Rivers Inlet, BC
Known around the globe for it’s magnificent scenery and unparalleled salmon fishing, the waters of Rivers Inlet teem with some of the largest Coho and Chinook Salmon in the world.
In fact, more 50 to 60 pound Chinook salmon are caught in this fjord-like inlet each year than in any other area in North America. Full of energy and fight, these salmon can battle for hours, over incredible distances.
Rivers Inlet lies within the Great Bear Rainforest, the planets last large expanses of coastal temperate rainforest. At 8+ million acres, it is 5 times the size of Banff National Park and represents one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. With an unmatched biological output of 500 tons per acre, it’s 40 percent greater than tropical rain forests.
Rivers Inlet has 12 runs of Chinook and 21 documented runs of Coho salmon indigenous to its waters, and represents the epicenter of BC’s salmon producing areas with over 20 streams, rivers, and feeder creeks supporting the annual spawning rituals of all five salmon species. Rivers Inlet long history of commercial fishing and canneries has given way to the adventurous angler who pry its craggy shoreline and steep granite walls in search of North America’s largest salmon, the Wannock Chinook.
THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST:
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Coastal temperate rainforest
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Unmatched biological output of 500 tons per acre, 40% greater than tropical rainforests
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8 million acres in size, and possesses the rarest of environmental qualities; critical mass
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9 times the size of Olympic Park
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5 times the size of Banff National Park
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Twice the size of the Serengeti
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Home to salmon, wolves, eagles and Brown and Kermode bears
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Rivers Inlets is known for the largest and most dense population of brown bears in Canada
Rivers Inlet, British Columbia
Why Rivers Inlet? Wonderfully remote yet easily accessible, Legacy Lodge offers a premier sport fishing experience found nowhere else in the world.
The Great Bear Rain Forest not only holds the greatest concentration of brown bears,
but the largest bears.
Rivers Inlet was long recognized as the best trophy bear hunting area in North America. In November, 2017 The BC Government banned Grizzly Bear trophy hunting. While the conservation measure was widely celebrated, it will take years to see significant improvements in numbers.
Grizzly bears and brown bears are technically the same species, Ursus arctos, the difference between these two mammals is actually based on where they live and what they eat. The Brown bear is larger due to its access protein and fat (the salmon). The term “grizzly” comes from their fur’s color, with gray typically on their shoulders and hump.
Females generally are first able to reproduce between 4 and 10 years of age, and thereafter, will reproduce every 3 to 5 years. The number of cubs in a litter depends upon the female's body weight. Mating occurs between early May and mid-July with cubs born between the end of January and early March. A mother brown bear will remain with her young for 3 to 5 years during a 20-25 year lifespan.
The average male brown bears weight 500 lbs. while an average female weights 335 lbs. In summer through autumn, a brown bear can double its weight from the spring, gaining up to 300 lbs. of fat, which it relies on to make it through the winter.