2023 Bamfield and Barkley Sound Reports

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god I hope for everyone’s sake it’s better than last week. At least you can go chase the springs sitting offshore.
Haha...did the surf line reg change on the 15th?

We did well for 6 guys last week. 24 springs, limits of hali in the 100-124cm range, a bunch of lings and some Rockies for me as I was the only one who wanted them.

We did a quick fish Monday afternoon but it was all undersized with the exception of one pin popper. All our springs were on the outside inside the 'line'.
 
Haha...did the surf line reg change on the 15th?

We did well for 6 guys last week. 24 springs, limits of hali in the 100-124cm range, a bunch of lings and some Rockies for me as I was the only one who wanted them.

We did a quick fish Monday afternoon but it was all undersized with the exception of one pin popper. All our springs were on the outside inside the 'line'.
Surf line changed on the 15th. We tried all over for chinooks, nothing but shakers, and a couple decent coho. We had fun with bottom fish and then went 6/12 on sockeye in the inlet to end on a high note. Sockeye fishing is a riot. Not too many people I spoke with had any Chinook July 8-12. We fished Keeha, and sail mainly. Sounds like we missed a couple of the quick bites, nothing like last season at the same time. That’s fishing I guess
 
Any fishing reports.
Fished the weekend. Missed a ling while jigging back of flemming. Trolled around dixon that eve and picked up 1-2 shakers. Back out for jigging sunday morning for a couple hrs by kirby. Nothing. Then fished whittlestone with gear 40-60ft in 80ft of water. 10-ish shakers. Went back to port with an empty cooler.
Gotta try something else this weekend when I take my dad out...
 
Fished the weekend. Missed a ling while jigging back of flemming. Trolled around dixon that eve and picked up 1-2 shakers. Back out for jigging sunday morning for a couple hrs by kirby. Nothing. Then fished whittlestone with gear 40-60ft in 80ft of water. 10-ish shakers. Went back to port with an empty cooler.
Gotta try something else this weekend when I take my dad out...
A nice single malt may work ok.
 
Just back from a 3 day trip to Bamfield. Spent time at Whittlestone, Cree, Effingham, Swale and Gibraltar. Water was greenish brown with very poor clarity. Lots weed/kelp, tons of small shakers and very few legal springs.
Sunday night while trolling at Swale tight to structure hooked a nice one but lost it right at the boat. Monday finally found some springs beside Gibraltar after running all around the broken island group. Picked up a 22, 2 14s on a crazy double header and a 12 all within the span of an hour, then quiet again. Yesterday picked up 1 hatch Coho and 3 more smaller springs fishing Gibraltar over 12 hours of fishing. Lost 3 other fish that may have been legal but spat the hook.
Saw DFO once heading past Dempster island and seemed not interested in the few boats trolling.
All in all a very slow fishing trip compared to past years. Really had to grind hard to find legal fish. Hope next week will be better as back up for 3 more days.
 
Launched at Clutesi mid day last Saturday for the run out to Bamfield and returned on Wednesday. Stayed at Mills Landing again and fished two days out of my own boat and one day offshore with Jerry. Jerry filled us up with our Hali limits, a nice 18 lb ling and a few springs.
We fished the Saturday afternoon at Whittlestone and released a couple springs around 60 cm and a few shakers but otherwise found no love. Because we were hearing that fishing had been really slow inside on Sunday we tried around the corner at Beale and Seabird Island but there was way too much kelp in the water to troll effectively there. The weather and water was great though and we were able to quickly run over to Sail Rock for a bit. I managed to use the net to knock off the only spring we hooked before we moved again. We tried Sanford then Whittlestone where we trolled all the way back to the wall. I caught one spring there when we decided to pack it in and it hit just after I popped it out of the clip to wind it in.
Monday was our day with Jerry and we decided to try Sail again on Tuesday morning. We caught two nice springs there in the first 15 minutes then ground it out for the next 5 hours. We ended up with 4 springs and two coho before the winds started picking up and we decided to try somewhere protected for a bit. First tack from Austin back to Meares bluff we picked up a high teener then whipped back on the main to repeat the tack with the wind at our backs. That’s when the excitement and heartbreak happened. The next fish decided to show us just how big he was with a couple of big leaps 100’ behind the boat before breaking off. The prior fish had the teaser rig wrapped tightly around its lower jaw and in a hurry to put on a new anchovy and get it back down again we didn’t check closely enough for damage. It was a strange day for teaser rigs as we had previously retired the last five mostly for the trailer breaking off in the net but also one plastic head split down the middle. I have never had to retire more than one teaser rig in a day of fishing before this day.
Overall it was a tough grind but we went home with a cooler full of fish and the knowledge that the odd Tyee is still out there.
 
