Port Alberni / Bamfield Reports - Spring and Summer 2011

[the fog ducker]

Did he try forcing anything else on yuz : (

or did ya keep ur door locked : )

fd

 

[Striper Sniper]

Well, Spring Fevers traveling Gong show and flying circus headed out of Cleutsi Haven around 10:00 am Tues. morning, returning yesterday around 3:00 PM to enjoy refueling the boat at the Husky on Cliffe Avenue in Courtenay @ 94.9 cents a litre for Marine fuel.

The visions of the wild west coast soon returned to reality as we encountered Seiners and Gill netters for what seemed like the entire length of the canal (excluding Nahmint of course).......... The plan was to hit Pill Point first, head down to Diplock followed by Swale where we would find shelter in the Broken Group to drop the hook. Well, Pill was wall to wall in gill nets, no way you could establish a tac that would of taken you more than a couple hundred meters. I think we saw maybe 3 sporties fishing the less desirable spots so we decided to go directly to Swale and give it a go. Not many sporties at Swale either however 3 or 4 gill netters were working the area pretty good. We picked up 4 Coho and 3 Springs that afternoon/evening before settling in the Broken Group for the night. Biggest Spring was around 7 or 8 pounds and average size of the Ho's was around 4 or 5 lb..

Weds morning we headed straight out to Kirby and had our lines in the water around 5:30 am, not many boats again, maybe 6 or 7 in total however no commies. We caught 2 Springs around 10 or 12 lb.. (can't remember if we caught any Ho's) then decided to head off shore to 7 Mile. Beautiful seas with the Orca cruising at 4800 rpm pretty much the whole way. The seas turned to flat oily and Captain Mike and his First Mate had Cheshire grins all the way out.............. To make what could be long story short, Pinks, Pinks, Pinks and more Pinks! We released all the Pinks as we weren't planning on Hali fishing, a couple of wild Ho's and not one frigging keeper Spring!

We decided to head back in and fish the Wall and Yankee Bay. What a hell of a surprise when we got to Bamfield, the commies had the wall completely covered in nets stretching from the shoreline out making it absolutely impossible to fish, WTF! We didn't think it was worth while heading up to Yankee given the number of commies working the area so we headed back to Swale. Again, more commies but very few Sporties..... I can't remember but I think we kept 1 small Spring and a couple of Ho's. Had a blast feeding the Eagles as they must of scooped up a half a dozen bottom fish that we released, some times as close as 15 feet from the boat.............. too cool!

Thurs. morning we fished Swale again and threw in the towel after we caught the last remaining 3 Ho's to complete our limit. (no Springs) The commies were still present however, in lesser numbers on Thurs. so between the "Bag" boys and the Gill netters me thinks they managed to fulfill DFO's desire to clean up the remaining Sox in the canal!

At the end of the day we returned with 6 Springs with the biggest being around 10 or 12 lb.. and 12 Coho with an average weight around 5 or 6 lb.. Many small Ho's and Springs were caught and gently released but no Slabs for the boys on this trip. The terminal gear of choice was Anchovies used by Capt. Mike and Double Glow Cuttle Fish Hootchies used by yours truly. My rod out fished Capt. Mikes on Tues. but only on Tues....... Capt. Mike had a purple Silver Hoard spoon above a Kone Zone that was absolutely sleighing the Ho's leaving me to sit back and relax....... While coolers with 18 Salmon sounds like it might of been HOT, it was NOT! We spent 12 hours a day on the water and had to work our arses off for every single one it seems.

Never, never, never will I ever fish Barkley if the frigging commies are there, again!

Wish I could give you a better report but I choose instead to be truthful............... Many thanks to Capt. Mike and First Mate Rogeeeeeeeh, for a great time.

SS

 

[the fog ducker]

Well, Spring Fevers traveling Gong show and flying circus headed out of Cleutsi Haven around 10:00 am Tues. morning, returning yesterday around 3:00 PM to enjoy refueling the boat at the Husky on Cliffe Avenue in Courtenay @ 94.9 cents a litre for Marine fuel.

