Salmon Fishers Lured North
The ad’s enough to make you want to weep. Gorgeous coastline. Lovely water. Two people in a boat, fishing for salmon. And the headline:
“The American dream, now available in Canada.”
Yeah. In Canada. It’s a cinch it’s not available here. Not in this part of America. Not anymore.
Not after decades of the kind of resource management that has resulted in widespread fishing closures.
The ad is one of a series produced by the Sport Fishing Institute of British Columbia, with the support of the Canadian Tourism Commission and tourism booster groups and businesses from Campbell River, Victoria, Vancouver and elsewhere.
“A wide-open coast,” another ad says. “Millions of salmon. Now is no time to cut bait.”
The ads work. They lure thousands of American anglers who, a few years ago, might have fished in Washington. And they lure thousands of Washingtonians, who no longer see the point in spending their money at home.
Guys like Greg Shimek of Lakewood, Wash. Greg is the brother of Gerry Shimek, a well known Tacoma angler and salmon-fishing instructor.
“My brother has taught me we can go for a boat ride here, or we can save our money and go fishing where the fish are,” Greg said.
Every year, Shimek and his friends put together a party of 5-8 people and head for Dundas Island on the British Columbia coast. It’s northwest of Prince Rupert and just south of the Alaska border. This year, each of them spent $2,200, Canadian, on the trip. That works out to about $1,700 American.
Is it worth it?
“In the five days we were there, 10 guys caught just a little over 800 pounds of kings,” he said.
They included two 50-pounders, a 48, two 40s, fish of 39, 37 and 33 pounds, “about seven 30s,” and so many in the high 20s that Shimek didn’t even have a count.
“You can only keep four,” he said. “But you can catch and release as many as you want. I caught and released probably 15 fish between 15 and 25 pounds.”
Prime time for kings near the island is May to the middle of July.
“The chinook time is getting more and more booked up every year,” he said. “But the coho fishing can just be phenomenal (in August and September).”