By Don Daniels
The month of August has gone by the wayside and it is clear to say it has been busy around Campbell River when it comes to saltwater fishing.
The catch reports for Chinooks have been very good and there are signs it is not slowing down. Local fishing guides are having a great fishing season and their customers are happy with their catches.
Discovery Pier has seen lots of action during August and the start of September even got better. The Tyee Pool has had 10 fish registered as of Sept. 2 and there are still nine more fishing days remaining for the 2019 fishing season.
There are contract fishing guides that left Campbell River in mid April and they will return home this week and settle back in.
The Campbell River has lots of Chinooks going to spawn and they are catch-and-release but the pinks are in the pools and are showing signs of getting dark and I am seeing a few pink carcasses around, their life cycle is over after spawning.
Graham Buchanan from Georgia got a 46.3 pound Tyee and he was guided by experienced guide Russ from Painters Lodge. You can rent a rod at Discovery Pier and Chinooks are coming in at 24 and 26 pounds has been common and more springs have been caught than pinks.
At the Tyee Pool, Scott Laird got his Tyee. His rower was Trevor Erickson. Scott is no stranger to salmon fishing around Campbell River as he was a guide years ago and he still enjoys fishing. Scott is blind and he still has the touch to bring in the big one fishing the old fashioned way.
I was standing waist deep in the Campbell River and there was lots of interesting sights to see while fly fishing. A group of kids floated down the river in pink flamingo inflatables and the snorkel-with-the-salmon boats were also going through. It was interesting to watch the kids snorkel and float by and my rule of thumb is let them go by and get your hook out of their way.
Families from Union Bay were fly fishing for pinks and dad and the daughter and her friend enjoyed the day wading in and catching their limit of pinks then getting back to their lawn chair on shore. With the warm weather, never mind the neoprene waders, get on your swim suit and get out fishing.
Trout fishing has been fair on local lakes but let the weather cool before getting out to your local lake. I can fish locally on lakes until mid-December when, weather depending, the higher elevation lakes shut down.
I am looking at heading south to Courtenay-Comox and fish Wolf Lake sometime this month. I had a chance to see the Fred Masson worm farm but he didn’t give me a worms-to-go bag.