Langara, the northernmost of the 150 plus islands comprising the Queen Charlotte Islands, is the first land mass encountered by migratory chinook, coho, and chum salmon as they begin the marathon journey from the Arctic feeding grounds to their natal rivers. This journey is a leisurely one. Salmon bound for a thousand southern rivers often tarry at Langara Island to feed on the huge biomass of herring, sandlance and anchovies that are swept against the sheer rock flanks of the island. No doubt the salmon and bait fish have rendezvoused here to play out their predator-prey drama for centuries. Man has only recently become a player in this remote and wild marine environment.

For years commercial anglers have ventured to the unprotected waters surrounding Langara. The bounty they found there was almost unimaginable. Trollers struggled back to port with holds crammed with giant chinook salmon. In a single day skilled skippers landed scores of trophy chinook averaging over forty pounds. From June through August wave after wave of migratory chinook, locally called Tyees, swarmed into the waters off Langara. Forty pound fish were common, fifties and sixties were taken almost daily and the occasional seventy pounder brought fortunate skippers the admiration of their peers.

The remoteness of Langara kept all but a few local sport anglers from sharing in this bounty. But as sports anglers grew more adventurous and seaplanes shrank our world Langara became home to a handful of fishing lodges. Today the tide has changed in favor of the sports angler. In recent years commercial fishing has been severely restricted around Langara. For the

past several years commercial boats have been severely restricted in the area. Sports anglers have also seen occasional restrictions, but the absence of commercial angling pressure has given sports angler an unprecedented chance to catch and release trophy chinook, while retaining a few fish for the barbecue.

Anytime you visit Langara, the anticipation and excitement surges. Few other places on the planet offer a better chance of multiple hook-ups on Tyee class chinook. It is doubtful that any other location on the Pacific coast is visited by more trophy class chinook, acrobatic coho and monster class halibut. From May through August chinook fishing here is often white hot. When the fishing is hot, as it often does here, sports anglers routinely release thirty and forty pound chinook. On my recent visit to West Coast Fishing Club television personalities Shelly and Courtney were there to film a show. On the first morning they hooked and released four chinook ranging to forty pounds. I spent much of the morning shooting still photos of the action on the Shelly and Courtney boat. I still managed three chinook from 21 to 33 pounds. In the afternoon I took a break from salmon angling to try jigging near Langara rocks. There I landed two halibut in the 40 pound class and a 17 pound lingcod. If this isn’t fishing heaven, its certainly within a local phone call.

From August until the lodges close in September wave after wave of fat coho invade. These big "northern" coho average fifteen pounds. Twenty pounders are not uncommon. Halibut are here all season long. It takes a one hundred pounder to get any serious attention at Langara and two hundred pounders are landed almost every year. In addition to the unsurpassed bounty of salmon, halibut and bottomfish.

Thousands of anglers visit Langara every year, and most come home with fish stories to last a lifetime. But even at Langara success depends on good planning and a thorough knowledge of what the region has to offer and what you want from your adventure. To help you plan your Langara adventure, I have compiled the following information on travel planning, run timing, weather conditions and lodges.

Traveling to Langara Langara has no public moorage, motels, restaurants or other commercial amenities. One of its charms is that Langara is a remote wilderness. From June through September Island bustles with the activities of a handful of lodges. After September the island is inhabited only by a few caretakers and the animals of the north country. If you are going to Langara you will be going with a group headed for one of the lodges. Several lodge owners have joined together to charter flights to Sandspit, the only town in the Charlottes with an airport large enough to serve modern jets. In most cases you will meet at the south terminal of the Vancouver International Airport for an early AM departure. Most lodges have staff at the terminal to help with questions and to make sure your journey goes smoothly. Your journey from Vancouver to Sandspit will take approximately two hours. Once in Sandspit you will take a bus t the seaplane terminal located north of town. From there you will take a seaplane to the lodge. This leg of the trip takes less than a half hour. Guest of West Coast Fishing Club depart directly from the airport via a 14 passenger helicopter that provides a scenic ½ hour flight to the island.

If all goes well, you will be at the lodge by noon, but the weather in the Charlottes is never predictable. May and September trips are often delayed due to poor weather. Weather delays are what prompted West Coast Fishing Club to switch to a helicopter for the shuttle to the lodge.

Lodging In Vancouver
Most flight s to Langara depart very early in the morning. I usually book a room at the Richmond Inn for the evening before departure. The Richmond Inn offers free fish storage, free parking and a free shuttle to the airport. With airport parking as expensive as it now is you will save considerable money by staying at the hotel and leaving your car there.

Run Timing
Typically, sports anglers begin targeting Langara chinook in early June. However, in recent years lodges that have opened as early as mid May have found abundant numbers of trophy sized chinook. The chinook run lasts through August and often extends well into September. The peak months are June and July. Often the commercial fleet has an opening in early July. If possible avoid the commercial opening. You will find good fishing in spite of the presence of a bazillion trollers, but it is no fun trying to fish around these guys.

The coho can show up anytime after mid June, but the average size and the numbers of fish increase as summer progresses. If coho are your quarry, plan to fish from early August to the end of the season.

Many anglers come to Langara with halibut as a secondary quarry. If things go as planned anglers can bring home limits of salmon and halibut. Langara is no doubt one of British Columbia’s premier halibut destinations. Almost every season someone takes one weighing more than 200 pounds. Last year a 320 pound plus monster was landed by Doug Lavallee while fishing in 120 feet of water near the lighthouse.

