Chinook Salmon have arrived in the Prince Rupert region. The 2009 Salmon season has begun in earnest. All the charter companies are gearing up to catch these great battling Salmon. Today I had only one guest on board. Ross from Alberta made the trip to Prince Rupert by him self to try his hand at catching his first Chinook, Halibut, Ling cod and Snapper.
The two of us pulled out of the boathouse by 05:00 and had out Cut Plugs in the water by 05:30. It was only a few minutes before the first slab hit, handing the rod to Ross I got the down riggers out of the way. By the time I had the net in my hand the fish was at the side of the boat. Ross seemed to know what to do as he gently eased the 20lb Springer head first into the net. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a Harbor Seal eying up the boat. This would not be the first time that seal would come into contact with us.
The second fish hit about 30 minutes later taking the plug at a depth of 28 feet. My sounder showed 36ft to the bottom. As the fish neared the boat that seal latched onto it and ripped toward the Kelp. Needless to say after a 15 minute battle the dam Seal won. Chinook number three was also taken by the seal but I circled it and banged my gaff on the side of the boat. Not letting him come to the surface for a few minutes did the trick. The Seal let go and Ross quickly reeled in a nice 15lb Slab. There was only a few teeth marks on the tail.
Chinook 3 and 4 came on the tide change an hour later. All were chrome bright and very scrappy. Later after cleaning the fish we raised our Crab traps and got out limit of 12 crab no problem. Back at the boat house Ross cleaned the crab up and I got the cooker going. We had a great feast at the end of the day of hot Dungi Crab.
