August 9th Billy Proctor at Proctors’ Bay

August 9^th        Billy Proctor at Proctors’ Bay  

Carl and I take ExTerra the short 2 miles to Echo Bay where we tie up for a few hours and hike across the island to visit Billy Proctor and his museum.  Walt and Odile met him back in 2003 when he came nearby their anchorage off Eden Island to retrieve his crab pots.  Just like the photos in the guidebooks we find Billy on the front porch of his museum reading a magazine from the 1950’s about fisheries and boating, his trusty dog Buster at his feet. 

Tied up at Echo Bay

We talk for quite some time.  He seems glad to have someone to talk seriously about fisheries issues and not simply fishing.  We ask how long he has lived here.  “I moved here in 1961 from Freshwater Bay.”  His wood salmon trawler “Ocean Dawn” was commissioned in 1993.  When she had 100,000 miles on her “oily, leaky GM engine” he had the engine removed and dipped in a tank of “something caustic” that was heated to 800 degrees.  “She came out looking like new” he said with a smile. 

We spend over an hour looking at his carefully crafted museum.  He built the structure and laid the flooring, giving it some nice angles and patterns.  His hand made glass covered cases hold a treasure trove of local obsidian points and rock mortar and pestles.  

Trade beads from Vancouver’s time and a wealth of bottles of all shapes and sizes are artfully arranged as are a tremendous collection of cedar fishing plugs hanging like soldiers in a straight line just at the top of the walls.  There are small collections of historic magazines and newspapers.  “Just a lot of junk” he says although we all know it is more than that.  It is a history of this place and the surrounding areas where he has spent his entire life. 

Billy is also author of numerous books.  We purchase “Heart of the Rain Coast” his national bestseller co-authored by Alexandra Morton, a whale researcher.  “She may be out on the ketch.”  “The ketch” is the “Marten Sheen” we mentioned earlier that carries the banner “Canada, legislate fish farms out of the ocean.” 

Billy's Woodshed

He talks about his winter where he has Proctor Bay entirely to himself from October through March.  We note his approximately 900 square foot wood shed that is full to the brim of neatly stacked wood.  He grins.  “I only take Douglas fir.  Can’t stand to see them just drift by.”   

He does subsistence fishing dashing around almost daily in his small skiff; quillback rockfish are a favorite.  He does not talk much about his substantial involvement in fisheries improvement but we can see numerous plaques and certificates scattered about that  paint that picture.  

It is time to hike back to the boat.  We leave Billy and Buster peacefully enjoying the sunshine on the porch, content it seems with life in general.

Billy and Buster