Tofino & Ucluelet Reports - Spring-Summer 2012

[TipUp]

Ukee July 31-August 2

Great fishing for us over the three days. Certainly not what I expected with fish locations but we made it work. More than satisfied with the total catch
and lots of action for all those in the boat including a buddy whose only fished a handful of times.

July 31-started at Turtle Head but hit nothing but small springs and coho.
-Moved a couple miles toward "rabbit" at an area I know as "adipose", picked up a fifteen pound spring on a glow needle fish at 120' on the riggers.
Lots of action with coho and various cods or lings being close to the bottom.

August 1-Ran out to SouthWest corner and immediately had action on the same glow needle fish from the day before. After a few feisty smaller springs
one got smarter and took the line through the prop. Losing the go to lure led to trying a tiger prawn hootch....well believe it or not that thing just started slaying the springs at 110 to 130' in 160' of water and we had our limits within a few hours. Never would have guessed a tiger prawn
would work so well offshore, I've had better luck with this hootchy dragging near kelp inshore. Biggest was 18 lbs and a couple more in the high
teens, not the biggest but very hard fighting fish.
-After getting limits on Springs and 1 nice hatch coho we tried a hole near SouthWest and picked up a nice chicken to round out the day.

August 2-Started the day by fishing the same technique at SouthWest but just kept running into hoards of Wild Coho, whereas the day before we didn't
hit a single Wild Coho. Tried a number of different depths and gear but only hit one very small spring and probably released 20+ wild ho. Ended up with three nice hatch ho before moving on.
- Moved over to the North end of Starfish and didn't have a single hit of any kind for two hours of trolling various gear and depth. We tried larger Pilchard spoons and plugs since finding a few inside the springs from the day before but no luck. Some needle fish inside those springs as well.
-Decided to try for Hali near Starfish and after an hour drift jigging and setting a scent trail we pulled up a 4 foot dog fish and I thought game
over, time to switch to power bait. Well about 10 minutes later still fishing salmon belly, my bro hooked into a large fish that didn't run much but
tugged like a beast. Turns out it was a 67lb hali, surprised we got it in the boat as easy as we did, good harpooning and hog tying to keep it safe

Can't wait for a couple weeks when we get another chance at some bigger springs and more hard fighting Hali.

 

[Sculpin]

Good report TipUp! Sounds like a good time. I can't wait till the weekend. Thanks for sharing.

 

[walleyes]

Good stuff tipup,, miss the place already and its only been 3 days lol..

 

[Aces]

It really picked up today as we get away from the full moon

Several mid to upper 20's fish

 

[Sculpin]

It really picked up today as we get away from the full moon

Several mid to upper 20's fish

Right on buddy! Good to hear.

 

[tdickenson]

Tofino Aug 2-5

As promised, here's a report of our trip out of Tofino Aug 2-5. We moved our annual fishing trip from Bamfield up to Tofino this year because we were always running north to get our fish anyway and were ready to try a new place. Had an enjoyable trip overall with mostly good weather and pretty good success, but it was tough fishing for everyone up there and we worked very hard for what we got. Had five guys in the boat with two downriggers and periodically put down a deep diver. In Bamfield we had been able to keep one king per day over 77 cm inside, but we hadn’t counted on the Area 24 regs being NO kings over 77 on the inside, so offshore we went.

Thursday “evening bite” we went out to Portland Point offshore. Released a couple of silvers and tossed back a 13 lb spring that we probably should have kept in hindsight.

Friday we headed for our traditional spot at Starfish with some hopeful looking reports of big fish on the Ucluelet Ladder Derby from Starfish but very frustrating – released a small spring, ended up with one 20 lb hali and one 10 lb spring just to have a fish on the board. Tried an evening bite at Cleland (the only island outside the 1 nm surf line) with lots of kelp but no fish.

