Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 172

Sam And Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 172

Canada

8/18/09 - 8/20/09  - Moricetown /Bulkley River

Our last place to try to catch salmon on the Bulkley River was at Moricetown. This is the same town we passed through earlier and stopped to take pictures of the natives netting their fish.  The Trout Creek owner told us to go over the bridge right by the canyon where we had seen the netters, turn right at Fisherman Road and that when we reached the end, someone should be there to collect for parking on native property. We found it and a girl collected our money and gave us a choice of either going to Idiot Rock or to the boat launch.  She indicated that Idiot Rock had received its name because “if anyone fishes there and does not catch a fish – they’re an idiot”.  We opted for Idiot Rock. 

View From Idiot Rock

We got our gear and started down a dirt trail that soon skimmed the high cliff bank near the water.  We walked about 300 feet, then the path started to drop altitude rather fast, and we ended up climbing down the rest of the path, which turned into rock face the closer we got to the river.  We could hear the river, and see it a ways away, but only saw it up close after climbing down a few very steep feet.  I was glad to land somewhere.  The bank had a very small bay-like area about six feet across and ten feet in from the edge of the fast moving water of the river.  I could see the fish in it. Sam was not interested in fishing here.  Nope! He wanted to be on top of Idiot Rock to do his fishing.  This rock was huge!  It was very round and smooth, while also rough-hewn and sitting very precariously over the river.  You climb on to the rock, climb over or across it to get closer to the river and soon you are on the outside of a sphere and the only thing below you is the clear, fast-moving water.  No trees, brush, grass or even dirt is available to grab on to if you lose your balance. Scary! I look down I see the fish in droves, but cannot get any of them to bite.  Sam is so excited!  He can see all the huge salmon in the main river from his perch above and convinces me to join him.  Ooooooooh!  I climb very, very slowly around the back side of the sphere, wisely rationalizing that if I fall – I will fall on solid rock.  Hmmmmm.  Well, it may not have made any more sense, but I felt safer.  The view was great.  Up there we could watch the natives downstream as they dropped long float-lined nets into the river in a large circle using a motor-boat. When they return to shore, they pull the nets in to harvest the fish.  Very efficient. They actually sell some of the harvest at a fish shop on the main highway.  Sam snagged a couple of fish, which he released.  We both unexpectedly developed a sensitivity to the word ‘idiot’. 

Swirls And Ripple Caused By Fish!

We had a good time – the sun shining and the fish were so entertaining, even if they wanted nothing to do with us.  We had such a good day. We decided to try fishing the boat ramp tomorrow. After all, from Idiot Rock we could see a couple of young, young, young children with their parents catching fish.

Artwork  

So the next day we meet with the girl again to pay for another day of parking – letting her know we wanted to fish this time at the boat ramp.  She hops into Brutus with us and directs us back around a small neighborhood to a fenced in area.  A locked fence blocked the road. She unlocked it and told us to follow it all the way to the river, where we could park.  The road passed through an area that had several old buildings and school-like stadium bleachers.   It apparently was a school that was closed for the summer.  Totem poles, great artwork and not so great artwork were sprinkled throughout the rough, gray wood buildings. We turned right and followed the extremely rough lane that wound down to the river’s edge.  Sam claimed that Brutus enjoyed this trek – stating that he was born to travel these kind of roads or non-roads.  Me – I think Brutus was taking care of us while shaking his brush guard in exasperation. Either way, we found a nice parking area, grabbed our gear and took off upstream to find a spot.  We found it and with the fish-filled river whooshing past us, we begin our fish dance – ok – Sam just throws out his spinners.  We both catch fish. We both catch Pinks.  I catch a silver.  We have fun.  Did you know that fish oil has rainbows all through it?