Pink Salmon Fly Fishing

It is time to move north and begin fly fishing for pinks on the beaches, in estuaries and in rivers. Close by, Cherry Point is the first spot where the Cowichan net-pen pinks stage in early August. In Nanaimo, where the Millstream River enters is also a good spot, with gear guys on the right bank and fly fishers on the left. This is a muddy spot so be prepared and don’t get stuck. (1)

Then there are volunteer pink netpens/hatcheries in a good fifteen streams from Nile Creek north to Salmon Point, which also has the Oyster River in its area. The Quinsam, a tributary of the Campbell, had a blockage blown up in recent years and the early estimate of pinks is 750,000.

This is an even-numbered year, so from Campbell River – now stuffed with pinks, says River Sportsman – north to the Quatse in Port Hardy, there are at least a half dozen drainages that will have more fish than 2013. These include: Amor de Cosmos (a bushwhack to the estuary), Salmon, Eve, Cluxewe, Keogh (accessed from the airport south of Port Hardy) and the Quatse. In 2012, the fly fishing for pinks was so good it was beyond superlatives, and 2014 will bring return progeny from the 2012 spawners.

Beach/estuarial fisheries have much in common everywhere you fish. The most important thing I can suggest is that you memorize the spot’s 3-D structure on low tide. This lets you know where the fish are going to be on any given tide, whether up or down. You can anticipate this, and when you are marginalized by the location of other fly fishers or being persecuted by the gods, you can move to where the fish will be in half an hour, and thus glom the best spot before it happens.

Any spot that has water on a low tide, will hold fish in its gut on higher water. The channels where the river flows also usually have fish along their sides in the slightly slower water on the flood. Any place that a gravel bar forms on low tide, fish will tend to migrate over or sit on at higher tides, particularly ones that are long, slow risers. The shallow water makes the zone easier to reach. An estuary that is a mile long – the Salmon is much longer than this – will have multiple points where fish will stop on either tide.

Where the stream flows down a riffle from a tail-out on a low tide, will form a ‘barrier’ where the rising tide brings the fish in numbers to that point and they wait. Once the tide rises above the top end of the riffle, it eliminates the tail-out as structure and the fish and you mosey up to the next structure, slow spot, or end of faster water.

In such clear water you should use at least a 10-foot leader, and if you can aerialize it, 15, because it is embarrassingly clear when you strip in line how the fish is presented with the fly in view of the fly line. You won’t catch many fish until you lengthen your leader. And do remember that length of leader and weight of fly are highly important to getting your fly in the fish zone. Pinks and other salmon tend to move in a horizontal plane and are looking to nab something in direct line with their noses, whereas a fly a foot higher or lower than the zone does not get bitten.

In rivers, hitting the zone is far more important because once pinks commit to a river, like the other species of salmonids, they bunch together in large schools on the bottom – coho are the only ones likely to stray up to a fly. You need to pass your fly through the school at the horizontal level of their noses, and as only 5- to10-percent of committed fish will bite, need thousands in front of you to have a good day. 

It is more important to use sink tips, sinking lines, and poly sinking leaders in freshwater as the zone can be six to eight feet deep – oh, and leaders as short as four feet. Also use flies with heavier bead chain eyes. The hinging caused by a heavier fly can to some extent be eliminated by emphasizing good casting technique: let that fly extend fully on the back cast and only then do the forward stroke with the haul being performed at the same time.

As for flies, I attach a photo of my small box for pinks. You need back up flies when your go-to fly isn’t working and all the flies in this box will catch pinks. I suggest you pick up some pink Muddlers in size 8 and 10 at River Sportsman on your way through Campbell River. They are sparsely tied but can be incredibly fishy.

In the Campbell itself, even a standard coloured, sparse Muddler is effective. Having back up colours in green, pink and some years purple Lazer Wrap (if you can find it) for handle-bar-style flies can catch you fish when they won’t touch your best fly. Tie three of any new test fly, and if it works, make sure you resist the temptation to fish the last fly, and lose it, and your memory of its pattern. Blue will serve triple duty when there are Dolly Varden and coho around.

