My
family (John, Win and I) came to Victoria in February 1952 when I was 15
and stayed on Thompson Cove at the end of Senanus Drive for the summer. We had
lived in Ontario for a couple of years and had a strip cedar 16 foot
“Peterborough" boat shipped over by rail from the east. We learned to fish
with help from Old Man Gilbert, I went to North Saanich high on the school bus
with Jimmy. We joined the VSIAA and bought the cane rods and wire line
and fished with Wonder Spoons and plugs and eventually herring strip.
My mum and Dad had most of
the memories as I was at Victoria College and then over to UBC and then 19
years with the Canadian Meteorological Service in such places as Trenton
Ontario, Toronto, Calgary, Whitehorse, Montreal (back to University for an advanced
Meteorological degree), Then to Edmonton, Goose Bay Labrador and back to
Vancouver. Fished in all of those locations with the exception of Toronto and
Trenton Ontario as I was in training there. After 5 years in Vancouver we moved
back to Victoria in 1975. I started Fishing in the Inlet with my father and
teen aged sons and on the Cowichan River with a couple of old Vic College
buddies.
The Salar
I
have extensive notes on River fishing on the Cowichan and other Rivers on the
Island and the Birkenhead by Pemberton. However I made no notes about fishing
on the Inlet as we fished the same locations. Bamberton in the early morning,
the wall along from Willis Point to Todd Inlet, Indian Bay for flounders and
Brill (flat fish) the entrance to Thompson Cove for Big Red Rockfish
(Snappers).
Depths from 100 feet of wire line with 1-2 pounds of lead
weight on a leader with a hook to detach as we got the fish close with 20 or
more feet of line after the detachable hook. Then up to 300 feet of wire along
the sides of the Inlet. Frequently lowering the line to bottom and until it bumped when we would raise it up. We also fished down the
Squally Reach to well known landmarks such as McKenzie Bay and McCurdy Point
and the “Deep Hole” a half mile or so south of McCurdy, all the way to Halls
Boathouse at Goldstream.
John
cut his own herring strip and got his “Strip-Teasers” from Rhys Davis who
invented and marketed and sold them. He never liked down riggers,
always preferring wire line and initially lead, 1 and 2 pound weights with the
line and hook to make it more fun when the fish was close and we could detach
the weight. As he got older John started using planers.
His
old boat the Salar which he bought from Bill Mearns had a lot of work done from
the time it was a 26 foot twin skin carvel(smooth skin) mahogany naval lifeboat
with a big Buda Deisel. In the early 80’s he had a two cylinder Volvo Penta
installed which was great on fuel and good for trolling. See the Salar Picture.
Getting the Buda out involved a crane and removing part of the roof. He
also had a trolling outboard. The stern cockpit was covered and we used to fish
in comfort in all weather and with an oil stove inside we could heat and cook
so comfort was great.
***
As mentioned in the previous post, I learned a lot from John Rose about using strip, Large Strip Teasers from Rhys Davis, and planers in Saanich Inlet. John and the rest of the high liners would be willing to help once you proved you could catch fish, and were committed to the Inlet. When you were able to explain why what you were doing caught fish, which meant you were seriously committed to fishing, they would help. Daytrippers were not helped. It is true even today for me, when I give advice, and the person doesn't seem to pick it up, or won't listen, I don't offer advice again.
On my onfishingdcreid blog, the favourite post is the one on wire-rigging a teaser head for whole anchovy. Blow up the pictures to get how the wire inserts in the teaser: http://onfishingdcreid.blogspot.com/2014/02/wire-rigging-teaserhead-feb-23-2014.html.
Now, back to SI: you bent the tab on the teaser's inside, or meat side, of the strip, to gain a quicker spiral on the bait. In the Inlet, the best speed was about a revolution per second, relatively slow, which would then flop over every now and then. Even today, decades later, I still use a slower spiral than most, on anchovy, fishing the Juan de Fuca side of Victoria.
And for SI strip, you used two single, saltwater hooks rigged in tandem, the top one not anchored in the strip, but both in the plane of the bait, meaning not perpendicular to it. And also one hook up, one down, was the best setup, the latter hook extending just beyond the tail of the strip. A toothpick in the leader's blister stopped the hooks where you wanted them - both plane and distance.
The pale green large strip teaser was better than other colours in SI.
And I learned that I was the only person who fished Saanich Inlet who called McKenzie Bight by its real, on the chart, name. Everyone else called it McKenzie Bay, as Mike Rose does above. I caught my first fish, a rock fish, in McKenzie Bight, er, Bay, in 1975, fishing in a putt putt rental boat from Gilbert's. We made a turn a smidge too quick and the inside rod dropped to the bottom, whence Mr. Fish bagged the bait and we bagged him.
I still remember, turning to starboard on the reef at the west end of McKenzie Bay, the rod dropping and then the bite. Funny how you can remember some things 40 years later, but, not, as in this morning, remembering to put a towel in my gym bag, though I have been doing it for 25 years, and having to towel off with paper towels. Hmm.
