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SALMON
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CHINOOK SALMON
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COHO SALMON
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HALIBUT
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RED SNAPPER
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LINGCOD
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Fred
Noddin, writer for The Outdoor Edge
wrote the following article about his fishing experience
with Wayne Ridley's Fishing Charters.
There?s a place on the rugged West Coast where Salmon charge the hook. Where, if you can get your hook down through the schools
of Coho, Chinook Salmon will slam your offering with the authority of a freight
train. Or drop your lines overboard and the next bite could be a halibut or a
monstrous lingcod. There are sweet holes where the bottom is literally lined in
red ? packed full of red snappers. Still there are other places, like the
chicken hole, where a jig or herring lasts only seconds, before being snapped up
by a hungry halibut. If this isn?t enough, crab and prawn traps are set and
filled daily. Once you?ve eaten a basket of freshly cooked prawns dipped in
garlic butter; it will make you question about going out after all those other
things. They?re that good.
You can find fishing this great at Winter Harbour on the extreme northwest coast
of Vancouver Island. Head West from Port Hardy and follow the signs to the end
of the road. That?s where you?ll find the harbour and the two dozen or so people
who call this place home. |
STORY AND PHOTOS BY FRED NODDIN
The Outdoor Edge |
Paradise Found
Fishing the open Pacific out from Quatsino Sound, we found paradise, lots of
fish and an unspoiled wilderness. I hooked up with good friends Derek Nyrose and
Troy Halliday. All three of us had never fished the Winter Harbour area before.
We couldn?t wait to try our luck on some new West Coast waters and explore the
natural and rugged area.
When we arrived at Wayne Ridley?s place, a basket of
freshly cooked prawns was waiting for us, ready to be
devoured. Wayne, who runs Wayne Ridley Fishing Charters,
gave us the update of the fishing, ?The marble creek run is pushing
through,? he said. ?All these fish are short and thick. A 30inch fish is often
13inches deep.?
He went on, ?I?m surprised more people aren?t coming from April through June.
Except for Coho, everything else is in the water.? Wayne spoke of the early runs
of Chinook destined for the Columbia River systems and how 40pound Chinook had
been caught. Excited about what the morning would bring we headed off to bed.
Morning came quickly and the aroma of a hot breakfast filled the air. We
gobbled up Peggy?s homemade breakfast, grabbed lunch and headed out for the
day. With the three of us in tow, Wayne led us to a 31 foot aluminum cabin
cruiser, one of three he uses for clients. |
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Into the Open
The harbour waters were calm. We made the 20minute run to escape the protection
of the Quatsino Sound and headed out on the open Pacific. Most of the fishing
is done within 10 miles of the entrance and it wasn?t long before Wayne cut the
engine, engaged the kicker and put out the downriggers. The set up was
straightforward: stack a couple of lines off of each downrigger at various
depths and let the fish tell you what they want and
where.
With that we sat down and waited, but in short order one
of the lines popped and Derek was quick on the rod.
Reeling furiously to pick up the slack the rod began to
load up and he smacked the hooks home. |
| There were some head shakes before the
fish broke out into a full blown run. Derek kept his tip up and played
give and take for some time before he brought the first of many chrome sided
Chinooks to the boat. Into the cooler went a beautiful
Chinook weighing in the
mid20s and we went down for another. The rod went off and it was Troy?s turn.
It turned out to be a repeat of the first. That was two Chinook. I finally got
hit and after a good battle I brought a nice sized Coho in. |
As June pushes into July, many of these
Coho will push 10 pounds with some
exceeding 20. We quickly got our limit of two Coho each plus four very decent
Chinook, but with the weather cooperating and the tides in our favour, we
pulled up and headed south. There was still some halibut, lingcod and red
snapper to be caught.
Quality over Quantity
Wayne said that there were a lot of snapper down there, but he was keen on the
possibility of running into a bigger sized halibut or cod. ?We don?t usually get
as many fish here,? he said, ?but the ones we catch are generally better.?
We dropped down a jig on one rod and ran spreader bars with extra large sized
herring on the others. Derek was quickly into a red snapper, and then got into
another. I got a snapper of my own. The fishing was going great.