I am a big believer in eyes and tails for pink flies. Bead chain in silver is more effective than gold for beach/estuarial fishing. The most common fly in the right side of the box is my most effective fly. As you will notice I tie in pearl- or pink-pearl-escent tails of as much as two inches in length.

I have noticed that length attracts pinks and generally does not mean they will miss the fly itself by biting on the Krystal Flash. But if I get bites with no sticks, I trim a half- to one-inch off the tail and try again. I am convinced that when fish hit the fly sideways, and I don’t mean flossing, it gives them a bigger target to see and aim at and they take the whole thing in.

This googly-eyed pattern starts with a size 6, medium streamer, saltwater hook with a round eye I use size 2 pink tubing from Radiant (normally used for saltwater trolling spoon hooks), cut it two thirds of shank length, crush the barb and then slide the tubing around the bend onto the shank.

Tie in your Krystal Flash tail with flaming pink thread, daub it with clear nail polish, push the tubing over the daubed tailends, and wind the thread forward to the eye. Lay down a bed of thread, take medium bead chain eyes and tie them in solidly, then move the thread to the eye. Figure-eight the pink chenille (several colour variations work well) around the eyes and then tie off behind the eye. Finish with clear nail polish or Hard as Hull. I make 50 go-to flies at a time so I don’t have to re-tie in season.

One final thing: tie your fly to your leader with an Improved Clinch knot and then – the important part – pull the knot away from the eye and tighten. The fly dangles from the knot and has a more natural movement, than if the knot is tightened to the eye. In addition, you can use higher test leader up to 15 pounds, in the more expensive, thinner diameter leader material. The purpose is to eliminate break offs. In a day where you might release 25 salmon, the time you save from not retying, and sometimes having to take the whole leader off and put on a new 15 foot leader when you have retied flies many times, adds up over time.

And even more final: while I don’t mind your fishing this fly right beside me, just don’t catch more fish than I do. I won’t like that. I will be off doing my annual camping trip thing for the next two weeks, and so send two columns this week.

dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com

1.       Can someone at the Sidney Anglers Association let me know whether there will be a netpen pink return in Sidney this summer?

Q and As – August

Salmon photo wanted: If anyone has the photo Peter Robson is looking for, contact him at:  p.robson@telus.net. He is project manager on a book about the Strait of Georgia for Harbour Pulishing. “We need a shot of a big crowd of boats fishing in Active Pass from back in the heyday 1970/80s.” I suggested Oak Bay Marine Group, and Tom Cole who has some very interesting text and image files from earlier years. Tom, he may come your way.

Salmon Disease Study: just in from the Pacific Salmon Foundation is a news release on the study that features doctors Brian Riddell and Kristi Miller. You will recall her work from the Cohen Commission showing ISA and HSMI in 25% of farmed chinook in Clayoquot Sound, and that along with doctors Fred Kibenge, PEI, and Are Nylund, from Norway, all showed ISA in BC – one of the worst diseases that can be spread to wild salmon.

The transcripts and videos from the third stage in the Cohen are available on an archived website: http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/pco-bcp/commissions/cohen/cohen_commission/LOCALHOS/EN/INDEX.HTM. Cohen reopened the commission because a report that DFO did not include in the half million it buried him under was sent to him from another source, showing much ISA in BC, the Molly Kibenge report, that DFO subsequently said were all false positives. Sure.

Here is their magazine with a two page article: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/300930?utm_source=mailoutinteractive&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salmon%20Science,%20Events%20and%20News. While they are good people, and Miller was shown to be the best at deducing disease (you will recall her ‘viral signature’ work that showed disease symptoms in Fraser sockeye back to 1988), the piece has the ongoing disappointment that DFO continues in conflict with fish farms. The article repeatedly says the results will be available for industry to use – meaning fish farms. This goes against Cohen’s 23 recommendations regarding fish farms, which includes, right up front, saying that it is a conflict that should be removed from DFO and for DFO to get on with saving wild salmon.

