walleyes
Crew Member
Bit of a run down of our trip to Ucluelet.
I think I mentioned before this year was just momma and I.
My wife does have some experience running the boat and helping with rods and gear as we have been practicing her on lake trout over the last couple years and she has been on the salt with me a few times over the years but nothing prepared her for this, she was pretty overwhelmed for a couple of days dealing with the fog, following the gps and dealing with other boats but she got onto it shortly and did an excellent job for us.
I did have a really nice chat with one of the local charter boys the day I was getting the boat ready and got a bit of a run down on what was going on and where. I was happy to hear that they were having some success close in as running off shore too far with the wife wasn’t really appealing to us.
First day and for the majority of our time we worked the shoreline and back eddies from the lighthouse to little beach paying particularly attention to little beach end. Most days the traffic was very minimal and fishing was pretty steady action. Lots of coho and mostly smaller springs with the larger ones mixed in. If it was slow on the rocks we would troll out front to the 130 - 160’ water range and drop the gear down. We picked up quite a few springs out as well with our biggest at 21 lbs coming from the deep.
We did run out to Starfish one day for a peak and did ok. Landed a couple nooks in the 8 - 10 range and boxed a nice 16.
We also worked Beg in the afternoons for a couple hours most days to hide from the wind. Coho action was steady there at times, it seemed to come in little waves. Picked up maybe 6 springs off Beg as well but nothing of any size.
We spent maybe a total of 6 hours on Hali but most days it was just too rough to bother to far out and my wife just really didn’t like being out there so no big deal I just left it alone and we decided to chase ling and rock fish instead. We did manage to box 6 decent ling, 3 nice vermilion and 3 or 4 black rock fish so we got some white meat anyways.
In total we had 8 days on the water and it was a very enjoyable 8 days. Weather wasn’t the best as far as water conditions go but also could have been worse. We never did go down to Flo or Wya and had no interest in it. I swear every dang boat in the fleet was there lol what a bloody parade ever morning. If there wasn’t 50 boats that went by us every morning there wasn’t one. Pounding past to join the crowd. We just did our thing and stuck to our little area and filled our limit quietly.
Some quick notes of the trip over all.
For the first time in my life I put the bait away and fished hardware, bait just wasn’t the thing and you couldn’t get the right bait anyways. The bait I took from home was too big and the bait there was too small. Hot lures for the trip varied somewhat but not much. Of course there was always a glow chartreuse down at all times because well if your not fishing with chartreuse your wasting time lol. Glow UV chartreuse with varied chartreuse lures in either a westcoast lures or skinny g worked very well. Hottest set up was by far either a purple glow flasher and skinny g herring aid at 73’ or a blue UV with a no bananas of varied configurations. Loved my lure charging box. I kept one set up charging at all times and boys I have to say I think it made a difference. Never fished a set up longer than maybe 1/2 hr unless it was producing. Would switch them out for a charged set up and wouldn’t take long to hook onto a fish, especially on the deeper runs. I really think it made a difference.
Overall came home with our limit of Chinook 2 in the 12 lb range and all the rest were 14 and over with the biggest at 21. I’m not sure must have released at the side of the boat close to 20 Chinook in the 6 - 10 lb range and can’t even begin to remember how many shakers and coho. Also our limit of Coho along with the bottom fish I mentioned. We used Ukee Seafoods to process our catch and man oh man worth every penny. What an excellent job they did, it’s the only way to go. Just something to budget in if you can. To process our whole catch other than the last Chinook and ling which we had to put on ice for the trip home because we left that afternoon the bill was $300. I didn’t think it was bad at all. We stayed at the Pacific Rim motel in a kitchenette and can’t say enough about the place. Clean well maintained and quiet place. Will not hesitate to stay there again. Once again Ukee was awesome, love the place, love the vibe, love the people we meet every year, can’t wait to get back.
A few fish pics of the trip.
Big old skate
Keeping the deck clean.
Running off shore.
