Great Pacific Adventure
By T.J. Schwanky
There are many towns and cities across
Vanessa and I arrived a day early which gave us the
opportunity to check out the town and enjoy some of the local fare. Right along
the waterfront adjacent to our hotel was the Cow Bay Shopping District. This
historic part of town offers a number of great shops and fabulous restaurants;
the highlight of which was dinner at the Cow Bay Café. This tiny little
restaurant is world renown for their fusion cuisine and reservations are an
absolute must. The town is also rife with totem poles and being real fans of
these Native monuments, Vanessa and I took a few hours to go check them out.
Many were brought over from Vancouver Island
and the Queen Charlottes many years ago and they are unquestionably some of the
most incredible totem poles I’ve ever seen.
Spending a day in town was a great way to acclimate to the
West Coast pace but we were ready to go fishing the following day. Great
Pacific Salmon Lodge is the only lodge right in Prince Rupert Prince Rupert
The first day found us heading north for a couple of hours
and as we rounded the corner of a particularly rocky point, our guide, Matt
Anderson, pointed to a steep rock wall. “We’ll start there.”
Matt worked quickly to set up a couple rods with cut-plug
herring and in no time both downrigger cables were singing in the morning
breeze. We were right at the tail end of the Chinook run and Coho could be seen
jumping everywhere but Matt figured if we put our time in that we could still pick
up some monster Chinook. Vanessa really had her heart set on catching a Tyee
and of course there were the bragging rights that went along with hooking the
biggest fish.
Just as Matt was heading back to grab the steering wheel,
the first rod began to bounce. Vanessa picked it up out of the holder and under
Matt’s careful supervision, reeled down until it was tight and then she set the
hook hard and began feverishly reeling. In no time she had our first fish of
the trip to the boat; a fat eight pound Coho.
For the next 30 minutes or so, we caught and released another half dozen
Coho when Matt suddenly said, “Oh no.”
On the horizon, water spouts could be seen rising out of the
water. They were moving ever closer and even this prairie boy knew that a pod
of killer whales was on the way. I was actually pretty thrilled to see some
whales but little did I realize that a pod of orcas moving through the fishing
grounds is similar to a pack of wolves invading your favourite moose swamp. The
whales passed beside and under the boat and Vanessa and I jockeyed for position
to gain the best view for our cameras. We could feel the spray on our faces as
the whales surfaced. Once the exhilaration of seeing them so close ended,
however, the realization that our hotspot was now devoid of salmon became all
too clear. Matt suggested we head out to deeper water and try our luck for
halibut.
We enjoyed a great afternoon of halibut fishing and decided
to head back to the lodge about 4:00 in the afternoon. Fishing camps with buddies
are always a great time and this was no different. There were plenty of tales
of the ones that got away and plenty too of the ones brought to the scale.
Everyone had a great day, although it seemed the killer whales had made their
presence known right down the coast. After an incredible meal of fresh
Dungeness crab, we enjoyed an evening on the deck, watching the sun go down on Prince Rupert
We were up early the next morning and Matt wanted to head
right back to where we had started the day before and this time the horizon was
clear of water spouts. It didn’t take long for Vanessa to hook into her first
Chinook, a 24 pound beauty. I followed shortly after with a 26 pounder and then
a number of boats started to slowly move in on our position. We’d had the spot
all to ourselves but it was hard to hide the excitement of catching the big
fish on the single-action reels. We continued to work the steep wall with cut
plug but the action definitely slowed. A few of the boats around us were
boating big fish and you could see Matt’s frustration was growing. He asked
Vanessa to reel one of the rods in.
Matt rummaged through a tackle tray and pulled out a big
Atomic plug. “Let’s try something different.”
It didn’t take long for the plug to hook up with a couple fat
Coho but when the rod doubled over and the line began to sing as it spooled off
the reel, we knew it wasn’t another Coho. Vanessa grabbed the rod and tried to
get her palm on the spool without the wildly spinning handles removing the skin
from her knuckles. This fish was different than any other we’d hooked so far
and it led us on a wild chase down the rocky shoreline. Each time Vanessa would
gain a few feet of precious line, the huge fish would take a few yards. While
I’m sure it took no more than 15 or 20 minutes for Vanessa to get the big
Chinook boat side, it seemed an eternity.
We all let out a big sigh of relief as Matt slipped the net under the
behemoth. Vanessa had her Tyee and then some.
While we never did top the weight of Vanessa’s Atomic salmon,
several more Tyee came to the boat and by the end of the third day we had
caught several hundred fish I’m sure. Most went back to complete their journey
up the nearby rivers to spawn, we did manage to bring home nearly 150 pounds of
processed salmon and halibut. It had been several years since I’d last fished
the Coast but this trip definitely reignited a passion for fishing these
monsters of the West Coast. I will definitely be going back to fish with Jamie
and the great crew at Great Pacific Salmon Lodge.
For more information on booking your own Great Pacific
adventure, Contact Great Pacific Salmon Lodge, Jamie Hunt, at 1-855-227-4775 or
check them out on-line at www.greatpacificsalmonlodge.com
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