2020 Ucluelet Reports

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Does anybody know if the offshore banks are open for Chinook retention starting July 15?

Not trying to be rude but you should never take anybody's word on anything regulation related. It only takes a couple mins on the interweb to check yourself and be sure probly faster than waiting for a response on here. It’s up to each individual to understand the regulations themselves if your not sure call the proper authorities and confirm. The,, someone on the inter web told me will not stand up in court.
 
Going to be up there Wednesday through the weekend and hoping there is some action on the shoreline for springs. Any new reports? If its really slow off Ukee would consider running across to the opposite side of the sound or up the coast if necessary.

Will report back afterwards.

Thanks!
 
Wonder why there is not much fishing reports in this thread. Probably some unfriendly comments from other members.
Anyhow, I was up in Ucluelet from Tuesday to Friday. Here is my report.
Arrived Tuesday afternoon. Went over to Loudin Channel for some lings and rock cod. Get a few of them for dinner.
Wednesday morning, Kind of drizzly, try the red can and light house at the crack of dawn. Trolled for for an hour, not a bite. Went over to Cree, trolled from 8:30 to 11:00am. no action. Packed it in for the day.
Thursday morning, Hit Florencia Bay at 5:30am. Got a 15# within 3 minutes of dropping the line. Had another hit while playing the fish, but it did not stick. No more action after that. Packed up and went to lighthouse bank. Got a 15# halibut while bouncing the bottom at 180 ft. Another line at 50 ft. Hit a school of coho, one of them even took the spoon while we were trying to lower the rigger.
Friday morning, it was windy with a gale warning. So decided to try Austin Island. Got there at 6:00am, Got a hit as soon as we let the line down but lost it. Let the line down again and got another hit. Netted a 10 pounder. Thought it would be a great day. But no more action after that. Had to pack up by 8:30am so that we can catch the 2:00pm ferry back to Vancouver.
Will go again next week and report back.
 
One of the reasons for few posts out of Uki is that there really is only a handful of boats fishing there. We camped for 5 days and maybe 10-15 boats left the harbour each morning. Lots of campers around but very few fishermen. Guides are starving up there. On many days only a handful out with clients. Tough times, feel for them.
 
Wonder why there is not much fishing reports in this thread. Probably some unfriendly comments from other members.
Anyhow, I was up in Ucluelet from Tuesday to Friday. Here is my report.
Arrived Tuesday afternoon. Went over to Loudin Channel for some lings and rock cod. Get a few of them for dinner.
Wednesday morning, Kind of drizzly, try the red can and light house at the crack of dawn. Trolled for for an hour, not a bite. Went over to Cree, trolled from 8:30 to 11:00am. no action. Packed it in for the day.
Thursday morning, Hit Florencia Bay at 5:30am. Got a 15# within 3 minutes of dropping the line. Had another hit while playing the fish, but it did not stick. No more action after that. Packed up and went to lighthouse bank. Got a 15# halibut while bouncing the bottom at 180 ft. Another line at 50 ft. Hit a school of coho, one of them even took the spoon while we were trying to lower the rigger.
Friday morning, it was windy with a gale warning. So decided to try Austin Island. Got there at 6:00am, Got a hit as soon as we let the line down but lost it. Let the line down again and got another hit. Netted a 10 pounder. Thought it would be a great day. But no more action after that. Had to pack up by 8:30am so that we can catch the 2:00pm ferry back to Vancouver.
Will go again next week and report back.
Give it 3 more weeks and the Robertson fish should be showing in good numbers.
 
I was getting ice the new and easy way in Ukee this afternoon, which means they have nice salt ice at the seafood store on the highway and a donation can on the wall. Two groups showed up to drop fish for processing. One group had a good number of small fish. The other group had 4 nice springs, two of which were over 25. I didn't ask where they were fishing. Everyone had a sunburn. I'll be in Tofino for 6 days trying to find a calm spot for the wife. Some such areas are "reserved" for Ahousat citizens only, apparently.
 
