Haida totem poles and anglers destined for world class luxu- ry lodges. We’re headed to a place so remotely wild and bio- logically productive that it’s known as “Canada’s Galapagos.” All Queen Charlottes fishermen dream of catching a tyee.


Tyee, meaning “the chief,” is what the coastal tribes called a 30-pound-plus chinook salmon. When our plane lands in Sandspit, outbound travelers stand in line to check box aſter box of frozen packed salmon and halibut, haggling with the agents about weight restrictions and shelling out for over- limits. One of these might be the season-record 67-pounder that we’d read about, one of eight 40-pound-plus chinook re- ported just last week in the very place we’re headed.


“ALL QUEEN CHARLOTTES FISHERMEN DREAM OF CATCHING A TYEE. TYEE, MEANING “THE CHIEF,” IS WHAT THE COASTAL TRIBES CALLED A 30-POUND-PLUS CHINOOK SALMON.”


Two hours later, we toast a sunny aſternoon on the deck


of our chartered 50-foot sailboat, surrounded by kayaks and coolers full of bait on ice—two hundred dollars’ worth of herring, anchovies, octopus, trout and squid. “Tomorrow we pound fish,” says Jeff, raising a can of Bud.


We cruise out of Queen Charlotte City towards the gather- ing clouds on the west coast of Moresby Island. We’ve shipped out a day early to beat a coming storm. Te forecast says that to- morrow could be our only good day of fishing. Sometime aſter midnight


MINIMUM IMPACT. MAXIMUM REWARD.


we arrive in darkness trailing a shimmering phosphorescent wake, as if the world has turned upside down and we are sailing through a starry sky. At the end of a day that started with driving to the airport in rush hour traf- fic, we drop anchor on the very western edge of what the natives called “the islands at the bound- ary of the world” and are rocked asleep by the tide.


JOINING THE TYEE CLUB


About Extreme Kayak Fishing Expeditions


Jeff Goudreau runs kayak fishing charters in the Queen Charlottes and


elsewhere through Extreme Kayak Fishing Expeditions (XKFX). This summer he’s hitting up giant northern pike in Saskatchewan. For information:


1-888-MAD-YAKR or canadiankayakanglers.com


“I don’t need to eat. I’m running on coffee and adrenaline.” Jeff’s rallying cry is the first thing we hear at 5:30 a.m., which might as well have been, “I love the smell of herring in the morning.” As a guide Jeff is eminently concerned about safety on the


SINGLE SERVING.


water, but his attentiveness doesn’t extend to luxuries like an eight-hour sleep and a hot breakfast. Later, aſter the weather craps out, he tells us about the time he was a freshman fish- ing guide at a second-rate lodge on a “tiny lake with no fish in it” in northern Canada. One of his clients dropped dead of a heart attack. “It was my first year and I was keen. It was all about production. Te poor guy was sweating and I was working him hard.” You can’t quite say that Jeff’s zeal killed the man, but it’s a good reminder not to underestimate the passion that brought us all to this far-flung place.


www.kayakanglermag.com… 33


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