Canadian Princess Days 3 & 4 and the summary

[Ron]

Canadian Princess Days 3 & 4


These days followed much the same pattern as the others. Day 3 saw a morning and afternoon trip and day 4 just a morning trip as I was flying back here to Vancouver in the afternoon. Day 3 was another great day with some good Halibut and Salmon fishing. The afternoon trip was great with some fantastic Ling Cod for John and Sue of Vancouver.
I had terrible trouble with the Salmon. The Coho’s are very clever and manage to spit a bloody great treble hook right at the net. I did 8 on the trot before finally nailing a few Chinook. How the Coho do it nobody seems to know but they do.




A Halibut meeting ‘Mr Bat’





A Good Chinook Salmon


A good Ling Cod for John.


A nice Ling Cod for me.


Tiger Fish
Not big but these things really fight and like all these reef fish have bloody great teeth and spikes!




The Canadian Princess final Summary

Having now got back to Vancouver and doing this report I thought I may as well try and sum the trip up.

It is certainly different to some of the things we do in the UK. It is great having someone else to worry about the boat and certainly a refreshing change having someone else dealing and cleaning the fish. All you need to worry about here is actually doing your fishing.
The fishing is fantastic,there is no getting away from that. Fishing we could only dream of having in the UK.
The season here is short only around 3 months and the resort closes down. There is no pressure on the fish. The Sockeye run alone this year alone is reported to be 12.5 million fish. Daily bag limits here are strictly adhered too, with the amount of fish to catch, that isn’t a problem. Whatever restrictions we were to put in place in the UK the fishing would never be on the scale it is here, if we and the commercials stopped fishing it still wouldn’t happen.We don’t have these vast stocks running our shores in the first place. Remember, these Salmon are coming for 2 reasons….Breed and then die and that is the way it is. If they never caught them here it wouldn’t matter at all, they will still die and you can have 50,000 Fishyrobs standing and screaming Blue murder at how many fish are taken….They are still going to die.
The whole trip with the afternoon charters cost me just about $900 ( £550)
Value for money? Most certainly, and an absolute must for any angler to do before they die.
Would I do it again?
Oh Yes! Bring it on next August…..Anyone want to join me?
What wouldn’t I do?
I wouldn’t stay on the boat again. It is noisy and hard to get a proper sleep. There are Chalets. owned by the same company along side the Princess. These work out about £20 a night more than the boat but have there own private Facilities.

The people I met.
I met some great people.All Canadian and American.The people I met actually made the trip for me.John & Rose,Bob and Doug all from Vancouver.Then there was Charlie who along with his mate (Both 86) and there there 2 friends and all from Minnesota in the USA.You were all great and a real pleasure to fish with.
All the boat crews were fantastic and couldn't of been more helpful.Thanks to all you guys and I look forward to seeing you all next year.
At the moment I feel beaten up, it is hard work! I still have a week here though so I can feel a couple of days on The Fraser River calling me on…….

A few pics to finish with

Team 'Minnesota' and 'London'


Team 'Vancouver'


Some fresh Salmon, from the Sea to the Boat table.



Ucluelet Harbour


Our Transport back to Vancouver


Luggage and most importantly the fish waiting to be loaded. The loose bag of fish you see is for the Pilots!


More pictures of my trip can be found here for anyone interested.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...6387020&ref=mf