Outdoor Scoop

Workhorse of the North
Mid to late summer finds many in Agritimes Country heading off on salmon fishing trips. One of the more popular destinations is British Columbia, which boasts the Frazier River as the greatest salmon breeding river in the world. B.C. has 17,000 miles of coast line, which salmon consider their abode as they migrate from the ocean to spawning areas. To accommodate non-resident sport fishermen, there are about 200 fishing lodges located on the salt water coast line.
There are five species of salmon; Chinook, Pink, Coho, Chum and Sockeye. Chinook are the most highly prized. They live three to seven years. Trophy fish, which are thirty to sixty pounds, are called “Tyees”. Chinooks tend to feed near steep shorelines and drop-offs typically near the bottom. Most are caught on slow trolled cut-plug herring. They rarely leap, rather their fight is characterized by powerful determined runs.
Coho’s (aka Silvers) run about eight to sixteen pounds and are colorful fighters, typically with repeated leaps out of the water. They offer the most fight per pound of body weight of any of the salmon species.
The B.C. areas known for large Chinooks are Rivers Inlet, Hakai Pass and Queen Charolette Island. These areas produce a lot of Chinook in the forty to seventy pound class.
Fish and Wildlife authorities closely regulate salmon fishing. A fishing license and salmon conservation stamp are required. The limit is two per day and four in possession. If you catch a fish, it must be logged on your tag immediately. Only barbless hooks are allowed. When the lodge processes your fish, the law requires that they can only be divided into four parts for transport. This law for regulatory benefit certainly inconveniences fishermen who have to repackage their fish into family meal portions. The fisherman’s other difficulty is trying to prevent his spouse from dividing pounds of meat by total cost of the trip. This dangerous figure would be way to convenient for her to compare with salmon prices at the grocery store.
In addition to government conservation efforts, a non-profit organization called The Sport Fishing Institute of British Colombia, has been formed to promote the sustainability and protection of fish stocks. They actively promote stewardship, ethics and management of the resource.
To reach their destinations, many fishermen fly out of Vancouver B.C. Once they land in places like Port Hardy or Prince Rupert, they are ferried out to the various lodges on float planes. The most common float plane is the Beaver.
The first Beaver was developed by the de Havilland Company of Canada in 1947. This bush plane was carefully designed to be reliable, rugged, highly versatile and capable of handling a large load. It succeeded in all areas in the civilian sector, so it was almost inevitable that in 1951 the Beaver was selected by the U.S. Military as their new liaison aircraft. In the nine years that followed, 968 were delivered to the armed forces, most going to the Army. They served both the Korean and Vietnam wars, hauling freight and serving many other missions around the battlefield.
Beavers have a 450 horsepower radial piston engine. They can haul a little over a ton of cargo. They cruise at about 110 miles per hour with a maximum speed of 140 mph. Their range is 770 miles.
They were redesigned in 1962, but production ended in about 1970. 1,691 were produced with most going to the military. It is my understanding that they are no longer produced because the round engine they use is no longer manufactured. They just keep maintaining and rebuilding them, and many are still in service.
For the trip I was on two weeks ago, fifteen of us got on the three Beaver float planes in Renton, Washington for a 350 mile flight to our lodge at Rivers Inlet. The fleet owned by N.W. Seaplanes of Renton, had new matching paint jobs, refinished interiors and the motors purred like a Cadillac, a real noisy Cadillac.
Our pilots prefer flying a Beaver to newer models which “are real tinny and not as reliable”. A pretty high opinion of the Beaver which is over thirty five years old. No wonder they call them the “Workhorse of the North.”
jgroupe@aol.com