Port Renfrew Reports 2015

Nice reports!

My buddies and I are going to Port Renfrew on July 17 - 19. I hope someone will help me some info and tip where is hot spot for springs and what to use lures or bait, etc. you can send me pm .

Thanks
Discus
 
Nice reports!

My buddies and I are going to Port Renfrew on July 17 - 19. I hope someone will help me some info and tip where is hot spot for springs and what to use lures or bait, etc. you can send me pm .

Thanks
Discus

While I'm sure there are lot's of decent places along the beaches up there that the Renfrew locals can tell you about, I'm mostly familiar with Swiftsure (both the US and Canadian side). Swiftsure is, IMHO, mostly stupid easy to fish. Head out to just W of the westernmost line of the RCA. Fish in the triangle corner marked by that line and the US/Canadian border. Stay fairly close to the border line. Troll with the current so you can get down fairly deep. The bigger springs seem to come from 150' down to the bottom. Lots of things work but in my experience, the springs out there are mostly feeding on big herring. I had many fish that were stuffed with herring in the 7-8" size range. Big tomic plugs work well as do either of the needlefish imitations made by guys on this site. Andrew P's needlefish or Nog's Iron Needle spoon are both excellent - for out there where the herring tend to be bigger, I like the iron needle spoon a bit better. All the standard colors of hootchies work well - glow green, turn, white glow, purple/blue. I tend to fish more spoons and tomic plugs out there just because I'm usually fishing 220-280' on the rigger and the currents can be quite large. As a result, flashers can cause a lot more blowback and require more finesse in turns than spoons or plugs. However, I've caught plenty of fish out there on 11" flasher/hootchie combinations. The springs there tend to run a bit small - 6-10# average but some days are better than others and there are always some good size fish in the mix (usually caught near the bottom on big plugs, big spoons or big baits). If you're willing to throw back a good number of smaller springs, you can almost always come back with limits of fish over 12# - especially on the best days. If you want a place that is almost guaranteed to produce good numbers of springs, Swiftsure is the most reliable place I know of.

I haven't fished the beaches or kelp beds on the the N side of the strait but I assume they fish similar to the S side - e.g. bigger springs can be found in by the kelp beds and trolling bait in 50-80' of water can result in bigger springs than you find at Swiftsure. However, those shallow water fisheries can be very hit and miss with easy limits some days and some days only one or two hits in several hours of effort. However, if you really want to target bigger fish, the near shore trolling will produce a higher average size fish than the bank.
 
Anyone fish Renfrew this past weekend? How was it?
T2
I fished Swiftsure on Sat. It remains stupid-easy for springs. We took two of the standard 8-12# side springs and threw back half a dozen similar size fish until we got two more around 15#. We were on the bank around 6:15AM and done by 7:50. Most of the Renny guide boats looked like they had limited out about the same time as a lot of boats were headed back to port around then.
 
Thanks for the report Seadna. We're going to try Tues. AM on the bank.
T2
 
Fished swiftsure Monday Tuesday did very well fishing large spoons along the bottom no flasher. Chartreuse and green were our colours. Like it's been posted before many smaller springs out there but be patient and you can tub out on 15lb and better fish. between the tide and the fog didn't bother trying for halibut.
 
Just got back from fishing Swiftsure for five days. I think everything works out there, stupid fishing is right. All depths depending on what part of the tide it is. We caught most of our fish at 100-250'. We fished the closure line on the SE side most of the time. Fish up to high teens and a lot of 8-10 pound fish to cull through. Halibut was very good in the same area. Didn't have to anchor or run anywhere else. Hot lures went from a blue green cuttlefish/hoochie, large commercial spoon, 5" narrow yellowtail spoon with glow paint, yellow 6" plugs were really hot and a coho killer that caught springs.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just got back from fishing Swiftsure for five days. I think everything works out there, stupid fishing is right. All depths depending on what part of the tide it is. We caught most of our fish at 100-250'. We fished the closure line on the SE side most of the time. Fish up to high teens and a lot of 8-10 pound fish to cull through. Halibut was very good in the same area. Didn't have to anchor or run anywhere else. Hot lures went from a blue green cuttlefish/hoochie, large commercial spoon, 5" narrow yellowtail spoon with glow paint, yellow 6" plugs were really hot and a coho killer that caught springs.
X2 on truant's report (except for the halibut--I'm the worlds worst halibut fisherman.)The 6" green 109's worked for us 1 day for the springs and then we put on the 111's (yellow) and they were smokin hot. Lots of fun.
T2
 
