Just got back from a trip - I was there Friday to Monday.
Day 1- Friday we left PA and tried a few spots along the inlet which didn't produce much, just one good sized coho. Perhaps it was the week of seining and gillnetting? Moved on up and tried Assits to no avail, then robbers, also nothing. We only gave each spot about an hour. Then we crossed over to Swale which was really good. Steady action of coho and chinooks with the biggest being 22, and smallest about 15. Decent size! We popped in to check-in at the Bamfield lodge, grabbed dinner and a cocktail at the Wreckage, then hit the wall which produced a nice 12 pounder.
Day 2 was by far our best day. We started at Flemming, which produced some coho and big mackerel, but no chinooks! Popped back over to Swale which was very good for us again, producing some bigger chinooks that were biting white hoochies and anchovies. We were close to our limit so we decided to go for some rockfish around the cape and picked up a good haul of seabass/lingcod/rockfish. The sun was up, and the water was glassy everywhere, including Beale which was a nice change! After jigging, we headed to little beale and whittlestone where we picked up 2 nice chinooks to get our limit for the day. An 18 and another 22lber!
Day 3 was tough for us. We went straight to Swale and it was very quite. One chinook and 2 coho is all we managed. Crazy how it changes day to day!
Day 4 was departure day. We needed 2 chinooks to fill our cards, so we popped over to Flemming for 1.5hrs to try to get our limit. We managed 1 cookie cutter chinook and 2 coho before the lightning started, forcing our decision to get back to port before things got dicey.
We only used white hoochies and chovies. springs were 50/50 and coho were hitting the hoochie. Depths between 27 & 55 most days. I heard other spots were filled with chinooks so it was just a matter of right place right time.
We stayed at the bamfield lodge again which was great. Accomodation was clean and the helper Sam was pleasant to deal with. The wreckage is such a great spot for those walking the west side. The food is really good and very reasonably priced (cheaper than mainland prices). On our last night we had a drink on the dock while listening to the locals belt out to the live music that was going on. What a special moment!
Once again, thanks Bamfield for the memories.
