Fishing on the bank is excellent!
Port Renfrew Reports Summer 2012
- Thread starter Whole in the Water
- Start date
dmurph
Well-Known Member
Well I finally made it to the coast to fish and I had the best fishing trip of my life. My friend Mac called me Friday and said to be ready in 2 hours, we are leaving Vancouver and heading to Ukee. I had groceries and coolers of ice ready to go before he even hung up the phone. Mac, his fishy friend Jeff and myself were on route for the coast in his 33' blackfin by 5pm. We were cooking steaks in a sick house that Mac set up in East Sooke by 9pm. Pretty sure we went right by Wolf's place if your in East Sooke, looked like your rig. I barely slept that night as I WAS SO STOKED for fishing the west coast . We decided to make a run for swiftsure in the morning as the conditions were like glass. Not going to lie, the swell and fog did have me feeling a little woozy by the time we hit the bank, which was concerning as the boys said it was actually pretty sweet conditions. They had a good cure for the sickness and we were slaying fish in no time. We had fish on before we even had a line down. The ho's were savage off the bank, easy limits of good size hatchery coho and a couple good size springs. Didn't matter what you put down, by the end we were just running big plugs and spoons down deep but the ho's were still all over it. We switched up to to try for hali during the slack and this was exciting for me as I had never caught one . We got lucky, all three of us had one in the boat in short order. Biggest was 30 which is physically bigger then I imagined. Watching Jeff gaff the halis and wrestle them down was entertaining to say the least. Power bait worked for the halibut doing drifts. Pretty easy to fish halibut without the anchor set up. After limiting out on the hali we made a run for Bamfield to fuel up the beast and grab some supplies . We trolled into Bamfield as we had a spot left for a big spring but only released small ones. Cool place to fish , lots of different areas to hit. Pretty sure I saw Osama at the general store in bamfield but you left before I had a chance to say Hello. Turtle Island was the end of the line for day one of fishing. What a sweet place to drop the hook. Morning came quick after eating and then processing fish and Ukee banks were up next. South bank was the first stop and the seas were big, 1 something swell with 5 foot wind chop on top . I felt good day 2 as Renfrew primed me I guess. The fishing was very productive with lots of wild coho and pretty good for springs. Jeff put 2 in the boat around 25 pounds and lost a big heavy brute that spit the hook at us after a long fight. Pretty funny playing fish looking up at them in the swell. All the big springs came on a glo hoochie with a flap on the head. We broke that off and didn't get any more big ones. Small ones were hitting everything I put down, including daisy chain with flasher and bait above it. Pretty much had our limit on day one off inner south bank. My wife and baby Nakai made the drive from the mainland to join us for dinner at a friend of Mac's and Jeff's. It was nice to meet some of the friendly people of Ukee. My wife, boy and I slept on the boat and it was pretty cool seeing the fleet heading out in the morning, got me pretty stoked. The pouring rain on the other hand had us going onto land to grab breakfast and lunch. The Blue Room was the first pace we saw open and I say it was pretty tasty. The locals told us they did good off light house bank the day before so that was our first destination . The wife really wanted to bottom fish. That bank was pretty slow for us but the wife did get her hali using power bait again. We made a couple of location change ups, including south bank again and finished off at a spot called big bear in close ? Must say fishing was much slower, we had to work for them and did't get our limits. Didn't matter, already had an amazing trip . I would have to say swiftsure had the most explosive fishing and south bank was next. Can't wait to visit every one these places again. I am border line thinking of a career change to switch locations from Whistler to the coast lol. White hoochie was overall top producer. The bigger springs came between 130 and 80 feet but we were getting them from 180 to 30 out of ukee and everywhere the first day off swift sure. Fun watching coho attack the gear sitting on the water waiting to be set to the rigger. Can't wait for the next trip.
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I fished the American side of Swiftsure yesterday. It was a bit slower than last weekend but we still found fish. We kept a 16lb and two 10lb springs and 1 5-6lb coho. If I would have worked a bit harder, we probably could have gotten another spring but it was a little sloppy out and I was lazy.
quick limit of 5 hali near j bouy for our boat on sat morn tide change.coho were thick in spots, smaller, but scrappy. tough sledding for springs as we fished hali in the a.m . we did managed 4 teenagers out on the bumps.but a quick fish at logan on the 4pm change led us into 2 more larger hogs 27lbs/31lbs. the legend that is kuzzy never fails!!
. hope the fishing stays strong ,as it is .... tight lines
. hope the fishing stays strong ,as it is .... tight lines
nedarb2
Active Member
tykkyt e blue
Well-Known Member
I just got back from PR too - funny results for me. Day 1 out at the west closure, nothing but 15-18 springs - c&r 8 until 2 bleeders, but NO coho at all?
