Gone Fishin’

Last week, I went on a fishing trip with some friends from our golf club. It was the first time I had been fishing in 30 years. We went to some islands off the British Columbia coast, known as Haida Gwaii (formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands). It’s more accessible than it may appear, with twice daily air service from Vancouver. We spent two days fishing. The first day was rainy and windy with rough weather. We stayed close to the west coast and managed a full day of fishing, despite less than ideal conditions. We managed to catch a number of salmon but were unable to go after halibut in the deeper water offshore. The second day was as good as it gets. No rain and moderate winds, enabling us to venture out into the Pacific in search of halibut and red snapper. The second day was good for photography as well and I managed to get several pictures. I’m sharing a few today.

My two first pictures are sunrise scenes, taken on the early morning trip to our fishing destination on the west side of the islands. The beginning of a beautiful day!

The next picture was taken with my camera but obviously not by me. I had to include it to demonstrate to the non-believers that I actually did go fishing! This is one of three Chinook Salmon I caught, all of comparable size, 20-25 pounds (9-11 kg) according to our guide.

We split our fishermen into two groups, three per boat. This picture shows the other boat with its cadre of enthusiastic anglers. We had a friendly (?) competition among boats and although I must concede their team caught more fish, one of our team, Gerald landed a 60 pound (27 kg) halibut to capture the honour of largest fish.

When I wasn’t fishing, I took some photographs. In the afternoon, we trolled for salmon and during the breaks between bites, I had time to take in the surroundings and get some good shots. First a couple of wide angle views of the area in which we were fishing.

Although the sun was behind the clouds at this point, the light was really good and as you can see, the cloud patterns and their reflections on the water are quite striking.

Taken a little later, this image illustrates an abundance of blue and more great cloud patterns. You see only three other boats fishing in this scene,  but there were many more, all seeking a battle with a salmon.

In the quieter moments, I looked around for other, less obvious items of interest to photograph. For example, my attention was drawn to our fishing rods, racked atop the boat’s cabin. A simple picture, nice light and some interesting detail, such as the water droplets. It appealed to me.

For the entire second day, I was transfixed by the ever changing patterns of light on the ripples in the water. I took this picture, not knowing exactly how it might turn out, but as luck would have it, it’s a pretty good representation of what I was seeing.

We saw many fish in our two days on the water, but we also saw many bald eagles. I got a good opportunity to photograph this one, which glided over us, no doubt looking for a scrap of fish.

The last day’s fishing ended with a pleasant cruise back to our lodge. As we approached a channel leading though the islands, I saw this beautiful view of the coastline and had to photograph it. A great way to conclude a wonderful holiday.