Rick's Vancouver Trip

August 28th-30th
This is Rick'sfishing trip in his words.

We’ll, I thought I would give you a quick report on the fishing in Vancouver.

Right off, our guide let us know that the fishing was a bit slow and that the salmon run had not really hit yet. About an hour and a half pass with no bites. So we talked and took in the great scenery and listened to the guide tell us a few of his stories. After that hour and a half of no action I finally get a big hit on my pole. So I quickly grabbed it and started reeling in! Our guide informed us to expect 13 to 15 pound salmon so when a 25 lb, 35+ inch monster hits my bait the fight was on!

After about 12 minutes and 4 runs later, I finally tired him a bit and started bringing him in. Well, no sooner was I starting to celebrate with the catch only 15 feet off the boat when a huge seal comes up from nowhere and grabs my catch! The seal immediately dives and my drag starts screaming. We all looked at each other and the guide says “Well, he’ll have to come up for air sometime” so we took off keeping the boat right on top of my line. Four or five minutes passed and finally the line starts loosening up so I quickly began reeling in the slack. The seal surfaced about 20 feet off the side of the boat so we immediately begin yelling and slapping the water trying to scare it off. Catching his breath the seal dove and again the drag on the reel starts screaming. He would dive down to about 70 feet and we continued to try to keep the boat above him.

With most of the harbor seals in the area weighing about 50 – 75 lbs, the guide proceeded to inform us that this seal was huge at around 175 lbs. So with about 200 lbs of weight on the end of my pole it was like trying to raise a soaked mattress off the bottom of the ocean!

So again, the seal surfaces about twenty feet off the side of the boat. The guide runs past me and returns with a sling shot and starts shooting wildly at the seal trying to get him to release the fish. Passing the sling shot around everyone on board begins taking turns shooting at the seal actually hitting him a number of times, but still no fish.

Well, after about an hour and five minutes both the seal and I were starting to get winded. The seal came up one more time, took a few good breaths and dove. Right away I could feel him violently shaking the fish around and then the weight of the fish was gone. I quickly reeled in the line and all I had to show for it was a huge jaw bone that remained on the hook and a good story to bring home.

While all of this was happening we got a few good pictures of the action. I hope you enjoy them! (Frickin seals!)

Pictures of it are just before this. If you blow it up you can see the seal. Pretty cool.