A Hawgust to Remember

The day was pure fishing magic.

It was August 2nd, and I was fishing an exploratory tack on Aristazabal Island on the BC Central Coast with an all-time crew of Trevor Gustafson and Mackenzie Moore. We had some decent Chinook salmon into the twenties and a beautiful day, but Hawgust had yet to deliver its Tyee bounty.

Around 6:30pm we pulled our lines for the 45-minute rip across Laredo Channel to McInnis Island, one of my favourite tacks in the world. Now this zone has long been a favourite highway for big Chinook and McInnis sits at the mouth of Milbanke Sound, which is serious big fish country. Infamous for Central Coast McInnis to Pine Island Marine reports, Milbanke also boasts legendary tacks like Cheney Point and Cape Mark.

When we hit McInnis in perfect light and calm, we were surprised by a lone Pursuit floating the tack. On board was a crew of half naked dudes, tunes cranked, on their last day cut plugging North from Vancouver. Super cool. Well, maybe except the half naked part. Anyway, Trevor and I carved up our cut plug herring and went naked ourselves: No flashers. No nothing. Two hooks and a sweet herring roll!

Within no time, the starboard rod cracked and line started absolutely melting off the ol’ slate Islander TR3. Now I’d been handing a lot of fish off and playing guide this past summer, so it was nice to have a ripping hawg on the line. The fish peeled line and fought like crazy. Trev drove the boat like a champ and I reeled for all I was worth. Twenty minutes later, among cheers of our buddies party trolling the Pursuit, we caught, sampled and released a beauty 45-pounder. As Trev and I watched it swim away, nothing but high fives and hell yeahs. We’d planned to anchor at McInnis that night, so we crawled around the corner, dropped hook and had a celebratory cold one. Or two.

Now the coolest thing about this particular Chinook was the clipped adipose fin, signifying hatchery and in all likelihood a fine Wannock River specimen. I’m fortunate to have worked on the Percy Walkus Hatchery in Rivers Inlet the past nine years, and when you know… you know. This was one of our Wannock babies…baby, I’ll be back up the Wannock for egg take mid-October this year… and I hope to see that fish one final time!

Thankfully that big Chinook got Hawgust rolling, and truth be known the season had been a grind for big fish. But this was pure end of summer trophy salmon fishing. As all things Chinook salmon go…there is nothing quite like Hawgust sometimes!

Some people spell it Hogust. Others pronounce it differently like “Hawg-oost!” Whatever way, Hawgust is the melting point and meeting place in the middle…where the month of August meets the Hawgs of British Columbia’s Coast.

Now just so we’re perfectly clear, hawgs are big Chinook salmon and usually Tyee class over 30 pounds. But early season, before the Grande Chinook do their migration to natal streams thing, a hawg could be a 22-pounder among a pile of 12-pounders. You get the idea.

On the British Columbia Central Coast Hawgust definitely means big fish. From Hartley Bay in the North to Rivers Inlet in the South, monster Chinook salmon bound for the Wannock River In Wuikinuxv Territory, make their way home from the wide open Pacific. So do a whole lotta other big Chinook of course.

Setting the table, so to speak, these larger fish are harder to track down in the open saltwater every season. They may be less plentiful, although the Wannock is a stable stock,, but with changing environmental conditions, warming sea temperatures and scattered bait, big Chinook are not just showing up on the same old tacks. Now they’re being referred to as “unicorns” or “needles in a haystack.” Some have even campaigned to have a Tyee re-classed to 20 pounds!

This I know for fact. For the past 3-4 seasons, the big Chinook haven’t been where they’re supposed to be. At least according to us habituated silly humans who show up on the same tacks at the same time every year…just expecting the fish to still be there. Oh man if it were only that easy. Are they running deeper? Way offshore? Where the hell are the big fish?

That was the big question in 2023 as Hawgust failed to deliver on the BC Central Coast and Great Bear Rainforest. Top anglers and lodges were reporting a big drop in big fish. Even the head of Rivers Inlet, which normally produces some magnificent fish, trolled relatively silent.

When we hit the Percy Walkus Hatchery that year for egg take, we were legitimately worried we would be grinding the river. But a couple gill net sets later, and the Wannock Chinook were rolling. The river was stuffed with big Chinook and we finished the egg take in record time.

