Friday, June 27 through Monday, June 30, 2025
First of all, last night’s dinner at Carve was FANTASTIC. Never been and highly recommend to our boater friends passing through! The ambience, the food, the service was all top notch. What a treat! Ok, now on to our weekend and our Nootka Sound Fishing Lodge Trip.
Unfortunately we awoke to chilly drizzle again on Friday the 27th, but it’s a driving day today as we pack up and make our way over to the west side of Vancouver Island to Nootka Sound Resort, a floating fishing lodge inside Nootka Sound, tucked back in Galiano Bay. We rented a large car so everyone could be comfortable. The trip to the other side of the island is very curvy (think motion sickness in the back which is where Beth and I were) and is a mixture of paved and gravel roads, so with the rain it made for a very muddy turbulent drive. We stopped for lunch at the Ridge Roadhouse Pub in Gold River which was pretty good I must say. After lunch we had another 55 minutes in the car before arriving at Moutcha Bay Resort, which is the sister resort of the one we were going to. From there our guide for the next 3 days, Tony, picked us up in a beautiful brand new (well, 1 year old) 32’ North River for the 15 minute ride over to our floating resort. Upon arrival we headed to our rooms to warm up and dry out only to find that the heat wasn’t working!! Gah. The manager assured us it would be on within the hour, something to do with the boiler switchover. It finally came on after dinner and we were toasty.
Saturday the 28th. Up at 5:15AM the next morning, so we could down some coffee to wake up, have some breakfast and pack a lunch before meeting Tony on the dock for a 6:30AM departure. The lodge provides a lunch box buffet of premade sandwiches, fruit, chips, bars, cookies, etc. so you can fill up your lunch bag with whatever you wish for the day. It’s a 10 hour day on the water normally, and being outside seems to increase the appetite. It wasn’t raining thankfully, but was overcast and chilly, and I was layered up with all I had, including my Grundén rubber gear, which helps insulate. It’s only about 25 minutes to run out to the fishing grounds and the water is flat and smooth inside Nootka Sound, but rollers awaited us on the outside where we were to fish. I have a tendency to get sea sick in big seas so I fired up my “Relief Band” (can be found at https://reliefband.com/ if you’re interested). Also took Gravol Ginger tablets, which is the Canadian equivalent similar to Dramamine. I didn’t want to be the person ruining the day! Anyway, we got out to the fishing grounds and got the gear down right away and the bite was on. We took turns reeling in the fish, which was mostly chinook and one coho but we also caught a nice ling cod. The sun came out in the afternoon and warmed us up and by the time we got back to the lodge it was nice and warm on the deck! We had appetizers of buffalo wings, followed by dinner of beef tenderloin, and dessert. The portions are so enormous, none of us finished our dinners. Played some Five Crowns and fell into bed.
Sunday the 29th, second day of fishing. Woke up at 5:15 again to beautiful clear sunny skies. Same routine - coffee, breakfast, packed our lunches and off the dock again at 6:30. Tony warned us that while the weather was nice now, the wind was predicted to hit later in the morning and would probably make it uncomfortable out in the big water, which is exactly what happened by about 10:30. Today we all lost one or more fish, it was kind of weird almost like the first 5 fish had an agreement to jump off the (barbless) hooks! We did eventually land some nice chinook again, a couple cohos, and Marc hauled in an enormous ling cod. When the wind made things no longer fun and the bite had died off, we made the decision to try fishing inside the sound in calmer waters. Tony told us it was a little early to fish on the inside since we were at the beginning of the season. Normally the fish don’t make it inside the sound until July/August when they are closer to heading up their respective rivers and streams. Anyway, we caught a couple little shakers inside (small fish, not keepers), while basking in the warm sun on the boat which was lulling us to sleep, quite pleasant actually. But by 1:00PM we decided to call it a day and go back to the lodge. Another enormous dinner, cards, and retired to our rooms. Incidentally the rooms are really quite nice at the lodge, very Scandinavian, really comfy and cozy. We would recommend this lodge to anyone looking for a nice fishing trip without breaking the bank.
Monday the 30th, Tony picked us up at the lodge and took us back to Moutcha Bay to get our car for the ride back. Dropperts had a 1:20 flight out of April Point (across the channel from Campbell River). I decided to be the driver on the way back so Beth and I claimed the front seats and the boys took the back. The ride over in the back seats was not the most fun with all the curves and limited visibility, so it was nice to be the driver – except for the backseat critique – but that’s par for the course. Got back to the marina in plenty of time to grab Subway sandwiches so the Dropperts didn’t starve on the way home, (not like we couldn’t miss a meal after three days at the lodge stuffing our faces). John chauffeured them over to April Point in the whaler while I returned the rental car, with a side trip to get my toes done (essential girl stuff!). The temps were in the 90s today with a breeze helping to cool us off, and we had a great afternoon enjoying the warm weather, unpacking and getting our “house” back in order. Dinner was at the Riptide Pub at the top of the dock, always a reliable choice.
Looks like a really fun trip! So happy you all caught something!
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