A Real Fish Story

With us usually living in disparate places on the globe,

it's not often that I get together with both of my brothers at the same time.

So when my younger brother and his son arrived in Canada for a visit from Switzerland, my older brother who at the time lived in Prince Rupert, a port on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, decided to charter an ocean fishing adventure for us all. I live about a hundred miles inland from the ocean, so it was an easy journey for me to meet them there.

(The charter operator stands behind my nephew, his catch, and a father's steadying hand)

The day began very, very early in the morning

as we headed, still only half awake, down to the docks to meet our charter operator/fishing guide and his boat. At first we didn't see him, because charter fishing is a big industry in British Columbia, and there were dozens of craft getting ready to head out on the ocean for an early start to the fishing day.

Which one is our boat?

I don't know - still looking (does anyone recognize The Old Dog?)

With both my brothers trying to spot our boat, I can slip off for a hot coffee :-)

We finally do spot our charter guide and connect with him

and climb aboard when he pulls up to the dock. It is then a freezing, foggy, penetratingly cold and damp couple of hours heading out to places where he thinks the salmon, halibut, and ling cod might be biting.

That's him! That's him! Shout!

The Old Dog grabs the best seat in the house for the trip out

I don't have any pictures of actually catching the fish,

because, with freezing fingers and the chaos of crossing lines as more than one person has a strike - it is hard enough to hold on to your rod and your balance, never mind a camera! But I will show you some of the results of our cold, cold day out on the Pacific:

Halibut, salmon, and ling cod

Three brothers and a nephew

What feasts lay ahead!

Our guide spoiled us rotten, doing all the nasty jobs

Later my nephew got to see many places along the Skeena River

How many Swiss kids get to see places like this?

Although his father did embarass him pretty badly :-)

I even took my nephew for a helicopter ride to get a bird's eye view of the area

So the moral of this fish story is

that even though it's nice to live near family and friends, isn't it a blast when you can travel to faraway places to visit them too!