Fishin On The Wild West Coast

I have conceded, there is no better place in existence to end a trip around the world than Vancouver Island. The rugged west coast; with picturesque snowcapped mountains rising from the still black waters of the Queen Charlotte Strait. The destination; Telegraph Cove on the interior stretch of the Island, our reason; to fish. To drop hooks into the cold depths of the North Pacific Ocean and pull out the monsters of the deep, halibut and salmon.

My father Gordon decided after a long winter working in northern Alberta to fly my brother Damian, brother in law, Terry and myself to this tiny inlet for two solid days of world class sport fishing.

We all met in Comox and by the time we finished the drive to our cabin three hours later we had seen, two deer, several eagles, an otter, two black bears and two doll porpoises. Anybody reading this from overseas that is thinking about heading to Canada to check out the wildlife, Vancouver Island is your place. It is teaming with all the icons of the west coast, so mark it up on your bucket list at the end of this sentence.

Our first day of fishing could be described as an average day for somebody who lives here but for a bunch of boys from Alberta it was freaking great. In less than two hours we had caught our limit of halibut (4 fish) which turned out to be 50 lbs of meat. Approximately every 10 minutes another giant fish was coming over the side of the boat and the sound of the Hong Kong Gong rang out into the morning to announce to all within ear shot that yes we've got yet another fish!

The big winner was Terry who had never caught a fish until yesterday, his 36th birthday. By the end he had landed four for the boat, lucky bastard. I got skunked, no fish for me. On the way in we check the local crab pots to find 7 crabs waiting to be introduced to our stove top.

Day two started out with us fishing for salmon. The down riggers went on and the lines were dropped to 90 feet. Within minutes the rod tip wiggled, and the reel started to wind out, we had a fish. I did my best to push everybody out of the way. After the big fat zero count for me on day one, this lunker was mine. We battled, (I reeled and he fought minorly) ten minutes later I had a 8.5 lbs chinook salmon to whack on the head. Here is my proof.

This turned out to be the only fish for the day. I almost landed a halibut later on but it skipped the hooked with only 30 feet to the surface. The other major highlight was Gordy spilling his guts into sea (chumming) as the water was a bit bumpy with a slight wind out of the northwest. No photo proof but you get the idea.

On the way in we again check the crab pots to find fifteen more of the ugly tasty crustacean. Supper was a rich west coast boil of fresh crab. I never get excited about a meal, but this one was bloody delicious.

After dinner we went for a walk amongst the forest giants. The ambition, gather some souvenir drift wood from the beach. Knowing full well that bears were in the area, we loaded up the Hong Kong Gong and set out down the trail making heaps of noise to scare away anything that could potential eat us. Gong! Gong! Went the Hong Kong Gong.

Seconds before reaching the beach we came atop a fallen log to look ahead and see two bear cubs 100ft ahead and partially up a tree. Their eyes were locked into us and our into theirs. We then shifted to the local surroundings looking for Mama. She wasn't around so we quickly exited the area. The only thing those bears cubs saw next was our backs, and the only thing they heard was the sound of the Hong Kong Gong getting fainter and fainter. My heart was up in my throat and I wasn't the only one in our group to need new and “fresher” shorts. In the end we could laugh about it, but it is easily the closest I have been to a bear, without my normal protection of a Honda Prelude.

As I sit on the plane and head back to Alberta in can reflect. The west coast rules, I love it here and when the fish bite it makes it a lot easier to build a case for moving here. It is definitely on my short list, just wish the sea wasn't so bloody cold here...

Check out the Slide show below.