Well, for Port Renfrew Marina the "world famous" "Winner Take All" Coho derby for 2016 is over for another year. This extremely popular derby is a pretty level fishing contest, anyone, with anything, can win the pot. This year the story behind catching the winning fish is great! Our long time customer at Port Renfrew Marina, Mark Perkins fishing with his friend from Saskatchewan, bought a third ticket to be able to run the Prairie trout rod his friend brought from home. Sure enough the trout rod went off, on a 8 pound test line, 5 feet long with a 2 ounce weight. They chased it and had no choice with a small rod, the multi jumping Coho for 3o minutes, into the backing, thinking oh it's gone over and over then finally it the net! Caught early on Saturday it held up all that day and through Sunday to be the winning Coho at 19 pounds and 14 ounces and a real beauty.
There were lots of last minute weigh ins in the 15 to 16 pound range but no new winners.
Coho were being caught on spoons, hootchies but the best was anchovy. Thirty to fifty feet was the best depth. Sundays seas and weather conditions were the best of the year! Flat calm seas, no wind and lots of sun. You could easily have gone to the bank and maybe even motored to Hawaii at 30 mph with water flat like a lake. Got to love those fishing days!
The final numbers are in for monies raised for the San Juan Salmon Hatchery. With money raised at Port Renfrew Marina's Labor Day derby, general donations given during the course of the season, and the money raised at the Coho Derby Port Renfrew Marina is happy and proud to say we have given the hatchery a total of $16,001.75 this year. We want to thank everyone who made donations either directly or through donations for the derbies and are pleased to know that we all played a part in helping out our local hatchery to keep it being a viable source to help maintain and support the salmon in our area.
The raffle that was held at the marina for the nights stay at the Villa Eyrie Resort and the 1 day member experience at the circuit racetrack under the guidance of an instructor team and access to drive an assortment of luxury vehicles such as Mercedes, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, BMW and more valued at $3000.00 was won by a Steve Rogers. Very generously donated by Vancouver Island Motorsport Circuit, Dan Maxwell & Rutland Glass.
Closing date: Port Renfrew Marina will be closing this year on October 16th not October 15 as first stated, sorry for any confusion. It is imperative that you contact the marina regarding any winter storage you may need for either your boat or unit. It is your responsibility to contact the marina regarding your items at the marina to inform us as how you want to deal with taking or storing them. If left you will incur winter storage fees. Once the marina is closed the gate is locked and you will need to contact our caretaker, Desi Hatchard @ 250 483-1486. The marina number will become inactive after October 16th until opening of May 1, 2017.
Bud & Rex