2024 Bamfield and Barkley Sound Reports

Fishonjeff said:
So, here’s a report from Aug 3rd to Aug 7th for Bamfield…….slow! This is our annual family trip with my wife, two young kids (11 today and 8) and my mom and dad so, this wasn’t going to be on the boat all day as there’s a lot of places to explore in Bamfield.

We fished all the usually spots in Bamfield Whittlestone, Cape Beale, Cree, Austin, Edward king, Kirby, Fleming and Sanford for the last tack to wrap up the trip. We fished all depths from 33-80 on the inside looking for bait etc and fishing tight to the rocks as possible just trying anything but the fish just aren’t here yet. We tried almost everything from bait, spoons, hootchies, needle fish and any other thing that has worked before and tried. We did run offshore one day to 10 mile and worked that area and pulled out a few fish but as for my dad he’s not the biggest fan of running offshore in the fog with some of those big swells coming in so, we only spent a few hours out there.

The guys at our lodge that are running from 12 mile to 21 miles are picking up their Salmon and also bottom fish and mostly fishing with hootchies on the bottom.

Overall great family trip again staying at McKay lodge and they always go out of the way for my boys. Both boys had an awesome time fishing for squid off the dock and all the different bottom fish they picked up along the way. We seen lots of whales daily, seals, the resident sea lion that probably lives in the harbour, sea otters and river otters, bears and lots of eagles. I’m back up again in a few weeks so, hopefully by then the fish will have moved into Barkley sound.
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Sorry to hear that. Can I ask though why you only fished to 80 feet? I'm no Bamfield expert, but when we couldn't keep the little guys off, we found more success around Swale at 180-200 on the riggers. That was in early July though so could be a whole other game at that point.
 
Rain City said:
Sorry to hear that. Can I ask though why you only fished to 80 feet? I'm no Bamfield expert, but when we couldn't keep the little guys off, we found more success around Swale at 180-200 on the riggers. That was in early July though so could be a whole other game at that point.
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I would say that was average depth. I guess I did leave out fishing Meares bluff also and I did try a tack at 120-140ft with no luck. The areas that we’re fishing have a lot of contours and pinnacles so, those were the average depths.

This is only my 6 year fishing Bamfield usually doing two trips in August and haven’t experienced a year like this yet but would say the early July fishery is definitely different than the August fishery. We were able to pick up a fish at all places we went but it just wasn’t like previous years and that’s fishing.

Even the coho this year weren’t around and only found them out at 10 mile in decent numbers. The one thing I would say was that there was a morning bite at Fleming with usually a handful of boats fishing that small tack.
 
From what it appears, Bamfield is between "waves" of fish. There are fish up north at Nootka / Esperanza and some of them will be heading your way sooner or later.

Early July fish are often heading to the US to the Columbia and other southern Rivers. There is a push of Fraser fish that follow the coast, being the Springs heading furthest up river that can show up in late June early July as well.

As the fish move through , there are dead times. If there is alot of bait to hold the local fish close to shore that does help. If no herring, the fish could be 20 miles off.

Add to that a week of bad weather and high winds, and the week you pick can be a bust. I have lived this dream or nightmare many times.

All the same, springs should start staging as long as the water is cool, and the jellyfish are gone so you stand a chance of finding the fish.

Drewski
 
Fishonjeff said:
I would say that was average depth. I guess I did leave out fishing Meares bluff also and I did try a tack at 120-140ft with no luck. The areas that we’re fishing have a lot of contours and pinnacles so, those were the average depths.

This is only my 6 year fishing Bamfield usually doing two trips in August and haven’t experienced a year like this yet but would say the early July fishery is definitely different than the August fishery. We were able to pick up a fish at all places we went but it just wasn’t like previous years and that’s fishing.

Even the coho this year weren’t around and only found them out at 10 mile in decent numbers. The one thing I would say was that there was a morning bite at Fleming with usually a handful of boats fishing that small tack.
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I found basically the same thing fishing pretty hard the 2nd to 5th. Very slow for salmon on the inside. Finally found a decent bite at Cree on the last morning. We focused in the 60-100' range but sent the gear down to 130' a decent amount too. We didn't mark much on the sonar deeper than 100'. The fish we got were pretty full of small bait. I think they were around but getting plenty of feed.
 
We trailered our boat up today and could not find parking. Had to wait 2.5 hours until someone left. Got late start on fishing.
Lots of shakers and one 11lb chinook.
 
Got back yesterday from Bamfield. Fishing is definitely slower than last year right now. Last year the derby weighed in over 1000 fish, this year 389 with many folks skunked.

First 2 days we fished Beale and Whittlestone, slow! So were Kirby, and the Wall. Then we went to Cree and Austin Island and the fishing was good. With fresh, feisty fish. Hooked over 30 fish, lost 4 good ones, kept 12 springs and 3 coho. Springs between 12-25 lbs. The bait they’re feeding on is extremely small (2-4 inches) so only used Skinny G herring aid spoons between 40-80 feet. Most fish caught between 60-70 feet. Weather was calm with fog and overcast.

