Vancouver for Emily's wedding
It's been a while since my last entry. A lot of things have happened. I've left my job and I am going to be moving to the Caribbean in September to start at a new firm. At the moment I have almost 4 months off to travel and generally enjoy myself, so here I find myself on my first trip over to Vancouver to my cousin Emily's wedding.
We flew from London on Wednesday afternoon and arrived Wednesday night local time. We went for sushi with my Uncle Henry and Aunt Linda and my cousins Ben and Emily (and her soon to be husband Keith).
Sushi in Vancouver is something else. First, you've got sea-fresh fish, and secondly, the price differential between here and London is incredible. In London at an average sushi restaurant you'd pay between £5 and £10 for two pieces of Toro sushi (the much sought-after fatty tuna). Here in Vancouver at the restaurant we went to it was $1.60 Canadian per piece. A full meal for 7 people including a few beers came to what a meal for two would cost at a London sushi restaurant.
Prior to flying over, I had arranged to go fishing for salmon. Last time I was over in Vancouver, those of you who follow my blog will remember I went twice and caught two nice (but small) salmon then, although I was only able to keep one, a Coho (see September 2005 archives for the details). I went to the same charter company which was excellent (Bonnie Lee Fishing Charters on Granville Island market), and it happens that the owner went to school with my uncle, so he sorted out for my cousin Ben and I to go out fishing with two of his best skippers Gary and Terry for 5 hours yesterday.
We set some crab pots on the way out, and then within about 15 minutes of dropping the fishing lines, we got a bite. Terry set the hook for me and released it from the downrigger, then it was up to me to bring it in. I've been deep sea fishing a bunch of times before, but I've always had pretty lousy luck, and this was the first large fish that I had really had the opportunity to try to land. It ended up taking me over 10 minutes to land the fish, and when it came in I could see why. It was an absolute monster. Photos below, but it weighed 27 lbs and fought extremely hard. We ended up catching three Chinook salmon - with the other two weighing about 10 and 15 lbs, and getting 16 Dungeness crabs too. All in all we came back with about $1200 worth of salmon and crab, so it was a great day's fishing!
Today is Emily's wedding, so we are just getting ready for that. After today, I've got another 6 days or so in and around Vancouver, and then am off to Toronto to see my brother and sister and nephews, and then down to the British Virgin Islands to find somewhere to rent for September.
Pictures are below.
Ken
We flew from London on Wednesday afternoon and arrived Wednesday night local time. We went for sushi with my Uncle Henry and Aunt Linda and my cousins Ben and Emily (and her soon to be husband Keith).
Sushi in Vancouver is something else. First, you've got sea-fresh fish, and secondly, the price differential between here and London is incredible. In London at an average sushi restaurant you'd pay between £5 and £10 for two pieces of Toro sushi (the much sought-after fatty tuna). Here in Vancouver at the restaurant we went to it was $1.60 Canadian per piece. A full meal for 7 people including a few beers came to what a meal for two would cost at a London sushi restaurant.
Prior to flying over, I had arranged to go fishing for salmon. Last time I was over in Vancouver, those of you who follow my blog will remember I went twice and caught two nice (but small) salmon then, although I was only able to keep one, a Coho (see September 2005 archives for the details). I went to the same charter company which was excellent (Bonnie Lee Fishing Charters on Granville Island market), and it happens that the owner went to school with my uncle, so he sorted out for my cousin Ben and I to go out fishing with two of his best skippers Gary and Terry for 5 hours yesterday.
We set some crab pots on the way out, and then within about 15 minutes of dropping the fishing lines, we got a bite. Terry set the hook for me and released it from the downrigger, then it was up to me to bring it in. I've been deep sea fishing a bunch of times before, but I've always had pretty lousy luck, and this was the first large fish that I had really had the opportunity to try to land. It ended up taking me over 10 minutes to land the fish, and when it came in I could see why. It was an absolute monster. Photos below, but it weighed 27 lbs and fought extremely hard. We ended up catching three Chinook salmon - with the other two weighing about 10 and 15 lbs, and getting 16 Dungeness crabs too. All in all we came back with about $1200 worth of salmon and crab, so it was a great day's fishing!
Today is Emily's wedding, so we are just getting ready for that. After today, I've got another 6 days or so in and around Vancouver, and then am off to Toronto to see my brother and sister and nephews, and then down to the British Virgin Islands to find somewhere to rent for September.
Pictures are below.
Ken
Labels: bonnie lee, canada, charters, crab, fishing, salmon, sushi, vancouver
posted by Ken at 7:23 pm
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