Fishing Fantasies
Come True In Spectacular British Columbia
by David y. Wei & Suzanne L. Clouthier
Y
our rod tip jiggles slightly, then whips into a taut slowly in a protected fjord. Drift-fish a freestone river in the
arc just before the clicker on your reel screams a shadow of the Rocky Mountains, or bottom bounce bait
siren wail. you reach for the rod, your fumbling from shore. Heli-fish a remote river valley or high-altitude
hands suddenly turning to stone. you try to calm
mountain lake. Then there is always the peace and solitude
your nerves, but whether it’s your first or your tenth
of casting a fly from a float tube on a mirror-calm pond at
strike, the feeling is always the same – electrifying.
dusk.
But what kind of fish has taken your lure? Will it be the
Measuring the distance in and out of every inlet, as well
violent headshakes of a tyee chinook jack-hammering
as around every island or islet, there are over 27,000
your fishing rod before squealing out 150 metres of line
kilometres of saltwater coastline in British Columbia — one
on its first long run? No question about the slashing hit
of the longest in the world. With so much coastline, you
of an aerobatic coho when it launches itself skyward.
can decide what level of excitement you want, and at the
An Arctic grayling will leap for your fly before it even
same time choose the kind of spectacular setting. At Rivers
touches water, while a five-kilogram rainbow trout
Inlet, motor-mooch for monster chinook within a majestic,
might daintily sip your mayfly imitation. A 10-kilogram
glacier-carved fjord with towering cliffs that plunge steeply
lingcod or northern pike will give your lure a take-no-
into the depths. Along the Central Coast, northern mainland,
prisoners body slam. Freshwater bass, perch, walleye,
western coast of Vancouver Island, or Queen Charlotte
whitefish, bull trout and lake char, or saltwater species
like rockfish, black sea bass, and sablefish are equally
Islands, troll for salmon on the edge of a booming surfline
worthy quarry. True heavyweights might be prehistoric
that sends sheets of spray against a craggy, storm-eroded
white sturgeon, or brown-backed halibut so big they’re
cape only metres from your rod tip. Offshore, the 50-fathom
called “barn doors.”
contour line is nicknamed the “salmon highway.” In addition
to salmon, drift-jig for willing-to-hit bottom dwellers that
Where will you find your special trophy? Ride deep,
haunt deep plateaus on the edge of the continental shelf.
white-capped ocean swells in the open Pacific, or motor
experience chinook salmon fishing from rowed boats in
CONTINUeD NexT PAGe
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