2020 Bamfield and Barkley Sound Reports

Bit of a later start to the salmon fishing today as we had to drop crab traps. Picked up two (10 and 12lb) at Whittlestone and then another 8lb at the Bamfield wall. White hoochi on a purple haze flasher got the 12 and a green flasher with a small coho killer got the other two. Ran one at 65 and the other 10’ off bottom. Full of squid on the 12 and small bait in the other two.
 
Fished Wya Point from 4:45 - 8:00am. Some
Coho but no chinook and limited bait present. Decided to rip over to Cree and picked up three nice chinook up to 15lbs. All of them had empty stomachs. Caught them between 50-90 ft on bait and coho killers. Ran into orcas on the run home as well as a grey whale and a breaching humpback. Great day.
 
After getting the boat fixed Thursday evening .we put the boat back in the water , dropped the prawn and crab traps then went Hali fishing :) Friday morning. We pick up 2 unders on Friday and 2 unders on Saturday 70,75,85,89 Lost a nice one beside the boat. We were bouncing around on the anchor :confused: . Ended up getting 6 crab and about 90 good size prawns and 30 shrimp Didn’t get a chance to drop a line for salmon. Next time
 
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Trolled Holfard to Diplock. Hit almost a dozen large shakers at the end of Diplock. Two screemers that spit the hooks. Kept one 8lb. Had to leave at 10:30 to go get the crab traps and get back to do some work on the cabin. Purple haze flashers, coho killer in cookies and cream and a small wonder bread for the other. 85 & 110’. Hear tell of a couple of good fish coming from swale. Nothing for the guy who went to Whittlestone.
 
Fished Wya Point from 4:45 - 8:00am. Some
Coho but no chinook and limited bait present. Decided to rip over to Cree and picked up three nice chinook up to 15lbs. All of them had empty stomachs. Caught them between 50-90 ft on bait and coho killers. Ran into orcas on the run home as well as a grey whale and a breaching humpback. Great day.
Wow, that soumds like an amazing day on the water. what side of cree you go?
 
Tough fishing for my crew this weekend, fished Friday after to Sunday afternoon landed one small spring. Fished all over, bam to Beal, Edward king to Kirby, Austin and did one pass along Fleming. Spent most of the time at Austin and Kirby. Moved around quite a bit which I usually stick and make it pay but we did put good effort each time before a move. Ran mostly small spoons and white hootchy, tried chovy. Just couldn’t get on any bites. Spent most of Saturday at 5 mile trying for a hali and eventually trolled one up with white hootchy. Edward king was holding lots of bait and we lost a decent bite there. Saw a pod of killer whales at the outside mouth to Edward king. Lots of hump backs throughout had one breech right beside the boat jigging at 5 mile. We also lost a keeper at Austin to what we can only assume was a seal but it was kinda of strange had the fish to surface, then it went back down for a run and it was like it just snagged bottom. Had a good trip regardless of the slow salmon for us, was so good to hang out with a couple good friends and be on the water, stayed in the sun or bright sky pretty much to whole trip which is why we moved around a bit. We had fun jigging up some bottom fish on lighter gear which produced quite a bit of food for the freezer. Gonna be some good fish tacos. Great trip only regret was not hitting swale yesterday morn as I was thinking to head there but just hit Kirby instead lol. We ran mostly herring aid and small green silver and Irish cream spoons with glo and uv flashers, I don’t think gear was the problem we just didn’t get on the fish. Can’t wait for a redemption trip. Good times
 
shhhh ,, lol

is that just a hootchy stretched over a jig? looks deadly for what is going on right now.
Yes !
I put away the trolling gear this time of year and jigging these flutter jigs , even plan grey kills the bottom fish and Chins . When I get a chance around Bamfield that's all I'm using now lol
 
Tough fishing for my crew this weekend, fished Friday after to Sunday afternoon landed one small spring. Fished all over, bam to Beal, Edward king to Kirby, Austin and did one pass along Fleming. Spent most of the time at Austin and Kirby. Moved around quite a bit which I usually stick and make it pay but we did put good effort each time before a move. Ran mostly small spoons and white hootchy, tried chovy. Just couldn’t get on any bites. Spent most of Saturday at 5 mile trying for a hali and eventually trolled one up with white hootchy. Edward king was holding lots of bait and we lost a decent bite there. Saw a pod of killer whales at the outside mouth to Edward king. Lots of hump backs throughout had one breech right beside the boat jigging at 5 mile. We also lost a keeper at Austin to what we can only assume was a seal but it was kinda of strange had the fish to surface, then it went back down for a run and it was like it just snagged bottom. Had a good trip regardless of the slow salmon for us, was so good to hang out with a couple good friends and be on the water, stayed in the sun or bright sky pretty much to whole trip which is why we moved around a bit. We had fun jigging up some bottom fish on lighter gear which produced quite a bit of food for the freezer. Gonna be some good fish tacos. Great trip only regret was not hitting swale yesterday morn as I was thinking to head there but just hit Kirby instead lol. We ran mostly herring aid and small green silver and Irish cream spoons with glo and uv flashers, I don’t think gear was the problem we just didn’t get on the fish. Can’t wait for a redemption trip. Good times
Where were you jigging cod?
 
