Monday, September 30, 2024

Andi, Tory, Aden, and I were early this morning for a fun day in Campbell River, British Columbia. Campbell River is known as the “Salmon Capital of the World,” and for good reason — it’s located on the upper portion of the Strait of Georgia which is a breeding ground for Coho and Chinook salmon. This area of British Columbia has a long history of sport fishing dating back to the late 1800’s, and five different species of salmon cane be found here.

Fishing for salmon was on our family’s must-do list when visiting Vancouver Island. Andi arranged for the four of us to meet Ben, a local fishing guide, at 7:00am this morning. Before we did so, we stopped at Tim Horton’s to pickup coffee & Timbits — who wants to go on an early morning fishing adventure without Timbits?!

By 7:15am, we were on Ben’s boat headed out into the waters of the Strait of Georgia. Where to fish depends on the time of year and what type of salmon are permitted to catch. In the early part of summer, keeping salmon is off-limits due to breeding so Ben said they have to travel as far as hour and a half away to fish. The best time to fish in Campbell River is late July - end of September. Luckily, we were here during the tail-end of the season.

Aden was so excited to fish; he could hardly contain himself! Hyping him up beforehand, Andi told Aden these would be the biggest fish he’s ever caught. I said he’d better set low expectations just in case we don’t catch anything! That happens sometimes, you know.

Not the case this morning — within minutes of casting two fishing lines into the water, a salmon hit our line. Aden jumped to the pole and began reeling in a Coho salmon (also known as a Silver salmon). The fish fought hard! Aden could barely keep his balance as he reeled in the fish. He got it though, and was so proud.

When the fish got close enough to the boat, Ben used a gigantic net to scoop the Coho into the boat. Then, once he had a hold of it, he thumped the fish on the head to kill it.

Um, what?!

The look on Tory’s face watching this scene unfold was priceless. “What was that?!” she said, absolutely stunned.

Next was Tory’s turn to catch a fish. For a girl who says she doesn’t like fishing, she sure seemed to enjoy it! Tory reeled in a 29” Coho salmon, beating the size of Aden’s fish by an inch. Maybe that’s what she likes — beating her brother.

We also caught several smaller Coho salmon that we released back into the water, and also reeled one in one fish that had been grown in the fish hatchery. It was much smaller in comparison to the wild salmon, but Ben said we were allowed to keep one fish hatchery catch.

Since regulations here only allow salmon to be caught on a barbless hook, it was imperative to “set the hook” right away when catching a fish. Andi was crucial with this part, first setting the hook and giving the downrigger a good reeling before passing the pole off to one of the kids to finish reeling in the fish.

As amateurs, it took about five minutes to reel in a salmon; they were hard-fighting fish and we were reeling them in from depths of 235 feet of water.

I took a few chances at catching salmon, too. I was lucky enough to catch a Chinook salmon (also called a King salmon), but unfortunately it was half-inch too small to keep. If you ask me, I thought the Chinook met the 24.5” requirement, but our fishing guide thought otherwise. Back into the water it went.

After four hours of fishing, we’d met our allotment of fish to keep which was a good thing because the fishing slowed down considerably. Good thing we brought Timbits and venison sticks to keep us occupied while we waited for a bite.

I couldn’t believe how many boats had joined us out on the water since we started fishing at 7:00am this morning. By 11:00am, there had to be at least 30 boats circling around the area.

In addition to boats, there were several sea lions swimming around in the water. I’d hoped to see orcas as well, and Ben said there was a good chance of that, but the whales stayed a few miles off in the distance. We could see their sprays, but nothing up close.

We had the option to fish for five or eight hours today, but by 1:00pm all four of us were ready to be done. We had such a fun morning fishing for salmon, but now we were ready to get a move on as we still had several hours of driving ahead of us this afternoon.

The one thing Andi and I didn’t fully think through was how we were going to take our fish home with us. When Andi booked the fishing excursion, he asked about fish processing and the guy he spoke to said it wouldn’t be a problem to have our salmon processed in town at one of the seafood markets. The problem was, today was National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in British Columbia, so most government and city businesses were closed. One of the other fishing guides offered to process our fish for us, but he couldn’t do it until later this evening and we planned to leave Campbell River as soon as our fishing excursion finished today.

Our fishing guide, Ben, did everything he could to help. He gutted our salmon at the marina, and bagged them to take to the processor. A friend of his had a key to the seafood market, and agreed to meet us there to drop off the salmon. Unfortunately, the employees wouldn’t be able to process the fish until the store opened tomorrow.

Andi and I didn’t want to delay our travels by a day, so we decided to stick to our original plan of driving to Tofino this afternoon. We’d have to swing back through Campbell River before we left Vancouver Island. This would add an extra few hours of driving, but the alternative would be paying to have the salmon shipped home to us which would cost several hundred dollars.

By 2:00pm, the four of us were on our way to the west coast of Vancouver Island. From Campbell River, it took us three hours to reach the small beach community of Tofino. Traffic was busier than usual across the island because of the government holiday. We considered stopping half-way to walk through the famous Cathedral Grove old-growth forest, but the parking lot was insane with cars and rental RVs. If we’ve learned anything about busy parking lots on this trip, it’s that these are not the hikes for our family.

There was one two-lane road into the Tofino / Ucluelet area, and it was curvy and mountainous. A sign I saw said the hill we were driving on had an 18% grade to it, and it happened to have a tight curve at the bottom. Talk about stressful driving in a RV!

Andi booked us a campsite at Tsawaak RV Resort for the night. This was a nice spot next door to a beach and restaurant. Even though we were all exhausted from a day of fishing and driving, Andi prodded us all outside to check out the beach. The Pacific Ocean was wild, raw, and beautiful.

It happened to be low tide around 7:00pm, so there were all sorts of kelp and sea grass washed up on the sand. Aden had so much fun chasing the waves and whipping the long ropes of kelp around in the air.

This is what I imagined Vancouver Island to be — wild, wind-whipped beaches, and rugged rocky coastline.

We walked to Browns Socialhouse restaurant, next door to our campground, for dinner. I had low expectations for this restaurant, but our food & service were actually very good. This place had an interesting vibe; I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Andi and I decided our first impressions of Tofino felt like Duluth, MN / “Up North” mixed with a San Diego, CA surf vibe.

I ordered a west coast salmon poke bowl for my meal (because when in "salmon country,” order the salmon, right?), and it was so flavorful and fresh-tasting. Andi ordered the chicken teriyaki bowl and said it was also very delicious. Tory chose a burger for her meal, and Aden ordered his usual chicken tenders. In addition to being tasty, our meals were fast which was great because we were all exhausted tonight.

Restaurant service in Canada is more similar to the United States than it is to European countries — the food comes fast, you’re not expected to sit and drink espresso after a meal, and it’s OK to ask for the bill as soon as you’re finished eating.

The four of us ended the day by walking back to our campsite after dinner. Surprisingly, we all slept well without too much noise from neighboring campers. That’s sometimes an issue at RV resorts, but not this one.

Tomorrow, we’re excited to check out more of Tofino — an area of Vancouver Island that everyone raves about.