The visions of the wild west coast soon returned to reality as we encountered Seiners and Gill netters for what seemed like the entire length of the canal (excluding Nahmint of course).......... The plan was to hit Pill Point first, head down to Diplock followed by Swale where we would find shelter in the Broken Group to drop the hook. Well, Pill was wall to wall in gill nets, no way you could establish a tac that would of taken you more than a couple hundred meters. I think we saw maybe 3 sporties fishing the less desirable spots so we decided to go directly to Swale and give it a go. Not many sporties at Swale either however 3 or 4 gill netters were working the area pretty good. We picked up 4 Coho and 3 Springs that afternoon/evening before settling in the Broken Group for the night. Biggest Spring was around 7 or 8 pounds and average size of the Ho's was around 4 or 5 lb..

Weds morning we headed straight out to Kirby and had our lines in the water around 5:30 am, not many boats again, maybe 6 or 7 in total however no commies. We caught 2 Springs around 10 or 12 lb.. (can't remember if we caught any Ho's) then decided to head off shore to 7 Mile. Beautiful seas with the Orca cruising at 4800 rpm pretty much the whole way. The seas turned to flat oily and Captain Mike and his First Mate had Cheshire grins all the way out.............. To make what could be long story short, Pinks, Pinks, Pinks and more Pinks! We released all the Pinks as we weren't planning on Hali fishing, a couple of wild Ho's and not one frigging keeper Spring!

We decided to head back in and fish the Wall and Yankee Bay. What a hell of a surprise when we got to Bamfield, the commies had the wall completely covered in nets stretching from the shoreline out making it absolutely impossible to fish, WTF! We didn't think it was worth while heading up to Yankee given the number of commies working the area so we headed back to Swale. Again, more commies but very few Sporties..... I can't remember but I think we kept 1 small Spring and a couple of Ho's. Had a blast feeding the Eagles as they must of scooped up a half a dozen bottom fish that we released, some times as close as 15 feet from the boat.............. too cool!

Thurs. morning we fished Swale again and threw in the towel after we caught the last remaining 3 Ho's to complete our limit. (no Springs) The commies were still present however, in lesser numbers on Thurs. so between the "Bag" boys and the Gill netters me thinks they managed to fulfill DFO's desire to clean up the remaining Sox in the canal!

At the end of the day we returned with 6 Springs with the biggest being around 10 or 12 lb.. and 12 Coho with an average weight around 5 or 6 lb.. Many small Ho's and Springs were caught and gently released but no Slabs for the boys on this trip. The terminal gear of choice was Anchovies used by Capt. Mike and Double Glow Cuttle Fish Hootchies used by yours truly. My rod out fished Capt. Mikes on Tues. but only on Tues....... Capt. Mike had a purple Silver Hoard spoon above a Kone Zone that was absolutely sleighing the Ho's leaving me to sit back and relax....... While coolers with 18 Salmon sounds like it might of been HOT, it was NOT! We spent 12 hours a day on the water and had to work our arses off for every single one it seems.

Never, never, never will I ever fish Barkley if the frigging commies are there, again!

Wish I could give you a better report but I choose instead to be truthful............... Many thanks to Capt. Mike and First Mate Rogeeeeeeeh, for a great time.

SS

Really Changes your mentallity ta see that eh SS ,
read Bob Coles recent post , sounds like there gonna be around for even LONGGGGERRRR now , brutal

glad you still had a good outting though

FD

 

[the fog ducker]

Curious

does anyone know what happens to the by-catch these guys get ,
dont tell me theres no young chinook , and worstly , young Coho bleedin on ther decks..

: (

fd

 

[IronNoggin]

No Onboard Observers, and the boats return to their own plants to offload.
There WERE a good presence of springs, steelhead and coho in the Sound before this Madness. I suspect those will soon be gracing supermarket shelves in Alberta...

Nog

 

[the fog ducker]

Sickening

FD

 

[Part Timer]

Just returned from 5 days of awesome fishing. Fished Southbank, Rats Nose, Kirby and Whittlestone. Limited out on fish everyday with friends by noon. Biggest Hali 34 pounds, Spring 32 pounds with most fish in mid twenties. Used Zur-Tro lures in large size and no flasher for all fish. Was a blast although travelling anywhere resulted in playing russian roulette with the commies.

