Our plan was simple enough – put out half a dozen prawn traps in the channels between islands on the mainland side, then go fish for flounders and if time permitted spend some time trying to entice a chinook to bite one of Charley’s special attractions.
Thus began a pleasant day on the water in the company of Charley Vaughan, Bernard Le Cerf. We launched Charley’s boat at April Point ramp and headed across the Strait of Georgia toward our destination. The weather was perfect with a few small clouds and calm winds. Travelling time is about 35 minutes depending on how big your source of power is.
In the recreational fishery, prawning is primarily an attempt by recreational anglers to catch some high-class seafood as part of our fishing trips. It involves using suitable traps, baiting them with mixes of cat food to attract unsuspecting prawns into the trap.
The traps are lowered into depths varying form 250 to over 400 feet. We usually let them soak at least three hours while we go off seeking salmon or other species. I sometimes think that recreational prawning was designed by some fitness gym because even with a prawn puller it provides good exercise and in the case where the prawn puller doesn’t work, pulling prawn traps by hand from depths of 400 feet is a great fitness exercise for building big arm muscles.
If you feel the urge to take up this unique fishery, buy your gear from a local sporting goods store familiar with local conditions. Start with couple of traps and pull by hand until you get to know a little bit about this simple system of gathering your own seafood.
Our traps were duly resting on the bottom in depths of about 400 feet and it was time to check out local flounder populations. Most saltwater anglers are committed to the larger species as in salmon, halibut and lingcod and think of small fish such as flounders as below their interests.
Too bad because they pass up some gourmet seafood that is both delicious on the table and very costly to purchase. Added to the fact they are fun to catch on light tackle.
On this occasion we were using Buzz Bomb spin now jigs that we bounced off the bottom. Charley also did well on Berkley grubs. They are excellent fish to get children involved with the act of fishing as opposed to staring at a down rigger waiting for fish to bite.
Pictured with this column is our combined catch of flounder and prawns from our day on the water. The pawning was not successful by any standards; however we had about three dozen large prawns which made a family treat for each angler.
Our flounder fishing started out rather slow, but soon picked up and we ended up with a generous catch of these little flat fish. The North Pacific ocean has at least 35 species of flatfish including halibut. In local waters we have about 20 species and during a day’s fishing you will catch several different types.
The most common in our waters is the Petrale Sole, that is also one of the most sought-after species. Incidentally, the terms sole or flounder are used to describe these flatfish.
One of the reasons these small flatfish are not more popular is the challenge of filleting a small slippery fish with a sharp knife. Bernard uses a European method of cleaning his fish which is cutting off the head and removing the guts.
Time ran out for chinook fishing on this occasion. If chinook are high on your agenda I would recommend taking a run down to Tribune Bay and fish the 200 feet plus or minus between Norris Rocks and Tribune Bay and also outside of Flora Island.
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On April 24 at 7 p.m. Larry Stefanyk, publisher of the Island Fisherman Magazine, is sponsoring a special illustrated fly fishing show at the Courtenay and District Fish and Game clubhouse in the main conference room.Fernando Sosa of Neuquen Province, Patagonian Plateau in Argentina will illustrate his talk with slides. Fernando has lived in Patagonia for the past 32 years and has guided fishing and hunting groups for the past 25 years.
He is president of the Neuquen chamber of guides for the past seven years and is deeply involved in preserving Patagonia the fish and wildlife resources of this legendary region of south America.
Admission is by donation to local conservation projects.
Ralph Shaw is a master fly fisherman who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984 for his conservation efforts. In 20 years of writing a column in the Comox Valley Record it has won several awards.