We had planned to head down for the early season 3 generation trip but dad wasn't comfortable being in proximity to his out of towner grandson due to covid. Sadness for us
.
Son and I weren't able to fill with fuel on Thursday evening so on Friday morning we sorrowfully watched several boats head offshore as we trolled Whittlestone.
Early in the day we had a low teener grab a Coyote in glow #5 Cop Car, but we lost it when it ran straight into the kicker. Such is the early season. Lost that lure as well.
Later that day I set the pick near the surfline and after 2 hours of nothing we landed a beauty hali that went 114cm, and minutes later we landed an under as well.
Trolling produced only a few shakers and pinks for the rest of that day.
On Saturday morning we trolled the Imperial side of Sanford all the way down to Diplock. Again a few shakers and a nice pink that we kept for dinner.
As usual we worked the salmon trolling variables hard although my son stuck with anchovies in 2 sizes.

My contacts indicated that Kirby was decent, and as we rounded Sanford we could see close to a dozen boats there.

Interestingly, I had the Lowrance fuel cable hooked up to my NMEA network for the first time. It was very nice to see that my seat of the pants cruising optimization was spot on! It is fun messing with the throttle and trim settings to try to get the readings up. In calm waters I saw 1.02km per litre consistently. On the return trip the Nahmint area dropped me to 0.8km/L
 
Where did you get that squid condom attachment for the one on the left? That's interesting!

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Got it from The Harbour Chandler in Nanaimo , they are just the right size to slip onto the flutter jigs I make .
Sorry for hijacking the Bam fish report thread now back to fishing reports. Anyone interested pls PM and I'll give ya any details u want , if I havent already, sorry Guys ...tight lines
 
Just back from two nights with the family in the sound. This trip was more about hanging out then fishing. Left Nanaimo around 1pm Thursday and fished Kirby for about 1.5 hours before dinner. It was shaker mania but we did manage to put two in the cooler down at 149' on a raspberry flasher with a brown glow hoochie. After that it was time for dinner and then off to Brady beach to hang out.

Saturday morning we rolled out of bed at 7:30 and tried Kirby again but it was all shakers. Packed up and headed to beale to see if off shore could be a go? Within 15 min my wife and youngest son were sea sick. So we headed for harbour entrance. After a bunch of shakers we missed a hog at the boat going for a net. Oh well back to the grind. Ended up boxing two more nice ones on the raspberry flasher with a anchovie. 91' down right near the bottom. Let a couple more 5-7lbers go and then it was into the broken group to anchor up for lunch and a couple hour break. After lunch we jigged half heartedly for 1/2 and then everyone was ready to hit the dock.

Saturday morning we woke up at 5am to the kids saying there blankets were wet... I got out of the cuddy and stepped into 1.5 inches of water. I guess with us sleeping up front the water was coming under the door and the drain to the bilge was plugged! It was pouring rain all night. We're all ready up so I put on a pot of coffee and some sausages and then it was off to swale. There was shakers everywhere and we kept doubling up on them so I pointed the bow towards harbour entrance and we started picking up a few nice ones and landed this guy. Put anouther in the box and let a couple more 5-7lbers go and then we headed for home. Lemon lime flasher and 4' hearing aid was the ticket. All fish had tiny fish(needle?) And/or little crab looking things in there bellies.

Fish are vacuum packed and everything is put away now and all the neighbor's have fresh Fish!

Wife and kids got me a coffee mug with the boat name on it for father's day.
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Father-in-law and brother-in-law in one boat. My wife and I in ours. They hit Kirby. We fished in front of Bamfield and back to Poett Nook. We marked a lot of fish and bait all morning. Only got two shakers. Father-in-laws boat had a screamer within 15min of getting set up then nothing. We tried hootchies and spoons they were using hootchies. They are going back out for an evening fish at Pill.
 
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