2019 Bamfield and Barkley Sound Reports
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sailfisher
Member
Planning a trip into Barkley Sound this weekend. We'll sleep on board in the Broken Island Group. I've been up there before but only a couple of times and don't know the fishing areas that well. Can anyone offer up some advice on where to target fish near to the Broken Islands? We'll be with my kids so keeping them engaged in the fishing is always key! Seems like Coho and Chinook are open in the sound... any recent reports on what they are feeding on (what kinds of tackle might be good to try at this time of year)?
Thanks
Thanks
fogged in
Well-Known Member
We have had good success for Springs off Cree Island and along the reef and small island south of Cree, where the Vanleen went down years ago.
Had have good success for Coho off Effingham.
You could run in to Swale
All good spots, but when we fish them it is always later in the season.
Swale will be open, not sure about Cree.
sailfisher
Member
Thanks fogged in!
Jean Paul Carufo
Active Member
My wife and I also fish Cree and will be there starting the 8th. Even with the DFO changes, Cree is way inside and will be open. Best success for us has been on the SE side along the 65 to 94 contour line and on the West side as well. If you go to the Navionics Chart Viewer on their webpage you will see our two waypoints. The SE waypoint is killer! Just be really careful, and if you can, use a split screen on your finder, so not only do you see depth and possible fish, but be ready for the frequent bottom changes on your chart. If you go inside that 65 line, depth changes quickly and it's a ball grabber. We stayed between those two contours all the way around the South end to the Ocean side then turned and ran it back. Lots of Springs there. We also did okay running the 98 contour line from Cree on the South side of Austin to Mears Bluff and beyond. As fogged in also mentioned, the 98 line on the South to the East side of Swale can be epic too. For 25 years, it has been consistently our favorite place to fish Barkley.
Another favorite across the Imperial Channel closer to Bamfield, especially for Coho and Sox, has been again the 98 to 131 contour off of Kirby Point (Diana Island). On the incoming, the current sweeps past Kirby flooding the Sound and brings the Coho and Sox with it. Coho on the outside line, Sox on the inside. You will see Springs deep on your sounder, but if the Coho are there, they won't let you get to them.
By the way, last year the bait in the Sound was really small, and we found the Gold Star 4441-000-395 Coho Killer Double Glow/UV was money. Enjoy, be safe.
sailfisher
Member
Thanks Jean Paul. I appreciate the info... we are getting very excited! Taking the kids to the tackle store after school today and we'll look for that Coho Killer. Hope we hit some fish!
Jean Paul Carufo
Active Member
It's the 395 Herring-Aide with the GLOW BACK. Others with chrome backs were never touched. We ended up with 4 on 4 rods, they worked so well. We fish from Ucluelet, and last year on our last day on the way back to the harbour we decided to try one pass 'out front' along Little Beach. In the week we fished, we hadn't touched a fish there fishing big hoochies as everyone suggested. Fished 2 'killers' about 10 minutes and half way through the first pass, ended with a double. Possibly with all the squid this year things might be different, but I just ordered 4 more just in case.
Thats funny we had a sheltie that we recued from a shelter when the kids were little and called him Lucky.
BigBadBrad
Active Member
Great time fishing out of bamfield the past 6 days! Fished hard 10-12 hours each day. Tons of small Chinook between 2-6 pounds. Handful of springs between 6-9 pounds each day with 4 fish hooked between 10-13 pounds in the 6 days. Most people are calling 5 pound springs 8 pounders. Excellent halibut fishing on the inside also.
Austin , Cree and Edward King was where we fished.
Cheers
Austin , Cree and Edward King was where we fished.
Cheers
SaltyAlice
Well-Known Member
Back from a few stunning days in Barkley Sound. We lucked out and arrived at the tail end of the wind and had several days of calm sunny waters. As usual for this time of year we made friends with a relentless parade of shakers but did manage to bring aboard some decent chinooky friends. We worked hard for them, but how hard is it really when you are listening to tunes with your brother under sunny skies while eating beef jerky and talking smack about one another?
We tried different lures, depths, speeds, often stacking to get more experiments in the water. We fished Swale, Meares, Cree, and Pill and had our best success at Swale and Cree between 70-90’ with Herring Aid Skinny G. The fish we brought home had sizeable squid in the bellies but our hoochies only seemed to attract shakers whereas the spoon had slightly larger fish. The shakers out by Effingham were larger and many were *technically* keepers but in general we don’t like bringing anything out of the water that is so small we need to measure to know if it is legal. Gaff release all day. We tended to have more luck in the AM on the keeper front despite doing some days that ran from 04:45 to 20:30.
We also tried prawning for the first time; thanks to all those on the forum that gave advice! I don’t yet have a puller on the boat so we hand lined 400’ of weighted traps a number of times. We only managed to scrounge up a few prawns and shrimp but we did luck out and bring up some beautiful slime eels. And by beautiful I mean awful. And by awful I mean Satan’s hot dog. I hate them. Here’s something we learned: hagfish have skulls but no vertebrae. For some reason this makes them even more nasty. I really wanted to just open the trap while still in the water so as not to slime the boat but my genius brother wanted to retrieve the slime-encased prawns. We concocted the masterplan of dumping everything into the bow and then my bro would grab the slime eels and toss them over. Problem is, slime eels are slimey. Who knew? So it ended up as a Keystone cops moment in a fair amount of chop as he grabbed around my feet trying to get ahold of the damn things while I cursed him out and screamed like a wee girl. So, anyways, that was prawning.
