Fished out of Ukee Sun, June 16 to Fri, June 21. Wind made it pretty tough for my crew and I in my small 17ft Harbercraft. Made the mistake of trusting a good long range forecast and spending our first fishing day, Sunday, which was beautiful, inside to "shake down" the boat and crew and try to find some bait and fish inside. Buddy and his crew did great out at the Adipose that day. My boat found nothing at Chrow and food Islets but did find a big school of coho off Alley Rock but no chinook and not great bait in the Great Bear to Alley area. South Easterlies blew for the next two days. Battled out to South Bank anyway and way, way too sloppy for my newbie crew and small boat so ran back inside. Coho had mostly moved on, got one, then no salmon that day and the next. Found nothing but undersize ling at three of my go to spots but did get some nice rockfish and larger greenling.
Finally Wed the winds were nice and out to South Bank. Frustratingly slow for us for first two hours while fish being hit all around us. Finally we got into it good and our quality seemed to be better than most. Springs from 18-28lbs that day and one nice hali. Thursday wind shifted to NW and howled so we took the day off and did the tourist thing at the beaches, trails and coffee shops. Took the boys down to the WildSide Grill for their lingcod and chips - made believers of them that they had the world's best fish and chips, bar none!! Friday was another beauty day and quick, easy limits on smaller springs 8-12lbs, no hali for us.
Hali in general seemed a lot scarcer on South Bank and very small on average. Most of the "bait" balls marked seemed to be krill as the majority of salmon caught - coho and chinook, were chocker block full of krill. The chinook that did have baitfish in them had 4-6" herring. We didn't clean a single fish caught inside or offshore that had any needlefish in them at all, first time for that! Also, whales were everywhere, especially inside - both greys and humpbacks. We saw close to a dozen different whales one day inside. Due to the prevalence of krill I tried small pink plankton hootchie a few times and only managed a single hit - a small coho. Coho on the inside came on small coyote and kingfisher spoons, 3.5", in kitchen sink and green/glow. Ran them 5-6 ft behind 8" flashers. Offshore tried various flasher/hootchie combos and the reliable double glow green splatterback in needlefish and traditional octopus seemed to work best, though it was such easy fishing I'm sure it was more a case of time and place. For us, balls in the mud worked best. Often got hits after doing a drop to the mud to make sure the balls were down where they should be.
Tougher trip than we expected with the South Easterlies but, as always, great town and great to be on the water out there!!
Ukee
