Fishing Cruise Up Sechelt Inlet
I met Bill at the crew meeting for the Hawaii trip. Bill is on the return leg taking the boat back from Hawaii to Vancouver. He is a very keen fisherman and is semi-retired. He has just finished work and will take the summer months off. I'd been looking for someone who knew a bit about fishing so I asked if he would be interested in a fishing cruise and teaching me the finer art. He was! We settled on a trip up Sechelt Inlet.
Tuesday, 6th May
Bill picked me up at the house at 9.00 am and we drove down to Granville arriving at 9.40. Bill said he liked the Bavaria, all that space!
I had provisioned the boat the day before so we loaded Bill's gear and cast off at 10.30 am. Our plan was to make for Green Bay, about 40 miles up the coast and then 5 miles up Agamemnon Channel. It was a nice slow cruise allowing Bill and I to get acquainted. We both brought fresh baked muffins, Bill's were chocolate chip, mine mixed berries, we munched through quite a few in the morning.
The forecast was for 20 to 30 knot winds from the NW (our exact heading), but when we got out there we found 8 knots from the SW. We sailed out of English Bay, but the winds soon died so we fired up the motor. The weather was very pleasant, the sun broke through in the early afternoon and we enjoyed a sandwich for lunch in the cockpit. We saw a few seals and one Dall porpoise on the way up. We motored on past Bills Cabin near Pender Harbour in nice sunshine. Finally arrived at Green Bay at about 5.30 in the afternoon. We were the only boat in the bay so we dropped anchor close to a roaring waterfall. We had an early diner, BBQ steak, potato and steamed veg. Well fed, we were ready for a spot of fishing.
The best salmon fishing is where the herring are, and Bill said that they tend to gather off points, where they can shelter from the tidal currents. From the chart above you can see that Green bay fits this perfectly! Bill said that at this time of year there are only the resident spring salmon in this area. The Chinook Coho Sockeye Pink only show up in the fall. There were certainly herring around, we could see them break the surface all around the bay
We lowered the dingy about 7.00pm and set the crab trap in 15 meters of water in the middle of the bay. Then we went back to the boat, picked up the fishing gear and rowed out to the entrance of the bay. It was a perfect evening, clear, still and calm, with the roar of the waterfall in the background. Bill had a portable fish finder that was placed on the stern of the dingy. It uses sonar to spot the schools of bait fish. There was good echo returns on one part of the bay (I learned that the returns are generated by air in their air sacks that the fish use to adjust buoyancy). So we set up a rod with a 2.5" anchovy for bait. Fishing in 160 feet of water, with 120 feet of line. The reel we were using had a meter that would tell you how much line you had out, a nice feature. Bill would row a couple of strokes and stop, row a couple of strokes and stop, making the bait rise and fall in the water (a twist in the bait makes it roll). I'm on the rod ready to set the hook when they strike. You have to be quick to set the hook as the salmon will take the bait from below and you can only use barb free hooks. I had one strike, but the hook did not set. There were a couple of seals trailing us all night, evidently they had high expectations. If we did hook a salmon it was very likely that they would have stolen it before we got it to the boat. We returned to the boat about 9.45 as it was getting dark.
That evening Bill said "what time do you want to start fishing in the morning, before the sun comes up is the best time". I said, "first light is fine as long as I get my coffee!"
Wednesday, 7th May
We had a good nights sleep, woke at 5.00am on the dot. We were keen to get out, so I did without coffee! We rowed out of the bay in a very still morning. Got set up and hooked a few Rock Cod, but no sign of salmon. There was another lone fisherman trolling on a powerboat with down riggers, he was not having any luck either. Then I felt a big strike, but unfortunately I was a bit slow in setting the hook so I missed it! Maybe I should have had that coffee? We got a few more Rock Cod, fished until 7.30 am, but alas, no salmon. On the way back we pulled the crab trap. Nothing! Breakfast and a nice hot coffee felt good. Now, time to move on so we pulled up the anchor and headed slowly up the inlet.
We arrived at Egmont mid-day on Wednesday and tied up at the public dock. The current information for Sechelt Rapids on the chartploter (Navtronics software) was way off, both in time and magnitude. Not good! By the tide tables slack tide at 4.35pm. This was good as it gave us enough time for lunch, a shower, a look around and a snooze in the sun. The dock was pretty quiet, with only one other cruising boat and a couple of prawn fishing boats returning to drop off their catch. I watched the fishermen unloaded about 24 boxes of prawns from one boat, they said the fishing was slow. Maybe lucky as the tide was very very low and they had to haul there catch up 8 meters on a 60 degree incline. We had lunch at the marina, it was good, the restaurant was very quiet so our waitress took the time to answer questions about the logging clear cut that scared the far shore of the inlet.