Guides say that the bulk of the springs are still feeding offshore and haven’t come inside yet. Feeding on big schools of larger herring and pilchards. Fishing should improve as time goes on.
 
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Heading up Sunday for 4 nights, if anyone wants to share intel and work together to find fish pm me.lots of ground to cover up there.
 
Fishtank said:
Heading up Sunday for 4 nights, if anyone wants to share intel and work together to find fish pm me.lots of ground to cover up there.
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its seems to be far better for the first 3 hours of daylight. all the usual spots are producing. harbour entrance, swale, cree, kirby, ships..
i been rolling bait but still trolling fast, squids are still around so run some rubber too for sure.
 
We just came back from 4 days in Bamfield. (3 boat group) Definitely slower fishing than previous years but we managed 1-2 fish in the mid teens each morning off Beale first thing.

Offshore fishing was better on Wednesday. Skinny Gs and white hootchies 140-200 ft on the rigger in 200 ft of water was working well for springs and coho. We picked up 3 nice Hali drifting with swim baits as well at some random spot 7-8 miles out.

PM me if you’d like more info.
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August 2nd-9th. Departed fr Tsawwassen for Duke Point on the 745am ferry. We usually get the 515am sailing, but I just can’t get myself to start loading the car at 1am anymore. Taking the 745 sailing felt like a real holiday. Easy 2hr 15min ride over and then headed up to Port Alberni. Halfway to Coombs I noticed a warning on the BC highway traffic condition board, Hwy 4 closed-update to follow. Oh S@&*! I said to my son, pulled in to the Snaw-naw-as Shell and called our group behind us. Goggle maps told us go thru Lake Cowichan. I moaned that’ll be a 5 hr detour and we won’t make the late afternoon tide. My buddies and I decided to regroup in Coombs and wait for the next hwy update. Picked up our usual sausage rolls at Goats on the roof and road update came in saying traffic stopped in both directions serious accident just outside the Alberni summitt. Eiyahh I cried, I was so looking forward to using the new Bamfield main road fr PA. Next update came in, single lane traffic, long delays. We marched on to PA and settled for the single lane traffic instead of back tracking. Finally made it to PA, gassed & lotto and we were good to go for Bamfield main road. Hit the last stop sign before the logging road begins. Kept on driving and driving and driving and was like when is the washboard gonna start. Before we knew it we were at the Bamfield Centennial Park. I drove the whole way flabbergasted with my mouth wide open. How is this possible I kept thinking. I really wanted to stop on the road, walk on it, touch it and kiss it. Can u even believe there was an RCMP hiding in a pull out with his radar gun. Anyways, it was that good, so I’m glad my taxes paid for something that I’m using in my lifetime. Not a spec of dust on the car. Little will any new traveller on that road know what we used to go through in the old days. We were a bit tired fr the day’s journey so we didn’t get to go for a troll. So let’s talk fishing now. Like I mentioned before in a previous post, we stayed at Centennial in 2020 due to some kind of virus and everything else was closed. We caught 6 fish that year, and things were shaping up to be very cyclical again. 4 days in this year, 5 fish. We were all like, do you think we can make 6 or are we gonna get stuck on 5 for the full week long trip and break a new all time low record. I read the reports coming in that evening, things were slow, derby had lower weigh ins, fish were off shore, etc. Basically it was a grind. Other reports, Sooke was hot, Tofino/Ucluelet was dynamite! Day 5 we made a plan, we’re trolling towards Ucluelet or bust. We head out our usual time 730am towards Effingham. First drop at Cree. Nothing! Kept trolling towards Ucluelet and then we hit the Howell Humps at Howell Island. Not quite Ucluelet but it seemed like it as we didn’t see a single soul. Trolled the humps, and in just a few hours we took in over 30 strikes and boated 11 fish, 4 springs (biggest 19), and 7 huge coho. All on small skinny g’s. Each fish had the smallest bait I’ve seen pouring out of their mouths as we netted them. Pure exhaustion & chaos for the 4 of us and then the thought of omg I’m the one dressing all these fish. Let’s go in I said as I knew I had an easy hour or more of cleaning. Got them all cleaned, marked and bagged on the boat and then the next thought popped into our minds, we don’t have room for them in our freezer at Centenniel. Off to poett nook we go. Saw some familiar faces there and we were able to put them in their freezer for a cost. Day 6 last tide, went out to the Howell Humps again. 0 visibility! We tucked in behind a convoy of radar boats to Gaylord Bluffs and then split off to Howell using our GPS maps. Thank you Simrads and Furanos but I didn’t know your call signs. Dropped our lines at the humps, same old thing. Fish on! 1 1/2 hr tide, kept 3 springs & 2 coho. Skinny g’s-no bananas and yellow herring. Enough I said let’s puller up, head in get the shish-kebab outta the water and relax at the campsite for our last nite. So all in all another great trip. Put your time in at places you’ve never tried before and good things will happen. However I do think all the fisher people out there starting today will have no trouble hooking them. Reports are they have moved closer to the inside. Hope you were able to slug your way thru my little report this year. Good luck and til next year. Look forward to reading your reports til the end of the season.
 
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