Saturday had to try something different, so up to Rafael Pt. offshore we went. About 1.3 nm offshore first we trolled up a ling, but then hit some springs at 23 lbs and a couple of high teens. The water was beautiful. What worked best for us was a purple haze hoochie and flasher about 35-45’ deep. We moved offshore a ways and hit some periodically throughout the day about 80-120’ deep and we continued to troll up lings, rockfish, and snapper. We really stretched our day out and had hit six more spring hoping for one more to fill out our limit. We hit some huge non-hatchery silvers out there that were fun to play but added nothing to our box. We finally called for lines up at 6 pm and with about 2 minutes to spare, my son hooked into a beautiful 29 lb. spring to complete our day. We celebrated when that fish hit the deck.

The Legion derby was going on over the weekend. We didn’t participate, but the two biggest springs on Saturday were something like 33 and 31. But we also heard about a guide that got blanked. Sounded like some guides were concentrating on halis and that most spring were in the teens. So we were feeling even better about our results. I think the biggest hali in the derby on Saturday was in the mid 50-60s and the biggest coho was around 9.

Sunday we headed straight back outside Raffle hoping for a repeat day, but had nothing for an hour. Eventually we got some at 16, 17, 22, and I got a 28 – a virtual tie for our boat’s new “BIGGEST butt” (… fish of the trip) traveling trophy, so it gets to reside at our house until next year. We started seeing big pilchers in the springs and coho so hopefully they are on their way down with the fish. Purple haze and white hoochies were number one for us with a few on anchovies and hoochies. Usually 80-120’ like on Saturday. We had prepped for “big fish” by stocking upon big plugs and spoons but they didn’t produce as well for us as we caught not only small coho and springs on them but rock fish, etc. As in previous years, our best tip is to move the downrigger up or down 10-20’ every 4 or 5 minutes because that seemed to trigger strikes. There were more swells and chop on Saturday, and by late morning we felt the wind coming up and saw the fog rolling up from Portland Point. So we pulled the plug on the trip by early afternoon. Would love to have fished longer, but even with a solid boat, GPS, and radar, it was a smart move for us to slog in and be safe off the water.

Tofino is beautiful. The drive up from Port Alberni seemed easier and cheaper than the boat ride out the inlet to Bamfield in previous years. We hauled up all our food, but it was nice having food and supplies readily available in town. We had called ahead with assurance of bulk ice, but bulk was out and bag was a little tough to come by. Next year back to Tofino for us. Probably a week or two later than this year based on our experience this year. We’ll also try to avoid the full moon and tide swings.

Have to give a big thank you to bulletin board and blog info from lilharcher, fishtofino, ScottieJaynes, Sculpin, and others. Thanks for helping make our trip as successful as it was.

Attachments: My son's 29, my 28, a 23, the group, sunset over Tofino

 

[Sculpin]

Great report man. That is what we want to see. Sounds like you had a great time and that last shot of the sunset hit it on the head. Beautiful area for sure. I like fishing out of Tuff City better than Ukee actually (shusshhhhh lol) but I'm situated closer to Ukee damn it lol. Less boats and better fishing IMHO up North. Looks like you had a good trip. Lot's of nice eating fish there for sure. Congrats and great photos too!!!

Cheers,
John

 

[Hit em Hard]

Great report tdickenson, Thank you. I am heading over to Ukee on Friday for 16 days - I can't wait. It's nice to hear some larger fish have moved in than when I was there last. Out of curiosity were your larger fish whites?

h.e.h.

 

[casper5280]

