CARIBOO CHILCOTIN
mouths for autumn rains to raise the water levels. Jumpers near the shoreline will tell you where masses of schooling fish are holding. Kakushdish Harbour, around the corner from Shearwater, or the Koeye River, directly east of Hakai Pass across Fitz Hugh Sound, are just two of many hot spots. Cast almost any kind of pink lure or fly, and you’ll get into instant action.
Escott Sportfishing Photos
Island. Anglers will find more protected beats along the southern edges of Seaforth Channel (from Cape Swain on Athlone Island to Idol Point on the northeastern tip of Dufferin Island), with the big back eddy at Idol Point a popular motor-mooching and trolling spot throughout the entire season. Drop your lures near the Ivory Island Lighthouse, or at the mouths of Return or Spiller channels on the northern side of Seaforth Channel. At the southern end of the Don Peninsula, work the narrow waterway between Image Island and the Locke-Foote Islets, then between Yeo and Dearth Islands at the confluence of Return and Spiller channels. You’ll discover scenic beauty and solitude at Donald Point (on Chatfield Island) and Big Bluff (at the southern end of Florence Peninsula) — favoured spots for holding chinook further up Return Channel.
Round about mid-July,
successive waves of all five species of salmon — mature fish bound for their home streams on Vancouver Island and the mainland — enter the passes, channels and sounds of the Central Coast. These salmon, fresh from the Pacific Ocean, stop in the feed-laden waters to gorge voraciously before heading south on their migrations. With luck, you could find a huge Rivers Inlet
62 The SPORT FISHING Guide 2012
chinook in the double-tyee class (over 30 kilograms) at the end of your line. The booming surf and prevailing ocean currents drive massive schools of baitfish along channels and ocean-facing shores to hordes of salmon waiting in ambush. Fish the surf-pounded faces of Wurtele Island to Cape Mark, around Cheney Point in St. John’s Harbour, and Purple Bluffs or Cultus Sound. If you’re looking for calmer waters, slip into Seaforth Channel, Lama Passage, or Fitz Hugh Sound. On the southern side of
renowned Hakai Pass, motor- mooch a cutplug herring at Odlum or Barney points, or along the productive beat known as the “race track” on the northern side of Hecate Island. To the north, hug the rocky nooks and crannies around Spider Island, the Breadner Group, or the “gap” at Stirling Island.
Prized “northern” coho to 10 kilograms flood into the area starting in late July. These high-speed silver torpedoes provide sizzling, arm- aching action on light tackle. Skim a bushy bucktail at high speed in your boat’s wake at first light — the heart-stopping, reel-screaming hit of a mature, hook-nosed male coho in the surface film will take your breath away.
In late summer, target big chum salmon (as well as coho and pinks) as they wait near river
Hooking a “barn-door” halibut, brightly-coloured Pacific yelloweye rockfish, or pugnacious lingcod is as simple as lowering a lure or a whole herring bait anywhere near the bottom in depths of 50 to 100 metres. If you want an aerobic workout, or if dogfish are a problem, use a heavy drift-jig to provoke these fine-eating, white-fleshed fish into biting. The Central Coast prides itself on world-class river fishing. The Bella Coola River and its tributary, the Atnarko, boast excellent winter and spring fishing for resident cutthroat, rainbow, and Dolly Varden trout. During May and June, trophy white springs return to spawn in the Bella Coola River. The Lower Dean River is acclaimed for its summer-run steelhead on the fly, and also offers super angling for chinook and coho throughout the late summer and into the fall. Black and grizzly bears enjoy the outstanding fishing here as well … be bear-aware.
Also known as the “Great
Bear Rainforest,” take the time to go on a sightseeing tour of this spectacularly beautiful part of the province. Princess Royal Island is famous for the elusive and rare white Kermode, or “Spirit” bear. Visit the cairn in Dean Channel that marks where Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific Ocean in 1793. Along the way, watch for ancient pictographs, painted in red ochre, that grace towering cliffs lining the glacier-gouged fjords of Dean Channel and Roscoe Inlet. Relax with an invigorating dip in a mineral hot spring amid mist-shrouded mountains at Eucott Bay. n
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