December 1st /2011

Hello Everyone,

First - All of us at the lodge would like to wish everyone a very Happy and Safe Holiday Season.

The summer of 2011 was very busy and challenging for us at the lodge. The weather was great with very little rain, good for the fishers but a little scary for our water supply. The fishing was on the whole, the best season we’ve had in years, of course there were slower spots but most of the time it was as good as we have ever had. Extra plains were needed for fish on our change over days, on what seemed to be a regular bases. Although the fish were plentiful, the size of our Chinook were on the whole smaller the in the past few years, with the largest being 53 ½ lbs. we had four 50 lbs. or better. The end of July seem to be the big Chinook time and we are seeing this to be the case for the past few years now.

The usual August 10th  area is seeing a trend of smaller Tyee, more in the 30 -40 lb. class. Don’t get me wrong, these are GREAT fish, just not the 50 lb. Plus class we are used to see at this date. The usual spots were as they should be in producing fish. With the other lodges in the area going to the dreaded DOWN RIGGERS it played out just fine, for the more seasoned fishers at Black Gold.

We have the luxury of having truly PROFESSIONAL fishers that have been coming to the lodge for many years, in a lot of cases when getting off the plane many say hello and just “ where are they Jim” ? With that off they go. One of the nice things at the lodge is the new comers can and do learn from the guests that are seasoned in not just fishing, but the area. I watch new and old guests talking and most of our old timers are only to happy to pass along info. to the new guests.

Our crew, of course, help in any way they can in this regard, but it's sure nice to see people helping people!

As said with down riggers and their 15 lb. balls, alone with the 14 in. flashers and then bait or what ever they use, it’s a lot of gear to be called Sport.

This type of fishing is fine in areas with few fish, where a fisher must get down to 100 ft. and more to catch a salmon. In Rivers Inlet we have ALWAYS caught most of the fish in the first 30-50 ft. Nothing has changed in that regard. What has changed is the space we now have to fish the proper way, with light tackle ! Again it’s all about the SPORT !!

Funny I heard a long time guide on the radio at the beginning of the season telling his lodge, we’re at the a WALL,  just boated a beauty THE RIGHT WAY, just like the why we’ve done it for years. The same guy was on the radio the week they opened, only this time he was asking for another ball then said Hell just bring me a whole system, one went overboard, that was the last time he fished the Wall. Long and Short of it, Black Gold has the Inlet almost to ourselves. GREAT !!!

Anyone that knows me, knows I don’t fish very much, not that I don’t want to it’s just that I am usually so busy keeping our fine tuned operation running in a manner we are accustom to, I just don’t get the time.

This year at that end of July time, I was fishing with Craig and Donna Boddington we make this an annual affair. We have had good years and lean years but we always have a lot of fun. This year was the best we’ve ever had. On one of our outings I said well where should we head to Craig ? The bluff is where we had really good action the day before, hell the water looks smooth Jim lets go to Cranstown point. Off we went, GOOD CALL it’s been several years since I’ve have had that much action with Chinook ( no doubt due to my very limited time spent fishing ) we had many hook ups. As we all know barbless hook are unforgiving, during that bite we managed to land 3 and almost got the fourth.

Unfortunately the one that got away was due to equipment failure and was for sure the largest, isn’t that always the way ? We did manage to get a 27 lb., 29 lb. and a 37 lb. a great morning of true light tackle fishing. We went looking Coho next day and off of Major Brown Rock hooked and lost 17 Coho. We managed get a limit of 8 for the two of them. We had a hell of a hit that took most of the line, I was doing things as fast as I could on the other gear and motor but it was just too fast. Craig was doing it all right until the 12 ft. Sage rod exploded and that ended time fight.

Those of you that came to the lodge last summer or anyone that has see our web site lately, will see that we have made a big commitment, by purchasing a new float. This holds our All new Commercial Kitchen, Spacious Dining Room and Lounge. The big screen T.V. and brick fire place, were a big hit, and was used for those rainier days to cuddle up on the leather furniture and take a break. Our leather topped card table was a popular spot and of course, as was the bar.

Although ALL our guests have their own living room in their cabin, some Standard Package guests enjoyed these facilities as well and all our guests are welcome to do the same.

Getting it all in the shape that would be expected by our guests, was a big task. As most things in our lodge we try to get it done right !! Having two totally different Packages will have it’s bumps in the road, but we are committed to making ALL our guests Happy.

We are the only Lodge in the area and to my knowledge the only one on the entire B.C. coast to have a two package system as this. We’re happy to break the ground on a new way of thinking.

Something that most of our clients would no doubt have no knowledge of, is our new sewage treatment system. This maybe no a big thing to a lot of people, but to us at the lodge it’s huge!! Very costly and not without its issues.

In this day and age, we must all think GREEN. Is it really needed at our location? Probably not, but for two things. First, it’s the Law. Second, Who wants to be thought of as a polluter of our planet? NOT US! Could we afford it? NO, could we afford NOT to do it? NO!

At Black Gold we plan to remain in a thriving business for many years to come.

Yes there are lodges falling off and out of this industry. To this I say its evolution.

We were the 76 lodge on the B.C. coast; this grew to an incredible 300 plus lodges and privately operated guide boats, all in the 24 years we have been in business.
With many lodges in the area and in others areas closing, along with the fore sight of our Federal Fisheries Dept., in curtailing the commercial  harvesting of the Pacific Salmon. The future looks bright !

The Chinook and Coho have been deemed a sports fish. This has been the law for many years now. All things need to be purged at some point; it appears this is the case for our industry. In the retail food business, that I was in for 30 years. We had a saying about competition and changes:

THE REAL WINNER IS ALWAYS THE CUSTOMER !!

OUR FREE TRIP WINNERS FOR 2011

Largest Chinook – Keitha Harris with a 53.5 lb. beauty.
Keitha wins a Standard Package Friday – Monday trip to the lodge.

Largest Coho – Irene Prien with a great coho of 17.5 lbs.
Irene will win the value of our Standard Package Friday – Monday trip to the lodge. This will be applied to Irene’s 2012 trip as a credit.

Largest Halibut – Sigfried Zieboll with a 68 lb. halibut
Siegfried will win the value of our Standard Package Friday – Monday trip to the lodge.
This will be applied to Siegfried’s 2012 trip as a credit.

General Guest Draw – Frank Silveri
Frank wins a free Standard Package Friday – Monday Trip to the Lodge

Hatchery Derby Free Trip Draw – Tom Bower
Tom  wins a Standard Package Friday – Monday Trip to the lodge. (It pays to fish Black Gold Lodge and purchase Derby tickets. Tom had fished Aug.5-8 and Aug. 29 – Sept. 2. This being the case, Tom’s name was in the hat twice.)

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR WINNERS!