John Rose 1954

Mike Rose sent me these images of John Rose, his father, taken in 1954.

"These three pictures were in 1954 when we were living on Foul Bay Road and I was attending Victoria College before going to UBC in Vancouver."

Surprisingly, they lived only a few blocks from where I currently live just on the Victoria side of the Foul Bay line. 

"We spent most weekends and some evenings fishing on the Inlet and that craft was a fine fishing boat with a 32hp inboard grey marine engine with bunks and heating and cooking facilities." 

 "It was one of the many craft that John owned in the period 1953-1970 before he got the Salar."

Saanich Inlet was just the right spot for both of these boats, as it is protected from wind from many directions, as well as has very slow tidal currents because it is only open at one end, rather than at both. Wind against tidal currents makes for rough water on the inside straits of BC.

"The Salmon was one of many “button fish” that he caught. He had a box full of buttons when he quit fishing just prior to 1997."

The buttons were from the Victoria Saanich Inlet Angling Association.

"The cod was on an early morning trip to Cowichan Bay in September while the springs  and cohos were schooling in the Bay waiting for the first fall rains. I used to fish the Cowichan River and canoed and waded a lot in the summer and early fall when the springs came up before the rains. Just off the River Bottom Road in Sahtlam there were several large clay banks which are mostly all gone now  and we used to watch the springs and summer steelhead resting in the pools below the banks from July on.

"The big ling cod as I recall had swallowed a smaller one as we were wining the smaller one in."

I recall that as the days moved deeper into September and then early October - in a dry year, of course, as rain was/is the trigger for coho to hit their river - the morning fish would move north and come to rest off the Mill Bay shore and ferry terminal, in 225 feet of water or deeper. One of the usual tacks was to start in the dark off the south end of Bamberton, for its chinook bite, and once that was over, you would follow the 200 foot ledge north, where it steadily moved off shore until you were a half mile or so off the ferry terminal in Mill Bay.

It was a distinct fishery, and in the area from Tozier to Tanner rocks, that we did not fish any other time of the year, unless it was fishing deep for chinook. There wasn't any need to go that far, as in January and February, the fish could be inside Brentwood Bay and Tod Inlet. If I recall correctly, it was tradition to fish Tod Inlet on January 1 of the new year.

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Since my first posting this, er, post, Mike Rose has sent me some more words on fishing Saanich Inlet. They are included here:

"The fishing techniques in those days were based on fishing the “bottom”. The original wire lines and 2 pound weights allowed us to bounce off the bottom and, through repetition in several locations, we learned the depth and where the fish would bite on various tide runs. This was for normal daytime fishing. For early morning (4am on) and evening we fished with the wire line, a one pound weight and 100 feet of line out as the fish tended to come up as the light did not penetrate as deeply at those times and the fish that lounged near the bottom all day would rise up for feed as the herring were higher at those times."

I would add that when I fished planers and wire line, other than the early bite at the crack of dawn - you left the dock in the dark, and set your gear in the dark - I fished planers until 275 feet out, where, it was acknowledged by all that no more line let out would result in more sink. So, in the day I fished planers until 142 feet deep had been reached, at which point downriggers could be put out at this depth and would take salmon at the same rate as planers, and would be, of course, a much easier fishing spread to fish.

"Fishing in Saanich Inlet was different from Oak Bay as we rarely had “tide lines” to fish. 

Mostly we fished along areas with changes in topography along the shore. Points were always good as were bays. Despite the usual idea that Saanich Inlet was a lake-like water body compared with areas like Juan de Fuca Strait where there were much faster currents and tidal runs.

However there tends to be quite a bit of motion as noted by the passages of Killer Whales going up one side of the Inlet into the tide and coming back along the other side. Points and Bays always have some areas similar to a river where the fish can lie near the bottom looking into the approaching water and watch the feed being drifted down to them."

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I fished Saanich Inlet for about 25 years before moving my boat to the Victoria/Sooke/Oak Bay waters, and I would agree that there were specific points of structure that could be relied upon to offer up fish more frequently than structureless water. 

My first 24 pounder came one April morning in front of what I called 'The Gas Station' on the Jim Gilbert side of Coles Bay. Before I knew what a marine ways was, I thought the one red house with its deck and winch looked like a place to pick up gas. Its blip of underwater topography caught me many fish, and was not as far away as the Yellow House Point, at the south end of Coles Bay.

Here is that fish, and me as a handsome, young rogue, fishing in the 9' 2" SS Guppy (our version of Gilligan's Island's SS Minnow), a scaled down whaling dory and its 2.5 HP engine. The fish was hooked almost directly behind me on the opposite shore, with the Yellow House, at the end of the bay, behind and to the right of me. 

Of great humour (to me), when I finally got it to the boat, I realized it was far larger than the net I had, and had to race after a well tricked out boat that had passed me, towing the fish, hoping it would not get off, to borrow their net. 

Once I netted the fish, I putted back to hand over their net, and casually lifted my fish in my dinky little boat. All jaws dropped on the million dollar boat, while I felt quite good about things. Apparently, they had not yet had a bite. Hmm. Too bad that.