2015 Ucluelet Fishing Reports

It sounds like there is a huge biomass of fish at Big Bank. Many small springs, pinks, and cohos interfering with Chinook catching at all depths. The are nice ones there though.
I went to South Bank today. There were few boats. I got a 16 red hatch and a 24 wild white- one on bait one on a UV blue hootchie. Others got them on small spoons. Just a few pinks and cohos there. A lot of guys ran over fish to get more fish today.
 
Got home yesterday from a few days. Fished a couple hours the first afternoon upon arriving. managed to put 2 mid teeners in the tub.Both came on bait from close to the beach.
Next day was out to some of the closer offshore contours. Put a limit for four in the tub and released a few as well . All in the teens with a couple trying hard to be 20. Mix of white and red. couple nice coho released and only 1 pink. The next day we tried a few spots around the sound, Closing the day by heading back to Ukee via the outside with a stop at inner south-bank. In total we added a couple coho and two springs from the sound then 1 more pink and 2 more springs from outside.The last day was Halibut day. We anchored up and proceeded to put 3 in the boat ranging from just under 20 up to 25lbs. We finished up the day hitting a few pinnacles keeping a few assorted other white meat critters and 1 more low teen spring before heading out to dinner and then the sports bar. It was "Jam night? and we where definitely the seniors in the building let me tell you.

Great trip with great people and the fish and weather where both kind. All four of us now have a bit of everything to last us now, and more importantly some great memories to sustain us till next year..
 
Few days in Ukee, managed a hard working limits for 3 people, a few high teens in the boat with average 12 pounds it seemed. One 20 pound halibut off the south bank. Anchovy definitely produced faster but not really bigger. So switched to spoons and was consistent without having to burn chovies on small fish. Our 18 pound salmon came in hot and wrapped the leg of the main motor, all we saw was a flasher drifting in the wake, after a minute of bringing the leg up and unwrapping line around the leg and prop, the flasher drifted out and took a dive as the fish was still on. Crazy? the whole time the fish just idled at the back of the boat until the mess was cleared…brought it up no problems and felt rewarded, no gear loss or sad story there. Very warm waters=sluggish fish, or at least in my opinion, not much fight in them.
 
Just got done cleaning up and putting some bellies and collars on the racks to dry. The weather was generally calm winds until noonish, 1.5m swell and lots of low fog below a blue sky. The fog and somewhat confused water kept me from making a run to Big Bank. I saw too many freighters during clear spells to go out that far without radar or AIS. So I generally fished an arc from the neck of turtlehead, passed adipose toward the rabbit shaped contour (outer SB), but I stayed up on the bank about a half mile or more from the (50m?) contour line. There was lots of bait, which, judging by the stomach contents was mostly 6 inch herring, but it came in patches.
It wasn't like Big Bank, but I caught a lot of Chinooks, with 3 of my four being in the 20s. I shook all cohos and pinks, but didn't catch many. I dragged bottom looking for a halibut in the same general areas on days 3 and 4 and caught undersized ling, rockfish and about 8 more Chinook to 20 pounds (released), but no hali. I drifted a spot to the east for 2 passes and lost one small something after a brief struggle. I was flying with the big tides, but could maintain bottom contact. Left early to get my ferry. I enjoyed the 3 grayish brown porpoises that calmly hung out for 30 minutes. I hope they didn't find my leftover bait too salty.
I caught two salmon on bait and all the rest on hootchies: best was a glow cuttlefish, but these also caught- uv blue, S153, kg168, kg174, kg152. Nothing on big spoons, and mostly shakers on small spoons. The hot lure at the coffee/tackle store is a Luhr Jensen version of an Ace High fly in glow. I didn't buy one.
Be back on Saturday.
 
