Port Renfrew’s fishing has improved this week, with excellent catches of good-sized halibut and, finally, lots of salmon!
The Connellys enjoyed their 3-day Vancouver Island fishing trip, returning to Alberta with their coolers full and, more importantly, with enough fishing tales to last them until next year…but, for a nice change, all these fishing tales are true!
Their fishing highlight was hooking into one that seemed a bit stronger than usual. It spooled out a hundred yards of line and then shook the hook. Luckily for us, the same fish came back a couple of minutes later and took the bait on another rod, but this time that fish wasn’t so lucky. Dave fought it for 15 minutes until his arms were Jell-o. He passed the rod to his sons and then his father, and the family took turns over the next half hour inching this “barn door” towards the surface. When we finally got it near the boat, we were shocked…definitely bigger than average, way bigger! We harpooned it and it took off for the bottom, pulling the float under for a solid five minutes. It resurfaced 50 feet away, exhausted and ready to come in. Sean and Mike struggled to pull it over the gunwale, nearly tipping the boat with the combined weight of the fish and all of us (that’s a 25’ boat with a 9’ beam!).
When all was said and done, it turned out to be a once-in-a-lifetime 186 lb halibut. Congrats boys!
A second highlight was getting into a good patch of salmon, and reeling in a 15 lb spring on a 6 weight fly rod, with 10 pound test. It is amazing how strong a salmon is when you are using light gear -- it took more than half an hour to get this one to the boat. That’s fun fishing!
Come on out to Port Renfrew and join in the fun.
posted by Jolly Rogers at 8:45 PM
