The day this paper comes out, I’ll be gone fishin’. My dad and I will be flying to the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia to go after some big salmon.

We’ve been doing these trips for several years now. I’ve caught a 180-pound halibut in Alaska, a 59-pound halibut near the tip of Vancouver Island, a 42-pound salmon on the west coast of the island, and many others of both kinds in 20-40 pound range — and these aren’t just fish stories, I’ve got pictures to prove it. My dad’s done just as well.

To date, the first one is still the best. The first time we went to the west coast of Vancouver Island, in 1990, we went out late in the day with a guide named Mike. We went out of the harbor and down the coast and trolled (rode slowly in the boat with our lines in the water) for about three hours and nothing was happening. We were starting to talk about going in. Then my dad got a bite. After some considerable battling with the big fish, my dad finally pulled it in: a big, fat, salmon that looked to be in the 25-30 pound range.

I was jealous. But I didn’t have to wait long – soon there was bite on my line. I grabbed it and my line started spinning like crazy, making a high-pitched “whrrrrrrrrrrrrr” sound. The fish was taking out my line. It was bigger than the other one.

As I had never fished for salmon before, Mike was yelling at me the whole time, telling me to reel when the fish stopped running, and then to pull the tip up to keep the rod in my hand and to pull the fish closer.

“Keep that tip up,” I can still hear him yelling. I did, as much as I could. Then I’d tip it down and reel, and pull it back in. And then the fish would run again, negating the ground I gained.

This must have gone on for a good 10 or 15 minutes. My left bicep and forearm were quivering from holding up the weight and force of the fish. Finally, I gained ground. I got him close enough to the boat for Mike to reach out, net him and pull him in.

“Woo hoo!” we both yelled as he gave me a high five. I had caught my first-ever salmon and it was a whopper — definitely bigger than the first.

Then we fired up the engine and roared back up the coast for the harbor, directly into the sun as it set into a patch of puffy clouds, with beams shining through onto the water. It was a great moment.

Back at the dock, we did the weigh-in. My dad’s was 28, mine 42.

Another time, a few years later, we went back to the same area and really cleaned up, hauling in eight salmon apiece in the 20-pound range over two days. We could have caught more but we were at the limit. And making it even more fun was the fact that the people in the boats near us didn’t seem to be catching much. Plus, we had a lot of fish in the freezer for the winter.

Another time we went out with an Indian guide named Dave. He lived on a reservation on the west coast of Vancouver Island and, because of his native status, was able to take us fishing into areas that were off limits to other guides. We did very well and when we got back to the dock we were greeted by a number of smiling native kids. When Dave cut open the fish and tossed their guts aside, the kids picked up the innards and squished them through their hands.

In 2000 we stayed at a lodge and fished in southeast Alaska with six guys, all friends with each other, from the Yakima area. These guys were full of off-color jokes ­ to use a polite term ­ and gave each other quite the bad time. It being in June in Alaska, one of them commented that the undershorts of one of the bigger members of the group could be draped over the window to block out the light at night.

Most of the time we’ve done well fishing, but two years, 1997 and 1999, we were skunked. But most of the time, the fishing is really secondary, at least for me (my dad might not agree). In the places we’ve visited we’ve seen eagles close up, swooping down to grab fish out of the water; a pod of about 20 porpoises jumping into and out of the water as they passed near our boat, near Port Hardy, B.C.; minke whales in Canada and humpback whales in Alaska.

We’ve seen some unbelievable scenery ­ snowcapped mountains rising above Chatham Strait in Alaska; huge lakes, harbors and the ocean on the west coast of Vancouver Island; flying in a float plane through fjords near Nootka Island, B.C. and just the scenery out the window of the plane while flying to Alaska.

Plus, we get to spend a little dad-son time together. That alone makes it worthwhile.

Bill Sheets is editor of the Edmonds edition of The Enterprise.