So where did the big Wannocks run in 2023 if they all made it back to the river?

Back home on Denny Island near Bella Bella we readied the boat for our next Hawgust adventure… a Southbound trip to Rivers Inlet and Port Hardy. Now nothing breathes more energy into a crew than big fish success, so there was great Hawgust energy running over the Big Coast decks.

A quick 21/2 hour rip down to Duncanby Lodge and Rivers Inlet and I was kicking back with great fishing buddies Dave Logan and Kyle Morton. I’d been to Rivers a few weeks earlier and fishing was still scratchy, but the Tyees had started to roll at Duncanby so Logie, Kyle and I were amped.

We fished Rivers hard the next day and had some really nice Chinook. Kyle caught, sampled and released a ripping 33-pounder to end the day and we kicked back Duncanby style at sunset.

The next morning was classic Rivers Inlet Hawgust.

Kyle had to ditch us to go yacht cruising and coho trolling at Calvert Island, so Logie and I departed first light (for real) and headed into the inlet. Many will recall the abundance of pink salmon this summer and a huge number of them had stuffed Rivers Inlet. So Dave and I begrudgingly tacked through what seemed like a million pinks, rockfish, and smaller coho. It was exhausting, and we couldn’t keep a line in the water.

Out towards Wadham Point, we finally hit a patch of clean water so decided to hammer down and roll some bait. We finally had our morning coffee and shortly after, the starboard rod started melting. You know a Tyee Grande class hit when you see one…and this was. We were alone in the fog, middle of Rivers, hooked up to an absolute hawg.

Dave played the fish as he does and I drove the boat… towing the big slab out into the middle of inlet. We spent the next half-hour in a standoff but finally got the Chinook to our gunwale. Then we saw it and the gravity of the situation was upon us…HAWG! As Duncanby has been a pioneer in catch-and-release tyee fishing, Logie and I got the Chinook in the C&R net and brought her on back deck to remove hook and get samples. Quickly done, we got a fish pic with Dave and sent this beauty HATCHERY Wannock Chinook back into Rivers Inlet. So unbelievably cool and continued proof hatcheries can make big fish!

My time in Rivers Inlet was short, as I had to rip South to Port Hardy to meet Big Jim Henchke, his better half Nita Klatt and Jes McFarlen for an annual wrap to Chinook season. The boat ride was an easy breezy run around Cape Caution down and in a few hours we hit the Bait Shack in Bear Cove.

Well, when you get on a roll sometimes you don’t want it to end. And we were on a pretty good Hawgust run for sure. I’ve fished with Big Jim for over 15 years and he’s been one of BC’s most storied guides for over 55 years. Which is damn impressive. Unlike our weather in Hawgust.

Jim finally retired from guiding and doesn’t get out like he used to, but on this nice day he was back behind the wheel on his tack…fishing his rig. And wham. Starboard rod buckled again and line was once again melting from the TR3. Like any good guide Jim is always trying to hand off the rod…but there were no takers on this special day. I yelled “Jim…Hawg” and the old guy was locked in and back in his element.

For a few minutes time kinda stood still. It was almost surreal…like an angling scene out of the seventies. I drove the boat and Jes, Nita and I watched as Big Jim brought the Chinook to boat side. Damn. Bigger than we thought again. A quick tale of the tape gave us 41 pounds and Jim the second biggest fish at Bait Shack in Port Hardy for Summer 2025.

Legendary stuff and really, as good as fishing gets.

As we watched that Grande Tyee swim away, I was lost in the moment and grateful for such an amazing Hawgust week. From my hatchery 45 at McInnis with Trevor and a beauty day ender 33 with Kyle in Rivers. From the 51 I trolled up with Logie, the biggest fish in four years at Duncanby Lodge, to a nice 31 Jes quietly released in Hardy. And man…Big Jim’s tearjerker 41….it was definitely a Hawgust for the books! Awesome hawgs. All-time fishing buddies.

This Hawgust Memoir is dedicated to our entire Islander Team and the loving memory of Mike Chan #mikechanismycopilot

-Tim Milne

Since 2008, you’d be hard pressed to find an angler who has fished more stretches of British Columbia’s coastline than Tim Milne. Every summer Tim puts his Bridgeview BV30 powered by Mercury Marine in the water and travels up and down the coast fishing and filming as he goes for his TV series Big Coast.