Fraser Sockeye: DFO has released updated information and, in summary, says that there are more early Stuart sockeye, but not enough other stocks for a marine sport catch at this time. Current stock analysis shows 50% early Stuarts, 20% early summers and 30% Harrisons. 210,400 sockeye have passed the Mission counter, 159,000 of them early Stuarts. The river flow has dropped to 4,518 cubic meters per second from 5,200 last week. Qualark temperature is 18.8, 2.8 degrees above average. Sockeye begin dying at 20 degrees Centigrade.

Run of River Power impact on salmon: See the PSF news release: http://www.psf.ca/files/2014/ROR_News_Release.pdf?utm_source=mailoutinteractive&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Just%20Released:%20Run-of-River%20Review,%20Vancouver%20Gala%20Save%20the%20Date. Several recommendations are made for better monitoring and long term practices.

"Our independent review identifies pathways that could lead to impacts on salmonids, but the evidence now is inconclusive," said Brian Riddell, President and CEO, PSF. "This is because many of the early facilities (pre-1990) were not monitored and because the more recent, but well monitored sites, are in the midst of their environmental assessments. While we need more information for these evaluations, we expect much better insights in just a few years."

Anyone who has seen the environmental damage caused in Toba Inlet, with disruption to 15 watersheds, can only describe it as a moonscape of gravel that eliminates and degrades salmonid habitat in a big way. Anyone who compares this with Bute Inlet right next door, with its Homathko 28 mile alluvial plain, Southgate at 16 miles, bull trout to 11 pounds and cutthroat to 6 pounds can only shake their head at the outcomes in Toba and across BC. Bute is stuffed with wild trout and char.

But Plutonic Power has plans for Bute: http://www.alterrapower.ca/files/doc_financials/PCC_AIF_fye2009_10Mar30.pdf. It wants to build 17 run-of-river ‘sites’: Algard Creek, Allaire Creek, Bear River, Brew Creek, Coola Creek, East Orford River, Elliot Creek, Gargoyle Creek, Heakamie River, Icewall Creek, Jewakwa River, North Orford River, River, Raleigh Creek, Scar Creek, Southgate River – two dams – and Whitemantle Creek.

If you want to fly fish Bute Inlet while it is pristine – there are no roads – the Lodge at Gold River, does pretty nifty helicopter trips starting in February. There is nothing like helicopter fly fishing: http://www.thelodgeatgoldriver.ca/.

dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com

Q and As – July 13, 2014

Trailhead Resort, Port Renfrew: Swiftsure Bank is the closest, pristine wilderness fishery in BC. Trailhead has several things going for it: easy drive-in location 1.5 hours west of Victoria; reasonable prices; large metal fishing boats; Swiftsure itself which – and I have gone out with them many times over the past two decades – typically limits everyone for halibut, then the boat moves to the chinook and coho area, where limits are also taken; rock solid fish prep in vacuum packed portions as you wish them prepared; and, a nice lodge and out buildings. See: http://trailhead-resort.com/.

Sockeye fishing: It looks like we will be getting some sockeye retention in the CRD, Victoria area this summer, but there are some issues. Based on gillnetting returns, a 50/50 diversion down Johnstone and Juan de Fuca straits is predicted. That implies low ocean water temperature because sockeye divert through Johnstone at 80% or higher with a one degree rise in temperature. So, many more sockeye will be coming our way than in a warm water year. And you will remember the 7 to 77 million Fraser sockeye forecast earlier this year.

