At Port Renfrew Marina inshore fishing is fantastic!! This past weekend had anglers calling it the best in years! Practically every boat was hitting the dock with limit catches of Chinook. East Point to Walbran all lit up with long bite times. Some boats having 3 or 4 double headers a day! Betsy and Purple Haze, Purple Onion flashers with chrome Mint Pearl or Joanne as some know it, No Bananas, Purple flash teaser heads and others are popular. Same flashers with Coho Killers were working just as well. Offshore at the "Chicken Ranch" is more or less done for 2015. It was a spectacular season out there and we hope it is as good next year.
Halibut fishing has had little pressure as the salmon fishing is so good.
Notable Catches:
- Kirk Coombs 31
- Dan Maxwell 34
- Scott Cameron 65 halibut
Lizard Lake Wildfire: We have heard conflicting reports regarding the fire. To the best of our knowledge it appears to have grown to 300 hectares and is about 35% contained. The Harris Main is now open as of 8:00am August 25th. The fire is farther up the hill an away from the road.The Gordon River road is the other option if you coming from the Lake Cowichan area but is no longer necessary. The fishing is worth the drive!
The proposed road closure for the Deering bridge for repair work was originally scheduled for Aug. 24 through to the 28th has now been postponed to Sept. 14th to the 18th possibly to avoid more delays considering the problems from the wildfire. When the closure occurs with will be from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and the bridge will be opened for 15 minutes every hour on the hour to allow traffic through. Your wait could possibly take up to 45 minutes if you arrive at the bridge after the closure for that time period.
Upcoming Event: Port Renfrew Marina will be having its 18th annual Labor Day Derby coming up on Sept.5th and 6th. This is the derby to come to if you like to have a good time! Tickets are $60.00 a rod and includes a Port Renfrew Marina t-shirt, dinner, beverages and a live band. Each year we have been so lucky to have more donations and we have many great prizes to win. We will have silent and live auctions, biggest fish for a lady and a junior, hidden weight and more. Fishing is so good right now, lets hope it is like that for the derby, indicators say it is likely. Also we will be having a fun bullhead derby on Sat. the 5th in the evening for adults and a children's (12 and under) bullhead derby on Sunday the 6th at 9:00 am. Again I want to thank the few people who have helped us gather donations, thanks go out to Vic Gee, Sharon Winters, Brain Kitagawa and Jack Hughes. Also to quite a few customers who have really stepped up with finding donations for us, Steve Holgate, Grant Hilliard, Marion and Howard Randall, Debbie Gilmore, Mike Young, Wallace Cheong and others.
Upcoming Event: This year for Port Renfrew Marina the "Winner Take All" Coho Derby will be on October 3rd and 4th. This derby is extremely popular with a huge turnout. The tickets are $25.00 a rod with $5.00 of each ticket going to the local San Juan hatchery. There is just one winner and it is a cash prize for the biggest Coho. Winnings have varied from $5500.00 up to $13,800.00! Not bad for two days of fishing! We will be drawing for the Bradley smoker that we have for raffle now on the 4th.
At this time Port Renfrew Marina has four items for raffle. One is the Bradley 6 tray Digital smoker, through Port Renfrew Marina, it retails for $649.00. Tickets are $5.00 each or 3 for $10.00. We also have a Samsung 46" HD flatscreen TV donated by Marion and Howard Randall and it retails for $569.00. Tickets are $5.00 each or 3 for $10.00. We have a gift basket which at this time is at the Port Renfrew General Store, also donated by the store. It's value is $300.00 and tickets are $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00. You have to see this one for its amazing contents! For starters it has 2 bottles of good wine, a bottle of Absolute vanilla vodka, 8 year old Bacardi rum, and a bottle of salted caramel Baileys, Purdy's chocolates and many, many more great items. We have another smaller basket with lots of fun things in it at the marina, donated by Debbie Gilmore in memory of her late husband Gary Gilmore. It values at $130.00 and tickets are $1.00 each.
Bud & Rex