Day 2 was the opposite - 30+ coho ( mostly unmarked ) but no chinook? Picked up 2 Hali trolling 10' off bottom so it was time for the beach...
Day 3 was short but picked up 2 25lbers at Logan
Left the boat there so back soon...
Day 2 was the opposite - 30+ coho ( mostly unmarked ) but no chinook? Picked up 2 Hali trolling 10' off bottom so it was time for the beach...
Day 3 was short but picked up 2 25lbers at Logan
Left the boat there so back soon...
nedarb2
Active Member
i was out there today too. springs on the bank looked to be pretty good, very few if any coho around, excellent crabbing, halibut was hit and miss. some guys had a very hard time getting into any, some guys were getting their limits no problem. hit east point for an evening fish and picked up one to end the day. beach was pretty dead and sounds like it has been quite slow
Saxe Point
Well-Known Member
Were you out there in your DE 16 or someone else's boat (bananas)? Just wondering if the bank is feasible in a DE16 on a good day...
I'd disagree slightly with High Five. There are some days (especially in August) where the bank can be flat and calm. On those days almost anything can fish the bank or the ocean. HOWEVER, you really need to:
1) Pick your days. I use the website swellwatch.com to look at swells, period and wind predictions. It's pretty accurate and if you see 3 really nice days in a row 2-3 days from now, you can almost count on the middle day being good. In a boat that size, you're looking for swells less than or equal to 3' with a period >=6-7s and winds <10kts (preferably < 5kts). Some days in August the swells are 2-3', the period is 9-10s and the wind is dead calm. On those day's it's like a lake out there and you could fish it in a canoe. I will note that such days are few and far between but they do occur maybe 1 day out of 5 in August.
2) Expect the wind to pick up in the afternoon and leave before that happens.
3) Don't bother to go out if you don't have radar (which is rare on a 16' boat but possible). The visibility can go from 50miles to 50 feet in 20 mins when a fog bank rolls in.
4) Don't bother to go if you don't have a good GPS AND a VHF radio.
5) Go with a buddy boat when possible.
Under the above conditions, a 16' can fish the bank.
1) Pick your days. I use the website swellwatch.com to look at swells, period and wind predictions. It's pretty accurate and if you see 3 really nice days in a row 2-3 days from now, you can almost count on the middle day being good. In a boat that size, you're looking for swells less than or equal to 3' with a period >=6-7s and winds <10kts (preferably < 5kts). Some days in August the swells are 2-3', the period is 9-10s and the wind is dead calm. On those day's it's like a lake out there and you could fish it in a canoe. I will note that such days are few and far between but they do occur maybe 1 day out of 5 in August.
2) Expect the wind to pick up in the afternoon and leave before that happens.
3) Don't bother to go out if you don't have radar (which is rare on a 16' boat but possible). The visibility can go from 50miles to 50 feet in 20 mins when a fog bank rolls in.
4) Don't bother to go if you don't have a good GPS AND a VHF radio.
5) Go with a buddy boat when possible.
Under the above conditions, a 16' can fish the bank.
Anybody who goes out there in a 16 or 17' boat is suicidal and not very smart. There is no room for error 40 km offshore and forecasts can be wrong. If you want to live another day for sure then don't do it in a small and/or ill equipped boat. Even 19 - 21' boats look awfully out of place there. Be smart and know your limits.
Lipripper
Active Member
Under the above conditions a boat of the same size can fish tuna too.
I've been to the bank on a 17
We fished Camper to Logan today..It was tough fishing.We saw no fish being caught.There were perhaps 10 boats..I spoke with a guide Sunday afternoon and he said it was very slow for them as well..We did get one spring 24.5 lbs at 9:30. Thats one fish one hit Lines in the water at 5:45 until 10:30. Oh and it was very swelly. I still feel like im on the boat..
Tsquared
Well-Known Member
We fished Saturday and Sunday on the beach--scratchy for us--3 springs in 2 days.
Monday we were out at the bank and got 6 springs from 14 to 21. Everybody seemed to be usiing a white glow hootchie but we got most of ours on a 7" 153 plug down
deep. i
heard some good reports from the beach on Monday, including right around the
whistle buoy. Today at the bank the current was running strong until near noon and we only ended up with 2. Not
many coho on the bank when we were there--sounds like they are all down here!
T2
Monday we were out at the bank and got 6 springs from 14 to 21. Everybody seemed to be usiing a white glow hootchie but we got most of ours on a 7" 153 plug down
deep. i
heard some good reports from the beach on Monday, including right around the
whistle buoy. Today at the bank the current was running strong until near noon and we only ended up with 2. Not
many coho on the bank when we were there--sounds like they are all down here!
T2
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