Wayne in BC
New member
We fished a couple more hours for Salmon, taking four more and releasing three of them in the 15-20 lb range and keeping one 25 lb that Mitch caught. Now we were hot to do the derby two days hence cause we knew where the bigguns were! Did not stay the night and headed for home after taking some nice Cod and Crab for dinner.
We weighed that fish 8 hours after it was caught, it almost certainly lost a couple lbs in that time but it pulled the scale to 53-1/2 lbs! My previous best Salmon had been 42-1/2 lbs, caught in 1975. Wow! Many people will fish the west coast all their lives and never catch a "Tyee" (Native name for Big Chief, applied to big Chinook Salmon, mininum 30 lbs). You can bet i was happy! The years i guided here my clients took many over 30 lbs and ranging to 40+.
Photos were taken when we arrived home, sadly those photos were lost when our sons bedroom was flooded by a broken waterline in 1999, but trust me it was true!
Because we got home early, all the logistics of taking a family wilderness camping were done well ahead of schedule by 2 pm friday afternoon. The derby started at 6:00 am Saturday morning and we left home for the 3 day trip at 3 pm friday. It was a longer slower trip to where we would camp on a secluded beach, the boat moored to an old log boom conveniently located there. The tides here are extreme, sometimes a 14-16 ft swing and beaching an 18 ft 1600 lb boat on or near basketball sized rocks is not an option. With a tent set up just above the beach under a grove of huge cedars we would fish a few hours each morning, 6-9 am, after 9am the odds are poor, first light and last hour of the day is when 90% of the big fish are taken so after the morning fishing the days were spent, exploring, berry picking, picking Oysters, Clams, and lovely big Crabs for our nightly feast from the pristine waters and napping some in prep for 4 am rising
I loaned my 16 ft aluminum boat to my friend for the derby, he and his buddy would fish the derby also and camp next to us, they followed us out to the launch point. That was quite new to them as they were both recent arrivals from the "prairie" and had little knowledge and much enthusiasm. Because we were on the edge of the open pacific the omnipresent 5-6 ft swells had them both kinda green by the time we arrived at the camping area two hours later due heavily loaded boats.....They stayed in the bay for the whole time, but fishing was good there. Me, Carol, and the kids would travel quite a few miles over the next days because........
We caught NO Salmon over 15 lbs during that weekend, they had moved and actually very few people caught anything large although there were nearly 1000 registered derby participants, a $20.000 dollar prize attracts folks from all over both our countries, some from as far away as California and North Dakota!
Timing is everything! A few days after the derby, the main runs came in and we were back there happily playing and slaying many fish up to 30+ lbs. Some days releasing 8-10 large fish while keeping a few prime Sockeye, and Cohoe for the canner and smoker, plus some to freeze.
The winner of the derby that year was a fellow from Neah Bay in Washington state with a 41 lb fish! I had the winner a couple days early and to this day still whine about it!
[attachment 40090 bigfish1.jpg]
This is only a 36 lb Spring, a 50+ is much bigger!
Here is a 54 lb that my buddy's client is holding.....
[attachment 40086 Tom.jpg]
[attachment 40091 bigfish11.jpg]
Here is my stepson Mitch with his first big Salmon
We weighed that fish 8 hours after it was caught, it almost certainly lost a couple lbs in that time but it pulled the scale to 53-1/2 lbs! My previous best Salmon had been 42-1/2 lbs, caught in 1975. Wow! Many people will fish the west coast all their lives and never catch a "Tyee" (Native name for Big Chief, applied to big Chinook Salmon, mininum 30 lbs). You can bet i was happy! The years i guided here my clients took many over 30 lbs and ranging to 40+.
Photos were taken when we arrived home, sadly those photos were lost when our sons bedroom was flooded by a broken waterline in 1999, but trust me it was true!
Because we got home early, all the logistics of taking a family wilderness camping were done well ahead of schedule by 2 pm friday afternoon. The derby started at 6:00 am Saturday morning and we left home for the 3 day trip at 3 pm friday. It was a longer slower trip to where we would camp on a secluded beach, the boat moored to an old log boom conveniently located there. The tides here are extreme, sometimes a 14-16 ft swing and beaching an 18 ft 1600 lb boat on or near basketball sized rocks is not an option. With a tent set up just above the beach under a grove of huge cedars we would fish a few hours each morning, 6-9 am, after 9am the odds are poor, first light and last hour of the day is when 90% of the big fish are taken so after the morning fishing the days were spent, exploring, berry picking, picking Oysters, Clams, and lovely big Crabs for our nightly feast from the pristine waters and napping some in prep for 4 am rising
I loaned my 16 ft aluminum boat to my friend for the derby, he and his buddy would fish the derby also and camp next to us, they followed us out to the launch point. That was quite new to them as they were both recent arrivals from the "prairie" and had little knowledge and much enthusiasm. Because we were on the edge of the open pacific the omnipresent 5-6 ft swells had them both kinda green by the time we arrived at the camping area two hours later due heavily loaded boats
.....They stayed in the bay for the whole time, but fishing was good there. Me, Carol, and the kids would travel quite a few miles over the next days because........We caught NO Salmon over 15 lbs during that weekend, they had moved and actually very few people caught anything large although there were nearly 1000 registered derby participants, a $20.000 dollar prize attracts folks from all over both our countries, some from as far away as California and North Dakota!
Timing is everything! A few days after the derby, the main runs came in and we were back there happily playing and slaying many fish up to 30+ lbs. Some days releasing 8-10 large fish while keeping a few prime Sockeye, and Cohoe for the canner and smoker, plus some to freeze.
The winner of the derby that year was a fellow from Neah Bay in Washington state with a 41 lb fish! I had the winner a couple days early and to this day still whine about it!
[attachment 40090 bigfish1.jpg]
This is only a 36 lb Spring, a 50+ is much bigger!
Here is a 54 lb that my buddy's client is holding.....
[attachment 40086 Tom.jpg]
[attachment 40091 bigfish11.jpg]
Here is my stepson Mitch with his first big Salmon
