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Long Beach Charters Newsletter

2004 - A Year of Great Fishing...

As you can see from all the smiling faces and fish in hand, this was another fabulous year of fishing out of Ucluelet! Reports given at the latest Salt Water Fishing conference in Vancouver confirmed what our guests experienced – impressive returns of Chinook, Coho and Halibut.

During the fall we’ve had some great trips as well, with many winter Chinook still feeding along the West Coast, and lots of fun and good eating with ling cod in the 12 – 28 pound range.

The good news is that 2005 is shaping up to be another great season, with potentially more opportunities for Chinook and more boats and guides to accommodate our L.B.C. customers.

And Significant Changes...

Feedback from those of you who joined us this year and fished from the Barkley Adventure Station was very positive. We enjoyed being able to provide new and better services for our customers out of the Station – on-site food services including “cook-your-catch” lunches and dinners, on-site freezer storage and fish processing with St. Jean’s Cannery, whale watching, kayaking and nature tours, and the always helpful and smiling Barkley Station staff – Jennifer Knight, Alicia Bradshaw, Jessie Morrison and Dave De Jong. Dave also acted as our new LBC office manager, helping many of you in booking your charters and local accommodations, and taking care of a myriad of other details for our guests and guides. Allan Chase, Scottie Jaynes, and Harvey Gudbranson also joined the Long Beach Charters team as guides this season with long-time LBC guide Bob Redhead and myself. I really appreciated the attention to quality and customer care that each of our guides and staff provided this year and look forward to working with them again next year.

We hope that you enjoyed and appreciated the changes we’ve made this season and that you and your friends will join us again in 2005 for another great West Coast fishing adventure!

Mike Marriott, Owner and Charter Guide

Big Bait... Big Fish!

The Chinook returns throughout Barkley Sound area were even better than anticipated for the 2004 season. This provided lots of smiling faces for the guests of Long Beach Charters. Looking back on the days of sunshine and bent rods it is hard to think of what was the most enjoyable experience of the season. It might be the day we left the dock at 8:00 am and had 24 Chinooks to the boat by noon, with a few Tyee class in the mix. Or it might be the day of the big double header, 42 and 36 pounds respectively. But looking back the most memorable experience for myself was the day when the Killer Whales chased a hooked Coho to the stern of the boat.

It was another calm day in early August when guest Bryan and Brenda Olson and I headed out to the Big Bank for a day of salmon fishing. The Big Bank was absolutely on fire throughout the season. The rods would not be down for more than five minutes without blowing out of the release clip. And the fun part was that you never knew what was on the other end of the line. It could be anything from a Skipjack Tuna to a Halibut, but the most common was the targeted species, Chinook salmon. This day was no different than any of the others and Bryan was getting a kick out of watching Brenda reel in fish after fish until her arms could take no more.

During one of the battles we experienced the best whale show that I have ever seen. Brenda had a Coho to the surface when a small pod of Killer Whales went by.

We could tell that the whales were interested in what was going on at the end of Brenda’s line. The whales were really excited and they were charging the fish, swerving back and forth behind it in a playful manner. We thought that one of the whales was going to eat the fish, but that never happened, they just kept coming closer and closer. Finally, as Brenda quickly reeled the fish to the stern of the boat we found ourselves face to face with a pretty good size Killer Whale. The whale actually touched its lips to the tail of the salmon before it turned off. We all sat back in awe of what had just occurred. Thankfully Bryan captured the moment on his camera, for this is one fish story that would be hard to believe.

Bryan stated that this was a perfect way to end a great trip so we packed up the gear and headed home, the whole way speaking of how you needed to use big bait to catch big fish!

See you all next year,

Allan Chase,
Captain of the "Chase-n-Tail"

What a great summer. Fishing was absolutely incredible. Making the move from the Queen Charlottes to Ucluelet, I was nervous, thinking that the fishing might be slower. It turns out the fishing was, without a doubt, more consistent and way more fun. Working with Mike and Allan at Long Beach Charters was a highlight of my fishing career. The emphasis is pure fun.

One day in particular, the rain falling lightly, my guests and I made our way out to the southwest corner. Although the water was a little lumpy, I knew the fishing was going to be decent.

Before we had our second line in the water, we had a hit on the five inch plug. My guests Geoff and Melanie were champs on the rod; both were very experienced. Geoff had the hook set before I had even turned around to see what was going on. The fish was off and running. Quickly, I sent the second rod down and within seconds we had a double header. Geoff landed his fish, while Melanie's was off and running. The rod was torqued right over and holding down, thirty minutes later we had ourselves a nice 42 pounder. By 8am, we had landed over twenty fish, and by ten we had touched close to 50 fish.

It was time for a break, both Geoff and Melanie insisted on taking the lines out of the water for five minutes in order to catch their breath and give their arms a rest. Needless to say, by the end of our charter, my guests were ecstatic having never experienced a day of fishing like that before. We finished landing six Tyee and many fish over 20 pounds. To top it all off, the best part of my day was that Geoff and Melanie were there on their honeymoon and wanted to release all the fish they caught ... more fish and fun for the future!

What a great day, I can't wait for next season.

Scottie Jaynes

The 2005 Fishing Season is beginning to fill up with many of you pre-booking with us last summer and fall. For those of you who have yet to book, a quick email or phone call to our toll-free number is all it takes to reserve your charter dates!

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