I just returned from Kyuquot Sound this morning. Kyuquot is located on the
west coast of Vancouver Island near its northern tip, just south of Brooks
Peninsula. We make this trip to northern Vancouver Island every year in
order to fill our freezer for the year as fish is our family's sole meat
source. We primarily target king salmon (springs if you are a Canuck) and
halibut. This year's trip was successful on both counts with my wife and I
as well as my friend from Phoenix all bringing home our limits.
What was particularly interesting this year was the incredible, and I mean
incredible number of Coho present. As most of you know, BC fish managers
took a dramatic about face two or three years ago and reallocated their
salmon harvest priorities in favor of sport ahead of commercial. And in most
ways, they have taken a very conservative approach to rebuilding stocks,
primarily coho stocks, where there was any concern for survival of a
particular run. The past two or three years have seen zero harvest of coho
in BC, primarily to protect a very small, but endangered run of Thompson
River coho.
We were fishing about 3-5 miles offshore this year for both our kings and
halibut. The depth ranges from 150-200 feet in the area we fished. The coho
were so thick that we were catching incidentally approx. 20 a day. It at
times was very frustrating to try and get our downriggers through the coho
without hooking up. In most drops, even with the ball going down at full
speed, you would get 2-3 hits before reaching the bottom, we just hoped they
didn't stick so we could get down and fish for the kings. We caught many
coho on the bottom, many right on the surface, and most on the way up or
down. Almost every drop resulted in the accidental hooking of a coho. These
crazy coho were hitting our flashers and downrigger balls while they were
skipping along the surface.
In fact on our first day, we went 5 miles offshore to fish for halibut. With
the rod in the holder waiting for a big halibut to bite, I would cast a
popper toward any slashing coho I could reach. I hooked and landed a
beautiful 12-pound native coho on the surface using Leland's popper in 200
feet of water 5 miles off shore!
My point in writing about this trip is to let all of you know what must be
heading in our direction now. We stayed with our friend Marilyn Murphy, who
serves as a consultant and sportfishing advocate with the group of policy
makers for BC fish management decisions about season openings, etc. They are
considering opening up a limited season on coho later this month. She told
me that some estimates of the number of coho in British Columbia waters
right now are as high as 40 million. Based on what I saw, that does not
sound far fetched. Many of these fish are Washington bound. We should be in
for an awesome year for silvers on the beaches and in the rivers, as long as
these fish are not intercepted before they make it home.
I have been gone for a couple of weeks now and have not yet caught up with
the postings on this list. Are there non-resident coho showing in Washington
yet?
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David Weitl mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Poulsbo, Washington WA Statewide Fishing Reports
http://www.nwfishing.com
"The gods do not deduct from a man's allotted span
the hours spent in fishing"
-- Babylonian Proverb
