It’s shaping up to be a great season at Hakai Pass. The Coho bite was on pretty much all day at Odlum Point. Whether you fished right on the kelp at five pulls or went out to the tide-lines at fifty pulls you were almost guaranteed to find fish. Several boats got into Chinooks on the morning high slack, fishing right on the kelp. Jeffery Oh had the fish of the day with his thirty pounder from Odlum. The majority of the bait showing on the surface is needlefish, but many of the fish we cut at the dock have large herring in their stomachs.

One of the Marabell’s old friends, Joe Van Goeye, had a fascinating encounter with a killer whale yesterday. While playing a nice Coho at foster rocks he noticed a large bull approaching his boat. If you have fished long enough you’ll know that typically this story ends with the whale getting the fish and you counting yourself lucky that he didn’t take the rod as well. It was a nice Coho, about fifteen pounds, so Joe reeled in as fast as he could. As he got the fish up to the boat the big bull loomed up underneath and gently took the fish in its mouth. Joe figured it was over but the whale just sat there in the water, holding the fish and staring Him in the eye. Joe is unsure how long the standoff lasted, but eventually the whale just let go of the fish and swam away. After telling me this story Joe and I both wondered what could have motivated this behavior. We both agreed that Killer Whales are extremely intelligent. Maybe the old bull figured that Joe needed the fish more than he did. Or maybe he knew it make for a great story.

Ken Beatty
Fishmaster, MV Marabell
Hakai Pass