Fishing First Class and Resort Luxury on Haida Gwaii
The Ultimate Sports Fishing Experience Awaits You at QCL
Sipping a coffee and daydreaming, surrounded by the splendour of Haida Gwaii, I watch the steady pulse of the rod tip as the bait flashes thirty feet below. Suddenly, there’s a new pattern at the tip of the rod— quick and repeated pulls point the tip towards the deep. I eye the end warily and raise my hand towards the reel.
“Wait for it…” my guide breathes at my shoulder, and then the rod dips deep, the tip some three feet into the water. He yells “Now!” so I rip the rod from the holder and the reel starts to scream a banshee whine.
“That’s a nice big Spring! You’d better hold on!”
Half an hour later, a tremendous fortypound Chinook is on the deck of the boat and even though I’m exhausted, I’ve got a smile on my face that just won’t quit. I’ve fished before, but this perfect day, this fish—this is something I will never forget, and I hope I get the chance to do it again.
“We get that a lot,” says Queen Charlotte Lodge VP of Sales and Corporate Relations Brian Clive. “So many guests tell us their holiday was a ‘once in a lifetime experience’— and then they end up coming back every year for the rest of their lives!”
And why not? As bucket list destinations go, the QCL checks every box and then some— it’s perhaps the best North Pacific sports fishing experience available on the planet, in a wilderness setting so beautiful it really has to be seen to be believed. Throw in luxury accommodations, world-class service and fivestar food and wine, and the lodge’s enviable seventy percent return-booking numbers begin to make sense.
“Guests usually show up for the fishing experience,” Brian says, “but they come back again and again because of the total package.”
Visitors arrive at the lodge in a helicopter and choose their accommodations from one of six completely unique guest lodges. Their food preferences have already been noted and the personal and attentive service helps make every aspect of the QCL Experience super-organized, clean, comfortable and enjoyable.
The Queen Charlotte Lodge is a particular favourite with corporate clients, and big hitters from Corporate North America keep coming back for the ‘wow factor,” according to Brian. “How are you going to really impress a valued client or reward a great team of employees? Golf trips and Vegas are okay, but they can be risky if the gambling goes sideways or the client has a terrible day on the links. Here, everybody wins every day!”
You don’t have to be a corporate client to be impacted by that “wow factor” either, because other than a full-blown safari or a commercial flight to the moon there aren’t a whole lot of family vacation, birthday surprise, retirement or even honeymoon destinations that can make your loved ones feel as special as their time at the Queen Charlotte Lodge.
“You will never forget the great people, the amazing food and wine and your time on the water in this beautiful place,” says Brian. “We hear it all the time and we never want to stop hearing it, because QCL is all about longterm relationships—our guests become our friends and we can’t wait to see them again.”