CHUM

I grew up gill-net fishing. My last year fishing was on a gill-net boat during Chum season in the Salish Sea, the years when wild salmon was still a viable industry.

I recall a November evening off the coastline of Qualicum beach. The memory is so clear that I can feel the cold wind and see the moonrise. Every year the season began near the Skeena river for sockeye and ended in the Salish sea fishing for chum salmon. I recall thinking how good it would be to get back to my career as an artist.

The years flew by quickly, and I found myself enjoying the company of sports fishermen at Good Hope Cannery in Rivers Inlet. I was enjoying a conversation with a young man, Luke Allard, who told me of his love of fishing tiger chum late in the season. He described the large hooked nose and big teeth of the chum and how they turned purple and orange late in the year.

I knew I had to pay homage to the chum salmon and the years of salmon fishing that gave me a love for the sea, which remains with me to this day.