History of Saltwater Fishing Industry in Area

Fishing has a long history in Victoria and in British Columbia. Sport fishing traditions date back more than a century along the BC coast.

When the ice age retreated 10,000 years ago, pulling its mile-thick sheet of ice with it, aboriginal inhabitants fished the waters for abundant runs of salmon. These first anglers used spiny vertebrae buried in meat and tied to cedar bark ropes to sling the winter chinook from the ocean. In the summers, they built fires along the shores and fished by the light of firebrands, luring the huge tyee (a Chinook language word that means "big") to the surface. There, the curious fish were harpooned with spears tipped with prongs of elk or deer antler and the large fish often towed the fisherman through the dark before tiring.

Over the centuries, fishing changed little until the arrival of English settlers in the late 1800’s. Brigadier General Noel Money came to Canada in 1913 and brought with him his two-handed Wye rod. The Brigadier was raised on Atlantic salmon and recorded his time on the water. In his logbook, he recorded his preference for sinking red or orange flies in high water as well as his low-water dressings offered on the end of a floating line. His line was gut or cloth, greased so it would float. His leader was braided horsehair ending in a single strand.

In the area of Campbell River, shacks began to appear. By 1924, the now-famous Tyee Club held its first derby and established Campbell River as the Salmon Capital of the World. The Tyee Club convinced anglers to switch to more sporting methods from hand lines weighted with as much as 15 lbs of rocks.

Tonkin cane rods made their appearance and Nottingham reels were imported from England. These reels, constructed from mahogany or walnut and reinforced with brass, could not withstand the effects of BC’s saltwater. In 1932, Boris Peetz, a Russian jeweller and angler, created a solution. He used traditional materials, except rolled brass instead of cast brass as it is much stronger, to produce the first Peetz rod. A pinnacle of saltwater gear, the Peetz rod launched 60 years of sport history.

With the war came new materials: nylon for Monel line and fiberglass to replace cane in rod construction. The introduction of monofilament effectively reduced most reels to rubble, as its elasticity meant compression on reel drums eventually squashing them. Heavy Peetz rods required for the pressure of planers dominated the market and movie stars such as John Wayne, Bob Hope and Robert Cummings, and dignitaries such as Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson came to the calm inlet waters to test their skill.

Innovations continued. Victoria angling enthusiasts Charlie White and Blayney Scott developed the Scotty downrigger in the early 1970’s. This mechanism with its 4.5-kilogram (10-pound) ball allowed a light line to be attached to it and descend to fish level. When the fish bit, the line released from the downrigger, leaving nothing between angler and fish, but excitement. Sport fishing was changed forever. Newer 10-foot mooching rods with anodized aluminum reels from Daiwa appeared, continuing the trend to lighter, more sporting gear. Lure improvements were on the way as well.

Campbell River wooden plugs were effective, but had drawbacks. Fashioned by hand out of wood, each lure had a different action and all became waterlogged. In 1962, Tomic Lures invented the plastic plug, which commercial trollers bought in the tens of thousands. Sport anglers soon scooped them up as well.

The Stewart, Krippled K, Tom Knight, Tom Mack and Point Defiance spoons followed, all of which are still in use today. To give action to these shiny bits of metal, dodgers made of chromed metal and, later, flashers made of plastic came into the market. The flash of their swaying or revolving motion imitated a large salmon in a feeding frenzy at a bait ball.

By the late 1960’s, a truly revolutionary lure was developed by Rex Field in Comox – the Buzz Bomb. Made of cast lead and painted different colours, the standard fishing advice, slow lift (of the rod tip) and then quick drop, introduced drift fishing, the lure representing a falling injured baitfish.

Over the years, other lead lures entered the market: the Pirken, the Pirk, the Spinnow, Zzinger, Deadly Dick and all the heavy-chromed and hootchie-skirted halibut lures such as the Lucky Jig which was developed in 1980. Hotspot introduced Apex lures in 1975 as a simple lightweight variation of the plug.

During the same period, new methods for handling bait were developed. Perhaps the most well known teaserhead for securing fresh or frozen herring strips, whole herrings and anchovies was developed by Rhys Davis at his kitchen table in 1953. The product still sells in the tens of thousands all over the world. Most frozen bait used by lodges in 2001 is still packaged by the Rhys Davis firm.

Radiant Lures began tying bucktails for the near planing-speed Cowichan Bay fly fishery for coho in the late 1950’s. Over the years, the company developed the rubbery, squid-shaped hootchies, available in 40 different colours and highly effective in sockeye and coho fisheries when trailed behind a flasher.

In recent years, technical wizardry has been adopted by BC anglers and manufacturers. Global Positioning Systems and depth sounders pinpoint snippets of underwater real estate where huge halibut lie. Hootchies and teaserheads now come in glow-in-the-dark versions and all of Radiant Lures' hootchies use ultraviolet colours to attract fish at depths where humanly-visible light cannot penetrate.

Such advancements have lead to accessing previously difficult offshore areas such as Swiftsure Bank near Bamfield and Ucluelet during the late 1970's. At the same time, the continental shelf that runs the length of Vancouver Island started giving up its treasures to well-equipped charters. Boats heading out from Ucluelet and Tofino hit marks on the now famous Big and La Perouse Banks to the west and from Tofino and Nootka Sound to Bajo Reefs in the north.

In the early 1980’s, central coast, northern coast and Queen Charlotte Island hotspots, which receive the big chinook at their first landfall en route to spawning grounds in British Columbia and Washington State rivers, began to open up the remote wilderness.

The holy trinity of Langara Island, Rivers Inlet and Hakai Pass became world-renowned pilgrimages for passionate anglers. Using cutplugs made from frozen 18-centimetre (seven-inch) herring, the simplicity and effectiveness proved deadly to all five species of salmon as well as halibut and lingcod.

The central coast waters of Bella Bella and Port Hardy also accessed the summer runs. More recently, other resorts have followed and now dot Estevan, Milbanke Sound, Whale Channel and Chattam Sound in the northern coastal areas. The advent of fly-in resorts began.

With the introduction of Stealth Bomber materials such as kevlar and high modulus graphite, new, lighter, more responsive gear made its grand entrance to the market in the 1990’s. Open Pacific fly fishing was researched, pioneered and proven in Clayoquot Sound. Tofino is now synonymous around the world with coho fishing on the rolling ocean and in hundreds of miles of calm fjords, with on-staff fly tiers turning out hot flies daily. The success of this fishery has spurred other areas (for example Tasu, in the Queen Charlottes) to develop their own saltwater fly fishing programmes.

Enter the Islander reel. In the past decade, these reels have become the standard in west coast mooching, trolling and fly fishing reels. Made of single piece lathed-aluminum barstock, the term silky smooth vastly understates their quality. Featured at some fine lodges, the large-arbour fly reel handles Pacific punishment so well as to be almost indestructible.

Finally, helicopters have flown into the hearts of anglers from Australia to New York to Frankfurt. Many remote resorts offer helicopter access to streams, lakes and estuaries where salmon and trout species may never have seen a fly or lure. Imagine zipping in through the misty dawn light and setting down on a gravel bar where only the footprints of a grizzly stand beside your own and the sea-run cutthroat trout are there to gobble up your offering.

These are ancient lands, the lands of aboriginals who have lived and reaped the harvest of fish for thousands of years. If you look and listen long enough, you can hear the cedar bark lines zing across the gunwales of 21-metre (70-foot) canoes, the plop of sealskin floats following the same fish that you stand today in your Neoprene waders with the hope that their descendants may also bite for you.