Salmon Fishing in Northern BC

Last year I was talking about fishing with my brother-in-law, Bill and another friend from work, Sean - who immediately lit up and asked if either of us had been salmon fishing before. We both said no, to which Sean responded that his dad and he loved salmon fishing off the coast of British Columbia and asked if we were interested. Bill and I both being people who generally say yes to any offer for fun and adventure both immediately responded in the affirmative.

About six months later Sean sent a calendar invite for "Queen Charlotte Lodge - Salmon Fishing". Apparently he was serious! He and his dad had coordinated a trip for the four of us to the premier salmon fishing lodge in all of BC, and arguably, one of the best fishing lodges in the world!

Fast forward to Sunday, August 20th. Bill and I hop onto Air Canada flight 33 from Toronto to Vancouver Airport. I mention the flight number as a side note because both Bill and I have been on this flight close to a dozen times over the years because after landing in Vancouver and refueling, it continues on to Sydney, Australia. Luckily, this time we got off the plane after the five-hour first leg and avoided the fifteen hour stretch over the Pacific.

Once at the Vancouver airport, we checked into the Fairmont Hotel which is right in the terminal for a quick midnight-6:00AM sleep and then met Sean and his dad, Darrell in the lobby and hopped in a shuttle for a ten minute ride to the "South Terminal". This is more of a commuter, cargo and private terminal than a typical airport terminal. Once inside, we checked in with the Queen Charlotte Lodge staff, ate breakfast and waited for the next leg of our journey which turned out to be an Airbus 320 flight up to the tiny town of Masset, BC which sits on the north end of Queen Charlotte Island (recently renamed Haida Gwaii in recognition of the Haida Nation which governs the island and has lived there for approximately 13,000 years!)

From the Masset "airport" (one runway and two small buildings), we boarded a HeliJet Sikorsky S76 helicopter for the fifteen-minute, final leg or our journey to the Queen Charlotte Lodge.

(Sikorsky S76 - Our ride to the lodge)

Flying over the island and landing at the lodge was incredible. It was my first time in a helicopter and I enjoyed ever minute of it.

Once on the ground again, we were met my the lodge staff, our bags were dropped in our rooms and we headed to the main lodge for a welcome briefing and a delicious buffet brunch with a view over the cove where the lodge sits.

(QCL from the air - main lodge is in the background on the shore)

By about noon, we were geared up and on the water with our fishing guide, Eduard. Eduard's story is worth repeating here. His parents moved to Montreal from Paris looking for a better life in Canada while his mom was pregnant with Eduard. They hated Quebec and within a few months, hopped in a car and drove all the way to Vancouver to live near the "mountains and ocean that were in the brochures that had enticed them to move to Canada in the first place". An avid fly fisherman, Eduard's dad got work as a fishing guide, raised his son as a fly and open water fisherman, and the rest is history. Or was history, until our week at QCL which was Eduard's last run as a fishing guide. At the end of August, he was moving to Paris to go to culinary school to be a pastry chef. Beautifully random and a somewhat poetic return to his roots.

(Left to Right - Eduard, Bill & Matt)

And now the actual point of the trip and this blog...FISHING!

Day 1 - Thirty minute boat ride from the lodge to the fishing areas. Twenty-one foot, aluminum, center-console boat with a 115 hp outboard engine. It was 15 deg Celcius, the waves were 5-6 feet and we took a good pounding all day. If you get seasick, today would be a very bad day for you. Luckily, none of us do/did so all good. Eduard set the fishing rigs up (bait, downriggers, troll around at 2-3 knots and wait for a rod to go nuts). We caught and released a couple of "pinks" which are the smallest, least desirable species based on taste. We hooked into what Eduard thought was the fish of the week based on how hard it struck, but we lost it before getting it on board (okay, I lost it before getting it on board - salmon fishing is done with a barbless hook and keeping a strong, angry 20-30 lb fish on a barbless hook takes experience and fineness that I did NOT have on day one). Bill landed and kept a 20 lb Chinook which is the fish we are really there for. Then, with no more action coming from the salmon, we headed 2-3 miles offshore in search of halibut. Almost immediately after dropping a baited lure the 350 feet to the bottom, we had a heavy strike and I spent the next ten minutes reeling a 31 in, 12 lb halibut off the ocean floor. He was a keeper! Bill landed the next one at 13 lbs and we decided to call it a day.

Back at the lodge, every boat unloads its catch at the "Bell Ringer" which is a bar on the pier as well as the place where the fish are publicly weighed, and if over 30 lbs, the lucky angler gets to ring a loud bell that hangs next to the fish scale. The Bell Ringer also has hot food and cold drinks to get all the exhausted fishermen sorted back out prior to cleaning up and having a real dinner.

(The Bell Ringer!)

After a few cold ones and no bell ringing by anyone on our team, we headed back to the main lodge, showered, ate a spectacular dinner, and crashed hard.

Day 2 - 7:30 AM departure for the fishing grounds. Yesterday's swell has died down, the sun is out and the fishing was ON! No more lost opportunities. The Chinooks were biting and we landed almost every fish we had on our lines. I managed to bring in 23 and 25 lb Chinooks which was my limit for the day. Once we were limited out, we headed off shore again to try our hand at halibut. This time I hooked into a fish that was all I could reel in from the 350 feet between the bottom and the boat and when it finally surfaced, we knew why. Four and a half feet and 65 lbs!!! However, BC carefully regulates fishing to ensure a stable population and for halibut, the maximum size limit you can keep is 45 inches so the big guy was released to live another day. Eduard radioed the C&R (Catch and Release) into the lodge though and at the Bell Ringer that evening I got credit for the largest fish of the day.

(Bill and Matt taking a break)

A few random additional items to round out the description of the day... We had a great lunch break right on the water on the Driftwood. A large QCL boat where anglers can step off their fishing boats, are handed a hot towel to freshen up, and then are served a hot lunch straight off the BBQ, chowder and a full service bar (Caesars!)

(The Driftwood - Best chowder EVER)

A sea lion tried to steel one of my Chinooks right off my line as I was working it toward the boat.

Lots of seals.

Another great dinner back at the lodge followed by a few drinks and another early crash.

Day 3 - 9:00 AM departure for the fishing grounds. More of the same from Day 2. Not to say it was any less awesome - it was not. But if I describe the day it is going to sound repetitive. However, we did see a humpback whale breach at least a half dozen times a few hundred yards from the boat. It was a beautiful, awe-inspiring sight.

Day 4 - 8:00 AM departure. Another sunny, relatively calm day on the water. We finished all day (catching our limit of Chinooks) ate another great lunch on the Driftwood and generally cemented this as the best fishing trip imaginable. All the boats have SiriusXM satellite radio on them (huge perk!) and we had been listening to the Classic Rock station off and on for the whole trip. In the afternoon, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody came on and suddenly, every boat within earshot was blasting this iconic song and singing at the top of their lungs in pure joy! Crazy. But a good indication of how elated everyone was after four days of the most exceptional fishing experience you could dream up.

(The Boys - Left to Right: Matt, Bill, Sean and Darrell)

Back at the Vancouver Airport South Terminal the QCL staff delivered the spoils - in my case, a 40+ lb box of vacuum sealed, flash-frozen Chinook salmon and halibut that I had caught over the past four days. What a spectacular trip!

Going back every summer :)