By Mary L. Peachin
May 12, 2002
In the early hours of the morning, the anglers gather in the south terminal of Vancouver International Airport. Many boast T-shirts from other fishing destinations, and a few lovingly grasp new rod cases.
Though many are exhausted by jet lag or late-night pre-fishing partying, their excitement permeates the small building. Those arriving on inbound flights from fishing camps line up at baggage claim, eager for their trophies: personally caught cases of fresh, smoked or canned salmon. Once theyve claimed their fish, they share stories with the outgoing anglers who are headed to the Queen Charlottes, Vancouver Island and Princess Royal Island, or inland to the Kootenays, Kamloops and Chilcotin regions of British Columbia.
Each summer, about 150,000 anglers pass through Vancouver to fish in British Columbia. For some, its their first fishing adventure, while others are professional guides who welcome the diversity and quality (read “trophy-size fish”) of angling in British Columbia. Whether they e fly fishermen, trollers or deep-water anglers, they e here to find fish.
For those who occasionally lift their heads from the rod, the beauty and diversity of the environment is on par with the fishing. The Queen Charlotte Islands, about 50 miles southwest of Alaskas southernmost point, offer visitors rugged beauty, with an inland landscape of pinnacles of volcanic rock and craggy shorelines. Farther south, the west coast of Vancouver Island offers similar rugged views against a backdrop of mountaintop glaciers.
Wildlife abounds throughout the region. Bald eagles seem as common as sparrows, and its easy to spot peregrine falcons and tufted puffins. Well-fed black bears scavenge the beaches during low tide, ignoring the small-racked Sitka deer. In the interior, anglers share the wilderness with grizzlies and black bear, and the lakes echo with the distinctive call of the loon.
The pleasures of civilization, or at least those important to the serious angler, are all here. Visitors can eat well and heartily. Those looking for luxury have their choice of upscale resorts. Neither is the fishing infrastructure lacking, for luxury or budget travelers: Anglers can hire personal fishing guides or tow their own boats directly to the water.
In at the Outpost
The West Coast Fishing Club Outpost is 26 miles (as the helicopter flies) south of the Haida Gwaii Indian village of Masset in the Queen Charlottes. This small but luxurious eight-room lodge (which is technically not a club) is tucked among the pines on a hillside. Fine art hangs on hand-hewn log walls, gourmet meals – many featuring local Dungeness crab – are served daily, and a hot tub soothes tired muscles after a long day on the water.
The fishing is unprotected by bays or coves. Smaller facilities limit the number of anglers. Salmon fishing on the open water is done with downriggers, and fighting one of the trophy-size salmon on a rough day can be quite a balancing act as the boat tosses.
Farther north in the Queen Charlottes, the western island of Langara is the base for the two Langara lodges, a 175-foot floating barge and a smaller, island-based hillside lodge. The West Coast Fishing Club also has several lodges on the island.
Fishing in the Queen Charlottes is for hard-core anglers. The land is rugged and regularly experiences gale-force winds and rain, and water can be rough. But the salmon average 25 pounds, and many visitors catch fish of 30-plus pounds.
At Langara Lodge, no sooner does the floatplane tie up at the lodges dock than the orientation begins. Theres a quick review of the catching limits for each fish taken and procedures for salmon that will be cleaned, filleted and flash-frozen or canned. Then its on to the locker room to pick up rubber boots and bright red survivor suits (for emergency floatation as well as weather protection).
General manager Bill Gibson gives a short safety talk, emphasizing the lodges policy against using beach landings for bathroom stops: “Most drowned men have been found with their zippers down.” I chuckle, and a nearby gentleman asks why I am laughing. “Just jealous,” I respond, knowing that as the trips only woman, my only option is a bucket.
Bill runs through the “flex-day schedule,” which permits anglers to fish from 5 in the morning until 9 nine at night. We can return to the lodge for meals at any time or for coffee from its new espresso bar, although diehards rely on the twice-daily sandwich run made by an orange Zodiac that doubles as the safety boat.
Nor is there much coddling at the lodge: The morning wake-up knock reverberates down the hallway at 5 a.m. By 6, the anglers are heading through a fog-filled passage for a 15-minute trip to the fishing grounds.
Under swooping and diving eagles that fish the same waters, the boats huddle together, trolling just above idle speed. As the day progresses, the fishermen follow the ebb or flood of the tide into waters where they hope “the bite” will happen. And it does, repeatedly. In two full and two half days there, I catch and release 45 Chinook, Coho, pink and chum salmon. There also is plenty going on between casts. Several times, we pull in the fishing lines and head to nearby “Humpback Alley” for whale-watching, quietly following the huge creatures until they sound with a flip of their enormous tails.
Luxury on the seas
For anglers who want easy fishing without the threat of seasickness, King Pacific Lodge on Princess Royal Island – an hour by floatplane south of Prince Rupert – has to be the worlds most luxurious floating lodge.
The King Pacific (managed by Dallas-based Rosewood Hotels and Resorts) boasts a majestic dining room, video and game room, spa with hot tub and treadmill, and on-call massage therapist. The main room of the lodge features a two-story stone fireplace. The natural slate floor leads to a “dry room” storing each guests bright-red Mustang survival suit and pair of rubber boots.