fished friday nite 4 till 9 at camper 4 springs 23 25 25 26 no boats any where beautiful nite all soft hitters so really had to watch rods .large anchovey and small herring top 25 feet off water glow flouresent yellow teaser hear and madi flaser did well.Saturday morning!!!!!started out to swiftsure but had to turn back because the 16 foot swells that we had on the way out were were20 at the bank and were coming over the bow and stern of the guide boats so it was unique to see all the guide boats stop and turn around at the same time ,brutal swells and we were not even half way yet!!!!! so we headed to camper and unfortunitly my buddy had started to chum the water and this went on all day!!!! don t wish that on anybody got a nice 25 lb spring fairly quick then it was a sockeye show for a while ! everywhere never seen them in that close eating anchoveys, always thought they ate plankton? anyways let them go and fished for a while kind of slow so we decided to go to east point!!!!!!!! first pass bang 25, second pass bang 25, third pass bang 30 ,fourth pass bang sockeye lol let him go kept fishing 3 beauties in 15 mins all on nascar teaser head 6 foot leader uv flasher 31 feet, hard hitters called it a day!!! hard fishing, but with a great bunch of buddies who all had great attitudes and didnt mind putting in the time to find the fish.
 
In my opinion Inshore fishing is very SLOW but in the Bank is very HOT. I stayed there for 3 days. Saturday - Monday.

We fished Inshore near Camper creek for three days.

Saturday fished from 5- 11:30 Fishing was SLOW, We caught and released undersize springs, Good size Pinks and Coho. We kept on hatchery Coho.

Sunday fished from 5 -1 , fishing was HOT, We were so super busy we caught lot of pinks, some wild coho, undersize spring and kept 3 hatchery Coho . I saw my rod got a big bang and pin popped , my buddy grabbed my rod and break line, my lost flasher and teaser head. It was a big spring but he forget to adjust drag line.

Monday ( Today) Fished from 5 am - 9 am fishing was very SLOW. We kept one hatchery coho and pink. We released 2 wild coho.

Maybe my buddy and I did do something wrong maybe the gears was not right for springs? trolling speed? Downrigger cannonball weight? ETC

My buddy has a 17 foot DE has a 50 HP, We cannot go to the bank.

Maybe someone can share with me their best tips.

Thank you
Discus
 
just to clarify, we were fishing those two days with my buddies up in renfrew who are guides!!! if we were fishing by ourselves we probably wouldn t of been able to catch bottom!!!! lol one of my friends is one of the top guides in reny/victoria and he told me years ago when i was on a skunk streak and getting bummed out thinking i was the crappiest fisherman ,he told me he fishes every day for 4 months straight !!! his job is a profesional fisherman!!!!!! ,thats his 9 to 5 job and don t get down because myself and 99 percent of the fisherman out there will never be as good as him just because he s on the water all day putting time in and getting all the gear dialled in!!! sat was brutally slow on the beach for everyone not just you discuss!!!! there s always the next time!! stay positive!! our secret that i ll share is when its slow between bites , have a beverage! makes the day more enjoyable lol. tight lines !!!!
 
sorry guys correction, nascar teaser head 6 foot leader and a red hot spot flasher, old school!

nascar teaser , what does it look like? Can you please check your PM's

My buddies and I didn't go to for First Cowichan Salmon Derby, First day someone caught a 22.9 lbs second place was 22.3 lbs something like that. Second Day, Someone won $ 1500 with their 29 lbs spring, Second place was 27 lbs third place 24 something like that? I am sorry I didnt take pictures of the derby.

Today my buddies and I went to fishing, the senior man caught two nice spring about high20's we went the same spots.

I would love to go to Port Renfrew again in the future, I am still learning about the fishing system in Port Renfrew.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
How much difference a day makes......yesterday the run " came in " to Camper....many caught in the mid 20's and a few in the low 30's....morning bite and high slack bite....larger anchovies are the ticket.
 
How much difference a day makes......yesterday the run " came in " to Camper....many caught in the mid 20's and a few in the low 30's....morning bite and high slack bite....larger anchovies are the ticket.

Good to hear it's turned on. I've been getting a bit disheartened after the last two weekends (my first time fishing my own boat there) produced only 4 chinook! Hopefully this run sticks around until Saturday.

Please keep the reports coming!

777
 
Heading up to Renfrew in a week for three days of fishing, hopefully some good reports out of there this coming week!!
 
How much difference a day makes......yesterday the run " came in " to Camper....many caught in the mid 20's and a few in the low 30's....morning bite and high slack bite....larger anchovies are the ticket.

Where about's is "camper"?
And wheres some good lingcod fishing if you don't want to fish the bank
 
If you look on your chart, Camper creek is west of the bay along the shore. You'll see the boats.
T2
 
Back
Top