Fished Wednesday afternoon to Saturday AM last week. Due to wind we fished inshore on Wednesday and Friday. Thursday and Saturday we ran out to the big bank.

Inshore at ukee harbour mouth on Wednesday picked up a 10 pounder and couple rockfish. Cree-Meares area and the red can on Friday we lost a couple springs and got a ling and a couple rockfish. Heard that the guys who hit Flo bay first thing got into a few springs there.

Thursday we limited on slot sized Chinook and also our hali at big bank plus got into a bunch of hatchery coho (surprisingly they outnumbered the wild ones that day).

Saturday we picked up the rest of our slot Chinook and hali at big bank again, but zero coho (even wild).

Variety of gear and depths worked on the bank but cuttlefish hootchies hit the majority of the springs, main thing seemed to be just getting on top of the schools of fish.

Tons of little paddle hali's out there to weed through to find some decent ones.
 
Seems a bit slow inshore at the moment. Went out for only a few hours on Sunday morning. Started in front of Little Beach then tried out by South Bank. No action at either location except a few rock fish. A buddy of mine was out at SW Corner all morning and only got a couple teen size Chinook.

Am I reading the regulations right for 123 offshore? I know the max is 80cm, but no minimum size?
DFO 123 Chinook 2020-07-27_14-34-40.jpg

DFO 123 Chinook 2020-07-27.jpg
 
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Seems a bit slow inshore at the moment. Went out for only a few hours on Sunday morning. Started in front of Little Beach then tried out by South Bank. No action at either location except a few rock fish. A buddy of mine was out at SW Corner all morning and only got a couple teen size Chinook.

Am I reading the regulations right for 123 offshore? I know the max is 80cm, but no minimum size?

View attachment 55219
45 cm is the minimum
 
Went out to big bank Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a grind still managed a few fish. Sunday we had much better luck. Tons of boats offshore out there .
 
45 cm is the minimum

I thought it was a typo on the regs, but I got off the phone with someone at DFO and he confirmed there is no minimum size in area 123 seaward bound of the boundary. Although this may be the official rules, I would still stick with 45cm minimum to give this fishery a bit of a chance.
 
I thought it was a typo on the regs, but I got off the phone with someone at DFO and he confirmed there is no minimum size in area 123 seaward bound of the boundary. Although this may be the official rules, I would still stick with 45cm minimum to give this fishery a bit of a chance.

The person you spoke to is wrong, there is and always has been a 45 cm minimum size limit in that area. If there is some sort of discrepancy in the regulations it is a typo, 100%.

Besides, would anyone really want to keep a 2 to 3 pound Chinook?

Not saying you would keep a fish below 45 cm, but inexperienced fishers should NOT rely on the misinformation from this DFO person you spoke with.
 
They would probably rather a guy keep a one pound Chinook as one of their 10 annually instead of throwing them back dead after they got cranked up from 150 feet.
 
OK I'm closing the book on this one. Sorry for high jacking the Fishing Reports thread and my apologies for causing a stir about this. The table is misleading (at least to me and even a DFO official). This is why I ("inexperienced fisher") asked the question to all of you more experienced guys.

I contacted DFO again except by email this time. I stated there is possibly a typo and missing the Min Size in the table for Area 123. They said, "the regulations on the website are correct as per the fishery notice".

So it seems they only have the min size for area 123 posted in the latest fisheries notice as below.

DAILY QUOTA AND SIZE RESTRICTION:

Effective July 15 until July 31 2020 in that portion of Area 123 seaward of the 1 nm Boundary Line, the daily limit is two (2) Chinook, with a minimum size limit of 45
cm, and a maximum size limit of 80 cm. The Boundary Line is approximately 1nm seaward of the surf line. For full definition of the Boundary Line please see the bottom
of this fisheries notice.
 
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