Bill/CA
11-08-2006, 05:46 PM
Fool & Bat Breath,
you guys will have a new neighbor from California. His name is Bob Franko. He was the president of our local fishing club www.coastsidefishingclub.com
He is endorsed by Sal and myself. Take care of Bob for us. Here's a note from him:
Most of you know I have decided to start a new chapter in my fishing life. My friends tell me they have not seen me this excited about fishing in a long time. I think the word like a little kid was used.
I made the decision that I need new challenges in my fishing life, so the goal was to find the best salmon, rockfish, lingcod, halibut, prawn, and crab fishery on the west coast, or as it turns out maybe the world considering other factors, like accessibility.
The pricing was really not a factor, most places that where in the running where really pretty cheap by California standards. The goal was to buy a summer house across the street with friends and NOT MOVE THERE, but spend a good part of the summer there off and on.
The candidates that I started with was North to South, Homer AK, Gastavus AK, Hoonah AK, Queen Charlottes BC, Prince Rupert BC, Ocean Falls BC, Bella Coola BC, Shearwater BC, Whiskey Cove BC, Namu BC, Port Hardy BC, Zeballos BC, Tahsis BC.
In some cases I had already fished some of these spots so it took less research in those areas, but over the last 3 weeks I have been a man on a mission in each area. I contacted the local merchants like small grocery, and hardware stores, Commercial fisherman, hatcheries, fishing lodges, the local F&G officer for the region. I must say the BC version of our F&G where just a tremendous help, all good guys that invited me to their area to fish with them to see for myself.
My conclusion after all this research was there is a lot of good fishing out there.
During all this there was a region that kept coming up. Some of the commercial fisherman, some F&G folk would say have you looked at this area. So I started to remove names one buy one, and the area that kept popping up started to pull away from the others for my particular needs.
This area no matter who I talked with from mid July through August Kings average between 25lb to 35lbs with lots of the 40lb class fish being caught. There of course is all the other salmon present at different times of the year. It is not an area that produces the 70lb or even many 60lb salmon, but the number of fish is tremendous. It is an area that 13 million fish pass through a year on their way back to Washington, Oregon, and even California.
The Halibut fishery is not a big fish fishery, the fish average between 20 and 60lbs, but its limits most of the time, with the occasional 100lb fish. The largest last year was over 200lbs
The ling cod are a pain in the neck there are so many, with over 30lbs fairly regular with the 40 once and a while.
Keep in mind these are by are standards short runs with plenty of protected waters to fish in the inlets on windy days.
I was on the phone with one of the local fisherman last night. I am already trying to pick the brains of the local knowledge. I asked among other things about the Prawn fishery. He said this year was great, last year was slower. I asked how far from the ramp he puts his gear he said about 10 minutes. I asked on a day soak this year what each trap would have. He said between 200 and 300 prawns. As you can imagine I was a little overwhelmed with that answer. I asked about last year’s slow season he said about 50 per trap.
The last thing I did was as usual go to the membership for help and asked the simple question has any one been there, and as normal a member Al Edwards has been fishing that region for the last six years, and not only confirmed the research, but told me his personal experiences six days last year where on kings along he limited daily, with I think he said fish from 28lbs to over 40lbs. He said one triple all three fish landed between 30 and 35lbs. He also had some incredible stories about trolling with downriggers a hundred ft in 120ft of water, and drifting for halibut in 300ft of water.
I’m sorry for the long winded explanation. The bottom line is we made an offer two days ago in Tahsis British Columbia, and was accepted. Coastside North will be a reality Dec 1, 2006.
Maybe Al can post under this some of his great stories.
Bob Franko
--------------------
Thanks for your club support. Our fishery is too important not to care.
you guys will have a new neighbor from California. His name is Bob Franko. He was the president of our local fishing club www.coastsidefishingclub.com
He is endorsed by Sal and myself. Take care of Bob for us. Here's a note from him:
Most of you know I have decided to start a new chapter in my fishing life. My friends tell me they have not seen me this excited about fishing in a long time. I think the word like a little kid was used.
I made the decision that I need new challenges in my fishing life, so the goal was to find the best salmon, rockfish, lingcod, halibut, prawn, and crab fishery on the west coast, or as it turns out maybe the world considering other factors, like accessibility.
The pricing was really not a factor, most places that where in the running where really pretty cheap by California standards. The goal was to buy a summer house across the street with friends and NOT MOVE THERE, but spend a good part of the summer there off and on.
The candidates that I started with was North to South, Homer AK, Gastavus AK, Hoonah AK, Queen Charlottes BC, Prince Rupert BC, Ocean Falls BC, Bella Coola BC, Shearwater BC, Whiskey Cove BC, Namu BC, Port Hardy BC, Zeballos BC, Tahsis BC.
In some cases I had already fished some of these spots so it took less research in those areas, but over the last 3 weeks I have been a man on a mission in each area. I contacted the local merchants like small grocery, and hardware stores, Commercial fisherman, hatcheries, fishing lodges, the local F&G officer for the region. I must say the BC version of our F&G where just a tremendous help, all good guys that invited me to their area to fish with them to see for myself.
My conclusion after all this research was there is a lot of good fishing out there.
During all this there was a region that kept coming up. Some of the commercial fisherman, some F&G folk would say have you looked at this area. So I started to remove names one buy one, and the area that kept popping up started to pull away from the others for my particular needs.
This area no matter who I talked with from mid July through August Kings average between 25lb to 35lbs with lots of the 40lb class fish being caught. There of course is all the other salmon present at different times of the year. It is not an area that produces the 70lb or even many 60lb salmon, but the number of fish is tremendous. It is an area that 13 million fish pass through a year on their way back to Washington, Oregon, and even California.
The Halibut fishery is not a big fish fishery, the fish average between 20 and 60lbs, but its limits most of the time, with the occasional 100lb fish. The largest last year was over 200lbs
The ling cod are a pain in the neck there are so many, with over 30lbs fairly regular with the 40 once and a while.
Keep in mind these are by are standards short runs with plenty of protected waters to fish in the inlets on windy days.
I was on the phone with one of the local fisherman last night. I am already trying to pick the brains of the local knowledge. I asked among other things about the Prawn fishery. He said this year was great, last year was slower. I asked how far from the ramp he puts his gear he said about 10 minutes. I asked on a day soak this year what each trap would have. He said between 200 and 300 prawns. As you can imagine I was a little overwhelmed with that answer. I asked about last year’s slow season he said about 50 per trap.
The last thing I did was as usual go to the membership for help and asked the simple question has any one been there, and as normal a member Al Edwards has been fishing that region for the last six years, and not only confirmed the research, but told me his personal experiences six days last year where on kings along he limited daily, with I think he said fish from 28lbs to over 40lbs. He said one triple all three fish landed between 30 and 35lbs. He also had some incredible stories about trolling with downriggers a hundred ft in 120ft of water, and drifting for halibut in 300ft of water.
I’m sorry for the long winded explanation. The bottom line is we made an offer two days ago in Tahsis British Columbia, and was accepted. Coastside North will be a reality Dec 1, 2006.
Maybe Al can post under this some of his great stories.
Bob Franko
--------------------
Thanks for your club support. Our fishery is too important not to care.