Sechelt Rapids, known as "the chuck", is the worlds fastest tidal flow. It runs at speeds up to 17 knots. Whirl pools have been known to sink 20 foot boats (and contents!), so it is not to be messed with. This photo is from my last trip up here. Kayakers play in the standing waves caused by the tidal flow, they roll frequently, pretty cool and pretty cold! If you look beyond the kayakers you can see one of the whirlpools.
We went to the head of "the chuck" about 20 minutes before slack, it looked calm so we circled once and pushed on through about 15 minutes before slack on the tide tables. As we got in it was still quite active with a 2 to 3 knot current against us. Trident has a 5 foot keel so the currents shake you around, but the helm was steady and we powered through at 5 knots over ground without any trouble. It was a bit tense and I would have preferred if it had been something a bit closer to a real slack. When we completed our transit a large commercial vessel came through in the opposite direction, so it was a good thing we went when we did, I would not have wanted to meet him mid-way through the narrow part of the rapids! On the way back we vowed to go through at exactly published slack to see if that would be any better.
Once through the Rapids it was a short 5 mile motor to Storm Bay. Again, we arrived to find no other boats in the bay so we dropped the hook right in the middle of the bay in 10 meters of water.
First order of business was to set the crab trap, then on to the shore for a bit of exploring. This is a really neat spot with two large tidal pools. There were lots of oysters on the shore so we picked up a few for an appetizer. I had meant to bring my garden fork to dig some clams, which were also plentiful, but forgot, pity because I had brought the all the other ingredients for a clam chowder! The easiest way to open the oysters is to put them on the BBQ for a few minutes. Mix some tomato ketchup, lemon juice and horse radish for dipping sauce and you are there....
As we were eating the Oysters I noticed something moving on shore, about 200 meters away. A black bear. At that point I was glad to be on the boat not camping. The bear was in fine condition, but you never know with bears, even blacks can be temperamental.
Bill relayed his bear stories; You stumble across an angry bear, so you climb a large pine tree to get away, holding on tight, you cannot look down. How do you know if it is a black bear or a grizzly? Well, if it 's a black bear he will climb the tree and get you, if it's a grizzly, he will knock the tree down and get you! And the other one...... Two friends are walking in the woods and come across the same angry and hungry bear, but this time there are no trees to climb. One of the guys takes off his backpack, pulls out his running shoes and puts them on. The other fellow says "you will never outrun a grizzly", his friend replies "I know, but with these on I can out run you!"
Diner of pasta with chicken and an early night to be ready for more fishing at the crack of dawn!
Thursday, 8th May
Up at 5.00am again for the best fishing. I was up a few minutes earlier so had time to have a coffee and muffin before setting out. Much better! It was flat calm and the dawn was breaking. We set of on the dingy around the point about a mile away. Bill rowed while I jigged with a anchovy at about 90 feet. We caught lots of Rock Cod (which we returned). Then I hit something solid. At first I thought I was simply stuck on the bottom, but no, something was pulling back. I pulled and pulled but whatever it was it would not budge. Bill reckoned that it was a large Ling Cod (they can be 50 to 75 pounds) that had wedged itself in the rocks on the bottom. Eventually the hook came out and up it came, minus the bait. No salmon, but a perfect way to start the day. On the way back we checked the crab trap. One good sized rock crab, but we decided to let it go
Back to the boat we enjoyed a second breakfast before heading down Narrows Inlet.
Narrows Inlet is pristine, narrow, deep with high snow capped mountains on each side, waterfalls cascade down the sloops, fed by the melting snowfields. There is something magical about being in a remote place like this, sooths the soul. For most of its length it is half a mile wide, but at one point (the Tzoonie Narrows) it is only 60 metres wide.
This is one of very few cabins up here, nice spot with the roaring waterfall in the background.
We arrived at the head of the inlet in time for lunch. Again not another boat in sight so me drop anchor in 12 meters of water.
