Long
Beach Charters Newsletter
2004 - A Year of Great Fishing...
As you can see from
all the smiling faces and fish in hand, this was another fabulous
year of fishing
out
of
Ucluelet!
Reports
given
at the latest Salt Water Fishing conference in Vancouver confirmed
what our guests experienced – impressive returns of Chinook,
Coho and Halibut.
During the fall we’ve had some great trips as well, with
many winter Chinook still feeding along the West Coast, and lots
of fun and good eating with ling cod in the 12 – 28 pound
range.
The good news is that 2005 is shaping up to be another great season,
with potentially more opportunities for Chinook and more boats
and guides to accommodate our L.B.C. customers.
And Significant Changes...
Feedback from those
of you who joined us this year and fished from the Barkley Adventure
Station was very positive. We enjoyed
being able to provide new and better services for our customers
out of the Station – on-site food services including “cook-your-catch” lunches
and dinners, on-site freezer storage and fish processing with St.
Jean’s Cannery, whale watching, kayaking and nature tours,
and the always helpful and smiling Barkley Station staff – Jennifer
Knight, Alicia Bradshaw, Jessie Morrison and Dave De Jong. Dave
also acted as our new LBC office manager, helping many of you in
booking your charters and local accommodations, and taking care
of a myriad of other details for our guests and guides. Allan Chase,
Scottie Jaynes, and Harvey Gudbranson also joined the Long Beach
Charters team as guides this season with long-time LBC guide Bob
Redhead and myself. I really appreciated the attention to quality
and customer care that each of our guides and staff provided this
year and look forward to working with them again next year.
We hope that you enjoyed
and appreciated the changes we’ve
made this season and that you and your friends will join us again
in 2005 for another great West Coast fishing adventure!
Mike Marriott, Owner and Charter Guide
Big Bait... Big Fish!
The Chinook returns throughout Barkley Sound area were even better
than anticipated for the 2004 season. This provided lots of smiling
faces for the guests of Long Beach Charters. Looking back on the
days of sunshine and bent rods it is hard to think of what was
the most enjoyable experience of the season. It might be the day
we left the dock at 8:00 am and had 24 Chinooks to the boat by
noon, with a few Tyee class in the mix. Or it might be the day
of the big double header, 42 and 36 pounds respectively. But looking
back the most memorable experience for myself was the day when
the Killer Whales chased a hooked Coho to the stern of the boat.
It was another calm day in early August when guest Bryan and Brenda
Olson and I headed out to the Big Bank for a day of salmon fishing.
The Big Bank was absolutely on fire throughout the season. The
rods would not be down for more than five minutes without blowing
out of the release clip. And the fun part was that you never knew
what was on the other end of the line. It could be anything from
a Skipjack Tuna to a Halibut, but the most common was the targeted
species, Chinook salmon. This day was no different than any of
the others and Bryan was getting a kick out of watching Brenda
reel in fish after fish until her arms could take no more.
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During one of the battles
we experienced the best whale show that I have ever seen. Brenda
had a Coho to the surface when a small
pod of Killer Whales went by. We could tell that the whales were
interested in what was going on at the end of Brenda’s line.
The whales were really excited and they were charging the fish,
swerving back and forth behind it in a playful manner. We thought
that one of the whales was going to eat the fish, but that never
happened, they just kept coming closer and closer. Finally, as
Brenda quickly reeled the fish to the stern of the boat we found
ourselves face to face with a pretty good size Killer Whale. The
whale actually touched its lips to the tail of the salmon before
it turned off. We all sat back in awe of what had just occurred.
Thankfully Bryan captured the moment on his camera, for this is
one fish story that would be hard to believe.
Bryan stated that this was a perfect way to end a great trip so
we packed up the gear and headed home, the whole way speaking of
how you needed to use big bait to catch big fish!
See you all next year,
Allan Chase,
Captain of the "Chase-n-Tail"
What a great summer. Fishing was absolutely incredible. Making
the move from the Queen Charlottes to Ucluelet, I was nervous,
thinking that the fishing might be slower. It turns out the fishing
was, without a doubt, more consistent and way more fun. Working
with Mike and Allan at Long Beach Charters was a highlight of my
fishing career. The emphasis is pure fun.
One day in particular, the rain falling lightly, my guests and
I made our way out to the southwest corner. Although the water
was a little lumpy, I knew the fishing was going to be decent.
Before we had our second line in the water, we had a hit on the
five inch plug. My guests Geoff and Melanie were champs on the
rod; both were very experienced. Geoff had the hook set before
I had even turned around to see what was going on. The fish was
off and running. Quickly, I sent the second rod down and within
seconds we had a double header. Geoff landed his fish, while Melanie's
was off and running. The rod was torqued right over and holding
down, thirty minutes later we had ourselves a nice 42 pounder.
By 8am, we had landed over twenty fish, and by ten we had touched
close to 50 fish.
It was time for a break, both Geoff and Melanie insisted on taking
the lines out of the water for five minutes in order to catch their
breath and give their arms a rest. Needless to say, by the end
of our charter, my guests were ecstatic having never experienced
a day of fishing like that before. We finished landing six Tyee
and many fish over 20 pounds. To top it all off, the best part
of my day was that Geoff and Melanie were there on their honeymoon
and wanted to release all the fish they caught ... more fish and
fun for the future!
What a great day, I can't wait for next season.
Scottie Jaynes
The 2005 Fishing Season is beginning to fill up with many of you
pre-booking with us last summer and fall. For those of you who
have yet to book, a quick email or phone call to our toll-free
number is all it takes to reserve your charter dates!
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