Fishing at the Discover Fishing Pier
The sun came out Saturday, January 20th and my son Braydon wanted to go fishing. It would have too cold on the waterfront so I thought to myself lets go the the Discovery Fishing Pier downtown (which I guess is waterfront as well but there are covered areas, picnic tables and benches)and see what that is like. It's funny that I've lived in Campbell River for 27 years and grew up fishing with my Dad in a 16 foot Lund, fished lakes and rivers but I never thought about the Pier.
Visitors come from all over the world to try their luck and yes they catch some really big fish. I remember one day this past summer there were two Tyee's caught in a 2 hour period. In case you aren't familiar with the term Tyee; it means a Chinook Salmon over 30 pounds. Imagine reeling one of those to pier.
Anyways back to fishing at the Pier. We weren't alone which I guess surprised me a little but like I said earlier the sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. We stood at the south end of the pier, claimed a bench, sat down and prepared for the first cast.
While the boys cast their fishing rods me and my daughter sat on one of the benches. It was wonderful, I closed my eyes and took in all the sounds associated with the ocean, Seagulls, boats and waves hitting the rocks. The sun actually had some heat to it so it was very relaxing.
My son was so excited when people stopped and asked him if he was catching anything or if he ever had caught anything on the pier. He took real pride in explaining what he was doing and was kind of lures he was using. He spoke to visitors from Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta.
After a few casts and jigs, my daughter and I went strolling to the north end of the pier. They have posters up in a couple of places that show what marine wildlife you might see, which is an interesting look. When we arrived at the end we noticed a seabird of some kind (sorry I don't know my seabirds that well) had a herring in his mouth and was trying to bite it in half I guess to make it easier to swallow. After a few attempts and dropping it a few time he finally ate.
I returned to my post (the bench) and watched the boats in Discovery Passage, the birds flying in the sky and Quadra Island just across from the Fishing Pier.
As for the actual catching of the fish??? Unfortunately, there was none but we weren't skunked....he caught some seaweed which was kind of exciting. We made a family agreement that this summer we were going to come to downtown Campbell River more often and spend more afternoons fishing at the Discovery Fishing Pier. It is always a popular night stop for ice cream and snacks but now its seems as though we will enjoy more of the Pier and more often.