We tried different lures, depths, speeds, often stacking to get more experiments in the water. We fished Swale, Meares, Cree, and Pill and had our best success at Swale and Cree between 70-90’ with Herring Aid Skinny G. The fish we brought home had sizeable squid in the bellies but our hoochies only seemed to attract shakers whereas the spoon had slightly larger fish. The shakers out by Effingham were larger and many were *technically* keepers but in general we don’t like bringing anything out of the water that is so small we need to measure to know if it is legal. Gaff release all day. We tended to have more luck in the AM on the keeper front despite doing some days that ran from 04:45 to 20:30.
We also tried prawning for the first time; thanks to all those on the forum that gave advice! I don’t yet have a puller on the boat so we hand lined 400’ of weighted traps a number of times. We only managed to scrounge up a few prawns and shrimp but we did luck out and bring up some beautiful slime eels. And by beautiful I mean awful. And by awful I mean Satan’s hot dog. I hate them. Here’s something we learned: hagfish have skulls but no vertebrae. For some reason this makes them even more nasty. I really wanted to just open the trap while still in the water so as not to slime the boat but my genius brother wanted to retrieve the slime-encased prawns. We concocted the masterplan of dumping everything into the bow and then my bro would grab the slime eels and toss them over. Problem is, slime eels are slimey. Who knew? So it ended up as a Keystone cops moment in a fair amount of chop as he grabbed around my feet trying to get ahold of the damn things while I cursed him out and screamed like a wee girl. So, anyways, that was prawning.
Cookie's Cutter
Well-Known Member
Did you ask to be taken to their First Nation’s jail?
walleyes
Crew Member
Right on gentlemen, looks awesome.
sailfisher
Member
Got back late last night after three fun nights staying in the Broken Islands. Fishing was great with lots of coho - a pretty even mix of hatchery and wild. We only caught a few springs and nothing over 10 lbs but nice fish.
We fished Swale the first day with lots of coho and a couple of springs in the morning. White glow hoochies at around 35 feet near to the shore were the ticket. Squid in the stomachs of a few of the fish. Struggled when we went back out later in the day to find fish with one lonely spring.
We started at Swale the next morning but nothing. Goes that way some times I guess. We headed out to Austin and still couldn't find any fish. Didn't see much action from the other boats either. We had the kids on board so we do what we can in terms of fishing contours but there are always distractions. When the fishing is slow the crew gets really bored so we headed out from the rocks near Cree to jig for cod. We found a few cod for the kids to reel in but the most fun was when we reeled in the line to move and a coho zipped out from under the boat and took the bait. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and calm water and we could see the fish feeding near the surface so we decided to try some different tactics and trolled fairly fast and shallow. Green blue and red coloured hoochies at about 25 feet brought in lots of fish (and this was at noon). Springs and cohos with about 5 cohos for 1 spring. Kids had a blast! Pretty proud of my girls reeling in feisty fish around 5 to 6 lbs, helping to net, and steering the boat.
Thanks to everyone on who responded with info on where to go in the area and making our trip a success!
We fished Swale the first day with lots of coho and a couple of springs in the morning. White glow hoochies at around 35 feet near to the shore were the ticket. Squid in the stomachs of a few of the fish. Struggled when we went back out later in the day to find fish with one lonely spring.
We started at Swale the next morning but nothing. Goes that way some times I guess. We headed out to Austin and still couldn't find any fish. Didn't see much action from the other boats either. We had the kids on board so we do what we can in terms of fishing contours but there are always distractions. When the fishing is slow the crew gets really bored so we headed out from the rocks near Cree to jig for cod. We found a few cod for the kids to reel in but the most fun was when we reeled in the line to move and a coho zipped out from under the boat and took the bait. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and calm water and we could see the fish feeding near the surface so we decided to try some different tactics and trolled fairly fast and shallow. Green blue and red coloured hoochies at about 25 feet brought in lots of fish (and this was at noon). Springs and cohos with about 5 cohos for 1 spring. Kids had a blast! Pretty proud of my girls reeling in feisty fish around 5 to 6 lbs, helping to net, and steering the boat.
Thanks to everyone on who responded with info on where to go in the area and making our trip a success!
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Just got back from our first trip to bamfield! Fishing was amazing and we got easy limits each morning of Chinook in the 6-12 pound range. We were using white needle fish hootchies fished 36 inches behind moon jelly flashers. Most of the fish were caught within 15 feet of the bottom as that is where the bait was! Would have been fun to get fish on a jig as sir-vivor did however we were having non stop action on the troll. We will be back out fishing the second week of August!!
Tight lines
Tight lines
Maybe you should pinch the barbs if fishing for salmonids
RiverBoy
Well-Known Member
oh you’re gonna do just fine on this forum
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