Before he was done speaking, one of the lines popped off the downrigger. I grabbed the rod as a nice coho broke the water. The heavy line outclassed the 8-pound fish so I soon had it to the boat. Our next swing by the rock produced another coho, which my wife, Deborah, boated.

Both fish were hatchery fish with clipped adipose fins. The limit for coho salmon is two hatchery fish and one wild fish per day. Usually more wild fish are caught than hatchery fish. The general consensus among the anglers who regularly fish the area is that only about half the hatchery fished are marked.

Over the next hour we landed one wild and another hatchery fish. Captain Dave had not marked any large fish (springers, a.k.a. kings) and the two other boats fishing the rock had not hooked one so we decided to switch to light tackle.

We put out our Rogue steelhead rods, spinning rods built on a 9 wt. fly rod blank, with 12-pound test line on spinning reels. To get the line to stay on the downrigger we had to tighten down the drag. I lost the first fish hooked, as I pulled the rod out of the holder and over loosened the drag. We soon figured it out and had a ball battling cohos on light gear, filling our limits by noon! Captain Dave asked us if we wanted to try another spot for springers or spend the afternoon halibut fishing. It was a beautiful sunny day and the ocean was unseasonably flat so we opted to make the run to Six Mile Reef, appropriately named, for some bottom fishing.

The afternoon's fishing produced one nice yelloweye and a couple of undersize ling cod. The long drifts over the reef lasting up to an hour amazed me and, although halibut are plentiful, the reef is so large you just have to put in your time ... and this afternoon, it just didn't happen.

We arrived at the Pacific Safaris floating lodge in McBride Bay and were greeted by owners John and Donna Murray. John was getting ready to water taxi some departing guests to nearby Tahsis. He pulled a 62 pound king out of the freezer and placed it in the shipping box. "Caught this one yesterday," he said.

The lodge chef, Rod, introduced himself and asked us what we would like for dinner. Deborah responded, "I'd like some of that famous Pacific Safaris shellfish I've been hearing so much about." With that, Rod jumped in the lodge skiff and soon disappeared around a nearby point. A few minutes later he returned with a crate filled with huge oysters and mussels!

Dinner offerings included fresh mussels steamed in white wine and garlic, fresh oysters dusted in cornmeal and sautéed to perfection, fresh grilled coho, our catch of the day, yelloweye, baked with a light lemon cream sauce, grilled steak and homemade breads, all topped off with chocolate caramel cake! This was typical of all the lodge's meals served during our stay!

After unpacking our bags in the spacious, well-appointed room looking out onto the bay, we went upstairs to the common room and enjoyed Canadian beer and fish stories with the staff until bedtime. The lodge had been full for 14 straight days and everyone there was now taking a two-day break. We were the only guests.

Early the following morning the lodge bustled with activity as everyone prepared for the day. Donna and Deborah were going to spend the day at Friendly Cove, continually inhabited for over 4300 years and where Captain Cook was the first non-native to touch shore in 1778. (See 'Nootka Island: More Than Just Fishing' at www.fishsniffer.com/steelhead/nootka.html) I was going to fish with Jeff, one of the lodge's 4 guides. The rest of the staff had work to do around the lodge so we had a hearty breakfast and were on the water by 6 AM.

We were going to spend the day chasing springers. Although kings (Canadians call all kings springers because the majority of the runs are spring fish) were being caught, they were only showing up at a couple of places and not in the usual numbers. The last week of July is usually the peak of the run. We fished at Ferrer Point, the only place on the island anyone had landed springers the day before, and were soon sharing the mile of shoreline with 20 boats.

The springers just weren't there. We didn't see anyone catch a king all day long, so we decided to change over to the light sticks and fish the coho until the springers showed up.

In short order, my line snapped out of the downrigger and the light rod doubled over. The fish was taking line so fast all I could think was "NOW I hook the springer." The classic battle lasted almost 10 minutes with the fish making multiple runs and spectacular jumps before we finally got it on the boat. Jeff slapped me on the back as he informed me it was the largest Coho caught by lodge guests this season, weighing in at almost 12 pounds! Although coho are caught up to 30 pounds, a fish over 10 pounds is rare.

We fished until 6 PM without hooking into a single king, although we heard over the radio a few were being caught as we neared the lodge an hour later.

We fished without luck for springers until 2 PM and then headed off for Sixmile, where we caught a couple of undersize lings soon after our arrival, but then the action tailed off. We were discussing how long we could fish since I had to catch the ferry north the following morning, when Rod nearly got pulled overboard by a vicious strike! The fight lasted nearly a half an hour. We could see the halibut, it was about 5 feet long, rolling on the surface still too far from the boat to attempt to land. John inched the boat toward the fish, which violently slapped the water and went on another line burning tear...

Pacific Safaris Lodge in located near Esperanza in McBride Bay on Nootka Island.

Getting There:
You can make a connecting flight from Vancouver to Campbell River on Vancouver Island and from there get a ride to either Tahsis or Zeballos. The lodge will meet you at the dock in either village.

For groups of 4-6, floatplane service is available from Vancouver.

Vancouver is a 900 mile drive from Sacramento. You and your vehicle can catch a two hour ferry ride from Tsawwassen to Vancouver Island (allow about a two hour wait for the ferry to load). Then drive to either Tahsis or Zeballos (about 4 hours). We can highly recommend Mason's Motor Lodge in Zeballos for a comfortable night's stay and good home cooking.