 

[Big Green Machine]

Hey Part Timer, looks like you stayed clear of the commies, you must of hit most of your fish at Southbank eh? We hit a few inshore last weekend but they were smaller and mostly cohos. Nice to see you got some at Whittlestone, where were ya stayin?

 

[Part Timer]

Stayed at Mackay Bay. Actually did very well at Kirby early every morning. The bank was nonstop action though. Found most the springs deep, below 70 feet.

 

[Westcap19]

Coming up Monday to Friday!

A couple of us Victoria boys are running the canal Monday morning for a week's fishing out of Bamfield--hope to be launching about 9 o'clock at Clutesi. Is it still non-stop commie action??

 

[Osama Bin Hopper]

Commies out this way are giving up, not sure about further in. Fishing offshore is awesome.

Where are you staying?

 

[Kings2011]

I'm heading to Bamfield tomorrow, should be running the channel in the afternoon so i might have to take my time. Stayin at Imperial and looking forwarded to meeting the new owners and see the cabins with new kitchens and the new dock. Hoping to get offshore monday morning but would be a new area for me. Last three years we have been fishing mostly inside. Have a 26 foot striper with twins so it should be OK if the weather is not too bad. Btw, just put electric over hydraulic on the trailer so i should be legel....

 

[tofinofish]

Hey Osama,

Thought I'd drop in on this thread and say Hi. Hope you are having a great summer so far...

J.

 

[Westcap19]

We will be staying at the Benham's place in Bamfield. We came up last year at the same time (I owe a fish report from last year--will combine with this year's report!!) I've got the turds bellini's spoons and big chovies raring to go--60# of ice, beer and Aberlour. YAHOO!

 

[searun]

Great fishing inside the sound today. Bit of a bait show however. Some nice teeners and few 20+.

 

[Jencourt]

Home from 3 nights in the sound. Had a great trip.

Fishing was really good! Had a hard time staying off all the shakers and small springs at Swale for the evening fish Thursday.
Hit south bank Friday morning for limits of springs and one hatchery ho.back to swale for eve to try to get more coho. shaker fest again all depths all gear and all speeds.Decided to hit Turtle for Saturday and had limit by 9 or so complete with 1 pink (weeded through some more coho for a one more hatch and one dumb butt sockey that decided to take a bight out of a large pilchard spoon.
Added about a hundred prawns and six dungies to make a great trip even better.

here are a couple pics.

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[Duffer]

Nice Green Grass!! Hows the new Rig??

 

[trophywife]

came in wed night, slept in and decided to try austin/cree.. wicked south west so the whole friggin fleet was there,,, slow for springs, only one,, and 6 wilds up to 12 lbs, fu-- i hate throwin bleeders back, we should be allowed one for the mercy kill???? ran to south bank the next morning at 6:30, limit on springs before 10:30. repeat next day, biggest tho was tyeesha, that slut had it comin!!!! havent bin spooled to backing in a few years!!! felt goood!!!
funny the mention of following,,came out of the harbour a lil late and was on the horn to osama to see if he was gonna go to starfish,, he was 10 minutes ahead and had 7 boats following,after passing 5, found farmer jon and osama, the duck and weave through the south west corner was pretty dam funny.!!!
Good to see uncle neil (cotton) glowing as the newest member to the guide comunity. looks good on him. i still wanna know how he reaches clips from that deep boat??

all fish at 80' trolling fast with long leader

 

[Jencourt]

Ya thanks Cliff.The dam stuff keeps growing,. I think some one fertilized it on me,wish it would die I can fish more and mow less.
The new rig seems to be great. has proven to be quite fishy so far. The 150 yamy seems to get pretty good mileage. We did the trip from toquart to Julia and back.to trips from julia to Turtle and back. one from swale to mears and back,plus all the trolling on the kicker. We dumped 45 ltrs in it at the float-house and then 135 bucks to fill it wen we got home. I do not have anything to compare that to as it is my first outboard.

 

[Fish-Hunter]

Great job Ray. Wanted to get out there this weekend also, but working on the house, and spending all my $$$(and then some that I don't have) on it. Still nice to see that someone is getting out there and having some fun.

Cheers
Jay.