QCL guests experienced the full spectrum of fishing adventure over the weekend with some huge tides, glassy calm seas Saturday and then howling southeasterly winds on Sunday.  The big tides these days have created real up & down fishing cycles with some long quiet periods punctuated by crazy double-header style bites around the slack periods.  With these types of fishing days many guests tend to plan their weekend accordingly – some late night fun at the Bell Ringer and late starts in the morning are a common sign.  It is a holiday after all!  Speaking of holidays, we really enjoyed hosting a great 40^th Anniversary celebration for Jan & Ralph Ettles; their family and friends are surely a keen group of anglers!

Gorgeous glassy seas on Friday and Saturday had QCL fishing boats scattered widely over the fishing grounds, picking up a wide mix of Coho and Chinook salmon, halibut, lingcod and groundfish.  While we didn’t see many big fish there were lots to go around and most anglers returned to the dock with a nice box to weigh in.  Kevin Armon boated the largest coho of the season to date, a deep-sided 17 pounder and father / son team Greg and Tim Boshard managed a nice pair of Tyees at 32 and 31 pounds respectively – great work guys!

Sunday arrived with fairly strong southeasterly winds so all anglers were focused on the Cape Edenshaw side where the winds can blow hard but the water generally remains pretty comfortable, especially near the shore.  While the catch suggested a pretty slow day of fishing, anglers chose to stay out through the day and enjoyed the hospitality at “The Hook” grill aboard the Driftwood anchored right there inside “the Cape.”  Guests are really loving the newly renovated Driftwood where the fully enclosed upper deck provides the ultimate patio-lunch experience right on the fishing grounds.  Captain Ryan Horlyck and his crew have done a commendable job this summer of providing on-the-spot service to all QCL guests during their stay.

Looking at the current week, the southeasterly system will prevail through much of the time but the breeze has slackened off to allow guests access to the whole fishing grounds.  Hopefully the fishing continues to provide excitement for the final week of the 2013 season and we can finish it off with a flourish!  Stay tuned.