Well, just got home last night from our annual Nootka Sound trip to Critter Cove.
Left home Saturday 7/18 at 4am, and made it to our hotel in Gold River about 5:30 after a small fiasco trying to purchase our fishing licenses in Campbell River.
Sunday 7/19 - Woke up somewhat early with the intention of being able to run out and drop our gear and then go fishing. Pulled into the Gold River boat launch at 8:30 and there was no way we were going to be able to get our boat off the trailer. Low tide wasn't until 9:30, and we had to sit there until almost 11am before we had enough water to get the boat off the trailer. The launch has a steep drop off when you back off the edge of the concrete, and with our dual axle trailer, we would probably still be sitting there had we tried. Made it to the cabin shortly after noon, got checked in, and we were on the water fishing by 1:30pm. Dropped the gear in, made it 50 yards, and I put a 19lb King in the boat. Got reset, made it another 100 yards and my dad put a 25lb king in the boat. Bite died off after that for a couple hours, but then just after the tide change, we were trolling in the same spot and one of the downrigger rods went off. My dad's buddy took it, and said there was a "shaker" biting the other downrigger rod. By the time my dad got to it, it had released from the clip and it was clear it wasn't a shaker...we had our first double. My dad got his fish to the boat first, so I scooped it, threw it on the floor, kicked it out of the net, switch sides of the boat and netted the other fish. Now we had twin 21-22lb Kings laying on the floor of the boat. With the daily limit being 2 fish per person, and the possession limit being 2 days of your daily limit, we decided to head in and grab dinner.
Monday 7/20 - Headed out to where we were Sunday evening, and there was a good daylight bite. We ended up killing two in the 19-22lb range and we released 4-5 that were in the 8-12lb range. We also put one small Coho in the box. Fished thru the tide change and then headed in to grab lunch. Went back out for the evening tide exchange but we decided to run out to the edge of the ocean. Not much going on, but we managed to put one Coho in the box. Ran back in just as the bite was dying at the spot we had been fishing. Fished until almost dark with nothing else to show.
Tuesday 7/21 - Headed out to the closer spot to camp, and again there was a good daylight bite. Put two in the box between 16-18lbs and released a handful of 10-12lb fish, including what we dubbed the "triple-double triple"...Trolling along and one downrigger goes off, so I grab it, then the other downrigger goes off so my dad grabs it. My dad's buddy goes to grab the diver rod to clear it, makes it 2-3 cranks and hooks a fish...TRIPLE!!!. The fish on the diver rod come off, so he keeps reeling in, gets it 10 feet from the boat and hooks another fish...ANOTHER TRIPLE! The diver rod fish ended up coming off again, and both of the other fish we landed were smaller kings we decided not to keep, but it was still some fun chaos. When the bite died we decided to run out to the edge of the ocean. We managed to put another nice king around 20lbs in the box and one more coho. When the wind kicked up we headed back in to grab lunch. The wind just kept getting worse, but we figured we better head out for the evening tide change. Got the crap beat out of us in the wind and after a couple hours we were going to head in with the hopes of it laying down later in the evening. Got almost to camp, and decided to go hit another spot that was kind of tucked out of the wind. Got our gear deployed, and went about 200 yards before I heard a weird sound. Turned around to see line stripping off the reel of the diver rod that was in the middle. After a short battle, my dad put another 18-20lb fish in the box. The wind eventually caught up to us, so we ended up back at camp fairly early.
Wednesday 7/22 - Our last full day to fish. We needed two more kings to fill our possession limit, but my dad's buddy and I were secretly plotting to try and get out to hit some bottom fish (my dad doesn't do the ocean scene). Based on the last couple days, I was thinking it would be fairly easy to hit two decent kings in the morning, and the jet out to hit some bottom fish before the wind kicked up. Got out before daylight, and 30 or so minutes in I landed a little 10lb King. Even though I wanted to limit out, I couldn't bring myself to smack it in the head, so off he swam. About an hour later, my dad's buddy's rod goes off and he land a nice 19lb King. Alright, one more to go....but then the bite died. About 8:30am we headed back to camp. Our plan was to run out to the edge of the ocean, hopefully smack our last king and then make the run for bottom fish. So, my dad's buddy and I headed out. We got our gear in, and in the first 100 yards we had two good hits, but neither of them hooked up. At this time, we saw the other guys in our party packing it up to head out to hit bottom fish. We have never been out there, and we needed to follow them because we didn't have the numbers to run to. Since I was the one that still needed a king, I made the decision to run after bottom fish and hope I could get my King on the evening tide. Followed our buddies out into the ocean about 10 or so miles from where we were and it was fairly sloppy since we were at max ebb. We were in my 22.5' Raptor so we were taking some spray over the windshield. About half way out, my drivers side windshield wiper quit working (turned out to be a wire that came disconnected). Finally made it out, and the fishing was insane. We had our 5 Sea Bass each within 5 minutes. We kept trying for Lingcod but couldn't get thru the bass. Made a move, and ended up picking up a couple smaller Lings. We decided to call it quits and head in to try for my last King I needed. On our way in we ran into another buddy that had a couple really nice Lings, so we figured we better stop and fish. Made a couple passes and turned back a bunch of rock fish and a couple really nice wild Coho that we caught on our jigs. Decided we would make one more pass and then head in. Got almost to the end of the last pass and my dad's buddy had a big ling follow his rock fish in. The rock fish came unhooked so he dropped his jig back in, hoping to get the Ling. Made it to the bottom, and a couple jigs later hooked a nice fish. Got it to the top and it was a 25lb Halibut. Decided to head in then and get some fish cleaned. Got those fish taken care of and headed back out to try and get my last King. We got on the water about 3:30pm, and the tide change was at 6pm. This was my last shot, with the exception of maybe being able to fish for an hour on Thursday morning before having to leave. From 3:30 to 5 we didn't see a whole lot happening. I was starting to wonder if this would be the first year we didn't take home our possession limit of Kings. Did I get too greedy turning back those 10-12lb fish, and even one that morning? At about 6pm, right at tide change, my rod goes off. Set the hook, and its a good fish. Peeling line and head shaking. About 20 seconds in, it comes off. This was our first bite of the evening, and at this point I am really second guessing my decisions earlier in the week and today to go out for bottom fish. But then 7pm happened. Trolling along in 350 feet of water where we had hit a lot of fish last year, the one downrigger rod starts to get bit, but it looks like a shaker. My dad's buddy says "oh, I think its a little one." By the time I got to that side of the boat it had released from the clip. I reeled down on it and then set the hook. The fish immediately peeled off 150' of line. I said "I don't think its a little one." After a couple more runs, I put a nice 25lb King in the boat to finish off one of my best trips up there.
I did a horrible job of taking pictures this year. I only took pictures of my first King and my last King. Oh, and one of the boat launch in Gold River while we waited. In all, we brought home 12 Kings, 3 Coho, 10 Sea Bass, 2 Ling Cod, and 1 Halibut for 3 guys. I just got done vacuum sealing a little bit ago and between my dad and I, we put up over 100 bags of Salmon, 7 bags of Sea Bass, 4 bags of Halibut, and a few bags of Ling Cod. Thankful for my Vacmaster right now.
