2017 Port Renfrew Reports

No, I don't know John Beath. I know who he is. I think I may have seen him at some sportsman show or something.

Thanks for the info about the Scopalamine patch. Yes, he's done that for the last couple of years and the last time out in pretty good water conditions WITH the patch he still lost it! He deals with it, but it's nice to mix in days inside to give him a break. My wife has the same issue-- still gets seasick even with the patch. We have to really pick our days for her to keep breakfast down.

We'll be up there in a week. I've never had a trifecta (salmon, halibut and ling in one day)... I'm hoping we might have a shot.

Run down to the US and pick up some Bonine....it's the best out there and fast acting. More than one pill and you can get pretty drowsy though similar to multiple gravol or Dramamine. The patch is hit or miss with people, for some it's the cat's meow and others does nothing.
 
Great info... thank you! That's super shallow! I would not have thought of bringing that kind of gear. That means I'll bring mooching sinkers and bait for sure.

I'm heading up in a couple of weeks - June 16-18. I've gone back to past years' reports and it seems like the beach is better come July. I know Swiftsure should start holding some salmon here soon if they aren't already there. Having an inside option will be good. Will give it a go. Will keep watching for new reports.

I know halibut holes can be proprietary, but anyone willing to share info on spots worth stopping at between Renfrew and Sombrio Pt.... that would be appreciated! I'll be working the shelves there that we fished in May as my default option for staying inside.

Dave, I've been fishing Sombrio Pt area for a few years now and find it pretty consistent: hit & miss. You'll land a nice fish one day and go back and repeat the next day and get skunked; or vis-a-versa. Why do I keep going back? A very quick run from Sekiu to skip the nonesense and limitations of our WA fisheries and you never know when you'll catch a nice 47' king or a nice 50 lb halibut....that's fish'n. On the shallow bit, you'd be amazed at how many Coho hug those kelp lines in shallow water. We were stationary BSing with our buddy boat on the inside of a kelp line one time, in 6' of water and my buddies cut plug was just dangling on the surface....a nice little 6 lb Coho just slammed it and the rod almost bounced out of his hands with the unexpected hit.
 
Great info... thank you! That's super shallow! I would not have thought of bringing that kind of gear. That means I'll bring mooching sinkers and bait for sure.

I'm heading up in a couple of weeks - June 16-18. I've gone back to past years' reports and it seems like the beach is better come July. I know Swiftsure should start holding some salmon here soon if they aren't already there. Having an inside option will be good. Will give it a go. Will keep watching for new reports.

I know halibut holes can be proprietary, but anyone willing to share info on spots worth stopping at between Renfrew and Sombrio Pt.... that would be appreciated! I'll be working the shelves there that we fished in May as my default option for staying inside.

Here's another good reference for reports: http://www.portrenfrewmarina.com/report/?m=201706
 
Hey ArimaDave look up bonamine, certain drugstores will carry/make it, call around, this is the best thing for seasickness. Not a good feeling for those that get sick. Good luck out there, I will be fishing during the week, heavy hauler is the boat, i will be going in circles around Camper Creek. Fishing is still hit and miss, went out early on Tuesday to hit the low slack, fished maybe 1.5 hrs on the beach, landed a 15,20, lost 2 others and went and got a pair of 35 butts, next day sfa :)
Second the bonamine compound. It works awesome.
 
Spent three days along the beach, from Camper to Walbran. Fishing was less than was expected, or maybe hoped for. In three days we caught 4 springs (22, 15, 10 &8). Lost 3 others, 2 were equipment failure. 35 - 55' in water up to 80' on bloody nose anchovy and one caught on a short green spatterback squirt.

I think fishing was tough all over. Guides were out late in the day still fishing.

Port Renfrew Marina has made some upgrades. Pavement added to the top of the ramp, new electrical hookups being added and camp spots between the main entrance and the boat ramp have been leveled.

The new marina (Pacific Gateway Marina) has added a float to the boat ramp making launching and recovery a little easier.
 
Beach was good on Tuesday for us, into 9 springs, kept 3 high teens low twenty's, fed my buddy 2 more, one was a tank of a fish too :( released a smaller one. Went out yesterday fishing was slower, kept one high teens after i hit the seal on the head with my rod to get the fish back, saw 6 other fish taken by the seals, lost another at the boat and released one other. Crabbing is good, open season on seals would be better :)
 
Don't you ever work? What a life!

I will send you your seal hunting license in the mail but free to start on them right away
 
Don't you ever work? What a life!