So far 55,000 Early Stuart sockeye have passed the Mission counter. The Stuart and Chilko fish peak timing will be 4 days later than usual, and, right now, they are in Area 20 where we fish. However, the hot weather we have been having is warming the Fraser where the sockeye are going, melting the snowpack sooner and river flow has declined slightly to 5,502 cubic metres per second. 

At Qualark, the temperature, at 17.0 Celsius, is 1.7 degrees above average. This means up-river mortality will be higher this year, and thus sockeye retention in our area isn’t happening until other, larger components of the run start passing through. DFO is still expecting the 50% probability level of 23,000,000 Fraser sockeye.

This is the fishery that includes shore-bound anglers who go up to fish the San Juan estuary, and camp right on the beach. Typically, as lots of lead flies, it is best to fish early, for the largest average-sized coho on Vancouver Island, in the third week of September. Once the rains begin, use the 4X4 road near the Harris Creek Bridge, and take it as far as it goes. You need a 4X4 as this track has some of the deepest holes en route and most mud of any terminal access on Van Isle. Note that you will have to check the non-tidal regs as any water above the San Juan estuary bridge by the Pa-chee-daht First Nation is deemed freshwater.

This is where you find DFO area maps and salmon retention regs: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/tidal-maree/a-s19-eng.html.

Lanceville: Lance Foreman, a 12 foot, tin-boat-er from Clover Point Anglers Association, hauled in a big spring this week in front of the Beacon Hill Park Flagpole. In the boat, it measured 31 pounds 4 ounces, and by the time he reached Island Outfitters, 29 lbs 11 ounces, and leads the leader board. He caught it on an anchovy, Bloody Nose teaser-head and 5 foot leader to a Purple Onion flasher. All of us guys who go to the Oak Bay Recreation Centre gym every morning – and there are lots of us – want to thank Lance for telling us two if not three times about his big spring.

Integrated Fisheries Management Plans: There are two documents, the separation point being Cape Caution on the mainland north of Port Hardy. This is the summary document for south BC: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/ifmp-eng.html, only 13 pages.  This is the actual, full length document for south BC, 150 plus pages, and I suggest you read it at least once in your life: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/351581.pdf. It is impressive and DFO can be patted on the back for doing a good job.

You will note from the summary document that the 2010 number for tidal sport fishing expenditures was: $689.7 million expressed in constant 2009 dollars – this means that the actual figure was higher. DFO puts out its Survey of Recreational Fishing in Canada, every five years.

If you compare the DFO document with the BC Stats document – which has the best set of stats on the fishing sectors in BC (commercial, sport, processing and aquaculture) – you will find that, expressed in 2002 constant dollars, that of the total revenue of $2.2 billion spent, almost 50% was from sport fishers, at $936.5 million and that sport employment, at 8,400 jobs, is an impressive 60% of the 13,900 jobs in the sector.

BC Stats 2011 Report: Fish, Processing, Sport Fishing and Aquaculture Stats - Figures in Millions (and 2002 constant dollars, except for 2011 Revenue)

	Commercial	Processing	Sport	Aquaculture	Total
Contribution to GDP, and %	$102.3 (15.3%)	$177.5 (26.6)	$325.7 (48.8%)	$61.9  (9.3%)	$667.4 100%
% GDP					0.4%
Employment (% of total)	1,400 (10.1%)	2,400 (17.3%)	8,400 (60.4%)	1,700 (12.2%)	13,900 100%
Wages and Salaries % of Total	$78.4* $8.4 2.2%	$105.3 $105.3 27.5%	$218.9 $218.9 57.1%	$55.7 $55.7 14.5%	- $383.3 100%
Total 2011 Revenue (increase/decrease)	$344.8 (+4.1%)	$427.5 (+2.1%)	$936.5 (+0.8%)	$469.0 (-12.2%)	$2,177.8
Revenue % of Total	15.8%	19.6%	43.0%	21.5%	100%

See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/sport-fishing-how-we-tack-up-feb-6-2013.html.

