TOFINO- WHALES AND FISH .TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY 19 & 20/09/2017.

The view from our room is stunning and the water way is busy with all types of boats moving through the channel between the main island and one of the hundreds of others which scatter this part of the Pacific Ocean, along with plenty of sea planes that not only cater for the tourists, of which there are still quite a few, but also the small isolated 1st Nation Communities that live on the surrounding islands.

Had an interesting evening meal in a place called Wolf in the Fog, which consisted of Fried Rockfish and Deep Fried Herring for starters and then a delicious piece of Halibut which we shared for main course.

Tuesday morning was an early start as we had our first Whale Watching trip booked! Following a quick safety brief we soon set sail for our 3 hour cruise around the local water ways. Our target species for this trip at this time of the year was the Grey Whale. We saw 3 whales, but didn't get any really good shots of them along with sea otters, seals and a bald eagle! Not a bad trip with very informative crew members. The afternoon saw us strolling around the shops etc in Tofino and we picked up a very nice pizza for our tea. Tofino is a very laid back community and caters mainly for surfers during the main summer months.

Wednesday saw the another beautiful sunrise and what promised to be a a great day weather wise and hopefully one of the major highlights of the trip to date!

We had booked our own private charter with a company called Ocean Outfitters which they called the Ultimate Adventure. Another early start saw us on board the sport fishing boat Misty Eyes with our Captain and guide for the day, Rudy who was a really great guy. We also had on board a picnic hamper and plenty of coffee.

We were speeding through some stunning scenery to the Hot Springs and as it was low tide kept our eyes peeled for the bears coming down to the exposed beaches for their seafood breakfasts. We didn't see any but after an hour we tied up along side a pontoon where we disembarked for our walk to the hot springs. This is about a 30 minute walk along a raised board walk through more stunning scenery. It was well worth the effort, even thought there are loads of steps to contend with! Changed in to our bathers for an early morning dip in natural sulphur hot springs which are fed from deep underground and heated by volcanic action. It was quite difficult actually getting into the hot water but Lynda did really well, bad knees and all. Spent about 15 minutes soaking in the hot water and then the walk back to the boat. (Here is a link to some more information about the "Hot Springs Cove" on Vancouver Island. - Ed)

We decided to have our breakfast rolls before we actually got under way. They were huge and the coffee was good and hot. Rudy suggested that as the sea wasn't so rough it would be better if we took the outer passage around Mears island as this was a quicker route to the fishing grounds and that we stood a good chance to see some whales on the way. An inspired suggestion and one we will be eternally grateful for.

What happened over the next couple of hours was without doubt the highlight of our holiday so far.

What I will say is that we both now fully appreciate how patient and lucky people have to be to get those iconic shots of whales diving and coming out of the water. I'm afraid we didn't manage to get many really good shoots but I can tell you we saw the following during our trip. So many grey whales we lost count,with one coming up so close to the boat it frightened the living daylights out of us, the skipper as well! Fortunately he had just turned the engines off as we were going to start doing some jigging for non salmon type fish. Lynda did really well for a first timer and hooked a really big lingcod which unfortunately shed the hook just before Rudy tried to lift it into the boat. He actually saw it and said it was a good size one. Lynda wasn't to disappointed as she was more interested in looking out for more whales. I managed to hook and boat a much smaller lingcod and a black bass, both of which were below the legal landing size so they went back to grow bigger. Whilst in the same area we had two really good sightings of some quite rare visitors to the area; they were Pacific white sided dolphins (Only second sighting of the year for Rudy) (Pictures care of Google! - Ed) and the icing on the cake was a pod of Transient Orcas! These don't inhabit the area but as the name implies swim through the area feeding on seals and small harbour dolphins as they go. Two really rare sightings in less than an hour! We also saw a lone sea otter who was just floating along on his back enjoying the warm sunshine.

As we neared our fishing area we also saw some Habour seals and more small porpoise.Rudy made radio contact with some friends fishing where he wanted to and was pleased to report they had caught some coho salmon which was my target species.

The fishing was awesome! Using a method called trolling I hooked and landed my first ever salmon, which Rudy estimated to be about 10lbs. This was quickly dispatched and placed in the fish hold. We fished on with not a lot of luck and the tide had started to run quite hard and the huge lumps of Bull Kelp (A local type of seaweed that grows up to 30 ft in length) were causing a problem for Rudy as they kept fouling his trolling gear. Lynda eventually got her chance and hooked into what seemed to be a good size fish but unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried Rudy couldn't avoid a large piece of kelp that fouled her line and caused the fish to shake free of the barbless hook.

Time was running out for us but just a few minutes before 4.15 I did manage to hook another salmon, this was about half the size of my first, but it put up a really good scrap before it was successfully landed. Rudy asked if he could keep it as it was a perfect size for smoking, I was only to happy to say yes.

A short trip back to harbour via the seaward side of the place we were staying for that different photograph and we were tied up and unloading. Ruddy cleaned and filleted the fish . They were both females and surprisingly had empty stomachs.

Back in the office we shared out the catch, with Rudy having the two fillets off the smaller fish, one large one for us and the other large one we gave to the young lady by way of a thank you for all her help in planning this ultimate trip.

The pictures of the wild life are not brilliant but the ones of the fish are pretty good!