Atlantic salmon can be taken in the ocean on sports
fishing gear but it took a Pacific Coast Vancouver Island angler to show how it
could be done.
After five weeks of fishing, in two years of experimentation
under federal fisheries auspices, Saanich Inlet fishing guide Jim Gilbert of
Brentwood developed a planktonic-type lure with which he caught the first
Atlantic salmon ever known to be caught in salt water on sports fishing gear.
New
Industry?
His catches this past summer may signal the start of a
brand new sports salmon industry on the Atlantic coast… an industry to put back
to work at least some of the commercial fishermen who were left stranded by a
decision to ban commercial Atlantic salmon fishing as a conservation measure.
Before he got his first Atlantic salmon, Gilbert
tested some 300 Pacific Coast lures, in combination with dodgers, flashers,
leader lengths, weight, wire line, monofilament lines, trolling and mooching.
No
Teeth
“I finally experimented with a planktonic-type lure
which was successful in catching my first salmon,” he said.
The reason he developed the planktonic-type lure was
that after examination of the mouth structure of Atlantic salmon, netted by the
fisheries department for research, he discovered they had no teeth to speak of
and they looked like an ocean-type river-bound steelhead.
“This rang a bell. In all the years I have fished, I
have never caught a river-bound steelhead, so I concluded they could possibly
be plankton feeders.” (Gilbert has taken many Kelt steelhead, out-bound after
spawning in the rivers, but that is a different situation.)
That is why he developed his special Atlantic salmon
lure… a plastic fluorescent wobbler, about 1.5 inches long in association with
shocking pink fluorescent hootchie strands, half an ounce weight, and 200 feet
of line.
River
Mouth
He hooked his first Atlantic salmon June 17 about five
miles offshore from the mouth of New Brunswick’s famed Miramichi River.
“Atlantic salmon can be taken successfully in the
ocean. I think they could be taken in good numbers… anywhere where they run to
rivers,” says Gilbert.
“They didn’t think it could be done. On capture of my first
Atlantic salmon there was silence. I proved it could be done. Instead of the
end, this is the beginning,” he said.
Gilbert explains that in the east “They have no
concept of sports fishing other than in the rivers. They don’t know about rods
and reels, like we have, not even rod holders. Sinkers, flashers, lures and
spoons are all new to them.
“They have no regulations, no gear, no seasons in any
aspect of ocean angling for salmon or any other species.”
First
Trip
Gilbert was hired by the federal fisheries department
to go to the northern New Brunswick area at the request of the Newcastle fisheries
division on the Miramichi River to see what the potential was in the Maritimes
for a whole sports fishing industry on the Atlantic seaboard, similar to that
on the Pacific Coast.
Part of the program was to see if Atlantic salmon
could be taken with a lure in the ocean.
His first trip was in the fall of 1971 to fish a
three-week period when the fall run to the Miramichi was expected to fill the
estuary portion of the river system.
He fished for three weeks, caught mackerel and other cod-like
species but not even a strike on a salmon.
“I went with the impression there would be a run of
40,000 fish but fisheries officials didn’t feel it exceeded 4,000 fish that
year,” Gilbert said.
This past June he went back for three weeks to fish
the summer run and decided to fish in the three different areas.
First choice was the estuary portion of the
Restigouche River in New Brunswick’s Bay of Chaleur on the Quebec border. He
got involved with the tail end of Hurricane Agnes, which restricted fishing and
although he didn’t get into salmon, he did get sea-run speckled trout up to
three pounds, on troll with a four-inch smelt and half an ounce of weight.
The New Brunswickers hadn’t been in the habit of
catching the trout in the tidal portions of the Bay.
Next week they went and fished the saltchuck in an
area offshore from the Miramichi River in Northumberland Strait in a chartered
40-foot lobster boat.
Out
of Water
It was there that Gilbert hooked his first Atlantic
salmon on the planktonic-type lure.
“It hit. It came out of the water, but after a 3 to 5
minute battle it out-foxed me and broke the leader,’ said Gilbert, who has
probably battled more Pacific salmon on sports tackle than any other person.
“I was pretty disappointed. I had my nine-foot
steelhead rod right up in the air, reel running free and he beat me.
“But I was encouraged. If I hooked one, I could hook
another.”
He then made a complete swing around in the
experimental gear from bait to planktonic-type lures.
“I took some pink hootchie strands and put them over a
customized No. 1 Krippled K spoon. I fished it 24 inches behind a No. 3
Krippled K slender, steel, narrow dodger on wire line.
I fished two on wire with 50 feet and a pound of
weight and three on nylon, 200 feet and half an ounce of weight.
“We didn’t see any fish showing… no indication of
fish.”
His next Atlantic salmon hit the wire line.
Fantastic
Jumps
“As soon as he hit, he came right to the surface and
made fantastic jumps. Finally, I got him up to the boat after 15 minutes and
gaffed him… a 9.5 pounder… June 18… about seven miles offshore from Escuminac
Breakwater and 12 miles from the Miramichi mouth… the first authenticated
Atlantic salmon taken on sports fishing gear in the saltchuck.”
Next day they fished 15 to 20 miles offshore towards
Prince Edward Island. They didn’t take any more salmon there but they did prove
there were unlimited supplies of fish to be taken on sports tackle for a
charter boat operation, one on wire line. They also caught mackerel.
“We proved the potential of a sports fishing industry
on the Atlantic seaboard,” said Gilbert.
He said that just because he caught them on a
planktonic-type lure doesn’t mean they wouldn’t take another lure.
Danes
There
Reason for the interest in an Atlantic saltwater
sports fishery is that in 1965 the Danes got into offshore Atlantic salmon
feeding grounds off Greenland and started to net them. By 1967 they were taken
2,000 metric tonnes a year.
That caused drastic declines in Atlantic salmon stocks
in all river systems in the Atlantic region.
This year Canada’s federal fisheries department banned
all commercial fishing by Canadian commercial fishermen for Atlantic salmon,
because of the concern for the depleting stocks.
Economic
Use
Canadian government compensated the fishermen for their
lack of fishing opportunity. In the Miramichi estuary there had been 110 trap
licences and 130 gillnet boats.
Federal fisheries officials are interested in swinging
commercial fishermen to charter boat and marina operators. They want to make
economic use of the stocks of Atlantic salmon left, until they can rebuild the
runs or stop the Danes from exploiting the salmon on the high seas.
Good
Sports
They got 70 one- to three-pound mackerel that fought
like Pacific Coast bluebacks and plenty of Atlantic cod by trolling plugs,
bait, hootchies and spoons within two feet of the bottom. Cod ranged to 20
pounds and they took 560 pounds of them.
“They fought far more than our ling cod. They were good
sports and fine catching,” said Gilbert.
They finished up fishing the estuary portion of the
Miramich Rvier to see if it would be feasible to establish a small boat sports
fishery in inshore waters. They used 16-foot out boards and took two 9.5 pound
Atlantic salmon on the Planktonic lures… one on nylon.
