Barkley Sound fishing 2008

chromer · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:31 am Post subject: Barkley Sound fishing 2008

Well, after planning all year to go on a bigger boat - Checkpoint II is now pressed into service. The big bayliner we were taking has kicker problems (like wont start). So, the electric reels and halibut gear stays home, cuz I'm not running that far out to get them butts.

Mike and I are leaving Thursday for a week. We plan to run the Alberni inlet again and stay at Hawkeye in Bamfield. This year we want to fish in more places - last year we pretty much stuck to the "Wall" and did fine. A recent report filed on SalmonUniversity.com says they kept no salmon ("Springs") under 20lbs.

I will be taking the iPhone, and maybe I can post up there using Rogers cellular.[/img]

lloyds · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:41 am Post subject:

Don't rule out swale rock. You are only a short run away. It produces pretty well sometimes with jigs.

Jazzmanic · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:25 pm Post subject:

Dwight,

Keep us posted. I had planned to do a Barkley Sound trip last year but it didn't pan out. I guess I'll just have to enjoy the trip vicariously through your postings. Wink

CAVU · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:43 pm Post subject:

Chromer,
I just returned from 4 weeks of fishing at Ucluelet and I thought the salmon fishing was a much slower that years past. Of course things can change very quickly as fresh fish move in and others move on to the south. The only comment I can make for sure is we saw a lot of the big aluminum "Tyee Lodge" boats out offshore very far to the north of Bamfield. I don't think they would have traveled that distance if they could be releasing 20 lbers close to home. We fished Big Bank, South Bank, and Southwest Corner off and on the whole trip. During our 20 days of fishing 72 chinook came to the boat and the largest kept by us was 25 lbs, one was 21 lbs and the rest were all high teens. Almost every day at the cleaning table we would see a 30 + and also saw two 40 + but we were never lucky enough or skilled enough to nab one. The hatchery coho were a bright spot though. We got several over 10 lbs and one at 13 lbs. The down side of this is a lot of wild fish are hooked. We found the best technique to be using larger spoons or hootchies and fishing deeper. Still we caught many coho at 150 ft just off the bottom. If you are hooking a lot wild coho to be released I feel the best technique is to use a very heavy leader (50 lb), a single hook, and never net the fish. Bring the fish along side close enough to grab the leader, evaluate the adipose fin, then net if a keeper. Good luck with your trip and give us an after trip report if possible.

Andrew · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:33 pm Post subject:

Ken,
I am curious. Did you launch near Bamfield or in the Port Renfrew area and travel up the West side of the Island? I have always wondered if its Ok to travel up the West side in a 22.

Andrew

CAVU · Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:58 am Post subject:

Andrew,
I always ferry over to the island and tow to Ucluelet to launch. I prefer the comfort of my camper while on a fishing trip. If you are going to ferry the boat over, the most pleasant cruise would be to launch at Port Alberni and cruise down the inlet in protected water to Bamfield or Ucluelet or even a short cruise up the coast on the outside to Tofino. I think cruising on the outside in the Straight of Juan de Fuca would be possible but you would have to be extremely careful of the weather. Over the years listening to the marine weather reports, the Straight almost always has much worse weather than the Ucluelet area.

chromer · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 3:20 am Post subject:

Cavu,

Well we had to work at it.... Our biggest was 26 lb followed by a 22 lb. A few more coho this year for us (but then we were 2 weeks later). We had 7 Springs over 20lbs. One day we even got skunked !

Tackle that worked.. Coyote spoon 3.5", white purple haze hoochies, and coho killers. both red and green boards. Couple of photos have been appended to my Album, more to come tomorrow.

Areas fished, Assits island, Wall, Beale Pt, Cree island, Effingham island, Diplock, Star point, Whittlestone. We ventured a little bit offshore, but caught nothing.

It was much easier for us the second time around.

Dwight
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CAVU · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:48 am Post subject:

Chromer,
Sounds like you had a great trip. I thought the big kings were not as many as years past. We always saw a few big ones come in-but some years you see everyone with big ones. It is still the best day in and day out salmon fishing in the world in my opinion. It is a little more hassle and expense to get there, but if you have the time to stay more than a few days you will catch a lot of salmon. For future trips you should plan to fish the offshore banks more. Fairly close access from Bamfield to Big Bank areas and the fishing was consistently good for both salmon and halibut. The water conditions allowed us to fish it 7 out of 22 days this year from Ucluelet.

Jazzmanic · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 12:25 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the report Dwight and the comments Ken. I'm definitely putting this on my to-do-list for next summer!

Peter

chromer · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:57 pm Post subject:

Jazzmanic · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 4:34 pm Post subject:

Yeah, we had planned a trip last year for the beginning of August. Now I'm wondering if that may be too early. I really wasn't looking forward to fishing outside and it looks like I might not have to. (Sorry Ken-newbies when it comes to the ocean) I think going down the inlet from Port Albernie is the ticket.

BTW, beautiful fish in your albums. Now that I've caught a few, I need to start concentrating on SIZE! And they said size doesn't matter. Wink

Peter

chromer · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 5:19 pm Post subject:

Last year we went first week of August. Definately ok, but we a now trying to tweak and optimize

mwilson · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 6:51 pm Post subject: barkley

We went sept 5th last year for 7 days and had a hard time finding fish in the sound. Wx was a little rough outside but we found so many silvers it was unreal. On the two days that weren't to rough we caught over 50 fish per day. 25 miles off shore and 7 mile bank worked well. What a place/ mbw

Tom on Icarus · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 7:54 pm Post subject:

I spent the first week of August in Barclay Sound this year. Fishing was slower than usual for that time. We didn't head way offshore though. Usually one doesn't need to as the runs are usually heading in and feeding heavily at that time.

Cheers Beer

Tom

chromer · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:16 pm Post subject:

"BTW, beautiful fish in your albums. "

Peter,

Coming to saltwater fishing from a flyfishing background, I learned a couple things about fish photography. Show the fish some respect by holding it horizontal, and out front makes it look bigger. Recently, I've been trying the one handed hold, this portrays an arch - which makes a bigger looking fish. The one-hander is difficult with anything over 14lbs.

Dwight