Went up to Ucluelet Thursday after dinner from Victoria with a buddy and his son from Edmonton and slept on the boat as we arrived just after midnight. Up at 6 in the morning and made the run out to outer South Bank on a beautiful morning. Got in to a few springs and lots of coho, but really had to work for them. The fishing was not at all like last year when we couldn't keep the springs off. We fished 2 rods right on the bottom with turds and plugs and coughed up a couple small halibuts and the odd ling. Not a great day 1, but not bad either came back to the dock and met the wives and went for a nice dinner in town and walked the docks and looked at the dream boats. There was a group of Riverias that would just make you drool.
Day 2 went to South Bank and picked up a couple lings and some nice coho and a lot of huge wild coho that we had to throw back. Came back in and had lunch and picked up the girls as it was another beautiful day and went over near Sail Rock and Benson Island and trolled there till about 6 with a couple other boats. That was probably the most action we had the whole trip. We couldn't keep the lingcod and cod off. Ended up with 4 nice ones and 4 small halibut(15-25 lbs) and 2 20lb springs.
Day 3 went out to South Bank and picked up a 20 lb Halibut and a coho and 2 nice size springs. Sounded like things were picking up out at Shipwreak so picked up and ran out there. Fished there for about a hour or 2 till the wind came up and the fog was rolling in quick, so we made a run for it closer to home. Ended up that it just got worse all the way in so called it a day and went to town for lunch.
Last Day we were going to be leaving around lunch so just went for a quick fish out to the Red Can. No fish for us this morning so called it a day and came in and packed up for the trip home.
All in all not a great trip for fish but not a bad trip either. We did do way better on the ground fish then other years, but the big springs are just not there, for us anyway, But you pick your times and hope for the best and that is all you can do. I always enjoy the company of the Flat landers as they think this is the best place on earth and it always reminds me not to take it for granted as we who live here sometimes do.

 

[casper5280]

More pictures

 

[tdickenson]

H.e.h.,
14 out of our 15 springs were red not white including all of our fish over 20. That's the opposite of our previous few years and we were really happy about it. I love to smoke white kings but prefer red for fillets. I had read that in Tofino the run of whites tends to be farther off shore. And all our springs except one were within 5-6 miles of shore.

 

[J-GLOBAL]

All my springs out of Tofino this year were RED until this last trip. Got 1 white, about 16 nm from 4th street dock, I think that's about 13 miles out.
I prefer the red as well, but it was nice to get the one white for something different. Pretty big - 28. Biggest fish so far this year was 38 and was inside.

 

[Aces]

The whites are late and just starting to come in now. One yesterday and 3 today. One of my buddies got a Tyee double this afternoon

It's gonna turn on real soon.

 

[Hit em Hard]

Thanks for the info guys. hoping for some whites - fresh or frozen for only a short time for the BBQ and some for the smoker for over the winter.

h.e.h.

 

[tofinofish]

The whites are late and just starting to come in now. One yesterday and 3 today. One of my buddies got a Tyee double this afternoon

It's gonna turn on real soon.

Agree, this next stretch of High Pressure it will be happening. Yesterday and Today were just fine but still not how it usually is this time of the year...

Looking forward to tomorrow..

 

[Hit em Hard]

Thanks for the info guys. hoping for some whites - fresh or frozen for only a short time for the BBQ and some for the smoker for over the winter.

h.e.h.

 

[seadog19]

saw a sign yesterday posted at top of ramp, govt dock.

there has been a recent bout of theft ( rods and reels) at both the govt dock and Island west.

biggest fish listed on board for the day 31lbs , biggest for month 38lbs, saw a 70lb plus hali at the cleaning dock a few teenager springs and coho's being processed. Island West marina was full.

 

[between the lines]

hows the fishing up there? any action at the banks

 

[dmurph]

Fished Sunday out off light house bank and had steady action on coho and small springs after first picking up 2 chickens on the jigs. Had hits at all depths from the bottom 170 to 60 feet with 80 70 being most productive. Not many springs at all but plenty of hatch coho. White cuttle fish was most productive for us. Saw 2 different groups at the cleaning table Monday with fish from south bank of good size, a 20, 25, and 29. This was after hearing of many boats all weekend struggle just to put a single fish aboard. Maybe things are rolling in. I was happy with the action we were into, but can't wait to hook into a big spring.

 

[Sculpin]

I was happy with the action we were into, but can't wait to hook into a big spring.

Sounds like our weekend as well. Good practice we said lol. Now just have to get that big cousin to bite.