When most anglers think about British
Columbia they picture trout lakes in
the southern interior or those brawling
steelhead rivers, such as the Kispiox,
Babine and Skeena, that snake through
the province’s northern portion. Few would
immediately think, Vancouver Island . . .
and that is a mistake.
Vancouver Island sits off the mainland
coast and is 290 miles long and 80 miles
wide at its widest point. It harbors British
Columbia’s largest collection of steelhead
streams, and serves as a base to pursue
dolly varden, sea-run cutthroat, bull trout,
and Pacific salmon. From many locations,
including Campbell River, enterprising
anglers can access remote streams where
very few anglers throw a fly. That’s exactly
what I did in April 2016, when I joined guide
Craig Wells on a bull trout and cutthroat
prospecting mission. With a 31-foot long,
welded aluminum boat as a mothership,
and a 17-foot open jet-sled to cruise up
several remote and seldom fished coastal
rivers, we hammered the fish. The results
were amazing; in four days we caught
dozens of bull trout, several big sea-run
cutthroat trout, and we ate Dungeness crab
and spotted prawns to our hearts content.
Early this year I got an offer to repeat the
trip, with a promise to check out several
more rivers that are known to hold big bulls
and some of the largest sea-run cutts on
earth, meaning fish that stretch toward
the five-pound mark. I hesitated for a
fraction of a second and said, “Absolutely.”
We hadn’t even dented the potential of
these rivers and we wanted to target
larger bull trout than we’d found in our
first exploratory. This time I brought our
videographers, including Jake England and
Jerrin Uecker, along with a North 40 shop
manager, Fred Telleen, and tackle buyer
Paul Considine. We made them swear to
secrecy before accepting our invite.
One reason some anglers avoid Vancouver
Island is because it takes time to reach.
If you’re driving, like we were, you’ll have
to get to Vancouver (Tsawwassen to be
specific) and make a 38-mile crossing of
the Strait of Georgia on BC Ferries . . . just
to reach Nanaimo. From there, you’ll go
the rest of the way via a road system and/
or in boats. We drove across Montana,
the Idaho panhandle and Washington
state to reach Vancouver. From there it
was two hours more on the ferry. Once
on Vancouver Island we drove another
hour before getting on the mothership for
a three-hour ride. Once we reached the
mouth of the river we wanted to fish we
got in the jet-sled and pushed 20 miles
upstream. By that time we were a little
tired, but we knew we were wading in virgin
water.
Photos by Jerrin Uecker of North 40 Outfitters
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