June 15-18 Jim Moffat Group – Salmon, Halibut …and Elephants!?

Posted by admin on June 25, 2009 under Fishing Reports | Be the First to Comment

CFS Masset a.k.a. "The Elephant Cage"

The final group led by Jim Moffat arrived at Gerry’s Fishing Charters late on the 15^th, and we had them in the boats and on the water as quickly as possible. The Chinook salmon had been congregating over towards the shallow sandy flats between Venture Banks and “Ops” (a giant radar ring antenna known locally as “The Elephant Cage” ) for the last few days and even though we only got to fish a few hours, we had plenty of action. Fishing right off the bottom provided some great Chinook fishing with plenty of fish played and landed by all boats.  This area is not particularly noted for its Chinook and fishing, but hey… sometimes the fish are where they are! On the way home, Jack, Jim, Barry and I found ourselves in the midst of a pod of about a dozen Orcas. Very cool anytime, but with the heavy fog and diminishing light, it was a surreal experience! On the 16^th, the rain had stopped and the fog had lifted, so I took the crew out to do a bit of halibut fishing offshore. The guests quickly got their limit among plenty of feeding Humpback whales and we were off to fish Salmon at Cape Edenshaw. It was one of those spectacular days where we managed to stay on top of the fish for hours by moving in and offshore with the tidelines (and the bait). In addition to the fish we kept, we released many Chinook in the 20lb range. A great day. Day 3 was much the same as day 2, though the commercial trollers who started up on June 15th were starting to make a noticeable (though temporary) impact on the fishing. We landed 6 Chinook and several coho. The last day was a “mop up day” of sorts. We were largely targeting coho to max out limits. We boated 8 coho and lost many others, before targeting and getting our final Chinook and Halibut. The boys were tubbed out! Thanks to Jim, Barry, Jack, Chris and Ryan for a great trip!

"Let 'em Run!" Jack showing us how it's done

Nice Spring at the Boat

"The Box" at the end of the day

June 14 – Great Day with the Lotimer Family

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Heather Lotimer's Chinook Salmon

Today, Graham Island Sportfishing had the pleasure of taking Jim Lotimer and his family out for the inaugural voyage of our new Grady White fishing vessel. The weather started out choppy, but settled right down and Jim, Jane, Heather and Suzanne experienced some great Queen Charlotte Islands Fishing. Within 5 minutes of dropping our lines, Jane christened the new boat with a beautiful Chinook salmon. The action remained steady all day, though Heather and Suzanne had to depart early for a helicopter tour of the island courtesy of some friends met earlier on their trip. Fishing highlights included a 40ish lb. Halibut landed by Jim and a beautiful 28 lb Chinook brought in by Heather. Suzanne did great as well, playing and landing some awesome fish.

The Lotimers rounded out their Queen Charlotte Islands adventure the next day with a Kayak trip to the Haida Village of Yan, lead by Masset local Colin Camire.

Jim with a QCI Chinook

Jim Lotimer is the President of Lotek Wireless Inc. (www.lotek.com), a company that creates the technology used by biologists to track and monitor animals (including Salmon, of course) within their environment. Jim and his family took a great interest in the fish we caught and the environment we were fishing in. The Lotimer group was a pleasure to guide and hopefully our paths will cross again.

June 9-13 Starting off the Fishing Season

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The season started off by working with Gerry’s Fishing Charters to guide two trips with the Jim Moffat/Rick Quigley group. These are a great bunch of guys who hail from Ft. St. John and Calgary. The first trip started slow and steady, with each boat landing 2- 4 Spring Salmon per day (with several more hooked) in the 18-20 lb range. The second trip enjoyed some bigger fish and improved action with a couple fish weighing in just shy of the Tyee mark. Both groups saw some good halibut fishing with plenty of fish weighing between 20 and 50 lbs hitting the dock. A couple of early Coho were found off of 7 mile point.