Pink fly fishers: The River Sportsman in Campbell River says: “There are a ton of pinks in the river.” And flies that work? “Pink and shiny.” My favourite for the Campbell are sparse size 8 Muddlers, tied ala the River Sportsman. For rivers north of the Campbell, pick up their size 8 and 10 pink Muddlers. All who fished in 2012 will remember it as the best year on record, and their progeny are coming back now in 2014.

dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com

Prepping for the West Coast

This is a good year to tow your boat to west coast Van Isle to nab your share of those 2.4 million chinook beetling by to the States. Do some gear prep before you go. First, spend a million dollars on your engine and vital electronics.

Then add some more money. My boat is in the water at Oak Bay, and it makes sense to – once you have dealt with your trailer, as a previous column mentioned – do a quick power wash, particularly if you use that Micron anti-fouling that lasts two years, because it won’t break down. Do your prop and transducer, too, as well as checking your pitot-tube for growth.

Regular scrubbing over the transom also makes your prop work at peak efficiency for popping your boat out of the hole, and running more efficiently on the plane. If you have not already done so, the next time you service the prop, have it cupped. This eighth of an inch on the prop’s leading edge holds more water and it pops and planes easier. And trim your leg/engine each time out. Look at the prop wash and trim until it settles nicely at the speed you want to plane. And listen to the sound of the engine/prop. It will smooth out when properly trimmed. And, of course, do plane at an easy level for your engine, not above 80% of engine capacity.

Also consider buying another propeller. If you use stainless cable on your downriggers, and they tangle in the prop, it will look like Swiss cheese after even a few seconds of winding cable around itself. It can be so damaged you are not coming out of the hole and it will be a long, slow trip to your evening destination. I have changed blades on the water. Not much fun, because you cannot drop that cotter pin, nut and any spacers, but leads to a quicker trip home, in west coast water that can grow extreme in no time. Carry a replacement stainless or braided cable.

And if you do tangle the prop, make sure to check the seals on the leg, as if they blow, you are looking at an expensive repair, particularly if the salt gets on the various gears/shafts/splines inside. If you see oil on the water when you are at the dock, take that as evidence of blown seals. And do make sure your kicker works, before you pull away from home. Put those ‘earmuffs’ on the intake ports with a hose attached, to run water through, keeping the engine from red-lining.

Retie the ball clips on your cable, whether stainless or braid. And reposition the red spacers on the cable, as over time they tend to slip up, particularly on braid that is more slippery. Buy an extra ball – 12 pounds for tidal current or deep trolling – the banks off Ucluelet/Tofino can have you trolling at 250 feet – because it’s a drag dropping a ball off and not being able to use that downrigger for the rest of the day. Trotac has them for $35. And pick up an extra release clip. 

Make it long enough to clip the cable, and pull the release clip into the pipe-stem rod holder or over the gunwhale, where you want it once you are satisfied with tackle action in the water.

Also consider adding a buss for your downriggers, and added electronics. Any boat older than 10 years will have corrosion in the wires which leads to erratic electronics action. For example, if you have to knock the glass of any dash component, oil pressure, for instance, that is evidence of corrosion. I once cut an inch off a downrigger lead to find good metal, only to find, cut after cut, that the corrosion had moved up inside the vinyl coating more than 2.5 feet. Then I pulled out the line and put a complete new one in.

My boat is 30 years old and stringing electric wires is the most costly job on a boat. I had Gartside put in a new harness, new dash and all new to all the new dash electronics, as in ka-ching. But the goal is being confident your boat will bring you back through anything. In my boat, that still leaves things like the blower, wiper and horn on the original panel on the starboard side, and condensation leaves them erratic as well – I’ll patch on a few items, and have all rewired this winter.