While halibut are taken at Langara all season long, the prime time is typically July and August. If your heart is set on tussling with a barn door sized halibut, plan your trip for mid summer. If halibut are a secondary concern time your trip to maximize the salon of your choice. There are almost always fair to good numbers of halibut around Langara. Lingcod and rockfish are plentiful year around.

Where to Fish
Langara Island is small enough to circumnavigate in a small boat. Anytime ocean conditions are benign, boats from any lodge can fish any part of the island coastline they choose. Unfortunately, this part of the north Pacific isn't noted for calm seas.

Most days you will be restricted to the leeward side of the island. This is not a problem as chinook and coho congregate near the headlands on all sides of the island. If you find flat seas and calm winds, try Lacy Island on the west side of Langara. McPherson point on the east side or the point near the lighthouse on the northeast corner of the island. Awesome rockfish opportunities can be found around Langara Rocks. If you want to catch Black rockfish on a flyrod try Andrews Point or Langara Rocks. On a clam day you will see tens of thousands of rockies flipping their tails on the surface in an awe inspiring display of nature’s bounty.

Several of the lodges provide guides for their guests. Your best bet when in doubt as to where to fish is to look for the guided boats. The guides from West Coast Fishing Club are exceptionally skilled. Look for them in their big Boston Whalers, but be sure to give them plenty of space. Another trick for locating the fish is to cruise around the island while watching for boats with arced rods. There are enough boats working the area that you will see ten to twenty boats at each of a half dozen traditional hotspots. I often cruise at full speed watching for a group of boats that have at least half anglers a fighting fish. If I don’t see plenty of fish on I keep moving. Traditional hotspots include Lacy island, the Lighthouse, No Name Point, McPherson Point, and Coho Point.

Fishing Techniques
Both chinook and coho tend to feed in the top 20 feet of the water column when near Langara. Local guides usually tell guests to strip out ten to twenty "pulls’" of line. A "pull" is the amount of line you can strip with one hand - usually the distance between the reel and the first guide on the rod.

My first trip to Langara got off to a very slow start because I was used to fishing for chinook near the bottom, which is the accepted method in Puget Sound. Thinking I knew more than the locals I stubbornly fished near the bottom and caught very little. When I finally started fishing shallow I began taking fish, Now my favorite depth at Langara is fifteen pulls.

The standard Langara chinook rig is a ten foot rod, a single action reel, a three to six ounce sinker and a ten foot leader. Cut plug herring are the universal bait of choice. The baits are cut to spin in a tight "bullet" roll.

Trolling speed is usually dead slow. Many guides kick the motor out of gear every thirty seconds to let the bait flutter down deep. Strikes often come when the boat begins moving forward again.

Don’t be afraid to expiration with what works best in your part of the world. in have had excellent success at Langara fishing Zzinger jigs in the 2 ½ and 4 ounce sizes. A few year back no one was catching fish until a Lure Jensen tackle representative tried using Diamond d King spoons fished deep. He limited in nothing flat as did everyone else who could get their hands on the spoons.

What To Bring
All Langara lodges provide top notch rain gear and boots, don’t waste valuable space bringing your own. Do pack lots of high quality long underwear, wool sweaters, gloves and a top notch waterproof hat. Even in summer Langara is often cool and usually wet. plan for the worst and hope for the best.

If you don’t like fishing with the Canadian style "knuckle buster" single action reels, bring your favorite from home. All the lodges have excellent mooching rods and heavy duty halibut gear. if you want to jig for salmon or bottomfish bring your own jigging rod. in always bring my Lamiglas "Puget Jigger" which works well for all species except big halibut.

Be sure to bring a good camera and a ton of film. You will want to bring back photos of the spectacular scenery as well as of the big one that didn’t get away.

Humpback whales are a common sight at Langara as are eagles, sea lions, Minke whales and island deer.

I always pack my gear in a dry bag that can double as a camera bar and rain gear storage bag in the boat. Even on the best of days the boat will be wet in the morning and often will be wet all day.

Choosing A Lodge
All the Langara lodges offer excellent fishing, great food and top flight gear. Many Langara lodges offer only unguided fishing, and some offer your choice of guided or unguided angling. You have your choice of land based lodging or floating lodges and you have a choice of length of stay and arrival and departure dates. Some lodges offer all the amenities of a posh resort including exercise rooms, hot tubs, masseuse etc., others are more basic. You will find that all the Langara lodges will do everything they can to please you and to assure a great trip. before you call a lodge decide what species you want to target, when you want to go, if you want to fish guided or unguided and whether you are looking for a luxury resort setting or a basic fishing camp. Langara has whatever you want, but it’s up to you to be sure what you are looking for.

Lodges Serving Langara Island - In Alphabetical order:

Langara Lodge - The first lodge in the area. One of best lodges of the area - 1-800-668-7544

West Coast Fishing Club - The most luxurious lodge at Langara, houses guests in opulence atop the south side of the island. Anglers fish from professionally appointed Boston Whalers. Guides are available. 1-888-432-6666

Westwind Tugboat Adventures - "Follow the Fish". Fish from a luxurious tugboat, with all the comforts of home and more. These folks have been pampering anglers for over 20 years, with great service and great fishing.