Edited (I was rummy tired when I got home and wrote this piece)
Hi all. - I just got back from our NW B.C. fishing adventure tonight (Mon.) The whole trip was beyond my expectations; in so many ways! Five of us drove 27 (about 30 including the stops) straight hours in a van towing a sled from Sun. morning the 3rd and arriving at a remote lodge, well north of most of the famous B.C. rivers, around noon Monday. Our fishing target wasn't the big Sept./Oct. steelhead (next time up I want to do that), it was one of the few late runs of Aug./Sept. large King salmon. This run comes up a very large river system and we fished the lower end of a medium sized tributary river to it. Big 'Nooks come up that river and also many fish going on up the mainstem river come into it to mill around the cleaner lower end of the tributary for awhile. So the fish were just packed in there thick! And very little pressure. A great place that I can't reveal by agreement with our fishing friend who lives up in NW B.C. , who originally revealed it. The rains that I had been concerned about didn't affect the Med. river for the first couple days. Three of our other guys fished in the sled we towed up and Lou and I fished with "BC Ed" in his boat. The 6 of us hooked big Kings right and left for about 5 hours Mon. afternoon, and these were fresh strong fighters! Two of the ones that I landed the first afternoon were around 45 lbs. The next day (Tue.) was spectacular beyond words as our 2 boats fished the lower Med. river area with only 1 other local boat. Our boat anchored in the hottest spots just inside the mouth of the Med. river a ways and the 3 of us hooked over 50 large Chinook and landed over 30 of them in about 10 1/2 hours there! All in about the lower 200 yards of river. Sounds impossible for strong 'Nooks between 25 to 45 pounds in that time frame but we had fish on almost constantly (some get up to 60+ lbs. but we never landed any over 50 lbs.; may have lost some that size). We had many double headers and a couple triple headers (if it won't be offensive I will post pics of the net with 2 big 'Nooks landed in it together- we carefully released almost all of them otherwise). That was the best day, with nice weather to boot. Maybe similar to a real good day on AK's Nushagak R., but almost to ourselves. I've had great salmon fishing days on AK's Kenai and other rivers and also on B.C.'s outstanding Kitimat R., but not quite as good as last Tuesday. - However, torrential rain hit all that night and for much of the rest of the trip, bringing the the river up and very murky for the rest of the week. We had to fish the first few holes downstream from a smaller river tributary (about the size of the Kilchis R.) that was still running clear all week due to a fast gradient and a thickly forested watershed. In the clearer water right near shore we hooked a number of fish a day, as we might on a good fall day on the Wilson R. down here. But we had been spoiled. And we were getting RAINED on all day! On Thursday I stayed behind, got up late, and hiked a short ways down the gorgeous smaller river (which is right by the lodge) to fish a large pool below a series of falls. In about 4 hours there I hooked 9 large 'Nooks and landed 5 in a real paradise (a spoiler)! I will post some pics of this little gem river and it's fish because you'll love the natural beauty- not as "bragging" pics because any of you good fishermen would have done just as well there. Fresh grizzly, called browns up there, and black bear prints were along this river and I was glad to have a large extra strength pepper spray can with me! I also sang some bad rap songs loudly and probably scared them over into the next valley
. My bum ankle kept me from doing this again Fri. (rugged hiking along the river) so back out to fish the clear water line by boat. We only saw 3 black bears up close during the week. I was going to fish on Sat. and Sun. too, but with unrelenting rain day and night raising the water everywhere I decided to do something else that I've always wanted to do- take a B.C. Ferry ride from Prince Rupert down thru the "Inside Passage" to Vancouver Island. Awesome beauty all the way with unusually sunny weather for that Sunday trip. It's only $106 Canadian (about $72 U.S.) for walk-ons, and this is an affordable way to cruise the area; same for the AK ferry lines on up thru to about Skagway. I got a bonus day today (Mon.) in the cool city of Victoria. To top off a great trip my brother flew his small plane up to Vanc. Is. to pick me up late this afternoon. We had to fly across the Straight of Juan DeFuca into the Port Angeles airport to clear customs. With that out of the way my bro did a fast climb and angled right over the Olympic Pennisula mountains for good scenery and pics. If I don't get in "too many pictures dutch", I'll try to post some of these for you scenery lovers out there (I know Marty M. will like them). My bro is teaching me to fly and he let me do most of the flying from the lower Olympics to Hillsboro in clear weather. Fun! (Hey Jeff W., I flew right over your house about 7:05 tonight). As you people out there with pilot's license know, real flying is mostly about safe takeoffs and landings and I'm not ready for that yet. - As for this B.C. paradise, the situation is likely to change dramatically. The lodge owner told me he was going to sell the place; likely to the nearby Indian Tribe who want it for un educational building. And it is the only lodge close to the area. He and his wife have lived there in that rugged area for 7 years. Time to move on he says, so if that occurs this phenominal place will be only for the very hardiest of campers in a very wild place full of bears. In the meantime, there are so many other great rivers full of trophy fish in the entire NW B.C. region that get relatively little fishing pressure, it's amazing. Do some research and you will find your own paradise. Start with the BC dept. of sportfisheries. I also recommend asking Q's of fishing tackle shops in Smithers and Terrace. The huge Skeena R. alone has countless good fishing places untouched while guys are up fishing the more famous tributaries such as the Kispiox R. On the bus ride down to Prince Rupert I saw several great looking tributary rivers on both sides, ranging in size from as big as the Cowlitz to as small as the Kilchis; many roadless, requiring a hike or jetsled ride up. And I know ALL of them have great runs of big fish! You couldn't fish all those rivers in that region in a lifetime. It sure would be fun trying to do it though if you lived up there!
- RT
[This message has been edited by RT (edited 09-17-2000).]
Awesome NW B.C. Fishing & Adventure
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