Took a couple of weeks off from our white shark research activity on Cape Cod to head out to the Pacific Northwest. Great to visit family, old friends and to venture into the beautiful and wild coast of British Columbia to do some fishing. For many years, as we have reported before, the "Inside Passage" was a yearly trek for us in bringing fishing boats north and west to the Alaska Peninsula and points north to work. The striking wild beauty of British Columbia and Southeast Alaska were barely acknowledged in those days as we were focused seasonal openings out west in Dutch Harbor and therefore passed most of the natural beauty at night in our 7 - 10 days trek to the fishing grounds. We vowed that one day we would spend more time exploring this beautiful coastline.
So in modern times (over the past 15 years) we have taken a few trips into the area and more regularly some time to visit a special marine park in along the wild coast called Hakai Pass to fish whenever time and schedule permits. This trip included son Spencer, and a couple of great friends to share the experience for 5 days!
Hakai Pass is a water passage located on the Canadian Pacific Northwest Coast. This beautiful coastal area is inaccessible by road therefore the only way in is by boat or seaplane. It's waters are abundant with record size wild salmon, monster halibut, huge ling cod, yellow eye, prawns, mussels and more. Pods of orca whales, humpback whales, gray whales, numerous seals, dolphins, sea lions, and eagles to name a few species live in and make there way to and from this pristine land.
The weather was typically mercurial - mostly wet and a bit breezy at times but when the sun shone it was spectacular. We explored some new fishing spots saw some amazing humpbacks who stalked us in a tight spot while we re-stocked our freezers for another year with more than 275 lbs of king salmon, coho salmon, halibut and ling cod. Wow what a great time!