Words & Photos by Entourage member Tyler Ravelle
It’s not very often Ry Camz (Ryan Cameron) of Cameron Ocean Adventures has a sunny Sunday off. His weekends are normally filled with whale watching tours, fishing excursions and wildlife adventures. A last-minute cancellation meant his boat was going to be sitting empty on one of the most epic days of this early summer. Coming up with a last-minute plan he sent out a few late texts the evening prior, to who he would describe as the “boys”.
BN3TH Entourage ambassador Noah Cohen, a lifelong Tofino local and professional surfer was first in line. Fortunately, the surf was very small that sunny day making it a lot easier to pull him away from waves and onto the boat. Another long-term Entourage member Erik Gelling was meant to be on a flight to meet his girlfriend in Vancouver, with the standby flight list already full he ended up with an open afternoon. On the phone with Ry, rushing back to Ucluelet to meet us at the docks, young Reed Platenius, an up and coming Canadian Surfer extended his stoke about Ry’s boat over Instagram and was gifted a quick invite to come net fish for us. I happen to live with Ryan, so when this impromptu trip came up, I was more than happy to join in, camera in hand.
Normally a fisherman likes to leave at sunrise, a 6am start on the water leads to a higher chance of landing good fish. However, our day was not about fishing. It was a day for the boys to get out in the fresh air, enjoy a few bevies and take the opportunity to get a nice bronze-on together. With a mellow 11 am departure time, we were able to sleep in, make our morning coffee, slip into our boardies and BN3TH’s, pack a bag of supplies and head out to the boat.
The crew rallied together as we met on the docks in Ukee. Getting aboard the boat we came up with a rough plan to head out on the open ocean, drop a few lines and float along while we enjoy the sun. Ry brought us to a nice underwater shelf close to town, he had been scoring there all week and figured we would have similar luck. We threw our lines down, grabbed a few beers and before we could even get a few sips in we scored our first halibut. With that first catch setting the tone for the day, it was obvious we were in the right spot, with the right captain. It seemed like minutes would go by before our next catch. With 4 fishing licenses onboard, and wanting to only catch what we’d eat, it meant we were able to bring in 4 halibut and 4 salmon total. Within the hour, Noah, Erik and Reed had all pulled up a Hali each. We reached our limit on that fish before we could even finish a beer! Bringing the lines up to a higher elevation we set our sights on catching a few salmon next.
Salmon fishing is really quite mellow, you set your depth on the downrigger and gently troll hoping for a bite. We stood there in amazement when we noticed both rod ends dive down almost immediately. We had hooked a doubleheader. Erik and Noah on both rods, Reed on the net ready to pull them up, the crew were all working together. One after another they reeled in some nicely sized Salmon. A quick bonk and straight into the ice they went. I put the camera down for a brief moment and was able to pull in one as well. We had one fish left to catch on our licenses and without skipping a beat, reeled in our final fish of the day with no hesitation. It seemed like everything was working in our favour. We scored 8 beautiful fish in under 2 hours, respecting the oceans and reeling in our share and no more, using the entire fish. Keeping the balance of how it’s meant to be.
Erik is wearing BN3TH Trippy Sunset, made from ultra-soft, breathable, lightweight Tencel™ Modal.
With a cooler full of fish, we decided to slowly make our way back to town. Captain Ry’ had gone over and above for us. Showing us his little honey hole, bringing us on his stunning boat, we cruised back with giant smiles. These are the days we live for; days with friends, sipping cold beers and reeling in dinner, enjoying the sun and laughing together. I often find the best adventures are the ones without a plan and this was one of them, coming back to the dock and telling the other boats how much fish we caught in that little bit of time was such a reward. We walked proudly back to the trucks with bags of freshly caught pacific fish, eyes glued to our haul. We all knew that was a day to remember.
