Fishing off the Coast of Beautiful BC
At the beginning of August, my father had a chance to go fishing off the coast of British Columbia near Quatsino with a few of his friends. He has been kind enough to share some pictures and notes from his experience. I am anxiously awaiting my invitation to go next year...
Spectacular. This one word describes every single aspect of my first Pacific fishing trip with my buds from the high school days. I can’t say enough about my hosts Alex, who is as good as any fishing guide but does it for the sheer enjoyment of being out there, and Nancy, who graciously and skillfully drove the boat while us boys fished. They did everything possible to make this a great wilderness fishing experience for their guests, and even managed to keep the motley crew in line (for the most part), safe from fish hooks and man-overboards!
It was a 30 minute boat ride to the ocean from the lodge. Once there, Alex started to set out the rods. As he was setting up the first, he turned to me and said bring it in. Before Alex had a chance to give any advice, I brought in the first fish – without losing it. It was big by my perch-fishing standards. It was a “pink”, which I later learned was an easy way to get broken in to salmon fishing. While still fun to catch, they put up less of a challenge than other salmon.
Two rods were set up with downriggers. While there were five of us ready to fish, besides our host, the boys took turns tending the rods and reeling them in. It was as useful to watch each other as to reel them in ourselves.Some of us had not fished with downriggers before, and others didn’t do it often. The hard part for the perch fisherman to learn was to react to a hit only after the line got released from the downrigger clip- and then to reel like crazy until the tension in the line was re-gained. Then the familiar “reel-it-in” “let-it-run” started.
The set-up for salmon, for the first few days, was quite straight-forward. Two unbarbed hooks, the lead one with a plastic skirt, about 3-4 ft behind a flasher. Unbarbed hooks are required by law to fish in these tidal waters, which also posed a new challenge to most of the guys. But the boys were catching on (pun unintended) and pulled in 21 salmon the first day. The next day followed with 19 and the 3rd with 20. In between, there were some unique fish: a small shark (commonly called a dogfish), lingcod, rockfish –both brown and red, and a few others. And a few halibut.
Advance warning had all of the buds taking motion-sickness pills. While nobody was sick, the weather those 5 days in early August was better than Alex had ever seen in his 8 years of fishing here. Low 20’s (70’s F for Americans) with NW winds not more than 15 km/h. The ocean swells were there, but not that much of a chop.
Although Alex hoped the fish would have been a bit bigger, we had pretty well caught our possession limit of salmon by the end of day 3 of a 5 day trip. So we decided to fish specifically for halibut. Halibut dwell along the bottom of the sea and the technique and equipment to target them was different. We went jigging for halibut in the “hali-pit.” Out came the shorter stiffer rods. No downriggers involved, just a 1 ½ lb weight at the end of the line where there was a also a treble hook baited with fish. Let the line down, and bounce, bounce, bounce. It was trickier when the wind picked up since a lot more line went out and the bottom was harder to reach.
Just about at the end of our last day, we went back to trolling with downriggers and barbless hooks. Dr K landed a beauty of a Chinook after 20 minutes or so, the largest of the trip. Just minutes later, I also played a big Chinook and got it to the side of the boat which might have been even bigger, but it broke free as Alex prepared to net it. A huge disappointment but that’s the way fishing goes.
Spectacular. This one word describes every single aspect of my first Pacific fishing trip with my buds from the high school days. I can’t say enough about my hosts Alex, who is as good as any fishing guide but does it for the sheer enjoyment of being out there, and Nancy, who graciously and skillfully drove the boat while us boys fished. They did everything possible to make this a great wilderness fishing experience for their guests, and even managed to keep the motley crew in line (for the most part), safe from fish hooks and man-overboards!
It was a 30 minute boat ride to the ocean from the lodge. Once there, Alex started to set out the rods. As he was setting up the first, he turned to me and said bring it in. Before Alex had a chance to give any advice, I brought in the first fish – without losing it. It was big by my perch-fishing standards. It was a “pink”, which I later learned was an easy way to get broken in to salmon fishing. While still fun to catch, they put up less of a challenge than other salmon.
Two rods were set up with downriggers. While there were five of us ready to fish, besides our host, the boys took turns tending the rods and reeling them in. It was as useful to watch each other as to reel them in ourselves.Some of us had not fished with downriggers before, and others didn’t do it often. The hard part for the perch fisherman to learn was to react to a hit only after the line got released from the downrigger clip- and then to reel like crazy until the tension in the line was re-gained. Then the familiar “reel-it-in” “let-it-run” started.
The set-up for salmon, for the first few days, was quite straight-forward. Two unbarbed hooks, the lead one with a plastic skirt, about 3-4 ft behind a flasher. Unbarbed hooks are required by law to fish in these tidal waters, which also posed a new challenge to most of the guys. But the boys were catching on (pun unintended) and pulled in 21 salmon the first day. The next day followed with 19 and the 3rd with 20. In between, there were some unique fish: a small shark (commonly called a dogfish), lingcod, rockfish –both brown and red, and a few others. And a few halibut.
Advance warning had all of the buds taking motion-sickness pills. While nobody was sick, the weather those 5 days in early August was better than Alex had ever seen in his 8 years of fishing here. Low 20’s (70’s F for Americans) with NW winds not more than 15 km/h. The ocean swells were there, but not that much of a chop.
Although Alex hoped the fish would have been a bit bigger, we had pretty well caught our possession limit of salmon by the end of day 3 of a 5 day trip. So we decided to fish specifically for halibut. Halibut dwell along the bottom of the sea and the technique and equipment to target them was different. We went jigging for halibut in the “hali-pit.” Out came the shorter stiffer rods. No downriggers involved, just a 1 ½ lb weight at the end of the line where there was a also a treble hook baited with fish. Let the line down, and bounce, bounce, bounce. It was trickier when the wind picked up since a lot more line went out and the bottom was harder to reach.
Just about at the end of our last day, we went back to trolling with downriggers and barbless hooks. Dr K landed a beauty of a Chinook after 20 minutes or so, the largest of the trip. Just minutes later, I also played a big Chinook and got it to the side of the boat which might have been even bigger, but it broke free as Alex prepared to net it. A huge disappointment but that’s the way fishing goes.
The trip was a fantastic experience for all. You can’t beat the experience of great fishing with great friends!
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| In the evenings, we set traps for Dungeness crabs, which made for some delicious dinners! |
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