B.C.'s Spectacular Kyoquot Sound

Whale of a Tail Provides Spectacular Send-Off
On our last morning, we opted to fish the chicken halibut grounds, using lighter rigs for more challenge. After catching a few to about 25 pounds on 12- to 20-pound braid, my daughter, Rachel, proved that not all halibut that prowl these near-coast humps are chicks. After a good fight on 20-pound, she brought to the boat a fish much larger than we'd figured. As David scrambled for the harpoon, the halibut took off in a long run just under the surface - unusually horizontal for a halibut. Turns out the fish was hooked just above the eyes, in the head - and barely! Rachel played it carefully and skillfully, and ultimately prevailed.

That proved to be our closing act. The clock was ticking, and the Harbour Air Beaver floatplane would show up in a few hours to fly us back to Vancouver. As if in some grand parting gesture, a huge dark shape rose well away from the boat, thundering down with a splash. A leaping humpback whale. We watched in awe as it repeated the process a couple more times, then continued the show with a new act: The animal would thrust its tail, the size of our boat, from the surface and bang it down with great force.

After the Beaver lifted off the quiet waters of the bay in front of Kyuquot Village, another afternoon of bluebird weather meant superb views of the Kyuquot area. Little wonder, I thought, at its productivity - with deep water coming in so close to the nearshore waters dotted with islands and kelp beds. It was also hard not to compare this remote coastal wilderness on the northwest side of Vancouver Island with much of the Alaska coast I've visited over the years. It seems so far from everything, yet it's really near; to get here, we'd had to travel just a couple of hours from Vancouver (and it's not much farther from Seattle). Now we had the same quick trip home - which made leaving Kyuquot Sound as easy as it was difficult.