Bella Bella goes fishing

When I was a cub in the Great Bear Rainforest, we used to go fishing bear-naked, with nothing but our claws and teeth as fishing gear.

Humans sure don’t do it that way … but they seem to have just as much fun!

This is Mike Marriott, an experienced guide and the owner of Long Beach Charters, who took Suzanne, Dave and me fishing off the coast near Ucluelet. He is showing me how to reel in the fishing line. We are doing a kind of sport-fishing called “trolling.” 

Now, this is a bit more complicated than teeth and claws. It involves a machine called a “downrigger” that lets you attach a heavy weight (called a “cannonball”) on a steel cable to lower a fishing lure down to where the salmon swim. When a fish strikes your lure, a clip holding your fishing line to the steel cable releases. You can then play the fish into the boat with no heavy weight, just your fishing rod, reel, some skill, and a bit of good luck.

These are some of the lures that are used to attract fish.

In the distance, we saw a commercial trolling boat. Commercial fishers, who earn their livings catching fish, put out many more lines than sport fishers. Those two long poles you see sticking out hold a whole bunch of fishing lines and lures.

I had a great view from up here on the roof of Mike’s boat!

This is where Mike steers the boat. How am I supposed to reach the wheel?

Oh! This is much better. Ahoy me hearties, yo ho ho! This here’s your cap’n speaking!

It’s important to have good electronic gear for navigating off the west coast of Vancouver Island, where it can be foggy or stormy, and there are many shoals and reefs. The screen on the left is a mapchart, with a little arrow that shows our boat’s path. The screen right beside me is a depth sounder. It shows the bottom at 175 feet, and if you look closely, it even shows schools of fish!

Wow, here is one of those fish. Well blow me down, me mateys – that is one big salmon! This is called a chinook salmon. There are five different kinds of salmon in B.C.: chinook, coho, chum, pink, or sockeye.

I can hardly wait to get home for a feast of salmon!

Photos and story © S. Clouthier