2024 Bamfield and Barkley Sound Reports

Just back from a trip last Friday to today. We fished the inside and it was SLOW..
Day 1 we pick up one at robbers, swale, then one on the night bite at the wall.
Day 2 we got 1 coho...
Day 3 we got 1 chinook then went for lingcod and did well on bottom fish.

If I had a little more confidence in my boat I would've gone offshore, but unfortunately was limited to the inside..
We didn't experience any morning bites.. It was just slow.. We saw a few people hookup sporadically throughout the day, nothing crazy.. It just seemed like the fish hated everything we the down for them.. The cherry on top was that this morning as we were on our way back to port, we dropped the lines at Assits for 2 hours as a last ditch effort, buddy in the 18ft tinny rolls up solo, catches his two, and leaves all within 45 minutes.
Weather was pretty so/so.. Couple moments of rain, a few pockets of sunshine here and there, and mostly cloudy/socked in west coast weather. LOTS of shakers on this trip.

My fishing ego took a hit this week - really hoping for redemption next year.. But hey, that's we we love it and learn to appreciate the good fishing when it happens. We Love Bamfield and will be back for sure! Stayed at Bamfield lodge again. The wreckage furikake fries are dynamite, as well as their wings.. The music was top notch as well on open mic night!
 
Matthias said:
Just back from a trip last Friday to today. We fished the inside and it was SLOW..
Day 1 we pick up one at robbers, swale, then one on the night bite at the wall.
Day 2 we got 1 coho...
Day 3 we got 1 chinook then went for lingcod and did well on bottom fish.

If I had a little more confidence in my boat I would've gone offshore, but unfortunately was limited to the inside..
We didn't experience any morning bites.. It was just slow.. We saw a few people hookup sporadically throughout the day, nothing crazy.. It just seemed like the fish hated everything we the down for them.. The cherry on top was that this morning as we were on our way back to port, we dropped the lines at Assits for 2 hours as a last ditch effort, buddy in the 18ft tinny rolls up solo, catches his two, and leaves all within 45 minutes.
Weather was pretty so/so.. Couple moments of rain, a few pockets of sunshine here and there, and mostly cloudy/socked in west coast weather. LOTS of shakers on this trip.

My fishing ego took a hit this week - really hoping for redemption next year.. But hey, that's we we love it and learn to appreciate the good fishing when it happens. We Love Bamfield and will be back for sure! Stayed at Bamfield lodge again. The wreckage furikake fries are dynamite, as well as their wings.. The music was top notch as well on open mic night!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the report. I got outfished twice, guys right beside me in Tofino. I’m itching for a big spring, but it looks like my ego might need to let that go or find one on the inside in September.
salmonkiller01 said:
I just bought a herring head holder, 5’ leader and drug it 10’ behind the cannon ball. Seems to work good. Nothing special at all
I have been doing this for the last few years. One rod set for springs or coho and another dragging bottom
Click to expand...
Thanks, I’ll try to find one. I got my last Hali on a white hootchi last week but came up with only coho on Sunday.
 
Our big spring looked much bigger than what we guessed the weight. We measured it at 38” long and 22” girth. On the sport fishing app it said 18 Which I highly doubt
Was a beast. Measured it head off at 32” before packaging last night
Was a beauty
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9344.jpeg
    IMG_9344.jpeg
    329.7 KB · Views: 233
Last edited:
salmonkiller01 said:
I just bought a herring head holder, 5’ leader and drug it 10’ behind the cannon ball. Seems to work good. Nothing special at all
I have been doing this for the last few years. One rod set for springs or coho and another dragging bottom
Click to expand...
I took my friend who has very little fishing experience fishing a week ago, out of Oak Bay. He insisted on rigging both rods. I was running anchovies teasers on both rods. I had some left over herring from my trip to the central coast in my brine cooler with the fresh anchovies. In any case we picked up a 80cm Spring in short order. Then I watched my friend rebait the rigging this time and Lo and behold he was putting medium/large herring on an anchovy teaser head. He thought the herring were just extra big anchovies! So I said what the heck keep doing what your doing its working. He did tear the head off one off the herring trying to put the pin thru but all in all it worked, albeit was a little tedious to rig.
 
