Northshore News

The monthly newsletter is produced by the Northshore chapter of Trout Unlimited. It is distributed to the current membership, sponsors, and many others who have contributed to our chapter.

Return to Newsletter Page     Return to Northshore Page

Table of Contents

• President's Corner
• The Joy of Fishing with Your Spouse
• June Program Notes
• Tofino

President's Corner

By Steve Winder, current Northshore Chapter President

On Sunday, August 4, the annual Northshore Chapter Chapter Club Picnic will be held at Bob Franchuck's house in Woodinville. The picnic had been at Bob's place for a number of years, and it is an ideal setting. Great food, good company, softball, games for the kids and other picnic activities will begin at 11:00 AM. This is a wonderful opportunity to socialize with family and other club members. It is the food that I enjoy best. The Club will barbecue chicken. Board members will bring hot dishes, and other members will bring cold dishes including deserts. Remember to bring your own plates, eating utensils, and beverage of choice. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! See you there.

On Saturday and Sunday, June 15 and 16, Birringer Farms has its annual Pig Out which is held in conjunction with the Marysville Strawberry Festival. For the second consecutive year, our chapter has hosted a kids fish-in at Birringer Farms during the festival.

This year was even better than last year, which was a huge success, because this year it was sunny both days. Club members turned out to help over four hundred kids with the fishing, baiting, casting, knot tying, and knot un-tying. The Birringer Farm fish-in is held in a pond on the farm which is just south of Marysville on the old highway. Many participants caught their first fish! Others practiced what they had previously learned.

Fishing is something that we all love but we tend to take for granted. Many people have never fished and these events, oriented toward children and their parents, provide an opportunity to do something that they could not otherwise do. When you see the smiles on the faces of the kids when they catch a fish, you realize how worthwhile these kids fishing events are. Congratulations Northshore!

return to table of contents

The Joy of Fishing with Your Spouse

by Darcie Thompson

I survived the holiday weekend in the wilds of central B.C. and at last am back in my office. Picture this...

We leave Seattle at 3 am Saturday morning. After a long (9 hr.) and uneventful drive we reach the thriving metropolis of William's Lake, B.C. and get a much needed coffee and bathroom break. While sipping an OK cup of Java and eating a Big Mac Andrew and I decide to test our sense of adventure and brave the 4-wheel drive road into Kloacut Lake (rumored home of huge trout). We are looking forward to having a long relaxing weekend away from the crowds.

Two hours out of William's Lake to the SE we reach our goal: the road (if you can call it that) into Kloacut Lake. We park the truck and walk in to see if the muddy cart track improves any as it gets closer to the lake. All we see is mud and cows. As the wooded path opens up at a marsh we meet two hunters. They are staying in a cabin on the lake for the weekend and had no trouble getting their truck and gear in. "Just stay to the high ground and you'll have no trouble." They offer to pull us out if we get stuck. The really tricky part they say is navigating the marsh. The key thing to note here is that we are a two hour drive to the closest civilization. Andrew and I decide to meet the challenge and venture forth. All is going well until we meet the marsh. We stick to the high ground, what little there is of it in a marsh, and proceed to get firmly stuck. All of the gear comes out of the truck and we dig and push and dig and push. For two hours we dig and push. Now both Andrew and I and the two hunters are covered with mud. Yahoo, the truck is finally free! Back in goes the gear and we are ready to go. Andrew decides that we have pushed our luck and we should find another home of huge trout with easier road access. We say our good-byes to the hunters and thank them profusely for their assistance and high tail it out of there.

About half way out we get stuck again. So much for the sticking to the high ground theory. We unload the gear and try to get free; digging and pushing. Now it is about 8:30 p.m. and the sun is getting low on the horizon. I try to scout out a place for the tent that is dry. No such luck. Andrew is cursing. We have been going since 3 am. I decide to hike back to the cabin to see if the two hunters are still around. After all they offered to help us if we got stuck. I leave Andrew digging and pushing and cursing and start on my hour hike. I have my weapon in hand, a sturdy mag-lite and hope that the bear piles that I am stepping over are none too fresh.

I reach the cabin. Empty. No hunters in sight. I sit and decide what to do. A float plane is taxiing on the lake, waiting to lift out some fly-in fishermen. I frantically wave to get their attention. They send back a friendly wave as they take off. As I am tearfully watching the plane depart a small boat approaches with the two hunters. Salvation! They are not amused to see me. In their boat are three huge trout and a case of beer. I have interrupted their totally guys weekend. They agree to help us, again. We load up with cables and jacks and the three of us short cut our way back to the truck through the marsh and woods. They have hip waders, I have hiking boots. We slog our way back in knee deep water and reach the truck just before dark. At least the marsh water has washed off most of the mud. Have I mentioned yet that I have Bronchitis? Two more hours of digging and pushing and digging and pushing and the four of us free the truck. Victory! No, not quite, ten feet up the road the truck sticks again. Now it is dark. By lantern light in knee deep mud we dig and push. It is now Midnight, we have been up since 3 am. I burn my thumb on the lantern and plunge it into the mud. A good mud cake is the only thing that stops the pain.

