Episode 8 Blog: BC Inside Passage Southbound

There’s some beauty iconic adventures in West Coast boating and half-baked trolling: Gulf Islands hopping; overnight Albacore tuna fishing off Vancouver Island’s West Coast; cruising Great Bear Rainforest for the wildlife and giant salmon…and running British Columbia’s Inside Passage from Prince Rupert Southbound.

For all intensive purposes and this diatribe, I’m honing in on the Northern chunk of that journey down to Bella Bella…and eventually Hardy. In this year’s Inside Passage run on Big Coast we broke in a new boat. Now much ballyhooed, the Bridgeview 30 Big Coast Edition was an exceptional build and beauty to run. The Mercury Twin 300 Sea Pro Outboards were a powerhouse that kept us on steady step!

I had an awesome launch week in Rupert with the Bridgeview crew and filmed a super fun 200th episode with James and Kipton McNeice. But after getting the boat dialled it was all business. I flew in my cameraman Chris Wheeler and we split Rupert for all things South…more specifically Hartley Bay.

Wheeler and I had done this trip many times and this was our 10th or 11th time running Inside Passage. I think. But time flies quick as we all know. Conditions were crazy calm and Wheeler and I had a silky smooth run out of Rupert down the Grenville and into the dock at Hartley Bay.

Now I’m super fortunate to have made some amazing friends along the Big Coast way. And Cam Hill is one great wek I’ve visited so many times. And learned so much. And grew to appreciate Hartley Bay in a different way. A really, really cool way. Anyway, back on track…

Wheeler and I crashed at Cam’s place in The Bay and fished Campania Island for a couple days. We had some crazy boating and foggy days, but this part of the world is sublime sometimes. Got into a few good Chinook but not the later season hawgs you’d hope for this way. This time of year.

We had a nice weather break after a few days fishing and headed her South for Bella Bella. I’d had dreams of trolling McInnes on this Southbound run down Laredo Channel. For the first part of the four-hour trip it was looking good. But then she blew up and we had to duck backside into Klemtu…so as not to get our asses handed to us on Milbanke Sound. Sorry for the local dialect but this part of the coast can get nasty.

Sometimes when we get a good size run done quickly like this I’ll feel regret. Like “Man, I could’ve taken two week with that fuel and chilled right out.” 

But mostly it’s good fortune and thanks. Thanks for safe passage. Good times and another good run.

This…is Big Coast!

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