Willows Hotel, Campbell River. The Tyee
Club was organized here in the summer
of 1924.
30 pounders.
To fish here in Tyee season—July
15-September 15—at the mouth of
Campbell River, in a precarious clinker
built Painter rowboat afraid to wiggle,
forbidden from standing, angling the
“old ways” with classic single action
tackle, single barbless hooks, venerable
wooden plugs, and secretly modified
metal spoons—which collectors would
sell children to own—is by itself a
respected accomplishment open to all
but tested by few. To actually hook, fight
and boat a Tyee salmon—a chinook
weighing 30 pounds to the least, on
this classic tackle, in this historic pool,
50
would be a bonus gift from the fish
gods.
Campbell River’s Tyee Pool has long
been a fixture on my “some day” list, but
still I was startled when uncharacteristic
butterflies fluttered on the turbo-prop
flight from Vancouver International’s
South Terminal to the airstrip in Campbell River and hit high-vibrate on the
van shuttle to Painter’s Lodge.
Tyee or no Tyee, just to stay at this
storied rebuilt lodge (the original
burned Christmas Eve 1985), to drop a
line in this legendary pool, to fish the
old lures with single-action tackle, in
a classic row boat, during the height
explore:NW | The Official Magazine for kenmore air | Summer 2016
of Tyee season—would be fulfilling
enough. To land a fish and ring the bell
at Tyee Club, well that would beyond
description.
The pool is deceivingly simple. A
few hundred yards of eddies and grass
ribboned current lines washing into a
pea-gravel beach that is paralleled by
Spit Road. It’s where the freshwater
outfall of the Campbell River mixes with
the saltwater of Discovery Pass on the
Inside Passage and where Campbell River Tyee pre-spawners acclimate. Locals
say the big Chinook will move in and
out of the river up to half-a-dozen times
before finally committing to the spawn