Bring your rods home and service them. Wash rods and reels with warm soapy water, rinse, and take the reels apart. Wipe off all the grease and reapply a saltwater grease, such as white lithium. Take off the old mono mainline and reapply. If you measure the length of line on a single turn of the reel handle, then you know the number of winds of new 30 pound mono to put on the reel. Should be 300 yards for each reel, as long as the reel is not over filled. Any line that does not sit below the spool edge will come flying off the reel and tangle on that big fish. That will make you angry. Also measure the circumference distance on the last complete handle turn, to give you an idea how length increases with circumference distance.

The alternative is to use Island Outfitters et al, as their commercial reel loaders have counters and you will have the correct amount of line on each reel, with the added benefit of having your previous mainline recycled.

If you use expensive reels like Islander or Penn, I would send them to a special repair location over the winter. I use Success in Shawnigan Lake for my Penn 965 Baitcasters, but Islander Reels and Outfitters are in Victoria for when the teeth on your drags wear down on your one-way drag Shimano and Daiwa.

And then there are the small things. Make sure your ball bearing end snaps still rotate easily. Some WD 40 will help. Then buy a half dozen more, another half dozen large ball bearing swivels, as well as large split rings, a split-ring pliers, and a dozen large quick-changers. You will break off a half dozen and should have more than enough in your tackle box.

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: check your stock of flashers, and add some favourites, like the Betsy, Purple Haze and glow green. Farr Better Flashers make sense, too, as their tail pins come out on a bite and the flasher is no longer in-line between you and the fish, so its shear cannot be used to pull out hooks.

Check leaders on your lures, but don’t replace them on your klllers; some hootchies, for instance have magical properties. Some work far better than others, and you do not want to retie them; they will out fish all other hootchies until they finally break. In the intervening time, get to know which particular replacement hootchies work well and don’t work, so you have another killer when you lose a killer. A hootchie in a killer pattern that doesn’t work should have its leader retied and then retried. There is magic in these. I tie 34 inches, but the length depends on how fast your troll. And if you are speeding up for coho, which often have pink and sockeye with them, do remember that increased speed is the same thing as shortening a leader.

Tie a dozen cut-plug arrangements of two single, kerbed, size 4/0 – 6/0 hooks, tied six inches apart, with ‘sliding’ knots and wrap them around a grooved, plywood rectangle. Use 25 pound test. Tie also leaders with a treble and a single trailer (only four inches behind) on six foot leaders for fishing bait and do check the wires on your wire-rigged teasers because they can become rusty and break just as you are sliding the wire down from the gill plate inside the bait body. Grr.

One final thing: never leave the dock without full tanks of fuel. Make that a rule you never break. It will save you.

dcreid@onfishingdcreid.blogspot.com

Q and As – June 2014

Volunteers Needed: The South Vancouver Island Angler Coalition needs help this weekend, June 14 and 15 at their major fundraiser: The 2014 Juan de Fuca Fishing Tournament. If you can lend a hand for a few hours at Pedder Bay Marina, Saturday, 8 AM to 6 PM; or at Langford Legion, Sunday, 10 AM to 6 PM, call Chris Bos: 778-426-4141 – chris@anglerscoalition.com; or, Christopher Miller: 250-217-7301 – members@anglerscoalition.com.

Fraser 5-2 Spring, and Summer Fraser Chinook. The Albion test fishery, in the May 5 to 31 period was five chinook, slightly more than 2012. “Based on this input, the current predicted return… to the mouth of the Fraser ranges from 31,000 to 58,000 chinook (median: 42,250).” The Salmon Outlook predicted 25,000 fish in January. So a slight increase. If you want to receive these emails from DFO, send a note: opscentre@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca.

DFO and Fish Farm Expansion: The Pacific Region Marine Finfish Integrated Management of Aquaculture Plan, 2013 arrived on my desk last week. I sent a note to Min Shea pointing out Commissioner Cohen told the government to take fish farms out of DFO’s mandate and make them focus solely on wild salmon.

