2024 Bamfield and Barkley Sound Reports

[Rain City]

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.

This is pretty common to do. Sounds like your buddy has been reading the reports pages lol.

 

[Tips Up]

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

Beauty fish... but you should get yourself a scale.

 

[salmonkiller01]

Beauty fish... but you should get yourself a scale.

That has been mentioned. Lol. I will grab one

 

[Aces]

Tyee

 

[fishbadger]

Tryee!

 

[CBsqrd]

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

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.

 

[Aces]

Tryee!

that’s actually what I tried to post but autocorrect had other ideas lol

 

[Tips Up]

25lb should be the new tyee. Been quite a while since I’ve seen one over 30lb.
Tyee smiles on that boat!

 

[Allbay]

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'.

 

[chris73]

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'.

Nothing sexier than a full Arima fish box!

 

[Alex_c]

25lb should be the new tyee. Been quite a while since I’ve seen one over 30lb.
Tyee smiles on that boat!

How about we just call that a participation trophy

 

[coriba]

Question. Caught a couple of springs at pill today. A 10 and a 15 estimated. Both had abundant tapeworms. Is that normal?

 

[trophywife]

Question. Caught a couple of springs at pill today. A 10 and a 15 estimated. Both had abundant tapeworms. Is that normal?

very normal, try them fried.

 

[brutus]

very normal, try them fried.

Coastal bear have them stringing out there butt like Christmas ornaments lol

 

[devwils]

Any recent reports from the inside? Very slow last week. Hoping there might be a late push of salmon coming in by now

 

[Derby]

I will also disagree, the worst guide in my area with the worst reputation ever is CTAG certified. He actually uses it to promote that he's a one of a kind, "red seal" guide that no other guides could possibly aspire to. See his clients pictures of them holding wild coho for pictures before they release them

The C-TAG program is a extra step for guides in getting qualified certification. However not all guides are created the same unfortunately like all human being. As a certified C-Tag guide myself I would suggest that anyone looking for a guide it's a good start. I would go as far as to say looking for either guides or a lodge on should ask for reference as even online reviews at times can not always complete a pic.

 

[slabcity]

Back from 5 days in Barkley Sound (M-F) last week. You either find them or you don't is the short answer as the inside is/was slow. One night we fished and had 5 springs in the last hour of daylight and then spent the next morning at the same spot and they were gone. Went back for the evening bite hoping for a repeat of the night before - nada. We scraped a few fish here and there over the course of the trip (no coho inside for us) and then finally gave up on the inside and went offshore where it was wide open on coho with even more mackerel. The mackerel were really annoying, no matter what stop: 5-mile, 10-mile, 12-mile,Rats Nose etc. , they were first on the bite every time. Insane how many of them are out there. The long wait for next season has begun.

 

[ebrench]

Back from 5 days in Barkley Sound (M-F) last week. You either find them or you don't is the short answer as the inside is/was slow. One night we fished and had 5 springs in the last hour of daylight and then spent the next morning at the same spot and they were gone. Went back for the evening bite hoping for a repeat of the night before - nada. We scraped a few fish here and there over the course of the trip (no coho inside for us) and then finally gave up on the inside and went offshore where it was wide open on coho with even more mackerel. The mackerel were really annoying, no matter what stop: 5-mile, 10-mile, 12-mile,Rats Nose etc. , they were first on the bite every time. Insane how many of them are out there. The long wait for next season has begun.

Super interesting to hear about offshore. Was out last weekend at 7 mile looking for Hali but was interested to see what all the Coho fuss was about. Really didn't find anything. Are they only on the contours? Confused about this, myself.

 

[trophywife]

seems some fish have stacked up and are holding for another rain. setting up the boat for tuna now!! doing sarita broodstock this week is going to be a blast.

 

[the fog ducker]

Lots of GREAT guides in the Sound , the good ones are usually booked solid for a reason , but they do have slots from time to time , Some great Guides down south im sure , lets not bash em all in this fanatstic location , most the guides i know are killing machines that know how to entertain in all situations , even when things can slow , give me a shout , i can pass along some numbers

another amazing season.........see ya all next year