waterfront, while stately Alaska cruise ships glide by.
The town’s marinas, tackle shops, and full-service fishing resorts furnish expert advice and professional guiding services: you choose to fish in a wide variety of ways. There is relaxed downrigger- trolling in open waters; strenuous drift-jigging around underwater topography; or the white-knuckle excitement of motor-mooching a cutplug herring along the edges of raging riptides just metres from enormous tidal whirlpools. You’ll find excellent fishing from Race Point to Cape Mudge along both sides of Discovery Passage, which lies between Vancouver Island and Quadra Island. Only minutes from the dock are a number of spots ideal for a successful, standard four-hour charter: the entrance of Campbell River’s harbour to Willow Point; April to Whiskey points; and Yaculta to Cape Mudge, including hot spots like Duncan Bay and Copper Bluffs. Drift-jigging or power-mooching live or cutplug herring in back eddies are popular techniques when swift tidal currents in Discovery Passage prevent downrigger-trolling. The “Hump” is a small ocean mount that lies at a depth of 50 metres, just south of Cape Mudge. Schools of bait like to congregate on the lee-side of the mount, depending on the prevailing tidal current. While trolling is popular there, you can have even better success working a heavy drift-jig within three metres of the bottom (where game fish like to wait in ambush); the jolt of a hands- on strike is electric.
Near the end of an ebb tide, the “Deep,” south of the Hump, is renowned for great fishing in almost 200-metre depths. In June, try deep- trolling your lures at over 250 feet for mature “Columbia” chinook on their southern migration. While in the area, skirt the waters
around Mitlenatch Island Nature Provincial Park. Its rocky shores are a good place to enjoy the antics of
seals, and the hoarse roaring of sea lions as they warm their hides in the sun. For bird-watchers, this barren rock in the middle of Georgia Strait boasts the largest seabird colony in British Columbia.
During the springtime, anglers looking for chinook should head to more distant spots. To the north of Seymour Narrows, troll along both sides of Discovery Passage from Brown and Plumper bays to Chatham Point and Green Sea Bay. These same spots are especially good in October for huge runs of silver- bright chum salmon. Along the eastern side of Quadra Island, fish the shoreline from Francisco Point to Rebecca Spit, then on both sides of Hoskyn Channel (which separates Quadra Island from Read Island). Mature fish enter Toba and Bute inlets during May; it’s a long run, but a trip to these fjords might net you a trophy white chinook. Later in the summer, the northern tip of Sonora Island at Hall Point, or Denham Bay on the mainland, are worth another long jaunt for the chance to hook a Frederick Arm tyee that can top 20 kilograms. Run after run of all five species of Pacific salmon return to their birth streams from late summer into the autumn. Walk-and-wade beach-fishers are in their heaven as schools of pinks (interspersed with coho and the odd chinook) swarm into the shallows to attack saltwater fly patterns and small spinning lures. And in October, two chum salmon derbies are a great incentive to try fishing for these lesser-known salmon species.
Established in 1924, Campbell
River’s legendary Tyee Club allows an angler membership for catching a tyee (a big chinook that weighs 13.6 kilograms or more) under very strict rules. The fish must be caught with a rod and reel in the Tyee Pool, at the mouth of the Campbell River, from a guide-rowed craft. Anglers can only use an artificial lure (usually a big spoon or “tubby” plug) attached to a main line with a breaking
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strength of less than nine kilograms (that’s 20-pound test). Once a fish is hooked, the guide mustn’t touch the rod or line — only after the fish has been netted. All tyee must be weighed at the clubhouse on the beach in front of the Pool. Try the Campbell River itself for
its renowned salmon and steelhead fisheries. Other area rivers include the White, Lower Quinsam, Salmon, Adam, and Eve, where you can find cutthroat, rainbow, and brown trout along with seasonal salmon and steelhead. For still-water anglers, Quinsam, Buttle, Echo, Beavertail, Drum, Campbell, and Upper and Lower Campbell lakes offer excellent fishing for rainbow and cutthroat trout. Accessible via a vast network of gravel logging roads, many small lakes (like Roberts in the Sayward Valley to the north) are also well worth a visit.
Eco-tours of the region by high-speed Zodiac are exhilarating, and great fun. Surrounded by the spectacular scenery of the Inside Passage, you might see killer whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins, harbour porpoises, migrating sea lions, and other marine mammals. There are tours in late summer to viewing stands that overlook spawning streams to see grizzly and black bears fishing for salmon. During peak tidal flows, it’s a special thrill to look right down into massive whirlpools while you slip through Seymour Narrows, or Arran Rapids. The Museum at Campbell River
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