Campbell River’

An unpromising beginning...

The lure of the Tyee finally called me to Campbell River’s summer fishery this year. My trip started with a call to Ken Nastrom of King Jigger Charters. I asked Ken how the fishing was and he proceeded to go on and on about the large fish he was getting his customers into and the spots he was having success at. I took his information with the usual "Well, maybe part of that story is true" attitude. With my friend, Tony, from Nanaimo, we set up a fishing weekend with Ken for late July. When we arrived, Ken was at the dock to greet us. He told us of the success he had that morning and assured us that the evening ahead promised to be a good one. Without delay we jumped on board the 21 foot Campion and headed out towards "the Hump" filled with anticipation of lowering our Striker jigs into schools of hungry chinooks. When we got there and had everything set up our lines came up with every greenling and dogfish in the ocean. The schools of bait were there but unfortunately every boat within sight was into double headers of dogfish and greenlings. This was not our night. We headed back to the dock around 9 p.m. after searching for more productive bait schools without success.

We try a different tack...

"The Hump" had produced a dozen good sized chinooks in the 8 to 20 lb. class the morning before our arrival but tidal conditions along with a bit of bad luck forced us to head out to Green sea Bay the next morning. Upon arrival, Ken brought out the trolling gear - green flashers and Army Truck hoochies. "Different area, different method", he explained. "Jigging with Strikers will out-produce trolling by far, but the area we are fishing has such heavy tide action that trolling is much easier and productive."

Ken’s rod of choice is a 8-9 foot Shakespeare Ugly Stick. These are pretty much the preferred rod for the guides in Campbell River because every fisherman, from novice to expert will be using these rods for the entire season and some of the Tyees can put an awful strain on the "Sticks". Not everyone can play fish like these properly the first time so it’s nice to have a rod you know won’t break under pressure. Back to fishing.

The sounder says...

Looking at the sounder, we could see larger chinook holding at 90 and 200 feet between two points. The last commercial opening had driven our fish deep and it was going to be hard to get at them. We set one rod at 80 and the other at 120 and sat back in anticipation. Within minutes one of the rods began bucking and after slamming the hooks home we discovered a bright 3 lb. pink at the other end. Not what we were after so back it went.

The first fish we hit was hoisted onto the scale and out came the truth...

It's Tyee Time...

We reset the rods and turned back against the tidal flow. Forty minutes later the other rod tripped and the reel began to sing that familiar Tyee song. "Whahoo!" shouted Tony as he set the hooks into the toothy tongue of a nice Chinook. This particular fish liked to sound straight down, and then come straight back up again, kind of like a heavy yo-yo. After about 15 minutes, Ken slipped the net under the fish and pulled it, without a fight, into the boat. "That fish seemed kind of tired", I said to Ken. "Well, sometimes you get one of these Columbia River run fish that has come a long way in a short time, but I’m sure there are some livelier ones down there", quipped Ken.

It's Smoking...

After that bit of excitement, we retied the one line, and reset both back down to the depths we had set the downriggers at and returned to our seats to have a bit of lunch. Ken pointed out the set of the latest Disney production sticking out on a hillside in an old clearcut across the bay from us. It is supposed to be an old Viking Lodge with the movie stars Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas. With our attentions wandering, the sound of a whirring single action brought us back to reality. The same rod that had tripped earlier, tripped even harder this time, and the reel began almost literally to smoke.

First one landed...

Tony had the first fish in the boat and it would have been my turn to play out this certain monster, had I not volunteered to steer the kicker which kept me from the rod. So, with a big smirk on his face, Tony leaped into action and slammed the hooks home once again, only this time the fish didn’t sound, he ran straight out the back as fast as he could.

Double Tyee Day !

Tim and Tony display double Tyees.

This fish had to be huge ! Ken keeps 300 yds of line on the large single action reels, followed by 100 yds of backing. Within 2 minutes, this chinook had peeled off the mono, and now was starting into the backing. That signalled Ken to start up the big 200 hp Yamaha to follow this behemoth. After what seemed like hours, Tony had finally worked back most of the mono, and we could see that it was a nice chinook. The long run must have taken every ounce of energy this fish had, and the netting of this monster came fairly easy.

The weigh in....

It was mid-afternoon now and we were anxious to see just how big our chinooks were, so we gathered in all the downriggers and we made a beeline to the docks. Upon arrival, we tied up Ken’s boat and heaved the salmon out onto the dock. "Where are the scales?" I asked. Pointing behind me, Kensaid, "I think you guys might have had a double Tyee day ,so let’ s find out ."

The first fish we hit was hoisted onto the scale and out came the truth. "Just barely, but this one is 30 lbs.", shouted Tony. Then the screamer was put up on the hook. "Unbelievable", said Ken, "That huge fight and this fish is only 31.5 lbs." "Only", I said, "I’ll take a double Tyee day anytime!"

Before we set out for home, I told Ken that we would be back for some of that great Striker fishing out at "the Hump" later in the season, and that although trolling may be boring and less productive, I was still leaving with a smile on my face.

As published in The Reel Angler and The Island Angler.