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Hello everyone,
Headed up mid august for the annual trip with my pops. We’ve always managed to find our limit of Salmon and halibut (whether permitting) but I’m hoping to get some help finding lings. We’ve tried the kelp beds in front of Beale but only have gotten cabezon that are good sized. Is that the best spot and you gotta grind ‘‘em out? Or are there better spots off shore?

Thanks for the help!
Tight lines.
Mark
 
Hello everyone,
Headed up mid august for the annual trip with my pops. We’ve always managed to find our limit of Salmon and halibut (whether permitting) but I’m hoping to get some help finding lings. We’ve tried the kelp beds in front of Beale but only have gotten cabezon that are good sized. Is that the best spot and you gotta grind ‘‘em out? Or are there better spots off shore?

Thanks for the help!
Tight lines.
Mark
Most of them are mopped up by then
 
Hello everyone,
Headed up mid august for the annual trip with my pops. We’ve always managed to find our limit of Salmon and halibut (whether permitting) but I’m hoping to get some help finding lings. We’ve tried the kelp beds in front of Beale but only have gotten cabezon that are good sized. Is that the best spot and you gotta grind ‘‘em out? Or are there better spots off shore?

Thanks for the help!
Tight lines.
Mark
Ya, few and far between come august. Can spend 6-10 hours bouncing around kelp beds and maybe pull 1 or 2 out.
 
Hello everyone,
Headed up mid august for the annual trip with my pops. We’ve always managed to find our limit of Salmon and halibut (whether permitting) but I’m hoping to get some help finding lings. We’ve tried the kelp beds in front of Beale but only have gotten cabezon that are good sized. Is that the best spot and you gotta grind ‘‘em out? Or are there better spots off shore?

Thanks for the help!
Tight lines.
Mark
with high winds earlier in the season, the lings get hit pretty hard.. we all feel it now when asked for a ling day.
 
Hi, I'll be heading out for my annual trip to poett nook beginning of August. I've been reading that bamfield main is closed fr 36km-49km and there is a detour route for about 3 weeks for chip sealing. Is this accurate? If so how long does the detour add for time fr port alberni? I already have a ferry rezi fr tsawassen to duke point. Any info on road condition or alternate route would be greatly appreciated. Thx
 
Hi, I'll be heading out for my annual trip to poett nook beginning of August. I've been reading that bamfield main is closed fr 36km-49km and there is a detour route for about 3 weeks for chip sealing. Is this accurate? If so how long does the detour add for time fr port alberni? I already have a ferry rezi fr tsawassen to duke point. Any info on road condition or alternate route would be greatly appreciated. Thx
Maybe go lake Cowichan and flora lake main?
 
Hi, I'll be heading out for my annual trip to poett nook beginning of August. I've been reading that bamfield main is closed fr 36km-49km and there is a detour route for about 3 weeks for chip sealing. Is this accurate? If so how long does the detour add for time fr port alberni? I already have a ferry rezi fr tsawassen to duke point. Any info on road condition or alternate route would be greatly appreciated. Thx
Some of us took this road both on Sunday and Monday. You should expect to add somewhere between 45 min to an hour to your trip due to the detour.
 
Fished Cape Beale this morning from 715-10 and had 4 springs to the boat. Anchored for hali around 10 miles out afterwards but only got a foul hooked skate.
Any size to the springs. Friends have been out at Pill and got several in the 6-10 lb range and had 2 on that took line, with one that he said had the reel screaming
 
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