Bountiful Islands
Queen Charlottes’ currents bring fertile waters
BY DENNIS APRILL,
Outdoors ColumnistWhen I felt the tug, I knew I had on the biggest fish I had ever hooked, a large Chinook salmon from the waters of the north Pacific Ocean.
I reeled, my shoulders straining, pulling the fish in slowly, only to have it make a run, the reel spinning wildly, cracking my knuckles as it did so.
"That’s why they call them ‘knuckle busters,’" Trent Moraes, my Haida Indian guide, said.
After thirty minutes, I got the salmon close to the boat, lifted the pole and . . . the line broke as Trent got ready to lower the net.
"Probably a 35-pounder," Trent concluded, "definitely a tyee (30pound plus Chinook). You had it foul hooked." That was Saturday, July 21.
I was fishing the west side of the Queen Charlotte Islands off the British Columbia coast. I had flown in from Vancouver to Englefield Bay bordering the large southern island called Moresby. I was there not only to catch fish, but to explore this unique island chain.
The Queen Charlottes sit 15 miles off the British Columbia coast and, because of ocean currents, are fertile waters for halibut, lingcod, snappers and salmon —Coho, pinks and Chinooks, the latter also called king salmon or more commonly "springs" due to their spring arrival to those waters.
The island chain itself is a contrast of terrain, with snowcapped mountains, coastal rain forests characterized by huge trees and a very humid microclimate, and a coastal shoreline influenced by ocean breezes, tides and wave action.
While the ocean holds bountiful fish numbers, the interior is home to Sitka blacktail deer, black bears (the largest in North America) and elk. There are no large mammal predators on the Queen Charlottes, but there were 10 bald eagles nesting near where I fished.
For this trip, I was staying at West Coast Fishing Resorts’ remote Englefield Bay Lodge, built on a large barge so it could be moved each fall. The only way anglers can get into Englefield is by a long boat ride, float plane or helicopter.
I was disappointed at the loss of that big fish. For me, a trophy is a four-pound trout, so a 30-pound plus salmon would have been a once in a lifetime catch, or was it? On the next day, Sunday, Trent and I went out again, working the shoreline off a steep cliff. The method of choice up there is trolling a six-inch herring behind a downrigger at depths of 30 to 60 feet, depending upon the level the salmon are holding.
The bait is first hollowed out by removing its head and insides, the hollow giving it a chaotic back and forth action like a wounded herring when it is trolled. A pair of 5/0 hooks are weaved through the bait. We had three lines out that day.
For three hours we worked the coastline, with not one hit. It was so slow, in fact, that the continual rocking motion of the boat, an 18-foot Eagle Craft, custom designed for West Coast Resorts, began lulling me to sleep — that is until it happened!! At 10: 45 a. m. , we got our first bite; a salmon had taken the rear bait.
As I went to the line, a second salmon hit, bending the pole on the left side of the boat. Then, a third fish took the herring on the right.
What to do? Trent stabilized one pole, I took another.
That salmon, a Coho, flipped at the surface, spit out the bait, and took off unhooked. But the third, the one I would reel in that day, was on good and it was a very large fish, one that I did not want to lose.
From the experience the day before, I knew how to hold the single action reel that looked like an oversized version of an eastern fly reel used on trout rivers.
The left hand at the reel base slows the fish’s runs until it is tired enough to be reeled in.
After a half hour, I got the huge salmon to the boat, but Trent’s net caught on the railing and before he could free it, the salmon made another run. It took another 15 minutes of working it, but I got it once again to the boat and this time Trent did net it.
"What a fish!" he yelled, "It’s definitely a tyee, maybe in the high 30’s." Back at the lodge, I admired the beautiful silver fish with dark speckles and its massive size. No wonder it put up such a fight! On the scales, it weighed in at 40. 5 pounds. "We rounded it off to 41 pounds," Trent said excitedly. It was 41 ½inches long with a girth of 27 ½ inches. .
For the rest of the day I explored the rain forest. The next day, Monday, I spent deep sea jigging for halibut and trolling for salmon in the morning.
That afternoon Trent, tribal chief Roy Jones, three other anglers and I explored an ancient Haida Indian village, abandoned after a smallpox outbreak in 1917.
In all, I brought back, with all my catches that included pink salmon as well as Chinook, quite a few fillets.
But, it was that really big salmon that will be the most memorable.
As it turned out, it was the largest salmon caught at the lodge during my stay, earning me a "Tyee Pin" from West Coast fisheries.
But more importantly, I found the Queen Charlotte Islands, in addition to being a bountiful fishery, a very interesting chain of islands to explore, offering both angler and nature lover some unique experiences.