Campbell River

Campbell River sits on Discovery Passage, where the narrowing channel concentrates migrating salmon and the tide runs hard through Seymour Narrows. Sport fishing built the town's reputation from the 1920s, when the Tyee Club was founded with a rule that still holds: to register a tyee, a chinook over thirty pounds, it must be taken from a rowboat on light tackle without a motor, so members are rowed out at dawn in small clinker boats. Seymour Narrows held Ripple Rock, a twin-peaked hazard that sank dozens of vessels until it was removed in 1958 in one of the largest non-nuclear peacetime explosions.

What you actually see

• The Tyee Club rowboats - dawn fishing under century-old rules, no motors.
• Seymour Narrows - a tidal channel where Ripple Rock was blasted away in 1958.
• The Discovery Passage - salmon migration and heavy tidal current.
• The Museum at Campbell River - First Nations collections and logging history.

When to go

July to September for salmon; the tyee season is tightly defined and short. Whale watching runs in summer. Winter is quiet with storm-watching on the outer coast.

Honest expectations

Fishing is heavily regulated with openings that change year to year, and closures happen. Charters are expensive. The town itself is functional rather than scenic.

Nearby

Strathcona park lies west; Quadra Island is a short ferry across.