2021-08-25>28 Murphy Kyuquot Sound Four Day Fishout

[John Pierce]

Trip Summary by JohnP:
All three of us limited out all quota's on last day of fishing, ~75# fillets per person, (salmon still in sound as minimal rain). Well run 14 boat operation, accommodations basic reflecting price, food had minimal vegetables/fruit, lots of sweets. Drizzled rain for 1.5 days, concentrated trip, need a couple days to catch up on sleep.

2021-08-24 GRR Members JohnP, RonE, & DaveC drove up to Campbell River, RonE & DaveC fly fished and released Pinks in Campbell River, JohnP, had snooze after taking wife to airport early.
2021-08-25 Drove to Fair Harbour, parked car, Guide Boats ready early at 2pm, 30 min ride to lodge, fished few hours landed two Chinooks and one Coho.
2021-08-26 Fished all day, limited out on Chinooks and second Coho, JohnP seasick but avoided chumming water withe aid of DaveC's good stuff.
2021-08-27 Fished all day for Halibut and Lings, RonE caught day's record 31# Ling using live bait.
2021-08-28 Fished few hours to fill Ling and Halibut quota, plus several Rock Fish and Black Bass. Boat to Fair Harbour, 7.5 hr drive straight back to Victoria.

Trip Summary by RonE:
DaveC, JohnP, and I fished Kyuoquot Sound from August 25th to August 28th with Murphy's an Outfitter based in Port Alberni. https://www.murphysportfishing.com/
John has documented aspects of the trip in the Victoria GRR Forum and posted photos. As John stated, we all came home with full possession limits of Chinook salmon, halibut, lingcod, and possibly even rockfish. And I think every other angler at the lodge did the same thing. I would recommend a trip to Kyuoquott sound to anyone who wishes to catch these species and I plan to go again next year.
It is about a seven-and-a-half-hour drive from Victoria to Fair Harbour where one catches the water taxi to the lodge.
The salmon fishing is in fairly protected waters. However, if one is going to fish for the other species and is susceptible to seasickness I would recommend bringing seasickness patches.
During our stay, we rotated through a different guide every day. All of them had several years of experience fishing in the area and were quite good.
I cannot recommend the food. Having stated this, this has been a difficult year for supplying outpost camps and this could be part of the reason why the food was so terrible. If you like lots of sugar and sweet chocolate, you might like the food more than I did.
John has posted a photo of a kelp greenling. That fish was used by me to catch a large lingcod, a favourite technique of mine. The kelp greenling is hooked in the lips and the line is weighted such that the greenling sinks close to the bottom and is basically left there. It usually doesn't take very long before a large lingcod will grab it and it won't let go. By carefully reeling to just below the surface the ling can be netted or gaffed. Our guide gaffed my fish. There is a photo showing the kelp greenling still in the mouth of the ling and the guide is holding it with a gaff. Unfortunately not all guides like doing this as we learned the last morning of the trip. Dave caught a nice-sized kelp greenling and the guide was not interested in using it as a bait.
We chose the option to have Murphy's clean, vacuum pack and flash freeze our fish. They did a great job of this and I'm glad that I chose to have this done.
Cheers
Ron

[John Pierce]

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[John Pierce]

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[John Pierce]

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[John Pierce]

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[John Pierce]

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