May 31 Port Renfrew Fishing Report

A couple of fun trips last week fishing for halibut on the approaches to Swiftsure Bank. On Saturday, we caught 8 halibut, up to 30 pounds. That's a freezer full of beautiful halibut filets! (see below)

Friday we caught the biggest halibut so far this season -- Garth landing a 98 pound beauty, that for the sake of bragging rights we're going to call a hundred pounder! What an adventure boating that giant, we had to harpoon it with a rope and buoy attached, tire it out, then hogtie it and hoist it aboard. Dragging a huge halibut down the dock for weighing is tough work, but as they say "a good problem to have". 70 pounds of filets from one fish!

Just for fun, here's a photo of what a fridge looks like when dealing with a mountain of halibut...and some recommendations for freezing. First cut the filets, then wrap in freezer paper, stuff into ziplocs as tight as they'll go, then to the deep freeze -- voila, fish for the year, or a good part of it. NICE! :-)

Finally, good news on the salmon front: someone caught a 49 pound Spring Salmon this week off Port Renfrew. So, it is time once again to begin chasing the mighty Chinook salmon on the west coast of Vancouver Island.