Saanich Inlet Fishing e-Book and Hot Lures, 2014

I happened to find an email/column I did in 2014 about putting this blog/book together. Here is what I said, and if you have a story to tell, please tell me:

Saanich Inlet e-book: Several times in the past year, readers have mentioned interesting stories about fishing Saanich Inlet over the years. I would like to see these stories collected as they form part of the fishing history of our area. Some who were central have already passed, such as Jimmy Gilbert and Charlie White. 

I cut my saltwater fishing teeth in Saanich Inlet in the ‘70s and got to know some of the best anglers at the time, including John Rose and Bob Redgrave, among many others who taught me the Inlet’s fishing. Remember the laconic Harold, with the huge, floppy-hind-legged German Shepherd. He told me when asked: “Fish what you are best with.” Rather than a specific lure. 

It was good advice. Large strip in a green teaser was the ticket, but making it work was the trick, until it became one of your best. Remember Angel Wing squirts, blue backs in January, 225 and 418 Tomic Plugs when Siwash barbs were legal. Tod Inlet on Boxing Day. Halls Boathouse, Chesterfield Rock, the Pink Lady, Glass House and Stone Steps.

I learned wire line and planer fishing, and that Saanich Inlet was, and still is, absolutely precise in where you caught and will still catch fish today, when they are there. While the Inlet is very calm, a great benefit to fishing, even in its relatively slow moving waters, you could predict accurately where the fish would be based on tidal flow. 

For example, in the Bamberton run that anglers committed to memory, the reefs and pockets held fish based on the tide. Where the slag ‘slide’ at the south end of the docks is, marked a ‘V’ shaped cranny under water, that on the flood, most fish would be to the south of the slide hanging over that reef and on an ebb, the fish would be closer to the docks, hanging over the reef that formed the other side of the ‘V’. Then Jimmy’s Hole and…

It was so precise that on several occasions I said to someone I had along, “If we are going to get a fish it will be… right now.” And actually had the planer trip and the rod pop up and the fish was on. One of the benefits of the old Peetz roller-guided rods was that when the planer tripped, the rod jumped almost four feet. You would have to be in a coma to miss a strike. And the bells we put on rods tinkled over the water, and we could hear others also having good fishing, particularly in the dark with the only lights being the cement factory ones.

I first fished from a canoe at the marker off Coles Bay, drift-fishing Stingsildas. My wife at the time managed to catch a 12 pound spring on a summer evening with the new herring sparkling around us. She leaned into the fish, and the gunwhale slid to the water. I leaned out the opposite way and so we did not go under. And landed the chinook.

This is the luck of being young and foolish. She was eight months pregnant with our first child, and we were half a mile off shore. Either you swam to the marker and held on until someone spotted you, or swum a half mile to the Dyer Rocks. Or so I thought. That was the confidence and sheer luck of underprepared youth. Looking back, I see how foolish we had been. And, of course, we did not realize how cold the water was and we would have been in a very serious, life threatening situation if we had gone in.

Here is the point: I’d like everyone who has some Saanich Inlet memories to write them down and send them in. We will put together an e-book from the stories, so the history is preserved. My several lists to which I send this column do not have all the people on them who made the history, from the heyday ‘50s and ‘60s. So would you please let other anglers you know who fished Saanich Inlet that I would appreciate their taking the time to write your and their good stories down and send them in.

I have asked Mike Rose to be the collector of the stories, putting together a digital file which we will then shape into an e-book or PDF for distribution. His email address is: mike-rose@shaw.ca. Please send him your stories. Mike mentioned he had access to some of the old Saanich Inlet Anglers Association scrapbooks and etc. Period photos would be good, too, if you can send them digitally. I have ISBNs and will handle the reporting requirements for the National Library in Ottawa. There is also the possibility of putting out a tangible, printed book, but let’s just get the stories in and take it from there.

Tom Cole also sent me a CD of memorabilia, and I will look into that, too.

Hot Lures: Tom Vaida does the Island Outfitters weekly fishing report. The hot tackle from a week ago that you might want to try are: bait: anchovy; teasers: green, UV Green, Bloody Nose, UV Chartreuse; spoons: G-Force, in Irish Cream, No Bananas, also Cop Car, Glow/Green Coyotes; plastics: Yellow, Purple Haze, Gray Ghost, Cloverleaf, Glow Below, Electric Chair; squirts: Pickle Green, J-79, Jellyfish; flashers: Gibbs Madi, Purple Onion, Green/Silver, Green Jellyfish, Silver Betsy.

dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com

Tom, George and Jimmie

Bob Alexander sent me some information on a photo in the previous post, which I re-post immediately below (Image 643):

Hi Dennis: Jim Gilbert is on the extreme right, my Uncle George is in the middle wearing a Cowhican Indian sweater, and my dad, Tom Alexander is on the extreme left, wearing a checked shirt with a ball cap sitting tilted on his head. 

