boots, in fact no sweater or anything but jeans and a tee shirt. I set up at Boulder and within 25 minutes, the heavens opened up and struck great vengeance and fury upon me, soaking me with hideous rain for a hour before Korey saved me with a load of raingear. I felt pretty stupid out there dressed the way - Note to all, always have rain gear onboard!!

Halibut fishing remains fantastic with all boats that get out having success. Matt Anderson now has six releases over 200 lbs, and with the calm weather hali fishing is staying strong. Many fish 40 to 70 lbs, with plenty of soakers. Plenty of blue sharks to go around out there too. We carefully release these - sure makes a cool photograph. The Ozone is alive with halis and sharks.

The coho fishing is the one weak area, as they are not showing in numbers. The guides are challenged to find coho right now; we will wait and see if they show better in the days to come. Thankfully, the Chinooks are our target species here at Langara.

So in closing, get ready for the chinook action to surge this week as we see a run move into this area. There are big fish in the mix, so play all chinook carefully and you will be rewarded with a nice one for sure. This is a awesome time to be here with the weather and the fish on your side, and the guides can’t wait to help you get into some fish and show you this inspiring area.

Screamer, Mike Tonnesen
Head Guide, The Clubhouse