Here is one paragraph: “The BC Stats report noted… shows conclusively that fish farms are flat-lined in BC, and it’s because no one here will eat the stuff, and it has to be exported to the USA. But there, with the removal of a 26% duty, the Norwegian companies that own 90% of BC fish farms will be exporting against the interests of their own BC operations, as well as setting up shop in the USA. BC fish farms are toast and it is their own companies that are doing it to them. It has nothing to do with the strictness of the laws as you have claimed – it’s the companies themselves. You can’t grow what can’t be sold. Oh, and that BC Stats doc is your own DFO document that you paid for but don’t use any more than you do Cohen’s 1200 page tome. Use them.”

Here is the link: http://www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/06/dfo-and-nancy-greene-fish-farms-in-bc.html.

Ken Messerschmidt: I read with great interest your reference to spring salmon caught long ago in May and June in Saanich Inlet.  What really intrigued me was you mentioned good size springs that you picked up between McCurdy Point and McKenzie Bay (we never used the term “Bight”), were invariably hatchery fish from two Washington State hatcheries! When you made mention of the fact that, you could almost “predict the actual moment of the fish taking the lure”; well, this sure echoed what I recall. To further fuel my enthusiasm, I recently heard of two 25 lb. springs, caught by the same fisherman in early May at the mouth of Patricia Bay. As I understand it, they were also Washington Hatchery sourced fish.

This past weekend, a friend told me of another fishing enthusiast who caught a couple of springs, this past week in the Fairfax Point region that were hatchery fish. Finally, I’m sure you heard about the 34 lb. spring caught off North Pender Island bluffs. This was the fish, caught in early May that won the Sidney Anglers Association Derby; which, you guessed it, was also a hatchery fish.

DC: Thanks for this. By now, meaning June, hatchery fish caught from Coal Island and south are probably Frasers because the Washington State fish we were protecting were spring springs, as in March to May, runs of wild ‘springers’, as they are called in the States.

Thermacell Outdoor Lantern: Last year on my annual Van Isle camping trip ( I have never actually been rained on, if you can believe it), I took along a lantern that keeps mosquitos and no-see-ums away from your flesh once evening humidity rises. It worked.

Not only did it light the area under my gazebo, a good ten-foot square – I spare no expense in my camping. My tent would house Ghadaffi and his entire harem, although I would not have let him come in – but it has a strong insect repellent device. You load it, get it running and then it works all evening. The lantern is portable, so no stumbling around in the forest at night.

Apparently, The Outdoor Lantern has been tested by and is used by the Department of Defense and the United States Army, making it the most effective insect repellent device on the market. It is DEET- and odour-free and weighs 13 ounces. Good for camping, as well as patios, backyards, decks, picnics and-barbecues. It uses the chemical allethrin which is the insecticide found in chrysanthemums. The butane cartridge which powers the repellent provides 12 hours of power.

Jack Seedhouse: In case you didn't know, the Charlotte Princess is evidently up for sale on Used Victoria for the paltry sum of $ 375,000.00.

DC: Sad indeed. The Charlotte Princess was my first trip to the Queen Charlottes in 1996. It seems a long time ago, though I can remember the dozens of bald eagles in the mist-smoky trees, and how their calls seemed so small in comparison with their large size.

I dropped an Extra Large Herring to the bottom a couple of miles off Lacey. It bounced once and was glommed by what proved to be, after 30 minutes of winching the frigging thing off the bottom, a 100 pound halibut. I was going to release it but the photographer that I was with – in another boat – said he wanted it. He hit it so hard with his harpoon that he broke it and had to use mine.

I suggested he might want to hogtie it rather than drag it on-board the OBMG skiffs I am sure many readers will remember. But he did not do so, so I was treated to him retreating to the bow while it smashed everything to smithereens, along with his $20,000 of paparazzi gear. I am sort of sorry to admit I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my boat.

Here is what Oak Bay Marine Group has to say: http://www.mvcharlotteprincess.com/.
1,014 Words

dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com