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Looking for some information for fishing the Ucluelet.
Camping from today to Aug 8.
Have a 20' Trophy.
I understand BigBank is the way to go.
Tried heading out today but came across very large swells, so turned around and fished the inside.
Is there good spots on the inside.
Is it always that bad at big bank. Does it get calmer as you head out?
I got back to the dock at 1130am and no boats to be seen. Everyone is still out.
There's a gale wind warning in affect. Is everyone still headed out there?
Can I follow anyone out there so I know where?
Was also wanting to know where Halibut fishing takes place?
My anchor only has 100', so I'd be drift fishing for them.
Any help would be appreciated guys.
Thanks
Marc
 
here is a weather idea for west coast,

open this link , see the box for Vancouver island south, it extends half way between estevan and brooks. The weather office states if anywhere in that box , the wind is strong or gale force , they must warn, quite frequently I see the upper left corner 30 plus, yet light airs 3o miles south close in. Up north towards brooks, winds can come up or change fast. I noticed several years back gale warnings day after day, so I contacted the weather office . Click on la perouse buoy and then click on 24hrs, for a better idea for the day. The only buoy out there they have is la perouse, Keep your boat fueled up, what a lot do , is fish closer in, and if wind drops, run out farther. Use ch 74 besides 16... this is the mandatory commercial traffic channel. The radar ( white dome on hill above Ukee) can see better than 50 miles out. They frequently warn the big guys. If u get caught in fog, keep this channel on, you can call Prince Rupert traffic to see if anyone big is around you , they gladly help out if u tell then yur position. ( it was tofino traffic , based in Ukee, but alas some government goof moved it to Rupert.)

hopefully that helps..
 
Looking for some information for fishing the Ucluelet.
Camping from today to Aug 8.
Have a 20' Trophy.
I understand BigBank is the way to go.
Tried heading out today but came across very large swells, so turned around and fished the inside.
Is there good spots on the inside.
Is it always that bad at big bank. Does it get calmer as you head out?
I got back to the dock at 1130am and no boats to be seen. Everyone is still out.
There's a gale wind warning in affect. Is everyone still headed out there?
Can I follow anyone out there so I know where?
Was also wanting to know where Halibut fishing takes place?
My anchor only has 100', so I'd be drift fishing for them.
Any help would be appreciated guys.
Thanks
Marc

Go to Pioneer boat works with your chart or phone camera. Buy some stuff and copy the names of the spots from their chart. Read all the posts on here about Ucluelet from the past few years. As mentioned, try South Bank, then go to Big Bank if the weather permits, but you will find salmon at SB. Put one rigger at 70 and one at 130 and adjust from there. Halibut spots are tricky to attain. You will get smallish ones trolling bottom at big bank usually.
Over the years I've fished big bank 3 days in my 17' whaler and 25+ days in a bigger boat. I always hope to get out there in my boat, but usually can't. I come home with fish, but may not get a halibut as per last week. There are fish closer in. I've only seen BB calm and low swell a few times. Glassy and a 1.5m swell is more common. 2m with 15knots of wind is even more common. I wouldn't count on it being calmer there than closer in.
Do you have a GPS and a back-up? Pretty mandatory if it's foggy. Buddy boats are good, but relying on following someone in fog is a burden on him/her. The Princess puker boats will lead you to the fish if you must follow someone. They leave at 6:00am.
Read the Bamfield thread for inside spots that are reachable from the Ukee side. Let the fish over 77cm go in there now that it's past Aug.1st.
 
Thanks Tubber and Seadog19.
Stop by Captn something fishing shop and got some good info there.
Looks like I'll keep myself to the 7 mile range and try SB and Lighthouse bank to start....if I feel confortable from there I'll give a shot to Big Bank.
Doing a day trip to Bamfield on Tuesday, on my way back I'll try Efingham.
Thanks again.
 
Yes there's a gale warning up. Should get better on Thursday
 
I went to South bank for 2 hours today and got 2 nice chinook. 18 and 20 lbs. 90 feet with a glow hootchie and green flasher. Also released 3 coho.
 
