Spring is Coming!

If you have already booked your 2018 trip, thank you & we look forward to seeing you soon!

Guest Testimonial

My family has been visiting the Rivers Inlet Sportsman’s Club since the mid-eighties & I have personally visited nearly every year since 1996. To say that I have made some of the finest memories of my life at this wonderful place would not do it justice… it is literally one of my favourite places on the planet.
I’ve been on family-style trips & on "just the guys" style trips, & the Sportsman’s Club happily caters to both. Fathers & sons fishing together for their first time or a couple of buddies enjoying their annual “boys get-away” in the great outdoors & the shenanigans that go with it are both commonplace here… not to mention Moms (my mother has caught the biggest fish in the family going back 30 years) daughters & wives as well.
The Sportsman’s Club is a family-run business, & the family seems to also include all of the staff that work through the summers each year. They are hardworking, attentive, & encouraged to be engaging & friendly with the guests (which they do a great job of)!
The food is plentiful, diverse & very high quality, & there is a wonderful selection of wine, beer & spirits so that you are well equipped to enjoy an adult beverage after a long day on the water (while bragging about your conquests of course)!
Ok so the important stuff… the fishing! If you like to catch BIG King/Spring/Chinook salmon, hard-fighting coho salmon, or halibut big enough to sink your boat… this is the spot! Each member of my family consistently "limits out" every year, leaving our freezers filled with fish until we return the next year.
I’ll never forget the time my Dad & I got a 39 lb. Chinook together while he had a cast on one arm, or the countless memories I’ve made with Simon (Sportsman’s "everyman", Director of Fishing, Host, Entertainer, you name it!) & the rest of the guides out on the ocean.
I highly recommend the Sportsman’s Club to anyone who has a taste for the great outdoors, catching big fish, or making lifelong memories.
James M, Vancouver BC

Horseradish Crusted Salmon with Beet Sauce

Ingredients:
A 1-inch piece fresh ginger, 1 1/2 cups finely grated peeled fresh horseradish root (about 5 ounces), 1 shallot, finely chopped, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, 1/2 cup dry white wine, 1/4 cup whipping cream, 2 cups fish stock or bottled clam juice, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar,2 tablespoons olive oil, 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled, 3 medium beets, trimmed, 3 tablespoons sour cream, 4 tablespoons (about) water, 6 x 6-to-8 ounce salmon fillets

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Place beets, ginger and garlic in small glass baking dish. Cover with foil and bake until beets are tender, about 1 hour. Cool. Peel beets, ginger and garlic; place in blender. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add shallot and thyme; saute 4 minutes. Add fish stock and wine; simmer until reduced to 1 1/4 cups, about 10 minutes. Add fish stock mixture and vinegar to beet mixture in blender. Blend until smooth, thinning with water to sauce consistency if too thick. Mix horseradish and cream in small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. (Beet sauce and horseradish mixture can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover separately; chill.) Preheat oven to 425°F. Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3 salmon fillets to skillet; cook just until golden, about 2 minutes per side. Arrange salmon, skin side down, on large baking sheet. Repeat with remaining salmon. Spread horseradish mixture atop salmon. Bake until salmon is cooked through, about 12 minutes. Bring beet sauce to simmer in pan, stirring. Remove from heat. Mix in sour cream. Season with salt and pepper. Place salmon on plates. Spoon sauce around salmon.

Ocean Sunfish/Mola Mola

Ocean currents & temperatures play a big part in the dynamics of what is happening in our oceans & affects the whole food chain. Some years we get warmer currents than normal & we end up with all sorts of unusual creatures in our waters including mackerel, sharks, tuna (offshore) & even one time a Mola Mola. We have had one of these critters hanging on the wall at the Lodge for many years now. It was spotted one day on the surface drifting with the current at one of our main fishing spots the Dome & was scooped up by one of our guides in his net. We sent it to the taxidermist to be stuffed & it until now we have really never fully researched this odd looking fish. Many guests have questioned me on it & there was lots of speculation that is was some sort of fish “Jackalope”.

On our recent travels we stayed at a hotel called the Mola Mola. Proudly pictured behind the front desk at the hotel was a picture of it’s namesake. I was inspired to investigate this “mystery fish” once & for all. The ocean Sunfish or Mola Mola is the heaviest known fish (with bones) that roams the seas. Our little guy on the wall in the lounge at the lodge was likely around 20 lbs. but adults can typically weigh between 500-2000 lbs! One of the largest on record was caught in 1910 & was estimated to be 3,500 lbs. They are thought to get a large as 5,000 lbs. They typically inhabit tropical to temperate waters so I guess in one of those warmer water years it drifted north with the current all the way up to Rivers Inlet.

They eat mostly jellyfish & obviously due to their size & the low nutrition level of their diet, they consume large amounts of them. Because of their bulk & docile demeanor they are sitting ducks to predators like sharks, killer whales & seal lions. However, they are protected from commercial harvesting internationally. Their shape can be almost square & resembles a flat fish head with a tail. They are usually found alone or sometimes in pairs. Originally researchers thought that the sunfish spent most of its time drifting around on the surface with the wind, tide & currents of the ocean. Surprisingly it was discovered that they can swim 15 miles or more in a day at their top speed of 2 MPH. And they don’t just bask in the sun on the surface as their name suggests, they can dive up to 2000 ft. & spent a large amount of time a depths in excess of 500 ft. Click here for more information about this truly odd & amazing fish!

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