Better late than never… well, VERY late in this case… but still…

Spent the better part of 5 days on and around Vancouver Island last month with my dad, uncle and brother. It was another of our Mostly Annual Fishing Escapades, and this was probably the most eventful one yet! It may also be the last on the Pacific, but we’ll see how things go next year…

Now, on to the Fish Tales:

Tale 1: I got to see whales! I had never seen whales in the wild before, and we saw killer whales, grey whales and one other kind all in the same area. They were breaching all around us, flapping their tales and putting on a great show. Unfortunately my pics aren’t very good, but it sure was cool to see first-hand

Tale 2: Sea lions are assholes. On our second (and last) day on the water we finally found the Holy Grail of Spring salmon fishing spots. They were hungry, and big, and wanted nothing more than to end up in dad’s smoker (I’m sure). So *zing* goes the line, we set the hook, let it run for a bit, then start reeling in. Within seconds the line starts racing out again, and we figure we just have a great fighter, until we see the damn fish-stealing sea lion break the surface with the 30-lb fish in its maw! Asshole!! After he stole 5 of our fish we gave up and called it a day… what a jerk

Tale 3: We almost died. Quite literally, apparently. With 20 foot visibility in the fog we headed back to shore, not thinking about much other than the proverbial “one(s) that got away.” After 20 minutes of silence our guide notices a VERY large blip on the radar, within 3 miles of us and closing fast. Knowing that it’ll be a big ship we slow down and wait for the horn to sound so we can figure out which way he’s going. Except the horn never sounds. And we can’t see anything, aside from the ominous black blob on the radar screen. After a very tense few minutes of silence we see the ship’s shadow in the gloom, he sounds his horn (finally… they’re supposed to do it every 60 seconds) and we get the hell out of the way. And then we notice the second radar blob, MUCH larger than the first, and moving towards us just as quickly. After the relative close call that we just had everyone onboard is now pretty nervous, and we all have our eyes peeled. Again, no regular horn-sounding, we can’t get a radar fix on the ship because we’re bouncing around in the swells so much, and we can’t see a thing. So we take our guide’s advice and get a good grip on the boat, waiting for the inevitable “get the hell outta the way” burst of speed. We watch the blob get closer and closer… and closer… and in an instant this massive wall of shadow appears right above us! The horn sounds and it rattles our eardrums, our guide is yelling, we’re yelling and pointing, the ship’s bearing down on us, and we fly as fast as we can across the ship’s path (the only way out at that point.) We must’ve been only a hundred feet or so from the monster ship… WAY too close for comfort, and I don’t think anyone’s knees were working properly afterwards. Probably the most afraid I’ve ever been on the water, but it makes for a pretty cool story when my feet are firmly planted on the ground

So that was the trip, and it’ll be a shame if we can’t get out next year. I’m certainly not much of an open ocean person (thanks, Gravol!) but the experience never disappoints. Might just have to win the lotto or something first…