Boy, was I glad to get back to work last Monday so I could get some rest. Two guys from work and I went to the Tofino area last weekend. Actually, we took Thursday and Friday off and traveled on Thursday and Sunday. It rained and blew like hell Thursday night but Friday dawned mostly clear and darn near calm.

Friday we fished out of Uclulelet with well known guide Matt Guiguet, pronounced Gegey. Ain't the French weird? They seem to put letters in words so as to make them prettier. The ocean was kinda lumpy but we probably brought thirty chinooks to the boat and kept the eight largest that ran from twelve to sixteen pounds.

On Saturday Guiguet handed us off to a different guide out of Tofino due to an overbooking problem that he failed to mention until we were cleaning fish while idling in the bay Friday. We were nonplused by this development but the young man, one Derek Fraser, was a kick in the butt after the somewhat dour and slightly seasick Guiguet. Maybe half as many fish To the boat on Saturday but the quality was much better. Smallest kept was sixteen and the largest brought to the net (by me!) was twenty-four.

Interesting fishing! Both boats were twenty-plus Grady White's with big honking Yamaha four stroke outboards. Derek had two one-fifties and Matt ran a shiny new two-twenty-five. The boats were comfortable and solid but I'll bet you a buck my old Glas Ply would have ridden better in the chop Friday.

These guys use Scotty downriggers, bus ass hot spot flashers, and tiny sparkle hoochies or three inch coyote spoons. All fished within ten feet of the bottom on nine to eleven foot soft action Lamiglas rods equipped with single action Shimano Moocher reels loaded with enough monofilament to foul a good sized river all by themselves. The upshot is that slugging it out with a twenty pound chinook on such gear is a big time kick in the sitter.

We also took one twenty pound halibut on a day-glow white hoochie in this manner but we didn't actually fish for halibut in my opinion. Next year I'll insist on doing the halibut thing correctly because I wanted those big delicious weird looking devils. If we had shut down, drifted with the current, and bounced bait on the bottom I have little doubt that we would have had our halibut in short order. We hooked and lost three others as is was, for crissakes.

But we raised hell with the salmon and the area is just beautiful. Reminded me a lot of S.E. Alaska with bald eagles all over the place, whales, beautiful rock-bound coast, and like that.

Oh, yeah, we had a sea lion incident at the float at the end of the first day. There's this big bull that hangs out around the docks in Ucluelet and follows the charters while they are cleaning fish. He also followed us in. We had unloaded our stuff, fish included, and taken some pictures while the critter hung around, hoping we'd throw it some scraps, or so I thought. Phil and Leon were standing on either side of the fish bags when the big brute started to haul out right between them. I was still standing in the boat facing them and the sea lion so I gave him my very best shout from about six feet away. I can stop a Brittany doing thirty miles an hour when I really let go. Phil and Leon went ten feet in either direction and the animal looked like he wished he were somewhere else, I know I did. He finally decided that discretion was the better part of fish stealing. These are big animals so we grabbed our stuff and got the hell off the dock.

All in all a great weekend that I will repeat yearly from now until end-of-game.

Nice story, thanks for the report!

JCW,
I second that. Nice story. I hope to have similar tales when I go up to Nootka Sound for a week later in the summer.
JMS

Very nice report. That's some beautifull country up there I've fished with Matt and drank with Derek. Both good guys who know that area well. If Fisheries and Oceans lifts the one-mile restrictions later in the summer that place will be wide open.

Bruce

Thanks folks. We really enjoyed the whole trip and I am happy to share the story. Didn't mean to disrespect ol' Matt. He did a great job for us. Overbooking just happens sometimes when you put out a good product. Also, I don't think he felt well when he got on the boat that morning but he took us out just the same and worked his butt off. And he did hand us off to a fine young man who worked really hard and gave us a great day.

So does anyone know who carries those Shimano Moochers or similar reels. I'm gonna build a couple of rods with them in mind.

outdoor emporium used to have some mooching reels, got one about 5 years ago there, don't know if they still carry them or not. The Canuck set up is alot of fun.
tight lines 'eh!

Thanks BADDAWG. I'll look into it. Also found that Island Outfitters in Victoria has a good variety.

If you try Berry's bait & tackle ph-604-273-5901 or Nikka indusries ph #604-273-6332 you can find both shimano and diawa mooching reels at good pricing. Berry's bait also has a web site and does internet sales and shipping to the U.S.A.

Thanks rln. I'll look into it today after I finish the tune-up on the old boat's Volvo.

Can you recomend a few good rod blanks? The guides were using what appeared to be constant taper nine and ten foot rods with maybe a six inch fighting butt and a long upper handle. I think I'd like more power in the butt section but am open to suggestion. I'm also partial to glass for boat rods since thay don't give you a heart attack everytime a tooth drags accross the leader.