Election 2008

Early Season Mixed Bag Fishing

Here is my latest fishing video.

Join Jim Hicks & Kevin Gray of San Francisco, California, and myself as we hunt for Salmon and Halibut in the waters around Nootka Island.



Enjoy!

Before and After

Jim’s Beer Batter Fried Fish

1 Egg
1 12 oz. Can of Beer (Canadian)
1-1/8 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
2 Tsp Salt (Sea Salt)
¾ Tsp Fresh Ground Pepper
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Paprika
½ Tsp White Sugar

Mix all ingredients.
Wash fish in cold water and pat dry with paper towels.
Roll fish in flour.
Dip in Batter.
Deep Fry at 350 until Golden. – Be careful not to let stick to wire basket in fryer.
Drain cooked fish on paper towels, lightly salt, and serve.

Tartar Sauce

1 Cup Helman’s Mayonaise
2 Pickles – Finely Chopped
½ Medium White Onion – Finely Chopped.
1 Tsp Parsley
½ Tsp Tarragon
½ Tsp Freshly Ground Pepper
½ Tsp White Sugar
Juice of ½ Fresh Lemon

Mix ingredients and put in fridge. Best if prepared a few hours or a day in advance.

Friday the 13th - Bad Luck & Good Luck

Left to Right: Kevin Gray, Jim Hicks, both from San Francisco, CA, Jim Pook, Tahsis.

Got up at 4:15 AM after about 3 hours sleep and headed down to the dock to meet Jim Hicks and Kevin Gray to board Jim's boat "Defiance".

The plan was to run out to Maquinna Point on the outside South end of Nootka Island in search of Halibut after friends Tyler and his dad Don reported that they had lost a huge Halibut there that was too big for them to lift into the boat with the gaff they had.

Friday the 13th took its revenge and gave us Gale Force winds on the outside. However we were able to troll for Salmon from Maquinna Point back to the Nootka Lighthouse around Wash Rock and Eagle Rock. A couple of passes of the prime Salmon holding spots gave up only one small Lingcod that was released unharmed.

We trolled our way around the Lighthouse to Friendly Cove and managed to catch one small Chinook. I gave up on the Anchovy/Flasher combo and put on one of my favorite hootchies, which was hit by a nice Chinook shortly afterwards. Problems with the Scotty Downrigger brake took my attention away from the fish to stop a free-falling downrigger ball just long enough for slack line to drop the barbless hook.

As it was now slack tide around 10:30 AM we decided to try our hand at a Halibut drift outside of Friendly Cove. I picked up a nice Yelloweye around 240' and shortly afterward got hit by what I thought would be another Yelloweye - 50 turns of the Penn 340 reel handle and all of a sudden this fish came to life, pulling line quickly from a very tight drag! Halibut! I cranked it up from about 320' and got it to the surface after a couple of short runs back toward the bottom.

I loosend the drag a bit and handed the rod to Jim while I picked up the harpoon. Before I could line up the fish for a clear shot it headed down and stripped a 100' of line from the reel. I took back the rod and cranked him back toward the surface and a future date with some beer batter and a deepfryer.

At the surface I handed off the rod to Jim again and lined up with the harpoon - perfect shot, dead center through the stomach. I was almost disapointed that he did not make a final run to the end of the rope.

A quick hoist over the side and he was on the deck of the boat. Gills cut and put in the fish box, I had to make another cut in the tail to fold him up to close the lid!

We spent another hour or so drifting the area, but with wind, waves and tide picking up, it was time to head home. Back at the dock, the Halibut weighed in at 39 pounds.

Fish are Here!

I finally have something to report!

Left the dock today about 7:30 AM and headed out to Esperanza Inlet with the intention of fishing Rosa Harbour area. Outside seas were calm enough that we ventured outside to the Highway.

Fishing was pretty slow, until we got a little closer to Ferrer Point. We were running three lines on two downriggers bracketing 100' in 300 - 280' of water. No signs of bait or fish on the sounder. Had a good hit on the upper rod with a Green & Glow 3.5" Coyote spoon - no flasher. Fish spit the hook after about 30 seconds of play. While reeling in, spoon was hit a second time and again spit after a minute or so of fighting the fish.

We decided to see if we could get some Halibut and tried drifting and back-trolling from 150' to a 90' hump just SE of Ferrer Pt. Picked up a nice Yelloweye, and two China Rockfish.

After getting a radio report of fish hitting at Ferrer, we moved in and started trolling two lines at 35' & 40'. After a bit, we hit what was the most amazing fish I have ever seen! It hit the outside rod, a Watermellon Apex lure with no flasher and almost spooled the 200 yards of line off the reel in one long sustained run toward shore that had Jim Hicks convinced that he was hooked on bottom until I pointed out that we were drifting toward the direction the line was running in. I believe that the fish made it into the kelp and the line broke at the swivel. Jim will be re-tieing his leaders before the morning!

Jim's partner Kevin picked up a nice 12 pound Chinook in the same spot about 20 minutes later on an green FBR (Franko Bullet Rotator) with anchovy, again with no flasher.
A while later, we picked up a nice 5 pound Coho on the before mentioned Coyote spoon. No flasher. Am I seeing a trend here?

We fished Rosa for an hour, seeing lots of bait balls and some solid fish returns on the sounder, but no bites.

Upon getting back to the dock in Tahsis, we learned that Tyler and his dad, Don also hit some very nice hard fighting fish in the same area that we were in at Ferrer.

The chinook we landed was a nice white Spring. Coho was had for a late dinner, soaked in Orange Juice and various spices to which I want the recipe before the guys leave town on Saturday!