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Destinations
Salmon Isle, BC Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Vancouver Island, British Columbia |
 Salmon Fishing from Trailer Boats off Vancouver Island Little Boats, Big Water - Fabulous Fun
An e-mail landed in my inbox, "You have been invited by Suzuki Canada to join a group of dealers and professional fisherman on a salmon fishing adventure off Vancouver Island." I was near Toronto, about 3,200 km away, so trailering my own boat seemed like a dumb idea given that I could fly out and go with one of the pros. If you like the idea of salmon fishing in BC, (and I’m sure you would) there are two ways of doing this; trailer your own boat out or travel light and book a fishing charter. For reasons of lack of time, I took the easy way out. I booked flights direct to Vancouver Island and joined the gang at the hotel in Victoria. Taking the other approach, professional fisherman Ron Ballanti from Strike Zone wanted to bring his own boat, a 26’ Osprey hardtop with a big 250 hp Suzuki V6 and he trailered it up the coast from California. Ron was joined by some US Suzuki dealers, more professional fishermen and another boat. They came up the coast to the BC Ferries dock in Tsawwassen, B.C., just south of Vancouver. It’s a memorable experience. The BC Ferries are huge ships and you just line up and drive onboard, park your rig and relax in the lounge for the 2-1/2 hour crossing to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. You drive on and drive off again on Vancouver Island. Ron and his group turned north another four hours, first heading up to Campbell River and then cutting across towards the Pacific Ocean on roads where he says you’ll probably see more elk than people. They launched the boats at a tiny, native-run private ramp near Gold River, and then continued an hour’s run by water to a fishing area he calls paradise. In contrast, we were urban fishermen, staying at a high-end hotel, dining out in lovely Victoria by the waterfront and then driving an hour on the first morning, to Sooke Harbour. Our guides were Dave Yakimovich of Ocean Dreams Charters, Gary Cooper at Nice Fish Television, Steve Steveson and Darren Beasley of Beasley‘s Fishing Charters, so our group had four boats out. Day 1, I traveled with Dave Yakimovich and fished with Rick Hauser from Bear Enthusiast Marketing Group in California. We caught our limit of salmon with Chinook up to about 15 pounds and pink salmon to about 5 pounds. They are lovely fish to catch. We were trolling at 3.5 mph in Dave’s 18 foot Double Eagle with a 150 hp Suzuki big block four. We started close in to shore in about 150 to 180 feet of water and we used down riggers to carry our lines down to about 90 feet. We were using cut herring for bait with different colored flashers to attract the salmon but the flashers were heavy on the line. The down riggers have a footage counter, lead ball and a clip. The clip holds the line and lure or bait, to drag it at the right depth. You need a keen eye to spot a strike because the clip and weight masks the line’s movement when a fish hits. At first things were slow but later in the day, as the water calmed down, we moved further out into Juan De Fuca Strait. Remember, it is the Pacific Ocean and we were in an 18 footer! But, so were many other fishermen. By the way, at one point we went from a clear sunny day to being enveloped in dense fog in a matter of a few minutes, when we were looking the other way. Be certain you boat has a radar reflector installed, an accurate compass and the Canadian Hydrographic Services Charts. For this area, you need 3606 Juan De Fuca Strait, 3461 Juan De Fuca Strait Eastern Portion, 3411 Sooke and 3412 Victoria Harbour. That is a minimum. Even on a smaller boat, get a GPS chart plotter system. Canadian Hydrographic Services now has electronic charts too. When the fog hits, you can still get along by navigating electronically…except for one thing. You don’t know where other boats are! If you plan any real time in the ocean, a radar outfit is a major safety benefit. That started the most exciting day of fishing I've had in years. Were using barbless hooks with lures that looked like pink calamari when we hit the school. It was one hit after another, often with both rods going at the same time. You always release the wild fish and you only keep your limit of the hatchery fish. The hatchery fish can be identified because they've had one of their fins clipped where the wild fish have not. Pinks are really energetic fighters, especially as they get closer to the boat and they often shake off the barbless hooks. When visiting fishermen have a successful day on the water, they stop at St. Jean’s Cannery and Smokehouse near Sooke Harbor. You can drop off your Salmon to be smoked, canned, frozen and shipped home to you later. Very convenient. My Day 2 was led by Gary Cooper, star of Nice Fish Television. Gary has an interesting boat; a big inboard Grew hardtop, ex-OPP boat from Ontario that has been converted to twin Suzuki outboards. The change has made the boat spectacularly more economical as well as faster, and we could cruise at 32 mph, topping out at 45. Because Gary's boat had such a good turn of speed, we didn't bother making the highway drive up to Sooke Harbor again. Instead, we left right from the Coast Victoria Hotel in Victoria Harbor and ran up the coast to Bedford Rocks. Right away, we caught what we believe was a huge Chinook salmon, (sometimes called a Spring). We played it for maybe 10 minutes and almost had it up to the boat when a Sea Lion took it. The Sea Lions fight really hard and in a few moments after tangling the line around the boat, it was able to snap the line and take our big fish. Sea Lions swim a short distance away and then surface with the fish in their mouth! Gary decided to move in closer to shore to try trolling in 60 to 100 feet using cut Herrings and a slower trolling speed of 1 1/2 to 2 mph, running on one of our main Suzuki engines. Gary was baiting the lines with 7 to 8 inch Herring. He wetted his hands so he didn't hurt the scales than took a knife, cut the heads off, guts the Herring and adds the hook on a leader with a swivel. That keeps the bait spinning to flash and attract salmon. All great ideas but nothing hit. Suddenly, close to shore, Killer Whales breached. Instead of fishing for salmon, we were treated to a spectacular afternoon of whale watching. Some of the Killers breached right beside our boat and one of them did a “spade up” where he stood on his tail the way I'm sure you've seen in magazines and posters. It's actually a fairly rare display. We weren't expecting it and didn't get the camera on it in time. What Killer Whales will do, is to hunt as a pod, rounding up seals, herding them into a group and then grabbing the seals and flinging them up into the air. We were astonished to see seals flying straight up in the air, many feet above the water, one after the other until the (very aptly named) Killer Whales were ready to have their big meal. The Killer Whale display was spectacular but even without it the glorious and unspoiled coastline, the spectacular sunny weather and the fantastic fishing would still make this, the trip of a lifetime! Resource Guide |
