Great fish stories continue to be written almost daily up here at The Lodge! Last week QCL guide Cody Johnstone got to drive the newest addition to our fleet of custom-built aluminum fishing boats, a beautiful 24-foot Broadwater built in Prince Rupert. He really enjoyed the many features of the vessel but he especially appreciated what it did for his fishing! Working the productive waters off the outside face of Bird 2 on Wednesday, veteran QCL guest Gary Nelson hooked up with a nice big Chinook and, after a solid battle, boated the 42 pounder. They returned to Bird 2 on Thursday and enjoyed a productive morning catching lots of coho and teen-sized Springs before Gary once again set the hook on a particularly heavy salmon. The big fish certainly gave them a workout but Cody finally slipped the net beneath it. This fish was definitely going to be released so after a quick measurement Cody revived it off the extended transom and away it went. The score – 48 pounds! Beauty fish boys!

After lunch Cody moved on down to Parker Point to test the waters around Chuck’s Corner. Fishing his trademark anchovy at 35 feet they hit another good fish. This strike was for boat-mate Jeff Rimer, who lifted the rod from the holder and hung on 30 minutes for a real ride. When they finally had it to the boat they discovered that it was clearly even bigger than either of Gary’s 40-plus fish. Once again Cody carefully boated the fish and did the measurements to determine that this bright chrome beauty scored out to 59 pounds! No time for celebration as they got her back in the water and after 5 minutes of revival, the giant salmon swam back into the safety of the kelp. High-fives all around followed and a toast to a fabulous couple of days on the water! Well done guys! Congratulations and thanks for letting those incredible big fish go!

This week we’re seeing a shift to southerly winds after several days of northwesterlies. We may see some showers – it’s actually getting dusty around here – and QCL anglers should enjoy pretty calm seas for most of the week. The tides are peaking Tuesday with 17-foot changes so portions of the fishing grounds start to look like a giant river at certain times of the day. We’re looking forward to a fun night at the Bell Ringer as the boats start to return! More news coming soon!