Our Trip to Port Hardy, British Columbia

We were very lucky to have our friends Dave and Marion invite us to come to Port Hardy, British Columbia to go fishing. We left on Friday and arrived in Port Hardy on Sunday.

Riding the ferry was pretty cool.

We were pretty excited to get there and start fishing... even though the drive tuckered some of us out.

Read on to see what a great time we had!

Monday

Our first day of fishing! What a great day! We went out to a spot where the salmon were really biting. Shane got to reel in some pinks and he also caught the first king salmon of the trip!

After leaving that spot, we came upon a pod of orcas. That was really cool. Brooks saw one jump right next to the boat!

We also had a chance to catch some rock fish. Shane likes reeling those in.

And Brooks caught a huge yellow eye. They are really pretty fish.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a much slower day after all of the excitement of the first day. We came in with a lingcod and some rock fish, but still had a really good time. The area is beautiful and it's just nice to look at all of the scenery.

Then again, maybe there's a reason why we didn't catch as many fish today...

Wednesday

Wednesday was a pretty cool day. We headed out further into the ocean to see if we could catch a few halibut. Brooks and I both caught halibut that were between 60 and 70 lbs. (Brooks' was a little bigger than mine.)

This is what the hook looked like after Brooks reeled his in.

And Brooks caught a really cool octopus. We let him go.

Then we moved on to salmon fishing. We caught a lot of salmon.... pinks, coho and king. I caught a king that was about 35 lbs.

Not a bad catch for one day of fishing!

Thursday

On Thursday we tried to fish for King Salmon, but due to technical difficulties and poor weather conditions, we headed in early for the day. But not before we hit the Black Spot. Black Rock Fish hit a jig like crazy as soon as you drop it in the ocean at this spot. They were just the right size for Shane to have a really good time reeling them in on his spinning rod. He had a blast!

Here are a few pictures of some of the scenery.

On the way into the harbor, we came across a bait ball. That was really cool... fish jumping out of the water and gulls and eagles diving in. What a sight!

Last Day

Our last day on the water was a pretty good one. I caught a 32lb. King Salmon. I have to admit that it was pretty fun reeling that one in.

Dave's son caught a 52lb. King Salmon. That was one huge fish! It was almost as big as Shane!

This is the area where we were fishing.

We had such a great time in Port Hardy. We spent Saturday and Sunday driving home with two ice chests full of fish. We'll probably have a few fish fries at our house this year.