Sunrise over the lighthouse.
I think I mentioned before this year was just momma and I.
My wife does have some experience running the boat and helping with rods and gear as we have been practicing her on lake trout over the last couple years and she has been on the salt with me a few times over the years but nothing prepared her for this, she was pretty overwhelmed for a couple of days dealing with the fog, following the gps and dealing with other boats but she got onto it shortly and did an excellent job for us.
I did have a really nice chat with one of the local charter boys the day I was getting the boat ready and got a bit of a run down on what was going on and where. I was happy to hear that they were having some success close in as running off shore too far with the wife wasn’t really appealing to us.
First day and for the majority of our time we worked the shoreline and back eddies from the lighthouse to little beach paying particularly attention to little beach end. Most days the traffic was very minimal and fishing was pretty steady action. Lots of coho and mostly smaller springs with the larger ones mixed in. If it was slow on the rocks we would troll out front to the 130 - 160’ water range and drop the gear down. We picked up quite a few springs out as well with our biggest at 21 lbs coming from the deep.
We did run out to Starfish one day for a peak and did ok. Landed a couple nooks in the 8 - 10 range and boxed a nice 16.
We also worked Beg in the afternoons for a couple hours most days to hide from the wind. Coho action was steady there at times, it seemed to come in little waves. Picked up maybe 6 springs off Beg as well but nothing of any size.
We spent maybe a total of 6 hours on Hali but most days it was just too rough to bother to far out and my wife just really didn’t like being out there so no big deal I just left it alone and we decided to chase ling and rock fish instead. We did manage to box 6 decent ling, 3 nice vermilion and 3 or 4 black rock fish so we got some white meat anyways.
In total we had 8 days on the water and it was a very enjoyable 8 days. Weather wasn’t the best as far as water conditions go but also could have been worse. We never did go down to Flo or Wya and had no interest in it. I swear every dang boat in the fleet was there lol what a bloody parade ever morning. If there wasn’t 50 boats that went by us every morning there wasn’t one. Pounding past to join the crowd. We just did our thing and stuck to our little area and filled our limit quietly.
Some quick notes of the trip over all.
For the first time in my life I put the bait away and fished hardware, bait just wasn’t the thing and you couldn’t get the right bait anyways. The bait I took from home was too big and the bait there was too small. Hot lures for the trip varied somewhat but not much. Of course there was always a glow chartreuse down at all times because well if your not fishing with chartreuse your wasting time lol. Glow UV chartreuse with varied chartreuse lures in either a westcoast lures or skinny g worked very well. Hottest set up was by far either a purple glow flasher and skinny g herring aid at 73’ or a blue UV with a no bananas of varied configurations. Loved my lure charging box. I kept one set up charging at all times and boys I have to say I think it made a difference. Never fished a set up longer than maybe 1/2 hr unless it was producing. Would switch them out for a charged set up and wouldn’t take long to hook onto a fish, especially on the deeper runs. I really think it made a difference.
Overall came home with our limit of Chinook 2 in the 12 lb range and all the rest were 14 and over with the biggest at 21. I’m not sure must have released at the side of the boat close to 20 Chinook in the 6 - 10 lb range and can’t even begin to remember how many shakers and coho. Also our limit of Coho along with the bottom fish I mentioned. We used Ukee Seafoods to process our catch and man oh man worth every penny. What an excellent job they did, it’s the only way to go. Just something to budget in if you can. To process our whole catch other than the last Chinook and ling which we had to put on ice for the trip home because we left that afternoon the bill was $300. I didn’t think it was bad at all. We stayed at the Pacific Rim motel in a kitchenette and can’t say enough about the place. Clean well maintained and quiet place. Will not hesitate to stay there again. Once again Ukee was awesome, love the place, love the vibe, love the people we meet every year, can’t wait to get back.
A few fish pics of the trip.
Big old skate
Keeping the deck clean.
Running off shore.
Sunrise over the lighthouse.