The two hunters are very short on humor, Andrew is still cursing, I have my thumb in the mud, and it is the middle of the night. By now I will do about anything to get out of here! I run for the cell phone, no signal, darn. By now they have dug out the truck again and Andrew agrees to give it one last go. He revs up the truck, the hunters in back pushing. I am holding the lantern light and pointing with my muddy thumb and screaming GO! GO! GO! The truck shudders, wallows, groans, and starts to inch forward. I scream GO! GO! GO! The truck jumps forward, Andrew guns it and the truck hops and bumps all the way to dry ground. Hooray! Andrew thanks the hunters as I load the gear back into the truck. The hunters head off back to the cabin and we are on our way. Totally exhausted and muddy from head to toe we decide to pitch the tent at the head of the road. Dinner consists of Power Bars and Pop Tarts and we eat huddled in the truck with the heat on high. Finally we peel off our clothes, toss them out the tent door, and collapse into sleep. The next morning our boots and clothes are frozen stiff... and that begins our long relaxing weekend.

return to table of contents

June Program Notes

by Jim Lamont

John Beath gave a slide presentation and discussion on salmon and bottomfishing techniques. John is a well known northwest outdoor writer, photographer and speaker. He now has a talk show on KVI (570AM) on Saturday morning from 5 to 7 A.M. Never miss a chance to listen to John as he is a wealth of information. The following are some of the techniques he discussed.

Salmon:

- For chinook always keep your downrigger balls within 5' of the bottom. He uses 12# balls.

-In Puget Sound he'll commonly troll at 2.8 mph, but there are a lot of variables which can alter that.

-John is a strong advocate of "black boxes." In Alberni Inlet on the west side of Vancouver Island) boats that have them outfish others 7 to 1. He also suggests using the Scotty plastic snap between the downrigger wire and ball. (Commercial fishermen have long known that it can make a dramatic difference to have the right electrical charge on the downrigger wire. Depending on the charge, it can attract or repel fish. Scotty makes a device called a Black Box which puts a charge on the wire. Unfortunately, they're not cheap. You can check the charge on the wire with a voltmeter.) John plans on having an extensive article on this in the April'97 issue of Salmon Trout & Steelheader magazine.

- John prefers light gear - 101/2' rods and 4# test line.

- Spoons can be extremely effective. A hot spoon is the Coyote in yellow or green. They can be fished solo or 38 to 42" behind a flasher.

- The closer a flasher is to the downrigger ball the faster the roll.

- John likes the Hot Spot flasher in green, purple or chrome.

- Take your binoculars fishing (to spy on others.)

- When fishing with flasher and bait and getting no bites, the first thing to change is the leader length.

-With plastic squid use a true turn hook and stuff the nose with power bait. Use a heavier leader with squid to give it better action.

-John likes Tomic plugs in white, green, blue and glow. He's fished them as deep as 500'.

- When trolling fast use whole herring; cut plugs when going slow. For herring use Mustad 9263 hooks.

- John's convinced scents help. He's coming out with his own line of scents and bait/herring cure shortly.

- When jigging use the new high tech lines.

- San Juans - inside use plug cut herring and 2 1/4 oz. Pt Wilson Darts with green back and silver belly; outside use red Hot Spot flasher and blue or green squid on a 42" leader.

Bottomfish:

- Some bottom fish in Puget Sound have worms. According to the "experts" the problem started, or started to become significantly worse in 1974 with the MMPA and the increase of sea lions.

-A good bait for halibut is a strip of the white belly skin from a halibut; same goes for ling cod.

Miscellaneous:

- One reason to use scent is to wash the smell of human hands. We secrete L-serene which fish can smell. When John plans on a major trip for two weeks before he leaves he eats no beef and takes no vitamins in the belief that it reduces his L-serene level.

- After a fish hits your line, even if you don't land it, other fish tend to be repelled by it. The theory is that it picked up some scent from the first fish. This is more true in fresh water than in salt water. The cure is to then wash your lure in Joy liquid soap.

- Don't let anyone catch you spraying WD-40 on lures. You're introducing a petroleum product into the water and might be subject to a $1500 fine.

return to table of contents

Tofino

by Larry Holly

For the past four years I have fished the area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during the last week of May and the first two weeks of June. I have found the community a quiet laid-back fishing town with few fishermen and lots of opportunities.

Once you become familiar with some of the offshore areas it is possible to catch Chinook, Coho, Halibut, Lings, Yellow Eye, Black Back, Greenling, and Cabazon all on the same day!

A typical day sees us leave the dock about 6:00 AM. It is a 10 mile run out to the reef called Portland Paint. We begin with a hot spot flasher and white glow squid in 140 feet of water and fish close to the bottom. With some skill and a little luck you could limit on Chinook in the 10 - 25 pound range and be jigging for Halibut by noon!

We seem to get three or four Halibut most days before we head for a more rocky area to jig for Lings, Yellow Eye or eight to ten other kinds of rock fish. The limits this year are two Chinook, two Halibut, three Lings, three Greenlings and eight Rock Fish a day and a three day license is only $20.00!

There are not too many places to get a room and moorage, but the Weigh West Motel, Pub and Restaurant is first class and not too expensive. The trip consists of a drive to the border and then to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal. The Nanaimo ferry leaves every two hours and is a two hour ride. Once off the ferry, head for Port Alberni about forty miles west, then on to Tofino another eighty miles west. Figure eight to ten hours travel time.

There are quite a few ideas and local secrets I have picked up the last few years, and I will be happy to share them with you if you are interested in a trip to Canada next spring.

return to table of contents

Return to Newsletter Page
Return to Northshore Page