This was a bigwater trip and the plan required a group of 5 anglers (one in a zodiac, and two pairs of yak fishermen to watch each others backs). He could not leave them light an angler. To make a long story longer, he negotiated repayment for the the lost trip and a replacement kayak angler with big water experience. In other words, Me (that and the fact that I had exactly that time available with 1.5 week's notice) Allen, my friend, I REALLY owe you one.  I hate the fact that this was an epic trip and you missed it! I met the other fishermen in Vancouver for the flight to Sandspit. Jesse, who won the the kayak angler division of the 2007 Everette Bay Coho derby; Lucian, an Ocean Kayak pro and part of the Michigan contingent that comes down for the Jacksonville Classic; and Tim, the editor of Kayak Angler magazine, all exchanged greetings and made our way to the next plane to Sandspit. There we met our host Jeff, another Ocean Kayak pro, and owner operator of Extreme Kayak Fishing Expeditions and The Kingfisher Guesthouse who assured me that he had enough gear to cover me and to hurry up and get in the truck we gotta go! So we did.

 

 

We left the dock in Queen Charlotte city at about 4 pm Saturday and had a great ride out to our camp in a 54' motorsailer, our captain deposited us on a tiny island in an undisclosed location at about midnight with a really impressive display of making landfall at night single handed. We spent the night on the boat then ferried our stuff to camp by kayak and WaterWolf's (our host Jeffrey's) little zodiac. Everybody seemed to forget we were supposed to pack light. We quickly set up camp then headed out on the first mission by about 9 am Sunday morning. This camp is perfectly located in a number of tiny islands that are surrounded by fjords with depths that drop from 2' to 500' all within a short paddling distance.  We were in a hurry the first day so we worked out a towing regime with the inflatable. Look out surfers, tow-in kayak fishing is born. KayakAngler (Tim) scored first with a nice ling and by the time he had his to the boat, Lucian (Lucian) howled "Fish-On"! I guess that was our opening ceremony, because that's when the lying began (who's ling was bigger). I connected with a bunch of good rock fish, but could not find Bertha Butt (mama halibut) I look like the Michelin Man because I didn't burp my drysuit.

 

We thought we'd found mama halibut when Espiga (Jesse) took off towards Japan on the first sleigh ride. But after a couple of minutes, he came up with a fair sized rockfish that could not possibly have towed him as a far and as fast as he went. We were pretty sure mama butt just opened her mouth and Jesse's hook never actually saw her. It was a great morning and we slayed them. We motored back to camp and had a quick lunch and a beer (Canadian beer is,,,, strong) and the boys went out for a second session. I wussed out, as at the last minute I had a nature call and did not want to hold up the crew while I did the fish dance to get out and back into my drysuit. I stayed at camp and made pee-ce with my maker and cooked dinner (after washing my hands ) That was a mistake (not dinner, dinner was fine ) I should have gone with them as that's when Lucian whacked a 37# nook!    (That was a VERY nice fish!)

Then the weather caught up with us. On Sunday night it blew 20-40 knots and the swell went from 2' to 16'.  Monday dawned wet and we were on the water by 7, but we were bounced around like toothpicks floating in a bath tub with a great Dane. We retreated to some more protected inlets, but the bite was off. Everyone caught dogfish, so we packed it in and built a great fire on the beach. Being stuck in led to some creative cookery and we ate VERY well.