For Port Renfrew Marina salmon fishing this past week has been generally quiet with rough seas on Wednesday keeping most anglers coming in early.
There has been the odd bright spot with a 30 and 27 pound springs being caught and one released that was somewhere in the mid thirties. Most of the fish being caught are hatchery.
Offshore the "chicken Ranch" has turned on about a week early this year. If you can get a calm day limit catches of chinook and halibut should be had. Crabbing is still unbelievable, big, hard and sweet.
For Port Renfrew Marina's Labor Day Derby this year there has been a new addition to the group that we donate the fundraised monies too. Every year since we started we have donated to the local San Juan Hatchery and we will again this year but we have included the Sooke Chinook Enhancement Initiative. Here is the site if you would like to check it out http://www.anglerscoalition.com. We are of the thinking that it would be useful to help both areas as they are tied together helping salmon stocks in the San Juan Strait. Salmon have 4 times the survival rate being released from net pens than from the wild as they are released at a bigger size. Last year at the Sooke Chinook Enhancement Initiative they released over 500,000 salmon! 100,00 of them were marked and tagged.
Speaking of the Port Renfrew Marina Labor Day Derby, please keep in mind that we are always in need of donations, either privately or from a business. It all helps to make a derby successful and to bring in the necessary monies to donate. If you feel you can manage a donation or know someone or a business that might be interested please come by the office or email us and we can give you a donation letter.
At Port Renfrew Marina there will be the annual Kinsmen Derby July 21st and 22nd this year. The entry fee is $50.00 a rod and includes a dinner. The monies raised go to different needy organizations in the Lake Cowichan area. A really fun derby for all. For more info go to http://lakecowichankinsmen.com/kin-derby-2018.
It is with a sad heart the we at Port Renfrew Marina mark the sudden passing of Peter Knighton. A long time patron and good friend died this past Tuesday, June 5th when his boat capsized near Carmanah beach. His gentle spirit, his positive attitude in life and great dry sense of humor will be greatly missed. We all looked forward to when Peter would show up and have a joke or funny story to tell. We never heard a cross word from him. Our sincere condolences goes out to his family and all that knew him.
Bud & Rex