I moved to Powell River in the early 90’s and was invited out to go fishing almost immediately by my friend Al. I had no idea what to expect as we headed out to Vivian island in search of Coho. “Put this Gold Hoochie out it’s a local favorite” Al said as he tossed the flasher and Hoochie over .I opened my snap swivel clipped on the Abe n Al flasher and Gold Hoochie added my 8oz slip sinker and i think i got to about 10 pulls before the rod was almost yanked out of my hand. I was not expecting a beauty Coho to hammer it in a matter of seconds. I turn to Al and notice he had a Coho on as well, both Coho dancing and spinning not far off the stern of the boat. Well within about 30-45 minutes at the most there were 8 Coho lying on the bottom of the 14′ tinner. I couldn’t believe what had just happened as it was constant action and there was no pause in “Coho Mania”
Fast forward to I believe the following year or maybe 2 years later (early 90,s) honestly don’t recall but the Coho fishery had all but disappeared on the inside waters. The million dollar question in the local shops was “what happened to the Coho?” was it over fishing as the limits were 4 per angler. Whatever the case the Coho had all but disappeared pretty much overnight from inside water for decades. Not only that, the seals were even missing the abundance of fish and sometimes all your Chinooks you would hook would go to them. At the time i was the Sporting goods manager at Woolco Powell River which is now Wal Mart and all the local anglers were now focused on Chinook and were resigned to the fact Coho had disappeared and really did not know why. Lets fast forward now to the last say 8-10 years 2014-2024 all this time i have been working in the sporting goods retail business and now at this point am running Powell River Outdoors, so fortunate to be very Intune to what’s going on in local waters . It wasn’t until maybe 2016 when an angler had come in to the shop and said “Sam i hooked a few Coho at Grant Reefs” I looked at him and said “smoke another one “lol he insisted that he new his fish and he had me convinced they were Coho. He did not retain them because I guess they were closed don’t recall. Anyways long story short Coho started to trickle in a few here a few there for maybe 5 years but not numbers to notice. ” Then in 2022 I had friends come up from the city and in early May they went fishing and said they had caught Coho and i couldn’t believe it as we had not Had Coho in May for Decades. Well as you know last year 2023 the Coho showed up in huge numbers on the inside waters seemingly overnight just like they had disappeared in the early 90″s almost 35 years ago. Ounce the 2023 season was over the 2 million dollar question was “Is there going to be Coho in 2024 or is this just a one-off?” Well we all know the answer to that, Welcome back Kotter I mean Coho, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. What a year for Coho, incredible numbers and Anglers of all ages enjoying the bounty…. O.K i am going to give you my uneducated theory of what happened to the Coho for all those years, fist I have a few questions for Anglers that have been fishing the Inside waters for the last 30 years. Have you caught a Halibut between 1991-2013? Did you see Whales on a daily basis between 1991-2014? Did you jig up Cabazon (Skulpin) on a daily basis between 1991-2014? the pattern i have seen, is all these species i am referring to in the questions have made there way to the inside waters in great numbers, including the Coho why? Well i am just going to call it the BLOB. The BLOB is the perfect mix of water temperature, currents, Krill & Herring making its way to the inside waters, where before (the last several decades) it seemed to be on the outside waters mostly thus all anglers heading the west coast all those years in search of the BLOB. So where the Blob goes many of these species go so my prediction is the Coho are going to be around for several more years providing the Blob keeps coming to the inside waters. Whatever the case if you have been on the inside waters the last few years you know the waters are much more alive. Its not perfect, however if you are a doubter simply get on a boat or take a walk down to your local boat launch see for yourself what fish can do for a community. Hatcheries of course have helped in this great fishery thanks to all the Volunteers for all that hard work and thanks mostly to the Bounty…Sam Out!