We launch the dingy, set the crab trap and come back to pick up the fishing gear for a spot of fly fishing on the Tzoosie River. We take the dingy up what we thought was the river inlet (more on that later), tied it to shore and make our way up river to find a suitable spot to fish. It is tough going as there in no clear path through the bush, so we follow the game paths. There are moose footprints and dropping that look fairy fresh and old bear droppings, but no sign of paw prints. After hacking through the bush for half a mile we stumble across a logging road (a map would have been useful!). We follow the logging road for another half mile and find a path onto the river where we find a good spot for fishing.
We fish for a while but nothing is biting. While I fish, Bill watches a hummingbird feeding on salmonberry blossoms, and little salmon in the pool. We decide to go further up river. We walk up the logging road for another mile, climbing higher up the valley. We come across another path and again follow it to the river, where we come to a series of cascading rapids. We follow the river downstream (again only rough game paths). There were more signs of moose, which is a bit of a concern, the cows can be very aggressive when they have calves (like now) and if you meet a pair, she will likely attack you! We considered turning back, but eventually made it back down to the spot we had fished earlier. We try another bit of fishing, but still no luck. So we head back to the Dingy. On the way back we see fresh bear poo, big fresh bear poo! Better get out of here!
When we left the Dingy (at what looked like an arm of the river) it was high tide. By the time we got back the tide was way down and what we thought to be an arm of the river was a dried out inlet with a little stream running in it. So the hard bottomed inflatable dingy with outboard was now about 400 meters from the waters edge. So we dragged and carried it through the tidal mud, getting stuck a few times.
With great relief we re-floated the Dingy and headed back to the boat for a well earned cold beer.
Later that evening I see another bear wandering the shoreline, he gives me a look that says, "next time".
There is lots of bird life in the river estuary, a few seals and family of sea otters.
It is always cool up these inlets cold air pours off the snow fields, keeping it fresh. We ate diner of BBQ'd chicken topped with brie below decks.
Friday 9th May
We wake a bit later (7 am) and go out for a bit of saltwater fly fishing for cut throat Trout . They like to hang out off pebble beaches a few miles from a river or a stream. We see quite a few jumping and one small one takes a swat at my fly, but we do not land any! We try the crab trap, and find a good sized crab but it was a female and so must be returned to conserve stocks.
At 11.00 am we pull up the anchor and set off down the channel. I make dough for pizza on the way. We anchor in a bay down the channel for lunch. It was a gravel bottom in about 20 meters, we could not get the anchor set properly so we had to keep a close watch while eating our pizza.
We finished up lunch at 2.00pm. We had lots of time as we could not get through the Chuck until the slack tide at 6.05pm. We sailed around the channel for the afternoon waiting for slack water. We went through at exactly 6.05, slack as listed on the tide tables. What we found was a 2 -3 knot current still flowing (with us this time), and there was one big whirlpool with the centre about 1 foot lower than the surrounding water. It looked quite menacing so I left some space between us and it. So we raced through the rapids at 9.5 knots over ground. So much for published slack, I think this is as slow as you get in "the chuck!" Again the helm was steady all the way, but it does get the blood flowing a bit.
We spent the Friday night at the Egmont Resort and Marina where we had a shower and dinner. The Marina has just got a new owner, a really nice couple. We chatted to Peter for quite a while after dinner. He is the CFO for the Elephant and Castle Pub Chain. His wife, Suzanne, runs the Marina and he comes up at week-ends. The marina has a pub, small hotel, cabins and a camp site. It is quite run down and needs a lot of work, but they seem determined to bring good service to Egmont and I get the sense that they will succeed.
Saturday, May 10th
On Saturday morning we set off at 5.00 am for the 60 mile run back to Vancouver. We were rewarded with some nice 15 knot down inlet winds, so were able to sail at 6 knots under genoa for a little while as we enjoyed a breakfast of fresh baked bread and jam . As we got down into the narrower part of Agamemnon Channel the winds dropped and we had to turn on the motor. Once out of the channel we had a good 13 - 15 knot wind, but it was a SE wind, exactly where we wanted to go! So we motored for a bit and sailed for a bit, making it back to Granville at 4.00pm.
On the way back I said to Bill that the five days went really quick, and he agreed. Our Vancouver-Hawaii trip is 21 days, sounds like a long time, but it is only 4 times as long!
A sensational trip, and we only explored about 5% of this Inlet. Thanks to Bill for his patient fishing lesson and good company. I would certainly like to go back and see the other 90%, maybe in the fall when the salmon are running. Next time I'd bring a topological map and bear spray!
Runing up Agamegmon Channel
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