I wake up, rub my eyes, get dressed and crack a smile. It’s time to get ready to go fishing. What a time to be alive. The winds are manageable, the fish are running, and I’ve got a bucket of bait and nothing but time and opportunity. Game on, let’s get these lines in water.

On Day 1 the fish are not cooperating but we are having a great time. We have landed a few, missed a few, and lost a few. All in all, a pretty good start. Most importantly, I have gathered all of the information I need to make a plan for Day 2. There are tons of fish at Brown’s Pile. We’re going to slay ‘em tomorrow.

As Day 2 kicks off, I share the plan with the boys. I can’t even call them my guests at this point because they are such cool guys that at this point, we feel like a couple of old fishing buddies. We start out slow, waiting for the slack tide to hit to send the fish into a feeding frenzy.  Like turning on a switch, the tide slacks and the fishing lights up. We are hitting fish every 10 minutes and we even have a couple double headers.

After what seems like hours of fun but turns out to be about 90 minutes, things settle down and it’s time for me to reach into my bag of tricks to find us a big one. I decided to go with a big sexy 7-inch spoon. After only about 20 minutes, the rod tip buries 4 eyes into the water and the line is just screaming out. YEAH BABY!  Hooked up. It’s a big one.  After all of the gear is in the boat, we get on top of the fish and I can tell by the bend in the rod, it’s a big one. After about 20 minutes of circling and battling, this monster comes into sight.

Huh? Really? No way. It’s not a Chinook at all. I race for the harpoon and take aim.  Whack. Right between the eyes. Game over fish. I drag the monster over the side and the three of us marvel at the 38-pound Halibut that we’ve just hauled out of 60 feet of water on a spoon. Sometimes is better to be lucky than good.

You never know what you’ll get when you fish in the most amazing place on earth. By the end of the day we had kept 4 Chinook, 3 Coho, and 2 big halibut. The second of the 2 being 69 pounds. Just another day in the Gwaii. Living the dream.  Hope we see you soon.

Derek “Demo” Poitras