The photo to the left shows Suzanne Cloutier with a 41.5 lb chinook. Our eyes followed our fishing line to the spot where it entered the water. A large dorsal fin broke the surface just a few yards off our port side. The broad spotted back and thick wrist before the tail showed it was a chinook, and a big one. We had followed this fish for over half an hour since it had chowed down my wife Suzanne's cut plug herring, and this was the first glimpse we'd had of it. With two powerful strokes of its broad tail, it arched its back and sounded.

Her arms were cramping up. She had to constantly switch hands on the rod to get relief. The rod bent over double as she put pressure on the fish to make it move, but it was tiring her out as well.

As we motored along, I thought about the tyee I had landed the day before. Using the same pressure that Suzanne had on her fish, I'd had no problem turning my fish or making it move when it sulked down deep. Yes, Suzanne's fish had to be a lot bigger!

It was like a Honda Civic trying to stop a 16-wheeler. There was only one way: let it run out of gas. The tyee never made any reel-screaming runs, or heart-stopping leaps like the northern coho we had caught earlier, but always let Suzanne know that it could pull line out at will.

After an hour, we started to see the fish coming to the surface more frequently, its broad back and high dorsal fin moving parallel to our path. The fish seemed to tease us, revealing itself but staying a tantalizing 50 feet away from the boat. Luckily, there wasn't another boat within a quarter-mile of us. The fish had led us a mile from where we had first hooked it, well away from the pack of boats in which we had been fishing.

Finally, after another agonizing 20 minutes, the fish began rolling on its side. Although Suzanne was exhausted, I encouraged her to do short pumps on the rod, and wind quickly on the reel. Only six inches to a foot at a time, in agonizingly slow motion, she managed to get her tyee to come towards the boat. It looked huge in the clear water. It finned itself just out of reach. I asked Suzanne to reel her weight right to the tip of the rod, and with one last heave over her left shoulder, she pulled the fish to my waiting net. As the great fish slipped to the bottom of the bag, Suzanne collapsed into the fighting chair and shook.

Suzanne's fish dwarfed the tyee I had landed at the same spot the day before. The 41.5 lb. trophy was the biggest fish she had ever caught, and bigger than any salmon I've taken yet.

Hakai Beach Resort lies at the far end of sheltered Pruth Bay, on the northwest tip of Calvert Island. The privately-owned 215-acre resort is 250 air miles north of Vancouver, and is situated within world-renowned Hakai Recreational Preserve, a 360,000-acre provincial marine park. With Fitzhugh Sound to the east and Queen Charlotte Sound to the west, the Preserve is a pristine, rugged archipelago consisting of hundreds of islands, islets and reefs, including Goose Island on the west, the southern half of Hunter Island, Hecate Island, and the northern half of Calvert Island.

The region is named for Hakai Pass, a broad channel between Hunter and Hecate Islands. "Hakai" is a Heiltsuk word for "wide passage", and the Pass yawns about two miles across at its western entrance. It is in the region's myriad small channels and narrow passages that one can really appreciate the archipelago's stunning beauty. We were particularly impressed by the rocky, surf-carved shoreline of Choked Passage, the battered islets lining the route to the "Gap" off Sterling Island, and the peacefully calm waters of Spitfire Channel, where we could swear we were on a small lake.

		The serene waters of Pruth Bay are a popular anchorage for passing cruisers and sailors. Hakai Beach Resort's red roofs peek out from behind a veil of cedars bordering the bay, and the log buildings blend in harmoniously with their surroundings. The 10,000-square-foot main lodge is a striking cedar and glass structure.

It has 14 guest rooms, all with views of Pruth Bay. The rooms are beautifully decorated, and furnished with two queen-sized beds. Two rooms at either end of the lodge have lofts with additional beds, and are suitable for families. Each room also has a three-piece ensuite with a full-sized bathtub, and a deck or patio.

There are many special touches that we really appreciated. Umbrellas are available for walking on rainy days. Every room is provided with terry bath robes (monogrammed with the Hakai Beach Resort logo) to go out to the hot tub. The rooms have separate thermostats for baseboard heating in the bedroom, and fan heating in the bathroom. We had no trouble drying our swimwear and wet clothing in the bathroom overnight without needing to heat up the whole room.

For chocoholics, there are bowls of individually wrapped chocolate wafers. Even the rooms' clocks are a nice touch: made to look like old wooden Peetz reels, their alarm is the sound of the ratchet on a reel, with a voice-over that says, "Fish on, fish on!"

The great dining hall is located on the lodge's second floor. A staircase enters this hall from the centre of the room, and the spaciousness created by a 30-foot-high vaulted ceiling and floor-to-roofline glass is dramatic. The walls are adorned with animal skins, trophy heads, wildlife prints, and native art. Realistic fibreglass replicas of trophy halibut, coho, and tyee are also mounted around the room.