Keith Brown said:
I took my friend who has very little fishing experience fishing a week ago, out of Oak Bay. He insisted on rigging both rods. I was running anchovies teasers on both rods. I had some left over herring from my trip to the central coast in my brine cooler with the fresh anchovies. In any case we picked up a 80cm Spring in short order. Then I watched my friend rebait the rigging this time and Lo and behold he was putting medium/large herring on an anchovy teaser head. He thought the herring were just extra big anchovies! So I said what the heck keep doing what your doing its working. He did tear the head off one off the herring trying to put the pin thru but all in all it worked, albeit was a little tedious to rig.
Click to expand...
This is pretty common to do. Sounds like your buddy has been reading the reports pages lol.
 
salmonkiller01 said:
Our big spring looked much bigger than what we guessed the weight. We measured it at 38” long and 22” girth. On the sport fishing app it said 18 and we thought that does not seem right, well it was 18kg. Was a beast. Measured it head off at 32” before packaging last night Will get a pic once someone sends it to me
Click to expand...
Beauty fish... but you should get yourself a scale.
 
salmonkiller01 said:
I am messed up on the way. It’s a really nice fish probably 20 pounds. I don’t know.
It was very shiny really good fight
Click to expand...

Good estimate. The formula using inches is length x girth x girth / 800. Some places divide by 750 if you want to be charitable. So 23 lb - 24.5 lb for that one.
 
Back to Bamfield Saturday to Tuesday with the kids and my Dad for a family trip and drove for the first time in eight years as the forecast was windier on Tuesday. Road was in fantastic shape and just a few bumps before some of the bridges. More up and down than I was anticipating; but a great drive.

Saturday and Sunday were generally slow for us on the inside and we went into Monday morning one coho in the box after getting 'sea lioned' twice along the wall within 10 minutes... Fortunately, we found a school of nice springs moving through in 350' of water straight out from the Harbour mouth between 10:30-12:30 on Monday and put six in the box in short order. We had three or four double headers, crossed lines, lots of laughs, F-bombs and made some great memories. After that on Monday afternoon/evening and Tuesday morning, it was slow again. Green flashers, bloody nose teaser heads with medium sized chovies between 41 & 51'.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2223.jpeg
    IMG_2223.jpeg
    219.1 KB · Views: 162
Allbay said:
Back to Bamfield Saturday to Tuesday with the kids and my Dad for a family trip and drove for the first time in eight years as the forecast was windier on Tuesday. Road was in fantastic shape and just a few bumps before some of the bridges. More up and down than I was anticipating; but a great drive.

Saturday and Sunday were generally slow for us on the inside and we went into Monday morning one coho in the box after getting 'sea lioned' twice along the wall within 10 minutes... Fortunately, we found a school of nice springs moving through in 350' of water straight out from the Harbour mouth between 10:30-12:30 on Monday and put six in the box in short order. We had three or four double headers, crossed lines, lots of laughs, F-bombs and made some great memories. After that on Monday afternoon/evening and Tuesday morning, it was slow again. Green flashers, bloody nose teaser heads with medium sized chovies between 41 & 51'.
Click to expand...
Nothing sexier than a full Arima fish box! :)
 
Question. Caught a couple of springs at pill today. A 10 and a 15 estimated. Both had abundant tapeworms. Is that normal?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

fishin_magician
2024 OFFISHALL Vancouver-Howe Sound-Sechelt Reports Thread
Replies
2K
Views
289K
Buddha
Buddha
SFBC
2024 Tofino Reports
Replies
31
Views
7K
Aces
Aces
SFBC
2024 Kyuquot Reports
Replies
37
Views
8K
Ceilidh69
Ceilidh69
SFBC
2024 Ucluelet Reports
Replies
170
Views
33K
Whitebuck
W
SFBC
2024 Powell River Reports
Replies
48
Views
13K
Davey Boy
D
Back
Top