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Canadian Princess Fishing Lodge & Marine Adventures
Canadian Princess Fishing Lodge
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Canadian Princess Fishing Lodge
Canadian Princess docks
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Canadian Princess Fishing Lodge & Marine Adventures
Canadian Princess Fishing Lodge
The Delta Kingfisher
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Canadian Princess Fishing Lodge & Marine Adventures
Canadian Princess Fishing Lodge
Sue and Keith with a chinook
By David Y. Wei & Suzanne L. Clouthier
Superstitious? Who, me? I made three turns clockwise, and then the same counter-clockwise before plunging our net into the deep briny exactly three times.
Our skipper, Keith Nakagawa, and fellow writer David Wishart had brought bananas aboard our recent Kingfisher charter at Ucluelet. Bad luck, you say? Nah, of course not…but we hadn’t had a single hit yet that morning. Why did I feel a sense of relief when they finished eating the bananas, and disposed of the peels?
Moments later, there was a powerful tug on the deeply trolled spoon off our port side. By the time I got the straining fishing rod out of the holder, line was spilling off the Islander reel. My fingers clear of the reel handles, I reared back on the rod to set the hook once…and again. The fish felt heavy; its solid headshakes were at once satisfying and worrisome.
I played the fish hard, keeping a deep bend in the limber rod, and letting the tight drag on the reel tire my prize. After a flurry of long runs, I noticed that I was gaining line. I had one final, anxious moment just as the flasher popped out of the water. Still, I knew I was in control, and as the fish closed the last few metres to our boat I leaned back hard on the rod, and led the big chinook into Keith’s waiting net.
Canadian Princess Fishing Lodge & Marine Adventures has operated in Ucluelet since its late owner, Bob Wright, bought the former hydrographic survey ship William J. Stewart in 1979, and permanently moored her in Ucluelet’s small boat harbour to showcase his new fishing resort. Until recently, the old girl provided on-board accommodations for guests who wanted to experience what it was like living on a working ship. She still provides the resort’s dining facilities, a pub, and expansive decks (very popular on sunny days for drinks and meals), and is ringed by docks for the fishing fleet and fish-processing building. Nowadays, all guests are lodged in a comfortable hotel ashore, overlooking the grand ship.
There is nothing quite like the electric jolt of a fish that strikes your lure while you’re holding the fishing rod. Since its inception, Canadian Princess has offered seven-hour drift-jigging trips aboard its fleet of 43- and 52-foot Delta party boats that bring groups of up to 22 anglers at a time to some of Vancouver Island’s fishy offshore banks. You can also book four-hour bottom-fishing or nature-viewing trips each afternoon in the spectacularly beautiful Broken Group archipelago. Reasonably priced trips aboard a Delta boat are arguably the most economical way to experience offshore, guided fishing on B.C.’s west coast.
Keith Nakagawa had skippered our very first trip aboard a Delta, nearly 25 years ago. On the Delta boats, you use your fishing rod to lift-drop lead drift-jigs, and entice fish to hit. It’s a bit of work, but the thrill of every strike is worth the effort. Keith’s family commercially fished the area for years, and he used his extensive knowledge to guide us to the fishiest spots – and to help Suzanne win membership in the exclusive “Over 30 Pound Club” for catching a tyee that day, her first ever drift-jigging experience. She also won “Catch of the Day” honours for getting the biggest fish of the entire Canadian Princess flotilla.
Most recently, the fishing lodge has acquired two 28-foot Kingfisher welded aluminium cruisers. Powered by twin 200-hp Yamaha four-stroke motors, they take groups of up to four anglers to fish offshore. A full complement of marine electronics assures safe navigation in almost all weather conditions. While underway, the skipper and guests can be comfortably seated, warm and dry in the Kingfisher’s roomy, heated cabin. A second steering station in the spacious aft cockpit (with an auxiliary GPS chart-plotter/depthsounder) controls the 9.9-hp trolling kicker, and allows the skipper convenient access to rail-mounted Scotty digital-readout electric downriggers. These two new boats are the jewels of the Canadian Princess fleet.
The Kingfisher package comes at additional cost, but offers premium value. It includes breakfast in the dining room before going out, and a boxed lunch on board. The charters run a full eight hours. Best of all, any catch is portioned as you like, vacuum-packed, and flash-frozen for your trip home.
It’s the experience of guides like Keith Nakagawa that we appreciate most of all. A squid spawn in Florencia Bay was drawing huge numbers of salmon and many charter boats, but Keith insisted that we take our Kingfisher three miles offshore to Long Beach Bank to catch low tide at 8:30 a.m. Sure enough, my big chinook hit shortly after slack. There was only one other boat out there, a Delta with about a dozen anglers on board whose skipper worked cooperatively with Keith to determine which part of the bank was showing bait or marking fish. And we had the entire place to ourselves.
With haystacks of concentrated bait showing right along the bottom, Keith lowered the cannonballs until they occasionally made contact with the sand, and closely followed the bank’s edge where it dropped into deeper water. We were rewarded with more hard-fighting chinook that pounded the four-inch Gibbs-Delta G Force “Trailhead” spoons we were trolling behind Lemon-Lime glow flashers.
But salmon weren’t the only fish we were attracting. The port downrigger shuddered momentarily as its 18-pound cannonball dragged bottom. Seeing a couple of additional tugs on the rod tip, David Wishart grabbed the rod out of the holder. Winding hard on the reel, he managed to free the mainline from the downrigger release clip. Instead of rising, his fish stayed deep. It made short, strong runs towards the bottom. Judging from the fight, we warned David that he had hooked a good-sized halibut.
With Keith’s coaching, David slowly pumped and wound his big flattie to the surface. There were a few tense moments as he struggled with the long leader to drag his fish close enough to net. It was a fine 33-pounder, and another “Catch of the Day” in Keith’s boat. Our ample box of fish proved that a good skipper is the match of any banana shenanigans.
Getting There
From the B.C. Ferries terminal at Departure Bay in Nanaimo, it takes about two and a half hours to drive to Ucluelet. Take Highway 19 North from the ferry terminal 37 kilometres to the Port Alberni exit to Highway 4 West. Continue along Highway 4 West, via Port Alberni, the 146 kilometres to Ucluelet.
On busy holiday weekends, it’s always a good idea to make return ferry reservations for sailings between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo at: www.bcferries.com or call toll-free 1-888-223-3779.
Book your stay with Canadian Princess Fishing Lodge & Marine Adventures at www.OBMG.com or call toll-free: 1-800-663-7090.