My Teenage Years: 1964

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My Teenage Years: 1964

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A failure and a success

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Friends, pictured above is a Spring Salmon. A couple of important things happened to me in the summer of 1964 and they both involve salmon. One event was a failure and the other was a success - I was fifteen years old and I was about to find out just what kind of a person I really was.

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My father decided that I should go up to northern B.C. in a gillnetter and see what commercial fishing was like. I really liked the idea and I was eager to go. I remember packing everything including my brand new 22 calibre rifle. I bought this weapon and bullets with no questions asked from a local store. Things were different back then. Why you could even smoke in restaurants and movies if you really wanted to.

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So, me and this elderly fisherman headed up north in this tiny gillnetter. We made our way up through Georgia Strait and into the Johnstone Straits too. There was a narrow gap along the way where the tides ran swift and when we got there the steering wheel cable broke and we were swirling around in a swift moving current. Now, that was pretty exciting indeed. But, we got out of it eventually and moved on. But, once we got to the northern tip of Vancouver Island we could go no farther because the winds were too high - the crossing of the open ocean would be unsafe and very dangerous - so like all of the other gillnetters we had to wait for the storm to pass. And pass it did.

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Eventually we crossed the open waters of Queen Charlotte Sound and I had my very first real experience with the Pacific Ocean. I remember the huge swells rolling in one after the other from the west - they were enormous and breathtaking. Being on that small boat was like riding on a giant roller coaster over water. I have never been afraid of water and I like boats and I like fishing. This was exciting. But, it didn't take me long to find out that I was a land lubber - I was getting seasick and it was just awful. I wanted to throw up constantly and all I could do was to lie down and hope that this night mare would end as fast as it started. But, there was no cure for this madness, and no medicine. I just had to ride it out and hope the hell I survived in one piece. I guess my mentor knew right off the bat that I was not going to be much use to him in the catching of the salmon. What a disaster and what a disappointment.

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But, we finally made it to a little fishing village called Klemtu which is in a protected area north of the open waters. I was glad to get back on land. We bought some smokes and some bullets for my rifle. I remember taking pop shots at the seals and other creatures swimming about. We did manage to get one fishing trip in before I would go home. But, it was a bad set if I recall and no salmon just a bunch of junk fish came in the net. I guess we got the wrong tide or something. I really did not know much about the intricacies and techniques of the trade and I never found out. So, things were going poorly all around it seemed. I cannot remember how long I lasted, but I do not think it was very long at all. My apprenticeship as a commercial fisherman was to going to come to a close and I knew that I would never fish salmon for a living. It just wasn't in me. I like the water, but this kind of ocean water and me did not see eye to eye.

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I remember taking a seaplane from some village and I think I flew down to Campbell River to catch a bigger plane to Vancouver. The details are a little sketchy now so I hope you don't hold that against me. But, I remember jumping into the bigger plane and I was packing my 22 caliber rifle and all of my other gear with me. Nobody said boo, so that was OK by me. Actually, I never thought much about it since once I got to Vancouver and took a bus home nobody cared that I was packing a rifle with me. Things were just different back then in 1964.

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Once I got home I found a nice surprise waiting for me. It was a big Spring salmon that I had won in a contest. I got a salmon and a carton of Sportsman cigarettes. That was my prize. I had written a little story and sent it in to the local television station. The show was called ' Tides and Trails ' and was hosted by Ted Peck. At the end of each segment of the show they would read out somebody's ' Tall tale '. Well, my tall tale had won while I was gone. My story was basically this: I was out fishing with a bunch of guys and we started to cook the fish after we caught them. But, we noticed that nobody had any salt to put on the fish, so we all started crying on the fish so as to get the salt from our eyes and onto the fish. That is the story line that won the contest. So, they read my story on television and I won the Salmon and the smokes. And, that was the beginning of my literary career. So, I may have failed in some manly endeavour, but it certainly was not the end of the world.

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Here is a sample of the kind of music I liked in 1964 when I was fifteen years old:

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Diane Renay - Navy Blue
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