Questions on fishing BC

Greetings, New member here. Last summer, my fishing buddy passed away. We WERE planning on coming up to BC to fish as he had done it before. I never have. Needless to say I know nothing of the area or where to go. I was hoping someone could enlighten me on the areas fishing etc. Any info would be appreciated.
 
Can you narrow it down to which part of the BC coast or Vancouver Island that you are interested in? Folks would be more than happy to help you get started.

Brian
 
Thanks Brian, I liver south of Seattle so my buddy was wanting to #1, put in at maybe Port Angeles or Sekiu and cut across the straight OR drive up towards the Vancouver area and fish there. WHERE? I have no idea. LOL I guess my first question would be should I motor across or drive over the border? I would LOVE to come up and get some halibut along with the salmon.
 
I think it would be feasible for you to run out of Port Angeles and run across to the Victoria waterfront or Race Rocks area. Some folks fish Swiftsure by running out of Neah Bay. I have no idea what the legalities are of a US citizen crossing into Canadian waters to fish. At the very least a Canadian license would be required but I don't know about any other logistics that may have to happen when you cross. If either of those areas interest you poke around in the Port Renfrew, Sooke, or Victoria fishing reports section. That will certainly get you started. You have plenty of time until the season kicks off. There are lots of great places to fish here and most people belong to this forum to help each other out.
 
I fish Swiftsure out of Neah Bay fairly often in June-mid August. It's a great place to fish on either the Canadian or U.S. side. You can fish halibut on the CA side (outside of the RCA of course) for much of the year (if you have a BC license purchased in person in BC). You can fish salmon with just the online license purchased from your couch. As long as you don't anchor or "hover" close to another boat, check-in with the CA authorities is no longer required (the law on that changed early this year). Ditto for the return trip to the US side. If you're only fishing for salmon, the only real advantage of fishing on the BC side is that the regs allow more than one pole and there are usually differences in coho regulations.

For a real BC "experience", I think you'd be better off going farther N. Bamfield and Tofino have some spectacular scenery and fishing. On the inside and south my experience is that just like WA state, the fishing is not as good as it is on the coast so again, I think you're better off being N if your fishing from the mainland. Kitimat and the surrounding area can be spectacular and I have a friend who fishes there every year for several weeks.

Prawning is good in many areas and the seasons are longer than in WA. However, again unless you get away from the major population centers, the prawning can be slow. In WA near Seattle, we only get a few days of prawning but pots coming up with 100+ per pull on 1-2 hour soaks are common. You can find that in BC but generally you have to go farther N to get away from the places that are prawned hard by both recs and commercials.

That's just my 2 cents worth. I'm sure others can add to/correct this.
 
I fish Swiftsure out of Neah Bay fairly often in June-mid August. It's a great place to fish on either the Canadian or U.S. side. You can fish halibut on the CA side (outside of the RCA of course) for much of the year (if you have a BC license purchased in person in BC). You can fish salmon with just the online license purchased from your couch. As long as you don't anchor or "hover" close to another boat, check-in with the CA authorities is no longer required (the law on that changed early this year). Ditto for the return trip to the US side. If you're only fishing for salmon, the only real advantage of fishing on the BC side is that the regs allow more than one pole and there are usually differences in coho regulations.

For a real BC "experience", I think you'd be better off going farther N. Bamfield and Tofino have some spectacular scenery and fishing. On the inside and south my experience is that just like WA state, the fishing is not as good as it is on the coast so again, I think you're better off being N if your fishing from the mainland. Kitimat and the surrounding area can be spectacular and I have a friend who fishes there every year for several weeks.

Prawning is good in many areas and the seasons are longer than in WA. However, again unless you get away from the major population centers, the prawning can be slow. In WA near Seattle, we only get a few days of prawning but pots coming up with 100+ per pull on 1-2 hour soaks are common. You can find that in BC but generally you have to go farther N to get away from the places that are prawned hard by both recs and commercials.

That's just my 2 cents worth. I'm sure others can add to/correct this.
Great info: I've fished Swiftsure out of Neah and motored down to Umatilla Reef off La Push. As you can imagine, fishing area 11 out of Point Defiance / Tacoma is terrible most of the year. 9 times out of 10, it's a bust for anything. You stated OUTSIDE THE RCA, what is a RCA? So to fish butts, I need to go up and buy a license in person?
 
Looks like approximately 40 NM from Neah Bay to Cape Beale.
You would want to pick your weather window, but that is mandatory for any boating on the outside.
 
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