At Port Renfrew Marina the big tides and the two full moons (Blue Moon) we had this past month are over and the fishing is improving again. The full moons caused some havoc with the tides! The past week only produced good fishing on the high tide in the afternoons. Beach fishing has been better everyday with fish being caught all day. The San Juan fish should be showing up all month, Woods Nose will be a hot spot as the net pen fish will be coming back to where they were raised. Offshore Chinook fishing remains very good, fishing at 140 feet to 200 feet on the downrigger. The halibut catches have dropped right off which is understandable considering the huge pressure on them over the last three months.
Innshore halibut fishing has improved as fishermen are searching out spots other than Swiftsure, time to explore! The big coho are just a month away!
Notable catches:
- George Colgrave 34
Upcoming Event: This weekend Aug. 8th and 9th, Port Renfrew Marina is hosting its 2nd annual Spring Derby. This derby is a simple one with tickets $30.00 a rod and $5.00 of each one going to the San Juan Hatchery. There are only three prizes, first, second and third. The winnings will be based on net sales of tickets and the amount for each place will be 50%, 30%,and 20% respectively of the fist, second and third place. The more tickets sold, the more prize money! With the fishing improving daily this could be a fun derby and the weather should be good also. Please remember that we are a cash business so bring cash for your tickets purchase and for your stay.
At Port Renfrew Marina we have three big items for raffling. The first is a Bradley 6 tray polished stainless steel smoker. It can do hot and cold smoke and is digitally accurate. A real beauty for smoking your catches and also meat and other things. It retails for $649.00 and tickets are $5.00 each or 3 for $10.00. The second one is a gift basket generously donated by Port Renfrew General Store with a of value $300.00. It is full of all kinds of great things, including two bottles of good red wine, salter caramel Baileys (new), 8 year old Bacardi Rum, and Absolute vanilla vodka, a box of Purdy's chocolates, stemless wine glasses, movie pass for two and many, many more things. Tickets are $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00. And third we have a Samsung 46" HDMI flat screen television donated by MVCC business, Marion and Howard Randall. It is valued at $569.00. The tickets are $5.00 each or 3 for $10.00.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Coming up from August 24th to 28th Mainroad contracting will be working on the Deering Bridge. The bridge needs service and the work is under the bridge for the most part so doing it at night is not a viable option.Therefore, work will begin at 8:00 am and end at 5:00 pm and Mainroad's objective it to have the bridge open for the first 15 minutes of each hour throughout the day. This is their plan and as long as nothing goes sideways they will do their best to keep to that schedule. It is possible they may get it done in less than five days but so far those are the dates for the closure. So if you need to cross the bridge you would be wise to time it accordingly. There will be some work being done on the Harris Cove bridge also but the interruptions will be minimal.
As many know we have had a non-working pop machine for some time BUT it is now working! This is after at least five attempts to repair it. Fingers crosses it stays that way. A HUGE thank you goes out to Dan from Ryan Vending who went over and above the call of duty to come out twice to fix it, not to mention numerous phone calls trying to help over the phone.
Important: This year the CRD has stipulated that all compostable food wastes be separated from non-biodegradable garbage. We now have garbage cans for regular garbage as always and green ones for food waste. You can dump the waste in loose or in compostable bags only. These are the thin brown ones you can find in most grocery stores. We ask that everyone make the effort to separate their garbage as if it arrives at the dump with too much combined we will get cut off for dumping and it will then require people to remove their garbage and take it home with them! If you don't want to bother with the bags just simply put the waste ia bucket or container with a lid and then empty it when its full into the garbage can directly.
Big Thanks: We also want to give out big thank you's to some people who are stepping up and helping out with collecting donations for our Labor Day Derby...not an easy job. Thanks for out to Vic Gee, Sharon Winters, Brian Kitagawa, Jack Hughes, Marion Randall, Port Renfrew General Store who not only donates the funds for the gift basket but then lets us set it up there for ticket sales. I guess it fits with the saying, it takes a village. Seriously, the derby relies on helpers like this as one person just can't get it all done. We are going to be needing helpers during the derby, some to work the silent auction tables, sell raffle tickets, peel corn, set up tables, etc. Anyone with some free time we would be grateful for their help, many hands make less work!
Bud & Rex