The dining tables surround a massive central fireplace. A mezzanine overlooks the dining hall, and is furnished with a TV and VCR, comfortable sofas, and reading lamps for use as a quiet lounge.

Food and drink are available all day in the dining hall. In addition to the main mealtimes, which are set by fishing schedules, there is a cooler with bottled water, juice, soft drinks, and beer, an open bar with hard liquor, ice and mix, hot drinks like coffee, tea or hot chocolate, and an ever-full tray of pastries.

The main meals are usually served buffet-style. A breakfast buffet starts at 5:30 a.m. with cold cereals, juice, and a large bowl of fruit salad. Starting at 6:00 a.m., hot breakfasts are also served, including eggs, bacon, sausages, French toast, and specialties like toasted bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese. Most anglers pack a lunch on full fishing days, making sandwiches from a selection of cheeses and cold cuts. Those who do decide to return to the lodge for lunch can enjoy a buffet of soup, salads, cold cuts, and hot items like seafood tortellini or (one of my favorites) spinach and feta cheese in crisp filo pastry. Cocktail time comes between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m., with appetizers like nachos or freshly-smoked salmon bellies.

The supper buffet offers a selection of beef, pork, poultry or seafood items, with dessert and coffee served by the staff. Some standout entrées during our stay included a delicious seafood curry chock-full of prawns and scallops over rice, and a fork-tender chicken breast in a spicy barbecue sauce. Suzanne, a bit of a chocoholic, thoroughly enjoyed the Grand Marnier chocolate mousse in an edible dark chocolate bowl. I found the mini-Pavlova with strawberries and Kiwi fruit both pleasing to the eye and refreshingly delicious.

With all that great food, we needed stable platforms when we went fishing. The resort has a fleet of seaworthy 17-foot Outrage and 16-foot Dauntless Boston Whalers. The 17-footers are for guided guests and the smaller boats for unguided guests, with no more than two guests per boat for comfort and safety. Each boat is powered by smooth, quiet, and smoke-free 50-hp. Honda four-stroke outboards. These boats can also be hired (guided or unguided, on an availability basis) by visitors who have come on their own to the area. The boats are very well equipped. Each has a Lowrance 25A fish finder, a VHF radio, four rod holders, a large landing net, gaff, Peetz halibut harpoon, and a huge cooler for a fish box. For the unguided angler, there is a choice of Daiwa Samurai Super Glass rods with matching M-One reels, or Shimano Canadian Custom CC405 LM rods with 1000GT reels. Both single-action reels have a one-way drag system. The lodge provides guided guests with custom Sage graphite rods and top-of-the-line Islander mooching reels.

Fishing hot spots can be found as close as 15 minutes from the resort. Spots relatively near the lodge include Odlum Point, Barney Point, Rattenbury Island, and the "Gap" on the north side of Hakai Pass. For the adventuresome, and those who want to tour some of the region's rugged beauty, the hour-plus trip to Spider Island is well worthwhile. Freshwater fishing is available at Koeye River, where there is the opportunity to view grizzly and black bears close up. Fishers keen on catching halibut should check out the waters off the South Pointer Islands, which teem with "chickens." Any trip in the area holds the potential to see passing pods of dolphins and killer whales.

All five species of salmon come through the Hakai region. The resort is open from July 1st to September 15th. Chinook are most abundant earlier in the season, with pinks, chum, and large northern coho appearing in August.

The fine service at Hakai Beach Resort reminded us of being on a cruise ship. Guest rooms are cleaned daily, and food and drink are available 24 hours a day. Resort manager Bob June uses each guest's pre-trip questionnaire to arrange correctly-sized Mustang flotation gear and boots, labeled and waiting in the "John Wayne" shed (yes, Wayne actually stayed there years ago). The boats are cleaned, refueled, and restocked with bait and tackle after each outing. A guest can fish all day, then read and relax in the mezzanine lounge, or soak in the hot tub beneath the cedars. On the lodge's ground level is a games room with a pool table, foozball game, and cappuccino maker. For the more active, an archery range, golf driving net, tennis court, and basketball court are available right behind the lodge.

Suzanne and I love to walk, and strolling the untracked sand of the 3,600-foot West and 3,000-foot North beaches was a perfect way to unkink our muscles after sitting in a boat all day. We relaxed listening to the surf, and watching the mists roll in at this isolated paradise.

Steve Corneau, one of the owners of the resort, said that he wanted a place where he would be happy as a guest. He wanted a place where an all-inclusive price meant just that, and where service would be important. When Suzanne and I visited, we found that Steve had succeeded on all counts.

For the trip of a lifetime to a resort in a truly spectacular setting, contact Hakai Beach Resort toll-free at 1-800-668-3474.