2014 Port Renfrew & Swiftsure Reports

[Last Chance]

Plenty of small feeder springs on the bank, with the very odd bigger one mixed in. Hali has been hit and miss on the drift, I strongly suggest anchoring during one of the tides (Ebb is usually better, don't bother at slack), you get bigger fish and it's a lot easier then reeling up and down 200 times with a 2 lb weight drifting. Bright Green (Don't know how to spell Chartruese) spoons (Both Gibbs and Jensen) and 602 colour hoochies were the ticket for me, but it seemed most things were working starting at the south line and trolling southwest.

 

[merrittboy1]

Well it is a good thing that I haven't started my holidays out there yet. Soon. Sure it will pick up soon, like next week. Can't wait to get out there!

 

[Hali_hauler]

I have a question about the exact location of the cdn/us border. I thought this is a simple question but apparently not. The chart on DFOs website indicates j buoy in canadain waters. IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/26/yta2ubeg.jpg[/IMG]


Navionic a show j bouy on the border.

Which is correct?




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Hali_hauler]

Sorry dfo chart is a follows

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[seadna]

I recently was looking into this with regards to fishing a bit farther west. To my surprise, I discovered the the border west of the end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca is in dispute between the US and Canada and is shown in a different location depending on which country has supplied map. I think there is agreement up to about the JA buoy but beyond that it's less clear. See this wikipedia link on the border (look at the part about remaining border disputes). In the WA state fishing regulations, it states that those fishing under a WA state license must use a US map. I presume those using a BC license must use a Canadian map. This might not be that straight forward when programs like Navionics supply maps that cover both the US and BC in one package and hence must be blending data from both countries but had to make a choice about which country's map to use on where to place to border. E.g. I believe (but am not 100% positive) that my Navionics app has the U.S. version of the border.

 

[Hali_hauler]

So does this mean I can fish in the disputed area with out getting arrested or without a passport?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Last Chance]

Been fishing there 12 years never a problem.

 

[saltydawg]

Why so quiet on this board? I heard it was red hot at Camper creek. Buddy had a triple header yesterday. Landed all three. His first Tyee.

 

[Covenanter]

That was far from his first Tyee. It was his first this season.

 

[Team Black Dog]

First post here we go. Fished all last week in renfrew hali is still on fire with pretty much every one getting a limit of there white gold. Salmon was really slow with the algea bloom fished the bank on sat for about 5 hrs to get 2 springs put plenty of time at the beach as well with not much success. By tues morn the water cleared and the springs were hungry. Lots of double headers at the beach it would turn on and for about an hour and a half everyone had nets out then u would see the odd one all day long. we did good bringing home hali up to 45 lbs and our biggest spring was 32. Was a blast and cant wait to get back out there.

 

[dmurph]

Sounds like a solid trip. Hope to get back out this summer.

 

[ReelSlim]

On the ferry right now and will be there in the am.....let the summer begin!!!

 

[seadna]

I fished the Canadian side of Swiftsure this past Friday. We jigged for hali during the brief early morning slack tide but had no luck. However, we did put 3 nice true cod on board. We then switched over to troll for chinook. It took until about 11AM but we did get 4 nice springs in the 8-12# range (all reds). We were fishing 5" pearlescent Tomic plugs at about 220-250' on the cable. We were west of the RCA in about 250-300' of water.

 

[KCW]

Fished Sunday ,Launched late around 10 and trolled the beach and managed one in the 20s and lost 2 . We were just about to quit and at 4.50 ( we were going to quit at 5) had a good hit at camper ( all to ourselves)so we took another pass and in short order got 2 in the 30s and finised with a double and kept another 18-20 and the crab traps were full.

 

[Scavenger]

This Saturday and Sunday has an extremely low tide. I fish Renfrew 4 or 5 times each year and know about the sand bar and river but what will this translate to? Will I be able to get out if I push off at 4am ?

 

[truant]

This Saturday and Sunday has an extremely low tide. I fish Renfrew 4 or 5 times each year and know about the sand bar and river but what will this translate to? Will I be able to get out if I push off at 4am ?

I'm not sure. I would call the marina. They will know.

 

[trevor_shiggs]

This Saturday and Sunday has an extremely low tide. I fish Renfrew 4 or 5 times each year and know about the sand bar and river but what will this translate to? Will I be able to get out if I push off at 4am ?

I think you need about a 3 foot tide to get in and out of the river. Depending on your boat obviously.

 

[seadna]

Sorry dfo chart is a follows

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Just for fun, I took the time to find the US chart of the area and overlay (by eye) the Canadian version of the border on it (see below). As you can see, the J buoy is in Canadian waters on the Canadian chart and in US waters on the US chart. Last year, I muttered about some guys out of Renfrew fishing bottom fish illegally on the US side (in U.S. waters we can't bottom fish outside of the 20 fathom line except for during our very brief hali season). Now I know better and I apologize for my misunderstanding. On my chart they were in US waters, in their chart they were in Canadian waters. My guess is that many Canadians who fish this area and who use their chart plotters or Navionics version of the map, may have the US version of the border being displayed (as would be the case in Hali Hauler's post above). As such, they would be unnecessarily staying out of waters that Canada considers it's own. I think that's what I see when I see guys trolling on the Canadian side near the J-buoy. Their troll (and mine when I'm on that side of the line) seems to end just shy of the US version of the border. I'm not trying to stir anything up here nor give any legal advice (for SURE) but I find it interesting that I've fished this area for years w/o ever knowing there was a difference in the definition of the boundary between our two friendly countries. For some reason, I assumed we'd have worked these kind of things out years ago.

 

[merrittboy1]

Lil slow on the beach. Seen a few caught, but not many...

 

[TheSookesOfHazzard]

Fished the bank today. Decent amount of fish around, mostly smaller guys, but pretty much all boats were getting limits. Anywhere from 100' - 170' on the rigger from the ranch to the bumps seemed fine. We were too late to the Hali game and anchored off the north for a bit without a touch, but most guys got limits of those as well. Great conditions out there too!