Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 171

Sam And Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 171

Canada

8/18/09 – 8/20/09 - Smithers/Moricetown

Updated Traditional Housing

Wouldn’t you know it?  We like it here!  We decide to stay a while.  The RV park is able to extend our stay. First thing – check out the sporting goods store to get salmon stamps and find out where the fishing spots are.  Smithers is a nice sized town that has an ‘old town’ section with an arty, upscale feel.  We found the sports store. We got our stamps and a list of three places to fish on the Bulkley, including a spot at the confluence of Trout Creek with the Bulkley River (also known as where the creek feeds the river). We decide to try the ‘downtown’ spot first.  The river front space that is open to the public is minimal.  We find the ‘green space park area’ at the side of a housing neighborhood and park at a narrow pullout with a path leading down to the river. We have to step down a rock river bank and cross an old riverbed to reach the water’s edge.  We fish and fish and fish.  We both spot a big, big black dog swimming across the river. The river is very wide and we watched and watched, eventually realizing that it is a big black bear – not a dog.  We’re amazed that it would choose this spot to cross and thankful that it was swimming to the opposite shore.  We are catching nothing and getting bored.  Two teenagers get their limit of pink salmon.  They tell us their secrets and still we can’t catch a fish.  After several hours we give up. 

Elusive White Black Bear? Smithers, BC

We heard about Babine Lake from a fellow fisherman and off we go to try and find it. We go back towards Tyree Lake, but turn at a sign that says Smithers Landing and Babine Lake.  Sam drives, we talk and I take pictures as we go.  I took some nice pictures of llamas or alpacas that were being raised, some nice foresty scenes, but it is taking us much longer than we expected to reach the lake.  We see an interesting sign announcing Chapman Lake and since Babine was nowhere to be seen, we opt for a side trip.  This lake is another example of a huge body of water that has good camping facilities and the information signs at water’s edge indicate that there are fish in the water.  Yet we did not see another person anywhere near the lake, let alone on it.  In fact we passed so few vehicles, we feel that this has all been readied just for us.  We fished briefly, but the shoreline was pretty reedy and it was getting darker. The fairly large islands in this lake add to the spectacular beauty as evening was flashing a colorful sunset.  Nary a bite, so we move on.  When we get back to the main road, we decide to get Brutilla’s opinion on travel destinations.  She talks us out of fishing Lake Babine.  She gave us good, lengthy directions that basically told me that you can’t get there from here.  We go back home, determined to search for far better fishing spots tomorrow.  

Looking For Fish

Tomorrow is here and our next spot to try was ‘Trout Village’. The girl at the sports store insisted that this was a great fishing spot, and easy to get to, once you found a place to park.  There was some road construction going on at the bridge that spans Trout Creek.  We first tried to get permission from the owner of the Trout Creek Village Resort to park in his lot.  We thought that he would have no objections as it looked like his Resort was closed for remodeling or something. No one could be found in any of the buildings.  We talked to one of the constructions workers parked on the property and he said that it would probably be ok to park on the road and walk down to the Bulkley River (located on the opposite side of the road from the Resort).  We parked and were unloading our poles, when a pickup pulled up in front of us and a man with ‘purpose’ written all through his demeanor approached me.  Turns out he was the owner of the Trout Creek Resort and he informed us that he owned all the property on both sides of the main highway, all the way down to the river and that his neighbor owned what he did not and we were not welcome to cross his property.  I apologized, advising him that we did not know that the riverside here was privately owned, as we were directed here by the Sports Store.  His tone immediately changed, but his mind did not and we were not allowed to fish here.  We left, thanking the distraught owner, as he had given us another fishing spot lead back in Moricetown.  I only wish he would remove his “Welcome to Trout Creek Village” signs.