On our trip up through the southern island, however, we took the opportunity to
stop in and visit with tackle legend Tom Moss, maker of Tomic Lures. We swapped
stories, talked Salmon and fishing and were treated to a tour of his production
facility. Gracing the walls were his famous plugs in an infinite array of colours
and sizes. He showed us how they were put together and,
with his help, we picked up some Salmon favourites and continued on our trip to Winter Harbour.
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A prawn in the hand is equal
to a great dinner. |
Bringing
home some bright red salmon fillets. |
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At the same time, almost going unnoticed Troy had some serious grunt going on.
He?d gain, the fish would sound. He?d gain again and the fish would sound.
Eighty pound braid and a short, stiff as a pool cue rod does not translate into
finesse fishing. This fight is power against power and when the fish yanked
line, it was violent. Troy was working it hard and as the minutes wore on we
could tell this was a better fish. When we first saw the halibut it was still
quite deep, but I can vividly remember the mottled brown, diamond shaped
outline twisting and shaking. Wayne got out the gaff and with an expert shot,
hooked the halibut and held it to the side of the boat. Wayne bled it before
bringing it overboard and hefting it into the cooler where it filled the entire
box. We didn?t have a scale handy, but Troy, Derek and I agreed that it probably
pushed 50 pounds (23 kilograms).
Wayne came to my side and brought out a larger than life hook and said that it
would catch me a big one. On my line he attached a big lure called a Mudraker.
It looked like a lead pipe with a hula skirt attached off the side. It was big,
heavy, full of colour and had a little chamber to squeeze some scent in. It was
one of the craziest contraptions I?ve seen, but I trusted our guide and sent it
on the one minute journey to the bottom. On the second lift my line was
absolutely hammered.
?I think you just got your first halibut,? Wayne said smiling. It took some
time to bring the big fish up and when it showed itself, this was no halibut. It
was a big lingcod. Wayne came with the gaff and pulled a 30pluspound (13.5
kilogram) ling over. I was speechless.
Derek was reeling in another red
snapper when the fish suddenly got a whole lot heavier. The reason soon became
clear. Attached to his four or five pound red snapper was another huge ling.
This massive fish, easily a twin to the one I just caught was living testament
to the veracity of this species. It was a sight to see. By the end of the day
there were a lot of smiles and lots of fish. It was truly amazing fishing.
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| Derek
with a dandy Chinook. |
Troy
with a big red snapper and a bigger grin. |
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Bringing
in the big ones takes a lot of work. |
Fishing Satisfaction
This place made my dreams come true. The cost was a fraction of what a trip to
the Queen Charlotte Islands would have been and here I caught more Salmon than I
ever imagined. During my trip, I witnessed schools of Coho so thick that, as we
were letting out line to clip our lures to the downrigger cable, they hit the
lures right on the surface. Many times we?d get the clip in, start releasing the
cannonballs down, only to have a big Coho stick it and the fight was on. The
Coho fought with the strength so common to their species, jumping, running,
fighting. When we did get our hooks through the maze of Coho, it was a golden
time. It was a time for anticipation of the next Chinook bite. These brutes were
thick and carried a lot of weight to the tail. Many of the Chinook powered away
in long runs, but we had several leap through the air like a wild rainbow trout.
An inspiring sight considering these fish weighed 20 to 30 pounds (nine to 14
kilograms) on average.
We each came home with our limits of
Chinook and Coho Salmon and even more cod and halibut.
The lingcod were some of the biggest I?d ever seen. On
top of that, a plentiful supply of prawns completed the seafood feast. I couldn?t ask for
anything more. And because our catch was vacuum sealed, all the meat stayed
fresh to the day we cooked them. This kind of fishing can really spoil a fellow,
but you know, I don?t mind. Our three day stay flew by and before we were ready,
it was time to go home.
It was Canada Day and as I sat on the viewing deck on
our ferry crossing back to the mainland, I sang Oh
Canada and smiled, thankful for this wilderness
experience and fantastic fishing. Winter Harbour filled
my coolers with a bounty only the Pacific could offer
and I was happy. Come July or August, I?ll be back ? the
reservations have already been made. |
| CONTACT INFO:
Wayne Ridley?s Fishing Charters 250.969.4200 Winter
Harbour 604.792.4268 Lower Mainland Email:
p.barton@telus.net
Frosty Charters Private Campground with RV parking Phone: 250.969.4343 Dick?s
Last Resort 250.969.4240 Winter Harbour 250.246.3456 Chemainus |
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