The ClubHouse Reports

July 15 - 25, 2007

Here is our updated fishing report from The Clubhouse, where all is good and the fish are biting! Just got up from the dock and saw some excited guests and some great tubs. The Don Haggen group is currently visiting and good timing I must say as some nice chinook are showing up again. Had a glance at Kenny’s tote and had to ask, how big? Sure enough a proud Ron Gai answered 40.2 lbs! John Ferlin was even more excited with his 43 lber, caught earlier in the day with Ed Chutter! Saw some nice halibut too, a few around a hundred lbs and some nice 40 lbers coming from the west side. Don Haggen set the bar yesterday with a beautiful 34 lber, and it seems these bigger fish are filtering by Langara again.

These big chinooks are all coming from the McPherson Point area where we are taking full advantage of our Scotty downriggers, picking these fish up at 110 to 140 feet deep. We are fishing close into Explorer Bay. There is a deep hole in there and needlefish, as well as huge herring balls are holding on the bottom. Our mooching rods are mostly quiet as the downriggers are making it easy getting a cut plug herring to the bottom....deep deep deep fishing. Some of the guides shallow up along the kelp and the point then drop the cable as soon as they work out along the lip of the bay, slow trolling between the tip of McPherson and the north side of Andrews. This is a fantastic tack but can get crowded when the fish show in there, mostly our boats and everyone seems good about bringing in the gear if a guest hooks a big chinook. Very few fish are being wrapped up in fellow guides cables. These bigger fish just showed up after taking a week off, we are pretty excited with the return!

On July 19th a monster was taken by Rob Weiss and his guide Pierre, a 62 lber fishing out off Andrews Point. What a nice fish, our largest to date. The 19th to the 22nd trip started hot with this big chinook as well as a number of tyees including long time guest ...Rob McAdams grabbing two nice tyee fishing with myself. Rob has been coming up to Langara with his boys Darren and Brad since the eighties....always nice to swap stories and catch up. We had to work hard for our fish for a few days as the chinook vamoosed as quickly as they showed up. We worked all over the Island but ended up back at McPherson fishing deep on the baitfish.

The halibut continue to be strong on the west side with lots of fish being hit. I know of at least another half dozen monsters over 200 being released, well done guests and guides - we will make a difference. There seems to be plenty of eating size halis to go around, weather dependent of course. Hali fishing is heaps of work but on a calm day with a slack tide look out, Langara is regaining its reputation as a world class halibut hotspot.

We are now fishing right smack in the middle of the prime chinook and coho fishery. There are lots of these Coho in the area, 6 to 10 lbs mostly and they are hitting cut plugs like they are going out of style. I can suggest trying a large 6 inch Tomic plug when you need a coho break, a 602 or a 500 are magic up here and I have had them out this week on and off. Pretty much all your hits will be Chinooks! With all this action a guy needs some sleep, so I am going to do just that. The weather is co-operating finally with no wind for a week and sun actually shinning - rain gear is actually being shed!

See all of you soon and get ready for heaps of action , all the guides look forward to getting you out on the water .

Screamer, Mike Tonnesen
Head Guide, The Clubhouse