What a Trip

Sadly, today was our last day fishing with Great Pacific Salmon Lodge and it was another great one. Thanks to Jamie and all the staff for an awesome trip.

Day 2 at Great Pacific Salmon Lodge

What an incredible day fishing with Great Pacific Salmon Lodge in Prince Rupert, BC. Vanessa caught her first-ever chinook salmon and it was a beautiful tyee to boot. We limited out on chinook, coho and halibut and the weather was incredible. It really doesn't get any better than this. And, we still have one more day on the water.

First Day on the Water

Today was our first day fishing with Great Pacific Salmon Lodge and it was an awesome one. We were treated to a real show when three pods of killer whales came through. It kind of shut the fishing down but it was really cool to see. We caught lots of halibut today and Vanessa hooked some really nice coho. Tomorrow we go in search of some big springs.

We arrived in Prince Rupert and got out to see some of the sites followed by a phenominal meal at the Cow Bay Cafe. This is a must try next time you are in Prince Rupert. Tomorrow we visit the the Cannery Historic Site and then we are off to Great Pacific Salmon Lodge.

Off to Great Pacific Salmon Lodge

We are just sitting in YVR waiting for our Hawk Air flight to Prince Rupert where we'll spend the day touring the town and the Cannery historic Site and then it's off in search of giant chinooks and monster halibut with Great Pacific Salmon Lodge.

The Water Keeps Rising

Just when we thought the Fraser River couldn't get any higher, it rose another foot over night and the amount of debris floating in it was unreal. Despite all that, we still managed to get 10 fish to the boat today, including two 5.5 footers. We ended the day with a double header. Randy Beck from Ultimate Sportfishing really knows the river. We were the only fishing boat on it today and most of the other guides didn't even think of going out and thought we were nuts. Off to Prince Rupert tomorrow but we'll definitely be back to fish with Randy.

River Monster!

Despite the worst conditions ever, Randy got us into six sturgeon today including this six and a half foot monster that Vanessa landed. We saw just about everything floating down the river today including 60' trees and even docks. The Fraser is totally blown out but we'll give it another try tomorrow. What an awesome day!

Arrived in Cloverdale

We arrived safe and sound in Cloverdale and will be heading out fishing with Randy Beck of Ultimate Sportfishing in the morning. Our target is monster sturgeon but the Fraser River is totally blown out with flood water right now so it will be interesting. We are staying with Randy and Trish at their Bed and Breakfast and the accomodations are incredible! Should be a fun day tomorrow.

River Monsters!

Were headed west tomorrow in search of some true river monsters. Hopefully all the rain doesn't put an end to our plans. We'll be updating the blog daily starting Wednesday.

Prince Rupert!

We met Jaron Janas of Terrace Sportfishing Adventures at 7 am at the dock in Cow Bay. Jaron had his 33' Thunder Jet idling at the dock waiting for us. It didn't take long for us to load all our gear and soon Jaron let the throttles out on the twin 225 Yamaha's and the boat effortlessly lepton plane. We ran north for a little over an hour to the north end of Dundas Island and the floating lodge where we would spend the night. After storing our gear in our rooms we headed out to fish. The weather was still not cooperating. The rain and cold was no problem as the boat has a fully heated hard top with all the amenities. The Jaron could make the Thunder Jet stand up and do tricks, we went where ever we wanted in spite of the heavy seas we just couldn't fish for ground fish and halibut. None of these spots were sheltered and even though  we anchored up on a couple spots it was impossible to work the rigs effectively with the boat going up and down 10 feet. Jaron had plenty of great salmon spots and it never took us very long to catch a limit of springs, coho and pinks each day. Most of the boats were crowded along the lee shore near the lodge but we fished in complete comfort and seclusion on a spot several miles away. On the second day the wind hadn't let up at all, still it took only a couple hours to get the 12 fish limit  for Sandi Bill and I. I caught the largest a 28 pound spring and missed my Tyee by two pounds! Humpback whales fed around us on the giant bait ball we were fishing and then several pods of Killer whales, about 25 total came through. We were mesmerized by the frenzy of the Orca attacking the salmon even though it meant we had to move to another spot to fish after they chased all the salmon out! We picked up our crab traps on the way back into the dock and had our limit of huge Dungeness crabs to take home as well.
We tried one more day on the Skeena and Jaron took us on quite the tour in the jet boat but there was nothing we could do to compete with mother nature.
Our trip was fantastic, Jaron's knowledge and first class gear and boats more than made up for the atrocious weather and rather than being stuck on shore we never missed a minute of trying on our trip. Accommodations and food were also top shelf and we can't wait to go back!

Day 1 The Kitimat River

With 45 km winds forecast for Rupert and the Skeena blown wide open from all the rain we traveled 30 km south west and put a drift boat in the Kitimat River. It was also high and discolored but we caught salmon with Sandi's first Chinook coming on a back trolled Hot Shot.
Tomorrow we head to Prince Rupert for a couple of days on the ocean.

Gone Fish'n!

What a hecktic two weeks since our return from Africa! Some of you may have heard Sandi was in a car accident on Friday. Her truck was rear ended on the highway while she was waiting to turn into our drive way. The truck is a write off and Sandi has the biggest black eye but other than some stiffness and bouts of nausea things are on track according to the Doc. Now is the perfect time for  a break ands that is what we are going to do. Tomorrow we drive to Prince Rupert and start a 4 day fishing adventure on the salt and in the rivers with Jaron Janas of Terrace Sport Fishing Adventures