John Rose 1954

Mike Rose sent me these images of John Rose, his father, taken in 1954.

"These three pictures were in 1954 when we were living on Foul Bay Road and I was attending Victoria College before going to UBC in Vancouver."

Surprisingly, they lived only a few blocks from where I currently live just on the Victoria side of the Foul Bay line. 

"We spent most weekends and some evenings fishing on the Inlet and that craft was a fine fishing boat with a 32hp inboard grey marine engine with bunks and heating and cooking facilities." 

 "It was one of the many craft that John owned in the period 1953-1970 before he got the Salar."

Saanich Inlet was just the right spot for both of these boats, as it is protected from wind from many directions, as well as has very slow tidal currents because it is only open at one end, rather than at both. Wind against tidal currents makes for rough water on the inside straits of BC.

"The Salmon was one of many “button fish” that he caught. He had a box full of buttons when he quit fishing just prior to 1997."

The buttons were from the Victoria Saanich Inlet Angling Association.

"The cod was on an early morning trip to Cowichan Bay in September while the springs  and cohos were schooling in the Bay waiting for the first fall rains. I used to fish the Cowichan River and canoed and waded a lot in the summer and early fall when the springs came up before the rains. Just off the River Bottom Road in Sahtlam there were several large clay banks which are mostly all gone now  and we used to watch the springs and summer steelhead resting in the pools below the banks from July on.

"The big ling cod as I recall had swallowed a smaller one as we were wining the smaller one in."

I recall that as the days moved deeper into September and then early October - in a dry year, of course, as rain was/is the trigger for coho to hit their river - the morning fish would move north and come to rest off the Mill Bay shore and ferry terminal, in 225 feet of water or deeper. One of the usual tacks was to start in the dark off the south end of Bamberton, for its chinook bite, and once that was over, you would follow the 200 foot ledge north, where it steadily moved off shore until you were a half mile or so off the ferry terminal in Mill Bay.

It was a distinct fishery, and in the area from Tozier to Tanner rocks, that we did not fish any other time of the year, unless it was fishing deep for chinook. There wasn't any need to go that far, as in January and February, the fish could be inside Brentwood Bay and Tod Inlet. If I recall correctly, it was tradition to fish Tod Inlet on January 1 of the new year.