Moderate northwesterly winds and those beautiful blue skies that come with them have been a treat for QCL guests and staff alike through much of the past week.  While northwesterlies can provide some fairly lumpy seas on parts of the fishing grounds, they also tend to be very productive, pushing the bait into Virago Sound, drawing more salmon in from offshore.  That could perhaps explain why the fishing has ramped up so nicely!  We’re seeing strong catches of Chinook and Coho salmon, particularly in close from Bird 2 down to the Mazzaredo Islands.  Springs in the low to mid 20’s are more prevalent now and there has been a nice bump in the quantity of big Tyees in the 40-plus class.

There are 3 new members of the QCL 50-Pounder club this week.   Fishing Klashwun Point with guide Jason Orr, Vince Profeta boated a 52 pounder, Brad Malley released a Tyee that taped out to 58 pounds with Rob Clough at Bird Rock 2 and Jason Clark turned back a perfect chrome 55 pound beauty that guide Andrew Simpson released off Bird 2.  Well done guys!  Awesome fish!

Now that we’re releasing all those big breeding female halibut over 133 cm., the good karma must be working because we’re finding more than we ever have!  New names on the 100 pounder board last week were Patrick Murphy at 141, Vince Kulpa at 121, Michael Galarneau at 101 and Corey Bruno at 120.  On the weekend QCL guide Emmo Scharnberg took his guests Tim and Kindahl Freeman offshore to try their luck at halibut hunting.  Jigging their bait at 275 feet certainly was a bit of work but not nearly so much work as Tim had to do, battling a proverbial giant to the surface that completely shattered our previous records for halibut!  Using the harpoon as a measuring stick rather than a weapon, Emmo determined that Tim’s fish was 76 inches long.  The reference chart from the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) determined that this fish was in the order of 234 pounds!  That’s an amazing catch Tim, it must have been very cool to experience and congratulations for raising the bar once again for the biggest fish at Queen Charlotte Lodge!

As we enter the first week of August, anglers will be treated to light variable winds, partly sunny skies and temperatures in the high teens – pretty much perfect conditions!  The tides are increasing in range now as we head toward the big “super-moon” next weekend.