Island Tides & Currents 2018

While fishing at Pin Rock in early July, Mel one of our guests hooked into a really nice Chinook and was having a great fight with the fish when all of a sudden the rod tip came and the line went totally slack the fish flasher and spoon were gone, and to our surprise when Mel reeled the line in, it became clear that the swivel connecting the flasher had broken which is very rare. Now we had a nice Chinook salmon swimming around with one of my favourite flashers and spoons in his mouth. While we were quickly getting our lines ready to start fishing again one of the guests saw a green flasher swimming by the boat, it was Mel’s fish swimming slowly along just under the surface with the flasher attached. Well the chase was on and around we went chasing the flasher with the fish just under the surface. After a few more frantic circles and with the fish slowing down we managed to get the boathook between the fish and the flasher hook the line and bring the fish to the net and Mel landed a nice 26 pound Chinook.

Panko is a Japanese bread crumb that is available in most grocery stores it is simple to use and tastes great on all types of fish, Salmon, Halibut, Lingcod and Rockfish as well as prawns. Panko also comes in regular or seasoned flavours. We like both.

Ingredients: Amounts depend on the amount of fish you will be cooking.

Desired fish fillets (4 servings)

½ cup all purpose Flour

1 Egg

½ cup Panko

Good quality light cooking oil

Remove the skin from the desired fish fillets, cut into serving size pieces rinse under cold water pat dry with paper towel,

Sprinkle flour, Panko on separate plates, beat egg well in bowl.

Cover the bottom of a frying pan with approximately a millimetre of oil, heat on med / high heat

Once the oil is hot, roll fish in flour and then the egg and then the Panko covering fish well, place in hot pan cook until golden brown, turn over cook until done, cooking time depends on the thickness of the fish. If I am using regular panko I like to add a little salt and pepper to the Panko prior to coating the fish and another good option is adding some parmesan cheese to the panko, tastes great.

Prawns live for 4 years. They start their life as males and mature at 1 year of age. Prawns exhibit protandric hermaphrodism - they function as males for 2 seasons and then transform into females. Breeding occurs in autumn. The females carry bright orange fertilized eggs under their tails on small abdominal appendages called pleopods or swimmerettes, for 2 to 3 months from October to April.

Prawns are opportunistic bottom feeders on marine worms, other prawns and shrimp, fish and protein detritus. Predators include other prawns, octopus, rockfish. The commercial prawn fishery in B.C harvested close to 3500 tonnes of prawns in 2011 worth an estimated 55 million dollars.

Angler Chris French from Newfoundland abandoned his regular fishing partners one morning to spend some time fishing with one of our local anglers, Yogi. Chris was hoping to get the inside scoop on where the hot spots were from his new fishing partner, and although their fishing techniques were a lot different from each other’s, both styles seemed to be effective. Chris with a long well placed cast and gentle downstream swing, and Yogi with more of a dash and grab style. Chris did comment at the end of the day that Yogi was a good fishing partner, although he could be a little grumpy at times especially when he was hungry (which was all of the time). And his river fishing etiquette was lacking as he always took the best fishing spots for himself, and did not believe in catch and release like we do.

One of our guests Peter Naylor from the U.K landed this 38 pound Chinook Salmon in early October while fishing the Nimpkish River with guide Randy Killoran. This is the largest Chinook salmon ever taken by one of our guests on a light tackle in a river. The fish was released unharmed.

What a great fish, Well done guys!

I finally got around to going Bass fishing this morning but after a while I ran out of worms. Then I saw a cottonmouth snake with a frog in his mouth, and frogs are good bass bait. Knowing the snake couldn’t bite me with the frog in his mouth, I grabbed him right behind the head, took the frog and put it in my bait bucket.

Now the dilemma was how to release the snake without getting bit. I grabbed my flask of whiskey and poured a little in the snakes mouth. His eyes rolled back, and he went limp, I released him into the lake without incident, and carried on my fishing with the frog. A little while later, I felt a nudge on my foot I looked down and there was that same darn snake with two more frogs in his mouth.

At Vancouver Island Fishing Lodge we offer guests a variety of different outdoor adventures with fully guided saltwater and freshwater fishing adventures, wildlife and marine tours for Whale watching, Sea otters, Bear viewing,. And we can customize trips, combining different adventures, length of stay, accommodating corporate and family groups as well as catering to smaller groups and individuals

For more information on the different packages that we offer contact us.

2271 Dalton Rd Campbell River B.C V9W 1H7 Toll free 1 888 934 6999 email- steveshelley@telus.net