I will send you your seal hunting license in the mail but free to start on them right away
I try to model my life after yours but can t seem to catch up to you and Derby :)
 
I was in the Renfrew Derby and the fishing could be described as slow at best. A lot of boats were skunked myself included, it was two long days of no fish for me. The winning fish was 33.8 lbs
 
Fished Sunday along the beach for about 4 hours with only one, but it was a very nice Chinook at 28 lbs. And, to the black boat that we had a near collision with (if you are reading this board)... sorry that my buddy is not attentive in his driving. I've been teaching him and he's gotten better, but still struggles driving straight and also with keeping his focus forward. I think there's just been too much THC in his life. :)

Only saw one other fish boated all morning and it didn't look very big.
 
Hello Arimadave

Im sure you may of already heard this if you have some people who are prone to sea sickness then go to the drug store and get the motion sickness patch the name is TRANSDERM its about the size of a dime and looks like a bandaid you simply put it behind your ear,its magical Ive had many pukers on board well fishing in heavy seas,it is recommended it be put on 24 hours before you head out and last for 3 days or so depending on the persons body.The guys come back year after year with the PATCH on and have no problems and get to enjoy there trip instead of feeling like their going to die.oh ya really helps with hangovers too,its the best thing since sliced bread.. you get two in a package for about 10 dollars can.Very cheap insurance when your spending some good money on a fishing trip.

Tight lines
Billydoo

JSYK, some people react quite poorly to this patch: Years ago, in preparation for my first trip out onto the chuck, I put the patch on before bed. When the effects started to take hold, I first started thinking that the seafood I had at dinner was bad. Eventually though, I pulled off the patch, and (starting at my ear) I could feel a change right away. I still wasn't great by the time we hit the boat at 5 am, but I gradually got better through the day........even though we were out in 10-15s.
Anyway, do yourself a favor and put the patch on in the late afternoon of the day before. That way you can feel if it's going to go poorly for you, instead of just awakening really sick.
 
I was in the Renfrew Derby and the fishing could be described as slow at best. A lot of boats were skunked myself included, it was two long days of no fish for me. The winning fish was 33.8 lbs

Congrats to Team Weatherall !! George finally got to the top of the podium on Fathers day and collected a very large sum of cash.. It was a tough 2 days fishing out there and the weather sucked !! But always a good time..
 
Any recent reports from out front ?
I was out at Neah Bay and fished Sat-Mon of this past weekend. Saturday we hit the American side of Swiftsure and springs (and modest size coho) were easy to find. As is typical of the early season coho, at least 1 in 3 was hatchery. I didn't keep track but it seemed closer to 1 in 2. Springs were on the average 8-12lbs and typical of Swiftsure Chinook. Sunday we fished the beaches south of Tatoosh Island and caught 3 nice springs in the mid teens. Tried that again on Monday but things were slow - only got one nice one on the beach in 3+ hours so we ran back out to Swiftsure. We limited with 4 more springs and another coho on Swiftsure. Monday the springs were better size, more in the mid teens and one nearer to 20. Most all of the Swiftsure springs were caught on a stainless Nog's needle at about 140' on the downrigger. On Sat. when I filleted my fish, I found most of the springers were loaded with needlefish so I used both Andrew's needlefish imitation and Nog's. I wound up sticking with Nog's for most fish since it was larger and it seemed to select for slightly larger fish. For those who think springs are leader shy, the lure that caught the most fish was on 150# mono leader that I had rigged up for tuna trolling a year ago. It was easy to quickly deploy but I was going to rig one with 40# leader. After a few hookups, I didn't bother to switch to smaller leader as the heavy leader didn't seem to make a difference.

Here's a picture of my buddy's daughter with one of the springs we caught off the beach. Most of our fish were around this size.
 

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late post. stayed on the boat at Pacific Gateway Marina July 9-13 and fished the beach. Charters were bringing in limits of salmon and halibut from Swiftsure on a daily basis, but as expected they were all quite small (most hali up to 20lbs and most salmon 6-12lbs). There were a few salmon from the bank up to maybe 16lbs and we saw two halibut up to about 50lbs. We fished the beach and brought home 5 salmon between 12 and 24lb. We released many smalls under 12lb and lost a few big ones to kelp and rocks etc. Fishing was fairly slow until we read the marina report advising to be tighter to the kelp and shallow. fishing in 25-35 ft of water with lines 10-20ft deep and grazing the kelp with your rigger balls was the ticket to more action on the beach, but risky and we sacrificed some balls and gear. Andrew P sandlance, chrome coho killers, and chartreause/glow iron noggin needle were the same or more hits than bait.
 
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