Dave Gibson, Canada. At 290 miles long and 62 miles wide, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, is the largest island on the Pacific coast of the Americas. Typified by dense coniferous forest, mountains and seasonally raging rivers driven by ample rainfall of up to 260 inches per year on parts of the island, it boasts the warmest weather in the country with its temperate oceanic climate. 

With my nephews Evan (age 22) and Nathan (age 19) in tow, our primary focus would be fishing. During the late spring and summer months, salmon return to the rivers from which they came to spawn and many of them round Vancouver Island during that journey. Crossing the Strait of Georgia from the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal near Vancouver to Nanaimo, we continued on to our night’s lodging in Port Alberni. 

An hour’s drive the next day took us to our final destination of Ucluelet on the western side of the island. Recommended by our fishing guide, Paul Grimston of Castaway Charters, the West Coast Motel proved to be an ideal base of operations located on the harbor marina. Our half-day charter was scheduled to depart at 2 p.m., so we met Paul and his clients on “D” Dock when they returned from their morning excursion. Our eyes were as big as saucers when we saw their cooler filled with sizable Chinook salmon, with the biggest weighing twenty-two pounds! It was apparent then that we had chosen a good captain and place to fish.

As with opening Christmas presents, it was the youngest (Nathan) who was slated to go first. Since neither of the young men had fished very much during their short lifetimes, it would be a case of baptism by fire. We had trolled merely five minutes when our first salmon took the lure. With an intense look of engagement on his face, Nathan held on tightly - letting the fish run while stripping chunks of line and reeling between those runs.

At one point, the salmon streaked ten feet across the surface of the water! After a hard-fought battle, our captain netted the 18-pound Chinook salmon!  It was a record that would stand until he landed a 19-pound specimen the next day. A few more fish followed in the eight to sixteen pound range – we even returned to the water a 10-pound Chinook that I caught because we deemed the fish too small and it might interfere with my four fish possession limit when a bigger one came along.

The next day, we awoke to a steady rain and our fishing departure time was delayed until 10 a.m. The low-pressure front that arrived the night before brought with it heavy seas consisting of six-foot swells.

The highlight of the day for me, besides watching my nephews reel in fish, was landing a 15-pound coho salmon – a personal best. Hatcheries clip the adipose fin of some of the released hatchlings and those are the only ones you are allowed to keep. Wild cohos and unclipped hatchery cohos must be released. Mine was of that variety and returned to the ocean. 

A sea lion snatched the dressed salmon carcasses from our outing as soon as they hit the water by the dock. Upon dropping our catch off at the fish processor for vacuum sealing and flash-freezing, we continued into town to the Raven Lady food truck for a bite to eat. Sumptuous entrées included: Poached Oyster Curry, Smoked Tuna, Edamame Croquette, and Pan-seared Salmon. The larger shells from the fresh-shucked oysters are given to diners to write personal sentiments upon and hang from a metal sculpture. 

A few miles away, we ended our evening at Long Beach, in Pacific Rim National Park where surfers, bodysurfers and kiteboarders in wetsuits braved the waves.

For our last day in Ucluelet, it was decided we’d fish calmer waters closer to shore. Setting a crab pot for our lunch of Dungeness crabs, a bald eagle flew overhead on our way out. After releasing a few small salmon, we began jigging for black rockfish. As tasty a fare from the sea there is, we caught five between two and three pounds each along with a ling cod and quillback rockfish. Evan got a hit on his line that bent his rod precipitously downward. Thinking that it was a ling cod, we were all surprised when it turned out to be a Chinook salmon. We’d seen a bait ball of herring nearby on the sonar and this fish may have been feeding on them. Back and forth the salmon and Evan went until Paul wrested the Chinook onboard. At a hefty twenty pounds, it was the best fish of the trip.

To view past articles and pictures go to www.DaveGibsonImages.com.

(Originally published in the August 8, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)