Cool. Were many boats there? Last week they all were going to Big Bank, Barkley, or Wya.
 
We enjoyed a nice long weekend up at da beach. I had my son and his buddy on board our boat and my buddy and his dad came up with their boat. The tides were not very favorable for launching early at Salmon Beach so it kind of limited our opportunities for time on the water. Saturday morning TC was texting me telling me how good Big Bank was with all the action on salmon. We finally got out around 10:30 am and headed straight out to the lighthouse bank. Trolled bottom using a turd behind a green glow flasher on one side and a glow white cuttlefish behind the same flasher on the other side. We picked up our halibut in pretty short order all on one tack.

Team effort 48"er.



52 lber, 25 lber, and my sons buddy caught a little 8 lber that was his first halibut ever :). He's pretty hooked on hali fishing now lol!

We picked up a nice 14 lb. red spring out there as well and headed in the rock piles for some jigging fun. Inside around Salmon Beach was quite slow and buddy and his dad (both good fishermen) had a tough time putting anything into the boat. They were in a 17 whaler and didn't want to head outside. I told them to cross the sound and fish the Bamfield side but they wanted to stick close by.

On Sunday we entered the little one day community derby at Salmon Beach. We headed right back out to the same spot as the day before hoping for a winning halibut. We had no love this time and probably should have kept going out to the SW corner as there was a bite on there with some nice springs being landed. We had very limited time due to the late launch and weigh in being at 2:30. We decided to head back into the rock piles and try for biggest ling and rockfish. We entered a ling and a nice rock fish but were not quite up to the winning sizes in that category. The community put on a pig roast and salmon bbq later that evening with all the side fixin's. Great meal and time entering this little derby. Not bad for 10 bucks a rod. Our boat didn't draw anything but my buddy's dad won 50 bucks cash which lifted his spirits quite a bit after the slow fishing they experienced. It paid for his gas for the weekend :D. My buddy won a 50 dollar gift certificate to the Black Rock restaurant.

The winds look like they are going to calm down this coming weekend and we are chomping at the bit to get a shot at those elusive longfins :cool:.

Cheers,
Sculpin
 
Have decided that the outside is to much for my boat.
Kept to the inside.
Fished Efingham today.
Released one nice wild Coho and a lot of smaller ones.
Kept one nice 13lb Chinook.
Will keep doing Efingham as it appears to be one of the better spots on the inside.
 
Have you tried Wya Pt, the Red Can, Amphitrite, Beg Island, Chrow Island, Alley Rock, Great Bear or Sail Rock? All are surf-line and/or inside options a lot closer to Ukee Harbour than Meares/Austin/Cree and the same fish moving down the coast along the surf line and ducking into the rocky points, outcrops and inside structure go by and use all of the listed spots before getting down to the south side of the Broken Group. Meares Bluff, Austin and Cree are great spots and very fishy but don't discount the areas you have to boat right by to get there, particularly not if you mark bait. Wya has been particularly good this year and is a very short run.

Cheers!

Ukee
 
Have you tried Wya Pt, the Red Can, Amphitrite, Beg Island, Chrow Island, Alley Rock, Great Bear or Sail Rock? All are surf-line and/or inside options a lot closer to Ukee Harbour than Meares/Austin/Cree and the same fish moving down the coast along the surf line and ducking into the rocky points, outcrops and inside structure go by and use all of the listed spots before getting down to the south side of the Broken Group. Meares Bluff, Austin and Cree are great spots and very fishy but don't discount the areas you have to boat right by to get there, particularly not if you mark bait. Wya has been particularly good this year and is a very short run.

Cheers!

Ukee

Wya is closed to the retention of Chinooks larger than 77cm
 
Fishing has been great in Ukee below are some pics from this month so far from a mix of 4, 6 & 8 hour trips. Locations such as Outside South and Big Bank have treated the guests well!

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