The new season of 2014 is up on us for Port Renfrew Marina. We open officially on May 1st as we do every year but if you come out to the marina this weekend you will find us out there. We are in the process of slowly getting things organized for the season. Here's hoping the weather is decent, we do know that fishing is good for halibut and crab. There was a 24 pound spring caught last week so there are a few of them around also. So if a little ... or a lot of rain falls at least there is fish out there. Unfortunately, even with the heavy winter rains the sandbar seems to be in the same condition as last year, if you are unsure of how to get out the river please check with us in the office. Fishing is expected to be possibly off the charts this year as fisheries has predicted over 73 million in Sockeye alone and it appears that Nitnat is also predicted to have a unprecedented amount of Chinnok this year. It could be a record year! There are a couple of things new that we would like to inform our customers of. One is we discovered just two weeks ago that fisheries is not selling hard paper fishing licenses anymore. This means they are only available on line which for Port Renfrew Marina that means we will no longer be able to sell licenses to our customers. PLEASE make sure you purchase your license before you come to Renfrew. You can do this at home, probably the easiest, or at any public place where there is use of a computer and printer. We apologize for the inconvenience but it is not possible for us to do licenses this way.
Another big change this year is there will be no Davey Derby this year. Audie Williams has done this huge job for 13 years and has retired himself now. Unless someone steps up to take on this endeavor there will be no Davey derby. At this point it is not scheduled. This was a fun derby with awesome prizes so it will be missed but we guess all good things do come to an end at some point in time. A big thanks to Audie for all he did over the years. Port Renfrew Marina is still planning on having the Labor Day Derby on the long weekend and the Coho Derby the first weekend in Oct. that date to be determined.
We want to take this time to thank a few people who donated their time to help us put the docks back in for the year. A big thank you goes out to Reid Warren, Dave Mills, Odd Johansen and Eric Eckdahl.
As every year we ask that all seasonals and even monthly customers to please contact us as soon as possible to let us know if they are returning and wanting their spot. This is critical as we have new people every year waiting for a spot and are anxious to get in. The phone number at the marina will be in operation on April 26th, the number is 250 483-1878 or you can call Desi our caretaker at 250 483-1486 and leave a message. A reminder that anyone with power must have a large cord of size 10 or 12 to keep the power safe. Anyone using small cords or many extension cords will be unplugged as it is very unsafe and causes power surges an can even start a fire.
Please review our rates page. Everything is the same as last year except our seasonal rate has gone up $100.00 for the season.
We look forward to meeting our new customers and getting to know them and we welcome back all our regular customers and look forward to seeing everyone again. We will have the same familiar faces there with Knut helping out also. Hears to having an excellent year with good safe fishing and maybe calm seas, some sun and warm skies thrown in if possible!
Bud & Rex