Have been fishing here for the last 10 days. My report is fishing was on fire up until the monsoon rains and Thursday evening. The evenings and even the afternoons at times were better than the mornings for us. Yesterday we scratched a few and today - at Cree currently - is brutally slow. More fish coming I hope? Small spoons and coho killers/wee gee's were all that were working for us. Thinking of heading offshore for coho now... any advice? Literally just go out a few miles and start randomly trolling?
2024 Bamfield and Barkley Sound Reports
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SpringVelocity
Crew Member
Well next week is the indicator. Some nice weather coming.
Moose&Mermaid
Crew Member
Home from Bamfield last night. We had an excellent trip with limits of fish for 2 guys, although nothing huge. We were away for 4 nights and fished for 3 days as the weather (seas) were great, fished all 3 days offshore; we don’t often get 3 days offshore back to back.
I mostly used a 6” Tomic 602uvii and caught all species on it.
My partner likes to use meat, so he used anchovies and herring until he ran out of them then he switched to spoons.
The coho were thick, so many times we caught them while we were still holding the lines in our hands before we could even connect to the downriggers!
The boat ran fantastic, and we sure appreciated the onboard diesel heater on the cool damp days running to and from the fishing grounds.
Cheers
I mostly used a 6” Tomic 602uvii and caught all species on it.
My partner likes to use meat, so he used anchovies and herring until he ran out of them then he switched to spoons.
The coho were thick, so many times we caught them while we were still holding the lines in our hands before we could even connect to the downriggers!
- 8 Spring salmon (largest just shy of 20) The larger ones were white springs.
- 8 Coho (all hatch)
- 4 Halibut - mid 70cm's
- 6 Lingcod
- 1 Blackcod
The boat ran fantastic, and we sure appreciated the onboard diesel heater on the cool damp days running to and from the fishing grounds.
Cheers
I just got back from Bamfield. Mills Landing. Our first day was Sunday before the rain. We had a couple hours so we hit the Wall. Picked up a chinook and coho. The next day the rain started heavy. We hit the Wall again, four fish right away. Thought it was going to be easy pickings this year. Then we had two very tough days. Rained the entire time and got a couple coho at Stanford. Thursday and Friday we nailed the salmon. Girberator Island and Fleming is where we Had the best luck. The bigger anchovies and white hoochie on blue flashers got all the fish. Best part of the trip was watching my son reel in his first chinook, 14lbs. He's addicted. We came back with 18 salmon, 9 chinook and 9 coho.. The coho are big this year, 8-10 lbs. Great trip, great town. See you next year.
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salmonkiller01
Well-Known Member
Mind sharing where you went off shore. We did ok today, couple beauty springs and one coho in the boat lost 4-5 more. 2 Hali also Went straight out from bamfield 10-12 miles.
Moose&Mermaid
Crew Member
We were out near Rats Nose. We stayed on the 200 foot flats and dragged the cannon balls in the mud for springs and bottom fish. 80-150 for coho except for those that we literally caught on the surface.
Good luck out there!
trophywife
Crew Member
my date/deckhand , lol, yesterday didnt want to fish until 10 a.m. then done at 2.. it is slow but other boats where on the banks , did good and i would assume these fish are timed to come in over the next couple weeks. i hope.
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Bottomfeeder1
Active Member
Jesus not going to mess with that kid lol. !!
He's a pretty tough kid. He's been boxing for 6 years, he's at a pretty high level now. Now he's boxing springs.
RBL
Well-Known Member
Headed up to the Sound Tuesday evening for a few days of fishing. Stopped at Pill shortly before dark with time for a quick fish to see how things were looking. Hooked up a nice one on first pass in Blood Bay so called it a night feeling good about the days to come. Hit the meat hole at first light and hooked a double on the first pass of two of the most lethargic springs I’ve ever seen. One swam straight into the net while the other popped off and just sat there for a while 10 feet below the surface for a minute before slowing swimming away. Hooked up a couple more before the bite went dead. Saw very few others hookup that morning. Ran to Swale and hooked another right away and then it went dead. Then the rain hit hard and we ran to Cree and picked up a bunch of Coho and called it a day. Pretty depressing as a bunch of guys at the dock were skunked on the day. Monsoon rains moved in and we almost just called it quits but the rain stopped around 7am Thursday so we went back to the meat hole and some fresh fish moved in with a decent bite going on with lots of guys hooking up. We had a good morning except when a couple sea lions moved in and were grabbing fish left right and center. After the bite died we went to Cree to get our coho. Way better mood amongst the fleet and lots of fish at the cleaning tables. Went back out to the meat hole Friday morning and the bite was better than the day before and we were getting a better grade of fresh, harder fighting fish to end the trip. Overall not the greatest fishing but good enough. You really don’t want to miss the morning bite or you could be in for a grind. Chovys and small spoons worked equally well.
salmonkiller01
Well-Known Member
First trip to bamfield in the books. Did pretty good on everything, lots of help and hints from members here. Biggest spring was 25. Lots of coho( limit for 3 guys). Halibut…. Fished one morning inside rest of time off shore. Will return with better planning and really put some time in fishing in the broken group. Thanks to all for helping makes this a great experience
Salmonslayer1992
Crew Member
That’s awesome
Aces
Well-Known Member
find some halibut?
salmonkiller01
Well-Known Member
Yes we did Trollled a big herring on bottom, got 3 halibut with it and our Largest spring
kaelc
Crew Member
Nice. How did you rig it up?
salmonkiller01
Well-Known Member
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
I have been doing this for the last few years. One rod set for springs or coho and another dragging bottom
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Matthias
Well-Known Member
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!
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!
kaelc
Crew Member
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.
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.
salmonkiller01
Well-Known Member
Keith Brown
Active Member
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.
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