Campbel River, BC - provisioning/fishing

[Jd1]

Up until now, my trips where only up to 4 days long and I could easily bring everything I required. My current trip, Victoria to Campbell River, is challenging my provisioning job.
Everybody has been telling me that the fishing up here has been better than it has been for many many years. It even rated a front page story in the Victoria Times Colonist.
Since the stories pretty much say that you can walk over water on the fishes back and that a wet noodle dangled into the water will get you a fish, I was thinking that even somebody like me could catch a fish here and supplement the supplies.
I have now learned that the only way I can catch a salmon is if it jumps into the cockpit! It is pathetic but I am just not able to catch the little buggers
My excuse is lack of fancy equipment - no sonar to see where the fish are, no downrigger to get the lure where the salmon are hanging out and no live bait. Tried a buzz bomb for a couple hours today but that bombed
Since my fridge is almost empty, it would be nice if I could find a grocery store (and maybe buy a fish) but I have never had to resort to this. Forgive the stupid questions that follow but I thought I would ask them anyway ...
I could get a transient slip at a local marina but I am cheap and this would make the groceries extremely expensive. What do you guys do in this sort of situation? Would you find a nice spot to anchor (none close by but I can probably find something a bit further away) and take the dinghy in? How do you find out where you can land the dinghy ? Do you just find a likely spot on the shore? I believe that if there is such a thing as a dinghy dock at the marinas, there would be a charge for docking and I don't know at this point if there is a grocery store within walking distance.
Of course I could get a cab but again things add up rather quickly.
Also, how do you get over the fear that your dinghy or your motor will grow legs while you are shopping (don't have a dinghy lock yet) or that your unattended boat wasn't quite anchored right and is now careening downstream with a 5 knt tide current ?
I am single handing so I can't leave a centry on the boat and another one on the dinghy.
This sure isn't easy

Hmmm, a good time to start a diet

[bobofthenorth]

Campbell River is tricky - its a long walk from the marinas to Walmart. The answer to your immediate questions are that you stay at anchor for long enough to be sure the boat is going to be there when you get back. And then it helps if you have the ugliest dinghy at the dinghy dock - the chance of anyone stealing our 12' aluminum skiff with its 30+ year old Thunderbolt Mercury 9.8 HP noisemaker is really low. So if we're at the dinghy dock then you can go for the 2nd ugliest dinghy.

I'm sorry if that doesn't adequately address your concern. I admit that occasionally I think about someone stealing our dinghy when I leave it at False Creek but in Campbell River it would never cross my mind.

[smac999]

how can you not fit 4+ days of food into a boat? I just packed 9 days worth into a kayack. you should be able to fit many months worth. water may be trickier.

it just won't all be fancy fresh food.

don't most places have government docks for this?

[Jd1]

Originally Posted by smac999

how can you not fit 4+ days of food into a boat? I just packed 9 days worth into a kayack. you should be able to fit many months worth. water may be trickier.

it just won't all be fancy fresh food.

don't most places have government docks for this?

LOL - inexperience, lack of preparation and not looking forward to start on the canned/dry rations. Got loads of water though

Your are right though, it's not like I am starving but I thought I would ask the question anyway in order to learn something.

[su2014]

I can give this advice for fishing between Campbell river and telegraph cove. a local advised us while there to buy these"glow in the dark" plastic green popper-type lures. the lure can be quikly re-charged with light from a stobe or camera-flash. then attach enough lead weights about 2 ft up from the lure with a good quality swivel on the reel side of the lead weights. these poppers were "made in Canada" and we purchased them from the "Canadian-tire store" in Campbell river. without a downrigger it is not hard to get them about 15-20 feet down. we caught "coho" right at the surface in some areas but mostly king/pink salmon would hit and its not important to go fast. it is important to keep recharging the lure so it glows and a camera-flash works great. we were using large flashers followed by live bait on harnesses, buzz-bombs, pink/chartuese hootchies, crocs, even dardevils without any great success until we came alongside a local reeling in a coho on one these green plastic poppers. the lure looks like a big muskie/barracuda lure but sure improved our luck. we miss fishing there some days but it was some crowded then and getting more crowded now I would think. the little tackle shop at telegraph cove also sold those "glow-in-the-dark " plastic poppers as well back then. good luck.

[youngson]

troll with a luer and a flasher or maybe even a deep six for salmon, jig buzz bombs or cod jigs at the bottom for halibut, lincod, rockfish etc...