The only way to get to this lodge was by boat or float plane. If you have never been to British Columbia or Alaska, it is hard to describe how beautiful this country is. No roads go to the lodge; It is a 1 hour and 45 minute run by boat and a 20 minute run by float plane from the Bella Bella Airport.

After a quick lunch and some fishing tips from the guides, my father and I decided to go out salmon fishing. It was around 1:30 p. m. and we had until 7:00 p. m. before the dinner bell rang.

The lodge supplies anglers with rain pants, boots and jackets, fishing rods, bait, tackle and a boat to use during their stay. After getting all of our gear on, we headed to our assigned boat. The lodge uses 17 foot center console aluminum fishing boats equipped with 40 HP four stroke Yamaha motors.

One of the nice features about Milbanke Sound Lodge was that the salmon fishing grounds were less than 5 minutes away. After rigging up the rods with leaders and making some plug cut herring, we began trolling off Chaney Point. Several other boats from St John's Lodge was also fishing this area. I set one rod at 18 pulls and another at 25 pulls, both with plug cut herring. It wasn't 10 minutes before we had our first hook up. "It looks like a big coho," Chuck yelled, as I grabbed the rod. The big coho ripped off line and continued to jump 5 or 6 other times before I could get the rod out of the rod holder. Soon we brought the coho up to the side of the boat and released the fish.

This year anglers are not able to take coho salmon in this part of British Columbia. Any coho salmon (wild or hatchery raised) that is caught must be released. The reason for having the zero limit is because of last year's low returns of wild cohos to many of the rivers in the area. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans became worried that the wild stock of fish was starting to disappear. Hopefully, with all the cohos being released and big numbers of wild fish returning to spawn, DFO will re-open the season next year.

Fishing for coho on the first day was very good; my father and I we caught and released 12 coho up to 14 pounds. Dinner that night was set for 7:00 p.m. After a wonderful dinner, my dad and I, along with a dozen other anglers decided to go out fishing again. The lodge manager told us we had to be back by 9:00 p.m., because this is when it becomes dark. Both my father and I wanted to catch a couple of big chinooks in the 30 or 40 pound class, but we caught and released two cohos before we had to come back to the lodge that night.

On our second morning of fishing, we were scheduled to fish with a guide for 5 hours. Our guide's name was Dave, who has his own guide service on the Fraser River. "Fishing on the Fraser River slows down this time of year, so I guide for on the sound for a couple of weeks," Dave explained. We left the docks at 6:00 a.m. and headed to Chaney Point. Dave rigged up the rods, while I made up a dozen plug cut herring and Chuck drove the boat. When we were all ready, Dave set one of the rods on a downrigger at 20 feet and the other on a downrigger at 28 feet.

We caught one coho salmon after another during the morning, but no chinooks. Coho were very plentiful and these fish put up an awesome battle for their size. They will leap out of the water 5 to 10 times and tear off yards of line before you are able to land them.

Everyone was catching coho, but only a few anglers were lucky enough to land big chinooks. On the second day of fishing, our group of 36 anglers landed 36 chinooks at Milbanke Sound Lodge. The two largest fish on the second day, both weighing 44 pounds, were taken by Pauline Dowd and Mike Henderson. Wallace Dowd took a 38 pound and 22 pound spring salmon the same day.

All my father and I could do was catch lots of cohos. We couldn't complain, since they were lots of fun to catch. "This year the coho salmon are larger," Chuck emphasized. Many of the cohos we were catching ran 12 to 16 pounds.

Day three was when we broke the ice! Chuck landed a 24 pound spring salmon and 5 pound pink, while I nailed a 10 pound chum and 5 pound pink. Coho were also plentiful again on day three; we caught and released 22 cohos, plus losing several others. We also lost one chinook, because the hook pulled out of his mouth after a 5 minute battle. Chuck hooked the one chinook he landed while trolling very close to the kelp beds.

After you have caught coho and chinook salmon, you can begin to tell the difference between the two by the way the fish fight after being hooked. Cohos will leap out of the water, fight very hard and thrash around on the surface of the water as they try to throw the hook. Cohos never give up.

Chinooks will generally fight hard for the first couple of minutes after being hooked. Then they will tear of yards of line and move into deeper water where they will act like a 'bulldog.' The chinooks move into deeper water and you have to play them out until they are tired. This may take a long time. During this trip, I saw several other anglers hook chinooks and fight them for 40 to 60 minutes or more. The bigger the fish, the longer the fight.

For example, Robert Ash of Rocklin hooked a very large salmon on day three and he fought the fish for close to 45 minutes. They saw the fish several times, but the hook pulled out and they lost the fish.

Since fishing had been so slow for chinooks on the first couple of days, 8 anglers, in four boats, decided to halibut fishing north of the lodge. To the halibut grounds it was a 45 minute run. Everyone that fished for halibut caught two fish limits running 12 to 18 pounds. One angler who fished for halibut reported, " I had a hit or hooked up a fish on every drop."

The anglers caught a total of 17 chinooks on the third day. The largest fish for the day were 31 and 37 pound spring salmon.

The chinook salmon bite really turned on during day four for Chuck and myself; Our guide, Dave, put on some really nice fish. The first fish of the day was a hard-fighting 23 pounder that Chuck landed. Next it was my turn and I enticed a 22 pounder.

My dad then finished out his limit with a 28 pounder, while I set the hook on a hard fighting 37 pound spring salmon. We caught all of these chinooks in a three hour period, during the worst weather of the whole trip. The wind had kicked up and was blowing 20 mph, combined with 3 to 6 foot seas, when we nailed the chinooks. Finally, we had taken limits of chinooks!

On day four, all of the big chinooks were taken off Chaney Point while fishing plug cut herring off downriggers. One rod was set at 28 feet while the other was at 32 feet. You had to troll very close to the kelp because this is where the chinooks were holding. My salmon was the largest one taken on day four.

On day five we could only fish until 10:00 a.m. because this is when the float plane would arrive to take us back home. Race Nagley of Canada nailed a 42 pound spring salmon this morning.

Before we stopped fishing, 20 large killer whales came within 50 to 100 feet of our boat. The killer whales also got close to other boats out fishing for salmon off Chaney Point. I never really realized how large the dorsal fin of a killer whale was until I saw one up close; these dorsal fins are 5 to 6 feet tall or larger. As the whales slowly moved out of the area, three of them jumped completely out of the water. This really put the 'icing on the cake' and made for a great trip.

In five days of fishing, the 36 anglers at the lodge landed 62 spring salmon up to 44 pounds, 15 pink salmon to 7 pounds, 6 chums to 14 pounds, 10 halibut to 16 pounds, plus a hand full of rockfish. The number one species of fish caught by anglers was coho salmon, but all of the fish were released since there was a zero limit this year.

Every day we returned to the lodge from fishing, our fish were cleaned, packaged and then flash frozen. At the end of the trip, our fish were boxed up for our trip home. We all had a great trip, with delicious meals, excellent service and good fishing.