What a beautiful day to wake up to today! I could hear the eagles outside so I grabbed my camera and went to see what they were up to this morning. After getting some great shots I sat on the beach and thought about today’s trip. We had such a productive first day, with both my guests getting their halibut and chinook for the day, as well as black and yelloweye rockfish, and releasing around 12 salmon. I decided that we would start off at “the peanut”, one of our guides favourite hali holes to pick up our last 2 halibut, then to the Driftwood for lunch. Then we’ll spend the rest of our day looking for a nice big salmon or two.

We arrived at “the peanut”, got the rods in the water and sent the bait to the bottom.  It was like we dropped it right on the head of one halibut, because as soon as it hit bottom and did a couple jigs we had our first fish on!  While one guest was bringing that one up we also got one on the other line. Double header!  We lost one but proceeded to get a beauty in the boat.  Not long after that, we got our second one and headed off to meet the other family members on the Driftwood.  The barbecue was smoking away onboard and wow did it smell good. After lunch we headed off to Shag Rock to try to find a big spring that could maybe win their family derby.  The water was calm, lots of bait, birds everywhere.  Setting up real nice. The music was going in the boat, we were all having some great laughs when the first salmon of the day hit. After a great fight we got the 17 pounder on board.  After that the bite tapered off a bit; we had a few mystery bites for a while so we headed down to Cape Naden. After a bit of trolling around the rod finally shot off the rigger. This was a big fish! Line was ripping off the reel.  I cleared the second rod and got on the wheel, we had to chase this fish down as it took so much line!  I noticed the Fishmaster off in the distance and called him on the radio to come over and get some photos of this great battle.  After a spectacular 15-minute fight the bright chrome beauty was in the net.  25 pounds!  Such an amazing fight.  After the pictures were taken, we decided to end the day on that note as it couldn’t have got better!  My guests were elated and so was I.  As it turned out this fish actually won the family the derby.  I couldn’t have asked for a better day. We also saw killer whales and humpbacks passing through the area.  And the best part is we get to do it all over again tomorrow. I love my job!!

Until next time, tight lines.

Randy”the Hitman” Zinck