Travel and Leisure
Time for another road trip... this time it was over to the far side of Vancouver Island to an area called Nootka Sound. My brother had set up already at Cougar Creek recreation site (run by our BC government), and spent a few days with his mates fishing prior to our arrival.
It's a long journey to get there; from Vancouver, it's 45 minutes to get to a ferry ride to Nanaimo (1 hour 40 mins), then over 4 hours to get up to Campbell River and cross-island to our destination. But once you make the turn West, it's a picturesque drive, winding through forests, around lakes, and passing over creeks and streams as you go. It turns to gravel/dirt about 45 minutes from camp, but it's not a 4x4 road per se. But it was very dusty, as it had not rained in about a week, and the forecast was sunny skies ahead.
A few kilometres from Cougar Creek, you come to a viewpoint, where you can look down Tilupana Inlet, and see the dock with boats moored at our campsite. There's no mobile service available in this remote area, but my brother had used the satellite feature of his iPhone to let us know which campsites he had secured for us. The other group of guys had just left, so we didn't get to trade fish stories, unfortunately.
The rec site was pretty nice actually, with huge Douglas Fir, cedar and hemlock trees surrounding the 60-odd sites at this campsite. Mike had picked two great spots, just opposite the from the beach area, which allowed for a fresh ocean breeze, but not the brisk wind that the few beach sites were subject to. Each has a fire-pit and picnic table, with reasonably well maintained pit toilets nearby. No drinking water available unfortunately, but the nearby Cougar Creek could be used to get water for washing etc.; something to know for next time so that we won't need to bring so much with us.
Apparently the crew before us didn't have any action for their first two days of fishing, and only ended up taking two chinook home on the morning that they left. We, on the other hand, had reasonably steady fishing action, catching two chinook per day, with many shaking the hook/getting away before we could put them in the boat.
The great thing about this area and the time of the year we picked, is that these spring salmon had migrated from the mouth of the inlet, up to where we were camped, so we could literally drop our lines as soon as we left the dock area. We fished both sides of Tilupana Inlet, and around the corner where Camel Rock sits. As the day progressed, the anabatic winds would pick up, and so we'd head back to camp, stopping at a sheltered bay around the corner for a dip - the water was 20º C!
Back at the dock to clean our fish, we heard and then saw a small group of orcas! They were a few hundred metres from the dock area, leaving the area (hopefully). We met a couple on the dock that said they were literally swimming under the boat dock, collecting the remnants from the fish cleaning station at the next camp up the inlet. There was also a black bear perusing the shore on our first afternoon (sorry, no picture), but we also saw eagles, seals, blue jays, and many, many chipmunks.
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| Back to the smoky skies of Vancouver |
We probably had an average fishing experience out there; when we saw other fishermen catching fish, they were hitting for us too. Similarly, when our rods went quiet, they too went silent on the nearby boats. We still ended up coming home with two coolers of iced fish, and I estimated the value of our catch at around $1,800 in Costco-priced salmon. Still, we don't do it just to fill the freezer, as the experience and scenery of fishing on the west coast of Vancouver Island is worth it itself!
