To reach my venue I had to travel from
After breakfast the next morning I left my campsite and walked down to the river to try out my new fly rod. There were many people fishing on the point of the island and I went to speak to some of the locals which would have caused my line to get stuck all the time. The way to catch these salmon is to cast your line slightly upstream and then quickly mend the line. The tippet would then sink to the bottom dragging the leader with fly with it. Salmon don’t usually feed when they travel upstream in the river and catching them is more about you “flossing” the fish which is when the line pulls through their open mouths while they are swimming upstream.
It wasn’t long and I hooked into a fish that gave a hell of a fight and I was grinning from ear to ear when I landed my very first salmon ever on the fly! While fishing there that day I met a German guy called J.J. who is a travelling chainsaw carver – I’d rather have him as a friend than foe! Later that afternoon I had to visit the local bar called Back Eddies for a celebratory burger and beer. That evening I cooked my pink salmon which tasted very good with some flavored rice. The next morning I went down there again at 5:30 only to see about 10 other people already fishing. Some of them even started as early as 4:00! I managed to catch 3 more pink salmon that morning and then broke camp and travelled to Kittimat which is about 75km away from Terrace.
Kittimat Lodge is run by Tracey Hittel and his wife Chanel and they were a very friendly and sociable pair. I stayed in a self catering double room with en-suite and a small kitchenette for cooking the many salmon I was hoping to catch. I 
booked 2 days of guided fishing and was then going to do my own thing after. My guide for the 2 days was a guy called Barkley who was also very sociable and rather partial to a “few” beers after fishing. The first day we drove down to the river where we launched a small boat and drifted down the
We floated down the river and stopped in a deep hole where I fished with a purple jig. A jig consists of a lead head with brightly colored feathers which you bounce along the bottom. After losing a fish at that spot we went further downstream and stopped along some rapids where I was going to try some fly fishing . It was there, while stripping off more line after a short cast that I hooked into a “train” (a salmon running downstream which you can’t stop!) This salmon stripped all my line straight into the backing in a matter of seconds while jumping and using the current to its advantage! After about 20 minutes of hard fighting I finally managed to land my very first Kittimat Chum salmon which weighed around 14lbs.
These fish are very impressive looking with their hooked beaks and camouflaged striped bodies and I was a very happy chap indeed! All the fish that I caught were handled with care and returned after we revived them – we hold the fish in the water facing upstream so that the water can run through its gills. That way it gets all the necessary oxygen it needs to swim away without any harm. Straight after that salmon I hooked another chum train which weighed around 16lbs of pure muscle. 
From there we drifted further down the river and I switched to lure fishing with a green spoon. An energetic Coho grabbed the spoon and stripped the line off my reel at an alarming rate with quick bursts of energy. We were allowed to take two Coho salmon a day so that one got introduced to a club on the head to pacify it. The Coho salmon have beautiful silver stream-lined bodies and are very good eating. After that I tried some more jigging and caught 2 pink salmon which are easy to identify with their spotted tails and dorsal fins. Once the salmon run upstream metamorphosis begins and they develop hump backs, hooked beaks and change in color to pink bodies with green heads – after spawning they die and so the new cycle of life starts again…
On the final stretch down the river I hooked into a large Chinook salmon while using the green spoon. Once these trains take off there is no stopping them as they race either up or downstream with great speed. These fish are pure muscle and certainly do not like a hook in their mouths! The Chinook jumped out of the water and shook its head violently while it stripped the line off my reel as if it was nothing…I had to run around the boat like a lunatic trying to stop the salmon from snapping my line and after a good fight I landed a 25lb Kittimat Chinook which also earned me the “Kittimat Gran Slam”. This is when you’ve caught the 4 main Kittimat species. We bumped into one of the other guides called Disco Donny while getting the boat out of the water and that is when I tried my first piece of bear jerky which I washed down with a cold beer. I really can’t describe the taste as I won’t get away with “it tasted like chicken” on this occasion! Back at the lodge many more beers followed and Barkley also cooked the Coho on the BBQ which was absolutely delicious! It was then that I learned a new phrase which is “bank maggot” – this is a term used by stuck-up boat fishermen for low life scum fishing from the side! That phrase really made me laugh!
Tuesday morning I was slightly hung over when I was paired up with another couple, Bish and Adelle from
Adelle was next to hook into a fish but unfortunately she lost that one. It was her only fish she hooked into that day and I felt sorry for her. At least they had 5 days more of fishing so she was almost guaranteed to catch one on another day.
Bish’s Coho was BBQ’d on the boat and it tasted great while we rested our arms from all the casting. It was not my day and I lost 4 fish in that spot. We travelled downstream later that afternoon and I finally managed to also hook a Coho salmon on the fly.
Wednesday I did my own thing and drove my car to a recommended spot along the river. There was a deep hole in the river and it was a bit of a walk to get to. The spinning rod that I’ve been using is a 4 piece 7ft Shimano travel rod with a Daiwa Exceller Pro reel which is loaded with 30lb braid. 
This is fairly light tackle and it got severely tested when I hooked into a large Chinook – one that almost became a runaway train…The fish ran downstream, out of the hole and into the swift current of the rapids further downstream. I had to run along the shore, hugging trees and wade through the water to dislodge my line from overhanging branches all while the salmon was racing downstream! A grandfather who took his grandson fishing that day turned up just in time and helped me net the fish after a long struggle. It was another Chinook of around 25lbs and I was yet again a very happy man!
That day I hooked into a couple of runaway trains which I could not stop and they snapped my line but luckily I was able to land 7 salmon in total. They were a mixture of Chum, Pink and Chinook salmon – one of which was in excess of 40lbs! Needless to say I was a very happy individual and felt compelled to drink copious amounts of celebratory beers that evening.
Bish, Adelle and Barkley came back from a secret fishing spot called the G-Spot and were very willing drinking partners that evening. They also brought along a lot of crabs which they had caught earlier that day and which Tracey boiled for us to snack on while we were sitting outside. They got 2 species of crabs, one of which was 
box crabs which tasted really good! Bish and Adelle also had me try their drink of choice which I dubbed “Martini a la Bish”. It is made like a normal martini with the gin but it comes with a twist – they add in a few olives stuffed with blue cheese. The way to enjoy the drink is to eat an olive and when you’re about halfway through eating it you then take a sip of the martini. I have to say that is was pretty damn good! After all the drinks and crabs it was time for our main course which was a big steak and I pretty much rolled to bed as I was so full!
The next day I went fishing in the same spot as the day before but as I felt a little hung over and tired I didn’t stay for long. I landed another Chinook and lost 3 runaway trains which snapped my line. Back at Kittimat Lodge it was time to pack my gear for my next trip 
which was my solo 16 day
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