Brown's Bay Fishing Trip + Ling Cod Spearing Maybe?

[DaKahuna]

I will be camping and fishing for Salmon around the Brown's Bay area on Vancouver Island this coming weekend, and wondered if there might be any areas that I could find a nice Ling to target by spear (if the others will take a break long enough to let me....)
The regs I found online said Area 13 is open to spearing Ling, but I welcome any advice to confirm or deny that I am reading things correctly and that Brown's Bay is in Area 13. Can you tell this will be my first trip to the area? :)

Thanks in advance for any advice, either here or by pm, that I can get.

[beaver]

Yes indeed Browns Bay is in area 13.

Here is a link to area 13 rules:

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/tidal-maree/a-s13-eng.htm

The relevant info to you!

Rockfish and Lingcod: Effective May 1, 2009 to September 30, 2009, Areas 13 to 19 including Subareas 20-5, 20-6, 20-7 and 29-5 will open for the retention of lingcod and rockfish. The balance of Area 29 and all of Area 28 remain closed. Lingcod Retention: Daily limit of one, minimum size 60 cm; yearly retention of ten; Hook and line fishing including spear-fishing. Rockfish Retention: Daily limit of one, no size limit and no season limit; Hook and line fishing only. Listed on 04/05/2009 FN0329

Halibut: Effective August 22, 2009: the daily limit for halibut will be two (2) per day with a possession limit of two (2). Listed on 21/08/2009 FN0648



Pay special attention not to venture below the boundry of Semour Narrows as:

All Species

These waters are closed to the harvest of all marine life by divers for the preservation of unique underwater habitat: Discovery Passage, in the Campbell River area, bounded by a straight line from North Bluff on Quadra Island, across Seymour Narrows to a fishing boundary sign on Vancouver Island, and south by a line from the light on the end of the south Government Dock breakwater at Campbell River to Cape Mudge lighthouse.


Lastly,
Seymour Narrows is notable also because the flowing current can be sufficiently turbulent to realize a Reynolds number of about 109, i.e. one billion, which is possibly the largest Reynolds number regularly attained in natural water channels on Earth (the current speed is about 8 m/s, the nominal depth about 100 m). Turbulence develops usually around a Reynolds number of 2000, depending on the geometric structure of the channel.

A link to your tide tables for the area for this weekend:

http://www.waterlevels.gc.ca/cgi-bin/tide-shc.cgi?queryType=showFrameset&zone=14&language=english&region=1&stnnum=8110

only about 6-7 foot swings but that water moves fast there and has taken down boats so use caution and dive close to slack

Sorry for the long post but seeing as though its your first time ENJOY it is absolutely stunning country and plenty of fish.If you have the fuel range and speed head out to Blind Channel tons of big lings and a beautiful place.

enjoy your visit to Canada

[DaKahuna]

Thanks very much for the reply. I have family that has been up there for over a week already, and they have brought in a bunch of Salmon, but mostly fish that had to be released. My uncle, the boat owner, has been up there a good number of times and knows about the currents/turbulents, and was concerned about where I would dive.
This will be mainly a family and exploring trip, I'm not sure I'll even get a chance to get wet unless there's someplace I could explore from the shore near the Brown's Bay Resort camping area. I would be just about as excited to bring my mountain bike and hit some trails along the way. So many reasons to return.... ;)

Thanks again, it's less than 8 hours until we hit the road!

[beaver]

How was your trip, photos updates???
come man don't be stingy

[DaKahuna]

We had a great trip, mostly, but I decided not to take the dive gear because we were planning to concentrate on the salmon and my non-diving family was concerned about the currents. Apparently a fisherman had drowned near where we would be fishing at a place called Devil's Hole, just 3 days before we arrived:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Fisherman+presumed+drowned+northeast+Campbell+Rive r/1922637/story.html

And a commercial fisherwoman was missing after falling off a boat just 2 days before we arrived:

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Woman+missing+from+fishing+vessel+Johnstone+Strait/1937105/story.html

So needless to say nobody wanted me to go underwater exploring, and I wasn't going to push it....

We arrived to beautiful weather on Friday, and the camping area at Brown's Bay is very nice and has about the best view I've seen from a campsite. We quickly realized we totally overpacked because there is a huge beautiful clubhouse that is open to everyone staying there, complete with a very large kitchen fully stocked with everything to prepare and serve meals, and a huge gas BBQ. We were the only ones I saw that used it the whole time we were there - SWEET!

As we set up camp, just 60 feet from the water's edge, I watched a boat pull up next to a kelp bed about another 100 feet from shore and start jigging down on the bottom. I shouted to them and asked what they were fishing for, and they said "Cod!" DOH! And double DOH! :slap: Everone was worried that I wouldn't find a safe place to dive and I could have suited up at my campsite and walked into the water. Water looked very clear too.... :rolleyes:

We caught a bunch of pinks and a few wild coho on Saturday, and my uncle said that was how it had been for the last 2 weeks straight. He had been releasing all of his fish and told me I could probably plan on just taking home whatever we caught on the last day since I wasn't looking to bring home over about 40 lbs of fish.

Then the winds came up....

Sunday gave us high winds and big swells that made it very hard to find calm water to troll in. We waited until later in the day hoping it would calm down, but it didn't, so we didn't try to venture north to the usual spots due to the high seas.

Monday gave predictions of gale force winds just north in the Johnstone Strait, so we again stayed close to the marina. It was my son's 11th birthday and my uncle promised him a fish, and it didn't come until about 5pm. But it was a hatchery coho that gave a pretty good fight, and he got to keep it. We turned in the head at the receptacle on the dock, and my son will get a pin and info on where the fish came from. That was the saving grace of the day, and I'm stoked for my son.

We all loved the area up there and definitely plan to go back, and I WILL bring the dive gear next time.

Thanks again beaver for the info, and for putting up with my 100% non-diving report. You definitely have some beautiful resources at your disposal up there!

One last note about the hatchery coho and turning in the heads. A local guy I talked with said some of the locals won't turn in heads because they fear that if a particular area shows a large number of fish congregating there, that the government will make it a no-take zone. The local guy said that had happened to an area he had turned in a bunch of heads from a couple of years ago. Any opinion/feedback about that idea? Honestly, it seemed strange that there woud be worries about the fishery up there considering my uncle could have caught daily limits for several weeks straight. But the locals were still saying "it isn't like it used to be". But I am fairly uneducated about the issues at work up there....