vancouver island misadventure

our trip to helicopter fish vancouver island started out ok, until we decided to clear customs. the lady that searched our duffle bags wanted to know why i had a package of hamburger in my luggage. i laughed at her, and explained that those just happened to be the best egg skeins that ever existed. she continued to complain that it even smelled like hamburger. i finnally convinced her and off we went to fish the west coast of vancouver island. the picture is the first pic i took of our lunch break on the river. after that, we went to the airport to fill up, and proceeded to leave my camera in the fuel shack. since i didnt want to backtrack, i had to make the rest of the trip sans camera.
we spent the first day fishing for and catching several nice steelies, until fog rolled in and we had to get going.up to this point, the eggs were still hid away, because there is a bait ban on the island. the next day, we thought we would look for some better weather, so we headed to the mainland, where we could use the bait. we pulled into the first remote river we could find, pulled out the bag of eggs, and sure enough, it was a pound of hamburger. i had grabbed the wrong bag out of the freezer. i threw the now smelly hamburger on the beach, and started using spinners. we were catching dollies and cutts up to 8 pounds and were having a blast, despite my stupidity. I turned around to get something out of the chopper and there was a grizzlie eating the hamburger. i quickly turned around, and headed back down the river. the darn grizzly then jumped in the river and swam right through the middle of the hole. i had enough of that, and we left that river and found another river without bears. we spent the rest of the day catching native rainbows around 3 pounds in a little creek near butte inlet. next time i'll take a spare camera, because i missed some awesome fish and scenery pictures.

Great story! Exciting too! Wow, sounds like you got yourself some good action up there huh?

Wow, thats one for the logbook!
Reminds me of Alaska flyouts.
Was that a part 135 outfit?
What was the hourly on that RV?
Sure looks nice on that beach.
You know you're a top 1% Prostaff guide when you can move your paid clients
at will to any hole as viewed from above, at any given day/hour (wx permitting), on any given waterway with no competition (except yogi's).
Ok, "aerial-fish-guide" is my next occupation!
Next life!
BTW My first flyout went without the camera too!!
matsu

BARDO,
Congrats.You are the first person to make me jelous on this bourd!

As soon as you said Hamburger I new the word bear was next!

So you managed to convince a grown big brained mammal that hamburger was not hamburger but actually was fish eggs!

dang whyd ya leave the cam wanted to see the bear eating the "fish eggs" with you in the background
mike

Chevy, that wasn't a bear .It was "Inky". The Duck

maybe i can make a movie of the next trip and call it chevy chase's flyfishing vacation!

bardo,

Redneck would have crafted some plunkin' baits out of that burger.........you can take the boy out of 'Bama, but you can't the 'Bama out of the boy.

You're killing me man. "catching several steelies......" I take it by "several" you mean "We stopped counting"? What is it with you and bears? The just seem to have a thing for finding you........I guess when you're either packing stinky burger or delectable eggs, it makes you easy to find.

Great photo......try to remember the cam next time. Never mind, I'll remember the camera next time.........right, next time?

dan, ask the outlaw about bears. every time i take him to b.c. he gets chased up a tree. we left him on a beach once to go refuel and a black bear chased him all over the island. next time i'll be packin. i thought all the bears were still sleeping, but i was wrong.
(several means 6 out of the same hole.)if i hadn't bought that gps from you, i'd still be looking for a way out of the megin river drainage.the fog rolled in and i would have been stuck without it.

Hey Bardo, I have two slug guns, one for you, one for me.

you're on andy. by the way, those were your eggs that i thought i had with me. at least i still have them for our next trip.

Mejin River drainage you say? Myself and three friends were on the very same drainage about 3 years ago in July. We caught about 20 carbon copy 18" sea run cutties in the Mejin R. Let them all go. It was kind of funny...we didn't catch anything in the lake, but we actually floated down the river in floattubes, and my dad picked us up at the bottom in the float plane.
I've always wanted to go steelhead fishing in the Mejin R. I just have to talk my dad into flying that area this time of year. How was the weather?
What other species did you find in the river?
Did you check out the website
www.salmonsteelheadhalibut.com? That's Jay from Clayquot Ventures in Tofino. He's got some cool pictures.

make that www.steelheadsalmonhalibut.com

matt, i'll email you some info.

That must have been one hell of a big black bear to make you think it was a Grizzly.
There have never been Grizzly bears on Vancouver Island or any of the other nearby islands. Never have been - never will. Sorry for my fist post to seem negative but when I see an obvious error I feel compeled to correct it.

Toyboy - check again - he said he was on the mainland when he saw the bear

Welcome to the board. Better luck next time

yes, it was a grizzly. i've seen hundreds of black bears, and this was a grizzly. it was on the toba inlet on the mainland. no one in the recent past has seen a grizzly on vancouver island, but to think that one would never go there is a stretch. its an easy swim to the island, and its possible. there have been sightings of grizzlies on malcom island ( years ago)which is very close to vancouver island.