This excellent song, Where the Coho Flash Silver (All Over the Bay), was written by Lloyd Arntzen. It is  being sung here by the Vancouver Island folk group Virgo Rising.

Duration: 4 min. 24 sec.

Written by Lloyd Arntzen, this well known BC folksong tells about Lloyd’s father’s experiences fishing for coho salmon on the waters off the inside of Vancouver Island. The tune is based upon a traditional English folksong Navvy Boots, but Lloyd’s chorus sets this song aside in its own right. It is a particular favourite of folk singers at folk clubs throughout the province and is sung here by the folk group Virgo Rising (Tracy Summers, Sharon Hazelwood, Sue Postans, and Karen Gillmore). The recording can be found on their CD “Virgo Rising In Concert: Voices Entwined.”

1.    In Port Hardy one morning I cast off my line,
The sea was all smooth and the weather just fine,
And for Castle Rock I was headed away

cho:    Where the Coho flash silver all over the bay-ay-ay-ay,
Where the Coho flash silver all over the bay.

2.    It was just before dawn when I reached the fish ground,
And I lowered my poles and I let my lines down,
And I lit up my pipe and I waited and prayed,

chorus: To see…

3.    Well, the sun came up shining and so did the fish,
All the girdies were humming, what more could I wish,
The bellswere ringing, I was making it pay,

4.    They bit all that morning until well after two,
They’re so hungry they’d strike at an old leather shoe,
“This has got to be heaven!” to myself I did say,

5.    When I tied up that night, they asked, “How did you do?”
And I showed them silver darlings two hundred and two.
They said, “Arnt, you’re the best boat, the high boat today,

6.    Now there’s doctors and lawyers and bankers and more,
There’s your big wheels and promoters with their big deals galore,
But let me be a troller and king for a day,