Friendly Cove Trips, Vancouver Island

  I wish I could go.  It would be cost prohibitive for me from the east coast though and we won't be out there 'til the fall (GOD willing).  Those salmon and mussles sound great.

Any of you guys run into any bears while out and about?  I've heard that Canada doesn't allow any firearms to be brought in.  Sounds nuts to me.  The bears in Canada haven't been de-clawed and de-fanged have they?

I saw a show on T.V. that said that the bears in Canada/B.C. are a lot more aggressive than the ones we have here on the east coast.

BradS,

Ummm, yeah... maybe a few bears.  I only saw just the one while in the car last weekend on that prelim. trip.  He was on the edge of the road about 3 miles outside of Gold River.  We coasted up to the opposite side of the road from him.  I guess we were so quiet that he didn't hear us cause he turned toward our car before he lifted his head to see us and then ran away pronto.  He was kinda short (probably last years cub) but plenty stocky.  We were close enough that I could easily see the beady little pupils in his eyes.

I think that there are just a few grizzlies on the far north of the east side of Vancouver island, far and away it's black bears all over the island.  I'd estimate that I've witnessed one bear a year on average that got to the periphery of the campground or on the beach when I've camped on V. Island.  You aren't allowed to carry fire arms into Canada and you aren't allowed to bring your bear spray either.  I was told by the Canadian border guard on that last trip that you're supposed to buy the bear spray once you get into Canada if you want to have it up there.

Fishin-T

I'm quite certain that there are no Grizzlies on Van Isle but there are a lot of black bears and also a lot of cougars. Grizzlies on North mainland BC for sure

Heres a little pic from my quick trip to Gabriola Island this past weekend. Just getting warmed up for Friendly cove.

Remember that my place in Victoria is available if it's convenient for anyone. A couple more people for Friendly Cove would certainly be nice. This is truely the west coast and I'm going out on a lim to personally guarantee great weather on this one

Cheers,
Snag

Oops ... completely forgot to post a report on this trip so here it is.

Due to a couple cancellations, we changed plans from using Moutcha  Jim's water taxi service to taking the UChuck.  The Uchuck sails to Friendly Cover every Wednesday and Saturday so we went from 8/1-8/4.  Kayaks get loaded on and off the ship via the crane and a pallet.

-Allen

We heard the bite had been going good and indeed the afternoon we got there the boats were reporting decent success.  Unfortunately it was a little breezy and we couldn't turn the corner to the outside where they were getting them.  I did have one PB gift me a small spring (what they call king salmon up here).  The next day, the bite died, and stayed dead.  We heard the fish had moved up the sound.  We were between the 2nd and the 3rd waves according to a local.  Snag managed to catch this keeper though, our only salmon of the trip.

-Allen

Tom spent his time exploring a bit and hooked a lot of lings, mostly underlings, and a few keepers.  On the last day we decided to have a mini-derby.  The first person to catch a legal ling didn't have to do chores that night.  Practice paid off and Tom turned to his "money lure" and schooled Sean and I.

-Allen

Prerequisite scenery shots.

-Allen

I had a great time hanging with my buddies Tom and Sean.  I'd go back again next year and cross my fingers that we hit the run timing better.  By all accounts we were there at a good time, we just didn't hit it perfectly.  If we had done the trip with Moutcha Jim, we would have been there a couple days earlier and hit the bite that died off on us the day we got there.  Oh well, we'll hit them at the Moutcha derby in a few weeks.

-Allen