With a several trips under our belts and the fish starting to come on we welcomed aboard my cousins and their spouses. Kathy and Dale, Bob and Fredrica, and Trish and Dirk all gathered in Prince Rupert to spend their fishing vacation with their favorite cousin, 🙂  With good weather we headed out of the harbour and with cousins Kathies wish to see some eagles we met our friends in Venn pass returning from their bear watching trip. With a few tidbits to feed the eagles the Adventure tours boat treated us to a magnificent show of up to 20 eagles swooping and diving over our heads and around both boats. Needless to say Kath was happy. Off to the Moffat islands to warm up our halibut rods and then set the prawn traps and enjoy a feed of fresh crab. The next morning we ran from a bit of wind but upon reaching the top of Dundas we were treated to some great fishing with some hard fighting Springs, Coho and even a Chum that put up a great battle. The highlight of the day was a visit from the resident orcas also in pursuit of spring salmon. Side by side with a group of porpoises they accompanied our boat for over an hour with some spectacular close encounters that had everyone’s cameras clicking. Admittedly this was a little hard on the fishing but with some nice fish already in the box everyone enjoyed the once in a lifetime experience of viewing these awesome whales up close. Day three saw some more amazing action for salmon as we continued to find  both springs and Coho in some of our favorite spots. The days highlight was once again provided by the marine mammals as a large school of porpoises descended on our fish area and swarmed the boat. Amazing in their speed and agility it was fun to watch until they decided that our fishing gear looked good enough to eat. When the rod slammed down and the reel lit up I new instantly this was not the prey we were after. After two of these encounters where I had to quickly cut the line we decided to let them do the fishing for a while and we went off in search of halibut. A good move as we quickly got into a bite that had all rods bending. A hectic hour later we had captured some nice ones and the trip was rapidly coming to a close. A treat to have both a charter and family, some great memories, a chance to reconnect and some awesome fishing. Who knows when we will all be together again but it was fun, thanks to the gang.