about 30 years, including 17 for Painters Lodge. He got us settled into our 18- foot Boston Whaler. After a crash course on safety, and telling us that we would be targeting Coho and Chum salmon, we took the 20-minute boat ride to the waters where we would start fishing. On the way out, Tom slowed down to show us a pod of Killer Whales that were out searching for the same salmon we were after. As we put the first lines down using
a pink Spin’N’Glo, a pink Hoochey and another line with a frozen anchovy, we began trolling. Tom said us we were in a Chum salmon derby that would end on Sunday. The largest Chum caught to that point was 16.7 lbs. Scott and I decided right then and
there we were going to win the derby. Wishful thinking. While we trolled, Tom told us that
this past summer had been the best salmon fishing in years for all five local species of salmon. More than 30 million sockeye salmon had made the run from Alaska to the Georgia Strait on their way to the Fraser and other spawning rivers. The sockeye would spawn and die after four or five years. We decided that Dad should be
first up when we got a strike, and that happened in the first hour. I had a 10-minute fight with a beautiful 8 ½ pound Coho that hit the anchovy bait. (The only other time I had seen an anchovy was on a Caesar salad.) At around 4 p.m. we had another
hit, but unfortunately Scott lost this one at the boat. Half an hour later, though, he caught the first Chum of the day, a beautiful five pounder. Day one was over and after our
20-minute ride back to the wharf, we decided to make the Friday fish an eight-hour day. We had a wonderful seafood dinner at the lodge’s Legends dining room and after a few hours in the Tyee Pub, we headed to the sack to dream about the day to come. The next day was rainy and 15° C,
so the insulated raingear supplied by the lodge was a blessing. Before we got 15 minutes from the dock, we spotted a
contiinued on page 38
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