More geekery from the Salmon Nation

 Having introduced the Pacific NorthWest's 5 salmon species in my last post, let's have a little more geekery before we move out into the wilds of British Columbia in search of monsters.

Here's a cool little display from the Campbell River Museum. Each column represents a decade from 1880 - 1950 and each can represents 5% of the total catch

Yellow = Sockeye
Red = Spring
Blue = Coho
Green = Chum
Pink = Pink (obviously!)

I'm guessing the moral of the story is that the Sockeye took a pasting up to about 1910.

Campbell River has another reason for Salmon fame though. It is the "Salmon Fishing Capital of the World" and home to the world famous Tyee Club.

Membership of the club is restricted to people who have caught a 30lb Spring Salmon in a certain locality using specified equipment. This means using light tackle, rowboats and a monumental amount of skill. Notwithstanding this in the old days Tyee membership would have been easily achievable - people were catching hundreds of pounds of salmon a day.

 

Nowadays, the size and number of the salmon in the Tyee club pools has declined and catching a membership granting Tyee salmon is one of the summits of sportfishing and takes a serious amount of time. There are, however, still a few huge fish lurking in the Tyee pool.

The plaque reads:

71 Pound Tyee  Caught Aug 6 1968
By Walter Shufts
Nr Campbell River
Under Tyee Club Rules

There are still monsters in the Tyee Pool and one day I might just go back and meet one.