Archive for category: Fishing Report

 

We have enjoyed another exciting fishing week here at King Pacific Lodge!

Our sixth group of guests for 2o18 flew in yesterday all with big smiles and happy to be out on the water. Many of which flew in from New York and even Alabama! While the fishing has slowed a little over the past 24 hours, we anticipate the great fishing and weather will continue.

Julie and Betty brought a tremendous amount of excitement to the lodge this weekend. Their lively spirit has brought them some good luck on the water!

Last week ended with some truly remarkable catches. 11 large “Tyee” over 30 pounds hit the dock with the largest being a whopping 40 pounds! Hot spots continue to be Cape Mark and Cheney Point. Most Chinook are weighing in at 15-20 pounds and Coho, while less abundant have been starting their 2018 debut in the waters of Milbanke Sound. Baitfish continue to be abundant at all of our favourite spots and seem to be holding good populations of salmon at 40-70ft. Anchovy and flasher has been the favourite for most guides and self guided anglers. We’re seeing quite a few squid around the waters too.

Some nice eating Halibut, Ling and Rockfish have been regular catches and a favourite table fare for many. The “Coop”, “Mushroom” and reefs south of our regular salmon areas have been producing at depths up to 300 ft.

Our weather has been holding nicely and we’re looking for calm seas in the coming days. We will keep everyone updated.

The crew at King Pacific Lodge is looking forward to welcoming you this summer. We often have guests asking about our fishing guides/instructors and we thought of sharing some information. Look for continued updates on our guide roster in the coming weeks.

 

Stephen Stahley is new this year to KPL and comes to us from a long family history of commercial fishing.  Recently, he retired from a teaching / vocational career on Vancouver island and brings energy and excitement to our instructor and guiding program. Having logged thousands of hours on the water and in the classroom, Stephen is proving to provide the perfect combination for our fishing team – “I love teaching people how to fish and this is the best place in the world to do so!”

 

 

 

 

Dave Drever “Double D” is with us again this year and is a proven favourite with both guests and crew alike. His positive attitude, energy, knowledge of the Milbanke Sound water and weather conditions make him one of our most requested long term guides. He comes from a background in the wood products industries in BC. We’re dreaming up ways to store and save the energy he creates for the future of mankind! Dave’s favourite fishing spots include Cheney Point and Cape Mark.  He’s known for big fish, big smiles and the odd fish story we’d find hard to believe if it wasn’t told by Dave.

 

 

Conor Stookes comes to us from Vancouver Island, BC and his passion is fishing the wild West Coast. He’s spent five years guiding in Haida Gwaii and Vancouver Island waters and has caught on very quickly to the Central Coast and Milbanke Sound fisheries.

Prior to guiding, Conor worked on bulk freighters steering and working as a deckhand. His passion is fishing and works year round guiding for salmon and then for freshwater winter steelhead trout.

Conor’s enthusiasm and professional conduct is a pleasure to see. He has extensive ocean and river fishing experience and his commitment to safety led him to acquire a 60 ton master certificate.

 

 

 

 

Several dates are available during our exciting 2018 season. Contact us anytime for additional information.

Kindest Regards,

George Cuthbert

george@kingpacificlodge.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the 2018 season!

We have many excited guests booked for this season and asking about the first fishing. We’re happy to report the season has started off very well.

Our winter and spring were spent replenishing supplies, repairing equipment and preparing for our fifth season of operation. This included towing the King Pacific Lodge to North Vancouver BC  for hull maintenance. Seaspan Drydock lifted the 1600 ton lodge out of the water and did a great job restoring several areas for the longevity of this floating facility. Our fishing fleet of Ironwood and Northwest boats was shipped to Vancouver Island for repainting, re-powering with reliable Mercury engines and improvements to wiring and navigational equipment.

 

 

King Pacific Lodge is pleased to announce our new fixed wing flight provider: Air Tindi. Their comfortable Dash 7 features 40 seats, four engines and is perfect for flying all of our guests at one time to and from Bella Bella. The Heljet Sikorski 76 whisks our guests directly to King Pacific Lodge.

Now for the fishing…

After towing the lodge back to St. Johns Harbour we are now hosting our second group of guests. Everyone has been enjoying calm seas and truly excellent fishing. Since opening on the 18th of June we’ve been fishing Cape Mark and Cheney Point. Chinook salmon in the 15-20 pound range have been the norm for most anglers. Highlights have been six “Tyee” Chinook to date (over 30) with the largest being 36 pounds. A few Coho have been showing as well, generally about 8-10 pounds at this time of year. Look for these Coho to increase in both abundance and average size by the end of August.

Salmon have been biting on the tides, and either early AM or late PM. Our standard KPL green, red and UV flashers produced by Gibbs tackle combined with a green spoon or Anchovy bait has been working best. Fishing tight to the shore and along the kelp at 45-70ft, and within 100ft of water seems to be the best producer. Some of our guests have also been mooching Cheney Point with cut-plug herring and enjoyed great results.

Bottom fish such as halibut, ling cod and rock fish have been plentiful. Most halibut have been in the 10 – 20 pound range. Shown below is a lucky trio with halibut closer to 30 and 40 pounds.

Similar to the best sport teams, we’re very proud of the crew assembled for our 2018 season. We have an exciting lineup of seasoned fishing guides and some truly talented and welcome new faces on the water. Our catering and inside services crew is eager to provide the finest of comforts away from home.

Should you have any questions about our fishing and adventure packages please contact us anytime. Select dates are still available for this season!

 

Kindest Regards

George Cuthbert

George@kingpacificlodge.com

 

As we approach 2018, we would like to wish all our guests, crew and suppliers the very best for the Christmas Holiday and New Year. 2017 was a huge success for King Pacific Lodge and we’re looking forward to 2018! Thank you to all who have been guests at King Pacific Lodge. We very much appreciate your support!

Since the end of the season, we have been working hard to ensure the King Pacific Lodge guest experience is better than ever! After our fourth season of operation, we towed the lodge and staff barge south to Vancouver Island. Here, the lodge will undergo several operational improvements. Our fleet of custom made fishing boats have also been brought down and will have upgraded electronics, paint and engines. The King Pacific Lodge facilities require a tremendous amount of maintenance and we must ensure we are entirely self-sufficient during our operating season. Aside from the fishing tackle and boats, this includes everything from power generation, fuel storage, water filtration and all kitchen equipment.

The 2018 season planning is underway and we’re looking forward to seeing so many new and return guests. Many of our experienced crew have contacted us and have confirmed their desire to spend the summer again at Milbanke Sound. We have several, exciting new crew members joining us and all looking to get back on the water!

We have attended several post season meetings with Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans. British Columbia’s Central Coast, where Milbanke Sound is located, provided the very best fishing opportunities on the coast in 2017. We anticipate this trend to continue and expect very good fishing in 2018.

Operationally, we will be changing our air transportation to and from Vancouver. Ensuring our guests are arriving and departing on time is paramount and a larger, single aircraft “Dash 7” option has presented itself to transport all guests. Having such great fishing sometimes increase our outbound weights and our goal is to ensure all guest’s fish and baggage arrive with them, on time at the end of a great trip! The popularity of King Pacific Lodge has proven to be far greater then we could have ever imagined.  Built for 34 guests only, we feel this is the perfect size adventure lodge and where we’re able to spend quality time with our guests in an uncrowded, attentive environment.

Should you be looking for that special trip in 2018, please contact us soon.  Again, from all of us at King Pacific Lodge we wish you the very best for 2018 and look forward to staying in touch!

Kindest Regards,

George Cuthbert

 

 

August Anglers have had an incredible time on the water! Exciting Coho action has complemented our great Chinook fishing. Add to this the relatively calm waters and overall pleasant weather for a truly enjoyable sport fishing vacation.

Highlights of August include many Tyee (Chinook over 30lbs) including the largest to date at 60 pounds taken by Casey and guided by Mark. Congratulations! Coho tend to be quite a bit larger at this time of year. We’ve had many now well over 15 pounds with the larger in the 18 pound range.

Cape Mark, Cheney Point and Cape Swain continue to produce good numbers of fish. 45 ft seems to be the right depth and trolling Flasher Anchovy, Flasher Spoon or, as fishing guide Troy Hogg found out – a piece of celery placed correctly in a teaser head will catch a fish!

2017 has proven to be our best season to date. Fishing has been superb and we’re looking forward to more exciting action as we roll into early September.

Kindest Regards,

George Cuthbert

 

 

August is well upon us and Anglers at King Pacific Lodge have been enjoying both excellent fishing and weather.

Chinook/King salmon action has been far better this year than previous. Coho / Silver salmon continue to be more and more abundant with excellent average sizes topping 12 pounds.  This past week provided some notable large Tyee (Chinook over 3o pounds) including several in the 40’s and mid 30’s. Our largest last week was 43 pounds!

Cheney Point, Cape Swain and Cape Mark have all been top producers. The flasher / Anchovy combination has been working very well this season, we’re starting to catch quite a few on either whole herring or cut-plug baits. Depths appear to be a little shallower on average and the lucky depths of 37 / 47ft seem to produce the best. This is a great time of year to try “mooching’ whereby a bait is fished behind a 6oz weight without the use of a downrigger. The custom “KPL” Irish cream spoon from Gibbs/Delta tackle has been working very well when trolled behind a flasher.

All fishing areas are showing a healthy population of baitfish including herring, needlefish and squid. At times, bait-balls are 100ft deep and often spread out over the water hundreds of feet. Herring are typically smaller this year and we’re finding most to be 4 and 5 inches at the cleaning table.

KPL Anglers continue to comment on the quality of fishing experience at Milbanke Sound. Our exclusive location provides a productive fishing area with very little pressure and the ability to find miles of coastline to fish all on your own. All within five minutes away!

King Pacific is so much more than fishing! Enjoy Chef Luke’s amazing meals during your stay, go kayaking, rowing or utilize our spa now featuring two RMT (Massage Therapists). Marine nature viewing opportunities are endless. Killer, Humpback and Sei whales were all viewed this week along with Sea Otter, Sea Lion, Seals and an abundance of bird life.

For those guests who fished with us in 2017, it was a pleasure to see all of you out on the water! We’re already booking for 2018. If you were sadly unable to fish this year due to lack of availability please email or call early for next season and we’ll do our best to find space during your preferred dates. 

Kindest Regards,

 

George Cuthbert