Abstract

When I built up my fly-fishing experience in the coastal waters of Scandinavia I definitely got through one of the most spectacular learning processes in my life. In the beginning I was just after cod, pollack and mackerel but when I discovered how to catch salmon and sea trout by dry fly I knew this kind of fly-fishing was something different. 

There are still many who do not believe that catching salmon and sea-trout by dry fly in saltwater is possible but I can assure when you hit the right conditions and know where to look it is! It took me several years to find a good number of hot spots but I was well rewarded. Many of these places were so special that I returned year after year. What actually started, as an alternative way of fly-fishing at the times when there were no salmon in the rivers quickly became an obsession. Among my favorite fishing spots are many inlets, river mouths and narrow straights found between the majestic fjords. Places with picturesque scenery and dazzling beauty. Places which salmon and sea trout have to run through before they reach their rivers of birth. My saltwater fly-fishing was really wonderful and even at the times that catches were poor the joy was still there. During the mid eighties I was so used to fishing for aggressive salmon and well feeding sea trout in the coastal waters of Norway, that it was hard to believe I would ever find a nicer place then this northern fishing paradise. But sometimes even your strongest thoughts can easily change. Due to abnormal weather circumstances during our 1998 visit to British Columbia (Canada) I ran into some saltwater fly-fishing that simply overruled many of the great memories from the past. Just read my story and enjoy with me the wild Coho of the Clayoquot Sound.

When reality turns out differently

When we visited Vancouver Island in the autumn of 1998 I definitely experienced the worst fishing conditions I have ever known. I can handle rain, high water and cold weather very well. Insects could never tease me away, and you can protect yourself from coldness but heat and extremely dry conditions I am not familiar with. Maybe it is just because I have traveled up north too much and fished around the polar circle for too long. Okay, lets go back to BC again. You read the stories, see photographs and slide shows and listen to others and suddenly you have your own dreams and fantasies. Then the time comes you want to see it yourself and your dreams comes true. You are sure you will find something very special and are disappointed when the reality turns out much differently. I think most of you have been through a similar situation in the past. I guess it is hard for a fly fisher when he reaches an area that should provide some excellent fishing and, instead, he discovers the opposite. As soon we started to drive around the island Ina and I quickly realized that the abnormal weather conditions from the last few months would cause us many problems.

For a long time there had been no rain and air temperatures were still well above average. Most rivers held hardly any water and when we found a reasonable spot the pools were teeming with fish that shortly before had finished their spawning rituals. Exhausted fish that had lost their aggression and power and many had already started to decompose. 

That was not the kind of fishing we were looking for. To be honest I was a little desperate and the only thing I could do was to try to find a good alternative way for wetting my flies. To find such a place was not easy in a country that I have never visited before. Fortunately, the power of modern telecommunication brought us the solution. It was the well-known Canadian writer and fisher Bob Jones who saved our fishing and I have to thank Paul Marriner for helping us out with this contact. Bob didn't hide any secret for me but he told me straight away that river fishing would be very tough and almost impossible under those warm and dry conditions. We had some long discussions about the fishing on the island and at the end he suggested to contact Martin Paish and try to fish the Clayoquot Sound. Experience has taught me never to ignore a good tip from a local fisherman. We rang Martin and he was enthusiastic about my call and asked us if we would like to participate in a little saltwater experiment. He told us that he had never before tried to use a fly rod this late in the season. For us it was a wonderful alternative. The sound is a part of the Pacific Rim National Park and because it was on our program anyway we quickly decided to change our schedule. 

Pacific Rim National Park 

During our drive to Clayoquot we drove through the Pacific Rim National Park and Ina and I were amazed by the tremendous power of the Pacific that dominates this paradise of coastal scenery. If you are traveling to Vancouver Island you should take the opportunity to visit this park and I can assure you that you never would regret it. The park was established to preserve the natural heritage of Canada's West Coast and today the Pacific Rim is renowned for pristine beaches, wilderness camping, kayaking, whale watching opportunities and, of course, the incredible fishing. There are several long distance hiking trails and the wildlife is unbelievable. You have a good chance of seeing deer, bald eagles, moose, black bear and, perhaps, a cougar. The park also presents outstanding examples of coastal rainforest. It is a perfect place for a family holiday where every member of the family will find many things of interest. 

After spending a week in this Garden of Eden I can understand why hundreds thousands of people visit this place every year. Locals told me that it can be rather busy in the summer season but during our visit in late September we hardly noticed any tourist pressure at all.

Clayoquot Sound

Although in this area the fly-fishing is just starting to develop I am completely convinced that the pioneers have discovered a fly fishing paradise so spectacular that it can easily exceed other, more well known, saltwater areas in the near future. A quick study of map showed me that the area looked very adventurous for saltwater fly-fishing. Clayoquot has three large islands (Flores, Vargas and Meares) which give perfect shelter from the open Pacific to hundreds of smaller islands and inlets located deeper into the Sound. These Islands maintain the specific peace that the Sound radiates and they also avoid strong windy conditions that can make fly fishing impossible. You always can find a quiet place to wet your flies. 

When we studied a topographic map I became particularly interested in all the inlets and bays where many rivers and creeks drain their fresh water into the Sound. For many salmon and sea run cutthroat this must be their spawning destination. What I didn't know at that time was that some of the Pacific salmon don't need as much water in the rivers as the Atlantic salmon before they can start their way upstream. Bob told me that you could find large runs of Chinook, Coho, Sockeye and Chum salmon close to the shore and that surely will make the heart of every fly fisher beat faster. Beside that most of the estuaries have a good year-round population of sea-running cutthroat. Our guides showed us that it also could be a real challenge to catch some other species of saltwater fish as well. Thanks to Bob's excellent background information and the superb explanations from the guides we met later, I got a very good impression about the Sound and in no time we discovered why fly-fishing in Clayoquot is so effective. The waters of the Sound are not only beautifully quiet but rather shallow too, which is extremely important for using a fly rod.

I also noticed very quickly that we had to fish in a completely different way than we were used to in Europe. I love to fish from the shore myself, mostly wading but there are much better ways to hook, land and release a salmon in the Sound. Large kelp beds (Bull Kelp) form an impenetrable barrier between angler and fish, which made it almost impossible to fish from the coast. Another problem is to get access to areas from which it could be possible to fish from the shore. The distances are simply too great and impossible to reach without a boat. To achieve success in those waters a fast boat is indispensable. Most of the well known fly fishing areas have depths from 10 to 30 feet which is perfect to drop the anchor and work on some good casting and presentation. Those depths are no problem anymore for the new generation of sinkable and sinktip fly lines.