An outside porch leads to the dock, where visitors can enjoy a view of the mountains surrounding the harbor. Upstairs, 18 bedrooms have king-size duvet-covered beds flanked by wall-to-wall windows framing views of the harbor or forest. Each bathroom has shower and large soaker tub. An amenities basket includes a nubby massage roller designed to soothe sore fishing muscles.
Guests are pampered from the moment of arrival, and gourmet meals are as much a priority as fishing. Theres plenty of great salmon fishing, though – plus hiking, kayaking, and whale-watching. Then theres the heli-fishing, which the lodge calls the ultimate fly-fishing experience.
On my heli-fishing expedition, I enjoy the view as the pilot skims his bright-red Bell 260 copter just above the treetops that line an inlet, searching the clear water for schools of pink salmon. He spies the fish and lands in a meadow dotted with spring flowers.
Hopping out under the spinning rotors, guide Wayne Boles assembles two 8-weight fly rods with pink “show-girls,” a feathery fly that swells to resembles a leech when soaked in the current. On the first cast, I hook a six-pound pink (also known as a humpie for its rounded back). We continue to catch and release humpies until Wayne notes clumps of grass carried by on the current. A bear upstream, he explains. And sure enough, as we fly over the river and on to another prime fishing spot, we see the bear feeding on the bank.
Excitement at sea
Some anglers who visit the province forgo the lodges entirely and head straight for the boat. Beyond the northwest end of the road on Vancouver Island, an hour-long floatplane trip up Nootka Sound, the 83-foot Daleanne floats in the lee of a cove about five minutes by boat from the Indian village of Kyoquot. The ships 10 staterooms, four shared baths and two showers accommodate 12 guests.
Capt. Marilyn Murphy has been fishing since she was a child. She has been a guide for the family-operated Murphy Sportfishing almost half of her 26 years. The fishing in these waters can be as rugged as in the Queen Charlottes, but the small coastal Barrier Islands offer an escape to fish more protected waters. When Coho salmon are schooling on the surface, Marilyn pulls out her fly rods, a more exciting experience than trolling deep with downriggers.
Offshore fishing can be challenging around Kyuquot. Twenty-five-knot winds are the norm, and Marilyn will fish 10-foot seas with northwesterlies up to 40 knots. Anglers with queasy stomachs can find calmer waters near shore in the lee of the Barrier Islands, a group of lava rock formations that provides some protection from the elements.
On my third day fishing with Marilyn, we decide to fish behind the lee of two islands. I discover that I find the whir of salmon striking the fly even more exciting than the visual cue of the bent rod in deep-water fishing. I take a break and look around, enjoying the shores black rocks covered with gulls and cormorants, the spruce trees capping each small island, the leaves of bull kelp gleaming in the sunshine.
Inland adventure
Like ocean anglers, those who prefer freshwater fishing have a wide variety of options in British Columbia. Many lodges offer daily fly-in, fly-out floatplane trips to lakes or rivers. And in the Chilcotin region near Tweedsmuir Provincial Park about 290 miles northwest of Vancouver, Stewarts Lodge offers outpost camping.
For the past several summers, the Stewarts Lodge floatplane has flown my family into Shetler Lake, where we fend for ourselves for several days. The five of us share a single-room log cabin with a wood-burning stove and a nearby outhouse. In the event we don catch enough rainbow trout for dinner, Stewarts has provisioned the cabin.
The first morning of our most recent visit, we e blessed with sun and a breezy, 60-degree sunny day. Two of our group motor one of the boats to a nearby inlet, docking and hiking inland a mile to a small upper lake called No Name, where the lodge has cached a two-passenger, three-horsepower boat. They enjoy the glacial green water, so clear they could see the lake bottom.
Meanwhile, I explore one of the streams that feed Shelter Lake. We spot a bald eagle tailing our boat, possibly looking for a handout. A pair of loons scoot away from us, protecting their chick. We then head up a second stream, next to a narrow mile-long hiking path.
The second day, the five of us hike a 1 ½ -mile canoe portage trail. We then wade down the creek, testing our flycasting skills, a slightly more active alternative to the previous days lake trolling.
Fame justified
Lakes, rivers or ocean …luxury or bare-bones fishing surrounded by natural beauty, British Columbia earns its reputation as an anglers mecca. Just ask those weary returnees at the Vancouver airport, clutching their cases of salmon, trading just one more story.
Theyll be back.
CONTACTS
• Vancouver city guide: 604-683-2000; www.tourismvancouver.com.
•West Coast Fishing Club, 1-888-432-6666; www.westcoastfishingclub.com.
• Langara Fishing Lodge, 1-800-942-2121; www.langara.com.
• King Pacific Lodge, 1-888-592-5464; www.kingpacificlodge.com.
• Murphy Sportfishing in Kyuquot, 250-723-3474; www.island.net/~mmurphy.
• Sportfishing Institute of British Columbia, 604-689-3438; www.sportfishing.bc.ca.
LODGING
Fairmont Vancouver Airport (in the international terminal), 604-207-5200; www.fairmont.com. Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel, 1-800-268-1134; www.deltahotels.com. Delta Pinnacle, 1-800-268-1133; www.deltahotels.com. Sutton Place Hotel, 1-866-378-8866; www.suttonplace.com/spghg.htm. Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, 1-800-441-1414; www.hotelvancouver.com. Wedgewood Hotel, 1-800-663-0666; www.wedgewoodhotel.com.