Here is the full text that Bob sent my way regarding Saanich Inlet angling: 

The two other guys in the third picture including Jim Gilbert on the far right, was, on the far left, my dad, Tom Alexander, and in the centre, George Alexander, older brother to Tom, and both uncle's to Jim Gilbert, and brother-in-laws to Harry Gilbert, who married Mary, my aunt, older sister to both George and Tom.

Harry started and owned Gilbert's Marina before Jimmie, in time, dad growing in years, took the marina over. Jimmie was more business minded than his dad, expanding on the marina, starting a bait and guide service, installing a boat launch for those who trailed boats, and eventually expanding on his inherited dad's gifted and knowledgeable native art creations, lifting them commercially to world renown level. 

George, at the time the photo was taken, was living in Vancouver, Manager of a Canada Safeway store. Tom, who lived in Brentwood, and his brother in-law, Roy Smith, probably caught more salmon in Brentwood Bay than any fisherman who fished there. And there were some awesome guys in those days, including the likes of John Rose, Bob RedGraves, Tommy Moss, and Gordy Lamont. 

My dad eventually started Uncle Tom's Bait and Guide Service, his hand cut herring strip the required go to for any hi-liner hitting Gold River, Nahmint, or the Port Alberni Canal. Sorry if I got a little wordy, but you have over the years shown a few pictures of my dad...commonly nicked named and referred to in Brentwood Bay as a Tacka Brown.  Thought you might like some clarification on the photo.  

By the way, my still to this day fishing partner, Lonnie Richards and I look forward and enjoy your weekly articles. I now live in Nanoose Bay, Lonnie still in Saanichton, and we often meet weekly in Duncan for lunch during our non fishing seasons, your latest article the centre of out luncheon discussions. I think I mentioned that while growing up and going to school I worked for my uncle and cousin, Harry and Jimmy at Gilbert's, while Lonnie worked for Bud Blackburn at Anglers Anchorage Marina.  

Of course in those days VSIAA [Victoria Saanich Inlet Anglers Association] was in full swing, their derby's, prizes and buttons a draw for anyone who fished in Brentwood in those days. As anyone will share with you, while Sooke, Pedder Bay, and the Victoria waterfront were very productive, Brentwood Bay could be fished when these and other hot spots were so rough boats couldn't get out on the water.  

A very Happy New Year to you and your family, and we encourage you in the good work you are doing for our west coast sports salmon fishery. Bob Alexander

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I started fishing Saanich Inlet in 1975, some years after the 'heyday' years. Both John Rose and Bob Redgrave were still fishing and taught me a great deal, particularly using wire line and planers, wooden, Peetz reels, and as much line out as 350 feet. John was absolutely specific about using large strip teasers with left hand flanks of herring, because they spiralled, if memory serves me, left to right. He was right, as the super teasers - that rotated the opposite direction - did not work as well as the large strip teasers.  The point was to get the scale side on the outside so that it would attract fish. Meat side out was less successful.


I found that downriggers worked well at first light as well as later in the day when the fish had descended to 142 feet, when I sometimes switched back to downriggers. Do note that I usually used planers at dawn. Downriggers put the lures too close to the boat, and one's catch was greatly diminished if you used them all day. In summer, late afternoon fishing, say at Bamberton, started at 110 feet on the downrigger, or 250 feet on the planer.

The calculation used in setting out planers was: every two feet let out equaled a foot of descent, until 150 feet, or 75 feet deep. After that the calculation was three feet out equaled a foot of descent, or 100 feet equaled 33 feet. Hence roughly 110 feet deep equaled roughly 250 feet let out. Peetz reels have counters and thus you can easily read how much line is out and thus how deep the tackle is.


I still have my planer rods, and if I fished Saanich Inlet again, would use them once again. They just work so much better in this very quiet water. The Inlet was absolutely specific, and the fishing pattern for both shores of its 18 mile deep inlet would fish the same today as it did in the highliner fishing days. Add Tod Inlet as extra to the 18 miles.