As fresh snowfall continues to accumulate on the mountain, nearby at Heffley Lake, another quintessential winter experience is taking shape as ice begins to form across the water’s surface.
This is Campbell Bryk’s domain. Bryk, a life-long angler and a Sun Peaks local of 10 years, is a familiar sight on the frozen surface of Heffley Lake, taking guests on guided ice fishing tours as part of his Elevated Fishing Adventures outfit.
On the cusp of his ninth year as a guide, Bryk’s passion for ice fishing remains as strong as it did in his youth, fishing with family in his childhood province of Ontario.
“I’ve been fishing since before I can remember,” Bryk said. “It’s always been a big part of my family. The whole family gets out year-round. It’s always been a passion of mine.”
This passion followed him to Kamloops, as Bryk designed a business proposal for a guided fishing outfit for a school project in Thompson Rivers University’s Tourism Management program. It was here that the first ideas for Elevated Fishing began to take shape, the presentation catching the eye of Tourism Sun Peaks, whose members urged Bryk to bring the business to reality.
Without much knowledge of the Village, Bryk took the leap and moved to Sun Peaks the next winter and established the roots that Elevated Fishing Adventures is supported by today.
Elevated Fishing Adventures: n all-ages, all-background winter experience
The premise of the guided ice fishing experience is simple, and thoroughly Canadian in presentation. Offering tours three days a week, Bryk drives his guests out to the frozen shore of Heffley Lake for a four-hour tour that’s offered in the morning or late afternoon.
The experience is designed to offer guests the full ice fishing experience, one that requires no prior experience or gear, as Bryk provides everything from a heated tent to hole drilling and a simple lesson on fishing.
“I wanted to make an experience that was available to literally anyone. So if you’re in Sun Peaks, then I can get you out ice fishing and give you a pretty good chance of catching fish,” Bryk said.
It’s an opportunity for Bryk to reframe the stereotypical Canadian story of ice fishing, sitting on a bucket in -30 C conditions. A silent day where nobody speaks so as to not scare the fish.
“We put a speaker on and play music. You can yell as loud as you want. The fish can’t hear you,” Bryk joked. “It’s a heated ice fishing tent so there’s no temperature too cold. It can be -40 C outside and I’ll have 15 C above zero inside the tent. It’s very social. Everyone gets their own comfy chair.”
The guided adventure is another great way for people of all ages to try the sport of ice fishing. Bryk has welcomed people as young as nine months old to “a 97-year-old woman that comes out with me every single winter,” he said.
By the end of the tour, each guest has enough fish to enjoy a delicious meal, as the Rainbow Trout caught in Heffley Lake are cleaned, cut and prepared by Bryk and delivered to guests later that evening with a recipe and instructions on how to cook their catch.
“That is a big part of the Canadian experience,” Bryk said. “Fresh fish from a lake that they caught themselves.”
Turning a lifelong passion into a shared experience
Once a full-time tour, for the past three years, Bryk has run Elevated Fishing Adventures in a part-time capacity, maintaining a full-time position with the Sun Peaks Fire Department. But as the years passed, his spark has never wavered from the experience of sharing ice fishing, especially with guests who have never seen snow or ice in their lives.
“It goes both ways. I love sharing with people but it’s also what they get to share with me. Even after I’ve done thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of ice fishing, I still get excited because people get excited about it.”
The tours receive many returning guests, with one family coming back as many as 16 times throughout Bryk’s time on the ice. For someone that carries a passion for the sport, Bryk enjoys the pleasure it brings others.
“Ice fishing isn’t necessarily about catching a fish,” he said. “It’s more about the experience. It’s very social, you’re having snacks, you’re having hot chocolate, you’re all talking to each other. It’s not about catching the biggest fish or the most fish. It’s about spending time with people and having a good time.”
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