There was lots of excitement out on the grounds this past week with the annual Slaughter Group Team Fishing Derby.  One hundred and five keen anglers came from six different provinces to participate in one of the biggest events we host each summer.  The fish were quite cooperative much of the time, generating lots of numbers to populate the team score spreadsheets!

Chinook fishing picked up nicely, particularly with early morning bites at Bird 2, Parker Pt. and off Yatze.  Huge tides flooding through the middle of the day tended to slow down the Chinook action. But with large schools of Coho gathering just offshore, keen anglers were able to stay busy much of the day.  Top catches were a pair of hefty 42 pounders – one for Steve F at Yatze and one for John M up near Klashwun Point.  Two forty pounders tied for second largest; taken by Mike K and David G.  We actually saw a nice bump up in the number of Tyee-class fish caught this week to complement the strong numbers of feeders in the 15 to 22 lb. group.  Coho have definitely arrived in a big way and we’re seeing the average size creep up around 8-9 pounds with a respectable number of 10-11 pounders in the mix.  Always exciting, these silver bullets are being found in schools throughout the grounds with the greatest concentration outside the 100-foot depth line and fishing the top 30 feet of water.

Beautiful warm summer weather has also made an appearance this weekend with temperatures soaring to 19 or maybe 20 degrees!  That’s enough for us!  The staff are celebrating with beach wear and the brave are getting right out there and jumping in!  Hurray for July!

Looking ahead to next week it’s a mixed bag of weather with moderate winds from south and southeast thru Wednesday and mainly cloudy skies.  Tides are mellow with changes in the range of 6 to 8 feet.