Well, the 2017 season has come to an end and a great season it was! Happy guests, best weather I’ve seen on the coast overall for a whole summer and, of course, great fishing!!!

The fishing season got underway in early July and didn’t disappoint. Chinook fishing was strong all throughout the summer with good numbers of springs caught every week. In fact, 98% of our guests limited out on chinook!!! The consistency of the fishing grounds in Kyuquot will never cease to amaze me! Coho fishing started with a spurt in late June but then pretty much disappeared until later into August. They had us all fooled into thinking it would be an incredible coho year but things didn’t really get rolling with coho until just before we closed. Looks like September will be the peak of the coho run this year: Although the bigger halibut required some patience, they were there for those who put the time in. There were quite a few halibut caught that were right on the edge of the size limit coming in between 130 and 133 cm (about 70 lbs). Lings and rockfish rounded out the catch for everyone and most guests will be hard pressed to consume all the fish that is now plugging their freezers!

Having the near shore waters open all year was very well received by our guests as it wasn’t necessary to always run out to the salmon highway to find salmon! Spring Island and Thornton were consistent producers all summer, especially around the tides and the most consistent spot for the larger halibut was the Eagle’s Nest. DFO’s program of taking DNA samples from a vast majority of our chinooks paid off in that the results of that testing is what has allowed our chinook and coho fishery to remain open inside the Surfline!

Walters Cove is getting back to regaining its popularity as a world-class fishing destination. In fact, we need to buy more boats for the 2018 season to meet demand! We will be purchasing 2 new Grady Whites over this winter and also were humbled by one of our long time guests donating his personal boat to the lodge! What an incredible gift! That will bring us up to 7 boats in our fleet and bring our capacity up to 14 guests for next year without having to contract out any additional boats!

Just a couple of sample photos from this year with a typical days catch!

We were happy to re-introduce our famous Beach BBQ to the program this past season on the long trips. It proved to be just as big a hit as it was in years past! The weather co-operated for the most part this year as were able to do it on all but 2 of the 5 day, 4 night trips! With full on service including hot towels, wine service and a full 3 course meal (including a traditionally prepared salmon as one of two proteins), it’s no wonder this is the number one request we get!

We are working on how we can pull it off to incorporate something on the beach during the shorter trips as well next year! Stay tuned as we will announce something in one of the newsletters coming up during the off season!

REEL WEST COAST – TV SHOW

We were also pleased to host the TV Show, Reel West Coast, who had an awesome experience at the lodge this summer and will share it with everyone in a full length episode that will air over the winter. Watch out for upcoming newsletters that will inform you what networks will be airing the show and when they will be aired.

Hosts Brendan Morrison and Willie Mitchell experienced some fantastic fishing as you can see from the trailer to the episode called “North Island Frenzy”. Go to the following link for a preview of the show that will appear this winter:

All in all, it was a great summer in Kyuquot and the staff and I would like to thank all the guests that joined us. We connected with a lot of old friends and made new ones! At this point, it looks like about 90% of our guests will return again next year. In fact, our 5 day trips are getting close to being sold out already, even with expanding our capacity! Keep your eyes on your inbox for our next newsletter which will unveil some new travel arrangements incorporating regular flights from Vancouver for the 2018 season as well! Just putting the finishing touches on the program and will announce it as soon as it’s all put to bed!

If you are thinking about checking us out next year, don’t delay! I expect we will be 100% full for next season!

2017 WAS AWESOME !!!!