Fishing update

I came out here with virtually no clue on how they fish here and didn't have a rod or reel.  Pacific salmon get a lot bigger than ours 40 plus pounds is not uncommon. When I went to buy a rod  EVERY store was sold out of Salmon gear. I mean cleaned out nothing, nada.... not even the hooks and lead style they use were left. I bought a rod and reel that was way under equipped, but was catching sockeye on it.  Until it had a catastrophic failure. Dejected, I figured the fishing was over. I didn't really have the money for the first rod, let alone a second. My buddy John had his son bring down a inexpensive rod. It looked like it was for perch fishing, bass at best. I thanked him sincerely and was back in the game. MAYBE, just maybe I could land another Sockeye with it maybe..............BUT...........INSTEAD..........

.......my biggest Sockeye of the trip.

The biggest Chinook Salmon of my LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                            

crazy climates and landscapes

 I have been to Canada several times, always Ontario by going through the Upper Peninsula and it is rock with pine and other conifers.  This is what I expected to see in  British Columbia . BUT...

It was palms trees and almost tropical in Vancouver.

Outside Vancouver it was like rain forest.

Prairie and farm land further out. This was like the old west in the 1800.

This was more like home. Pines and hardwoods with fall color. B.T.W.If you look close there is a rainbow crossing  the road.

Snow on top, 80 degrees on the bottom.

Volcanic lava rocks.

Desert cactus

CACTUS!!!..in CANADA!!

Desert sagebrush and tumble weeds.

Wells Gray Provincial Park

Wells Gray Provincial Park is Canada's 4th biggest park, encompassing 1.9 million (540,000 hectors) acres of  land. It is also called a waterfall park because it has 40 spectacular water falls accessible by trail or boat. This area was shaped by volcanic activity and glacial movement.

 

Spahats falls, what can you say...INCREDIBLE!

Layer upon layer of fresh lava created flat areas, over which floods flowed during the last ice age . These floods shaped the upright cliff  in the lava flows over which the river now flows. Looking downstream from the falls. This canyon is almost 3,000 feet deep.

Wells Gray Park is world renowned for its canoeing, angling, kayaking, rafting, and hiking.  The park is open year round and is a winter wonder land. This is one of the warming cabins along the trails for weary visitors.

There are 500 different kinds of plants, 200 kinds of mushrooms, 150 different birds and 50 species of animals in Wells Grey. It is also home to the largest remaining caribou herds in Southern British Columbia.

Helmcken Falls..............aaaaahhh wow or something.  This fall is larger than Spahats Falls.

The power of the water is unreal.

Dawson Falls.

                                      This falls is nicknamed Little Niagara because it is a wide cascading fall.                                     

View from the top of Green Mountain viewing tower.See the old volcano on the left of pic. I saw a aerial photo from above it is an old volcano.

Taking it all in.

The snow covered mountain top in the back is used for remote helicopter skiing.

                                                                                         

Fishing the Thompson River

Checking out the Thompson River. The marks on the rock are diffrent flood levels the river reached.

Heading down stream to Savona, we stopped to look at Kamloops Lake that the Thompson runs through.

First Nation tribal trawler netting Salmon in Kamloops Lake.

First attempt on the Thompson.

 

....no luck

Second attempt.

British Columbia Has workers out keeping track of angler catches just like we do.

Fish on.

First Thompson River Sockeye.

    They keep coming.......



Pine Beatle Infestation

Pine beatle info is everywhere.

The montain pine beatle has deforested an area the size of Louisiana in British Columbia.

What the forest should look like.

Infestation has began.

It spreads quickly.

 Finally killing the tree.

Foresters clear the affected area.

Then the area is replanted.

 At the current rate of spread, 80 percent of mature pines will be gone by 2013  in British Columbia.  (50 percent of the mature pines where gone by 2008)  Do you know what boring insect is dramtically affecting Michigan forests?  What tree do they attact? 

 

Sign info: