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by March Brown (Ian Forbes) |
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by March Brown (Ian Forbes) |
Fishing with King Jigger Charters... |
| Dawn is still an hour away when Ken Nastrom stows our gear into his 22 foot Campion. In the half light of the early morning, other anglers are also preparing for a days outing in Discovery Passage. Ken steers "The Spring King" out from Campbell River's Marina and south towards the lighthouse for the short run to the fishing grounds off Quadra Island. |
| Lighthouse
Action...
When we reach the lighthouse Ken Throttles back on the gas and then flips on the sounder to look for the schools of bait. A few herring are seen jumping on the surface, but Ken knows it takes a bait ball to attract a salmon. Chinook salmon are lazy and do not like to work too hard for a meal. Finally, ken sees what he is looking for and shuts down the big Yamaha, and then starts the small motor. The small motor is needed to hold the boats position in the Straits fast current. |
| Drift Fishing...
While we were searching for bait, Ken's son Shane was getting our gear ready. Today, we are all going to fish drift lures near the bottom, in water 100 to 180 feet deep. I've had a lot of experience fishing drift lures, but I am not in the same league as Ken or Shane. Ken has been fishing with this method for many years thus the Handle" King Jigger Charters". |
| Our lure of choice is the "Riptide Striker", incidentally the only drift lure to win the World's Famous Daiwa Derby. |
| Everyone pick your color... |
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For the deep water we prefer weights of 165 to 205 grams or 6 to 8 ounces. These days there are lots of hog needlefish of the south end of Quadra Island, and so Ken's choice is the white glow, Shane's is the green glow and mine is the purple rainbow. All these lures were the 6 ounce size. The 20 lb test fireline easily keeps the lures straight down, something that is critical when drift fishing. "Get the lures in the water", hollers Ken. "There's a school of bait at 140 feet".
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| Fish on ! |
| The action is swift in coming. Shane only makes three lifts and drops before his graphite rod whips into a bend and line starts to smoke from his ambassador. "Keep fishing;" instructs Ken. "We're into them and we might get a double header". true to his word, Ken sets his hooks into a stubborn chinook while I grab for the video camera. I tend the boat and camera while Ken and Shane quickly work their fish to the boat. Ken's fish is only about 15 pounds, so he releases it with a twist of the pliers. He doesn't take it out of the water. Shane's chinook is well over 20 pounds and we decide to keep it. Ken net's it while I take photo's. |
| My turn... |
| Now it's my turn. I play a big salmon almost to the boat before a seal takes it, but I will get a twin to Shane's a short time later. Shane then catches two fish around 10 pounds and releases them both. Ken then releases a chinook in the high teens, and then loses one to a seal. While letting out my line a small Coho grabs the lure and puts up an arial display. Action does start to slow a bit, as I take a glance at my watch. The time is only 8:30 AM. We've only been fishing for two hours and already we've hooked 8 chinooks and one Coho. |
| Always somewhere to fish... |
| "Is the action always
this fast?" I ask. Not always," replies Ken. "But
it is normally this good from May through July. There's not many
days that we do not get salmon, and it is always easy to pick up bottom fish. Even
Hali's. Lingcod are always around when the
season allows. There is so much water that there are always
places to fish.
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