2025 Bamfield and Barkley Sound Reports

[slabcity]

Just got back from a week trip. Hit or miss is all I can say. Great day, bad day, skunk, repeat. Bit would come on at the most random times of day. Really had to hunt to figure it out this trip, maybe it's algae bloom, maybe it's early - idk. We fished Cree, Meares, Swale, Kirby, Wall, Pill. Our best days were at Pill on the afternoon tide change and Cree in the morning. Our best depths were 95 and 71, not the usual higher depths. All fish we caught on small 2" spoons and green flashers, occasionally purple flashers. I tried the white hoochie and a variety of other things and couldn't get anything going. There was one day at Meares where it all was happening at 125 feet of wire, after the advice to go deep. And most recently 250 feet of water and 70 down (totally random). I fished like I'd never fished before, (I hate fishing in no man's land)! but we got it done. Never saw a coho. Biggest fish were 25, 23. Lots of smalls. Fish were all loaded with tiny 2" bait, never saw anything else. Good luck everybody.

Anybody been offshore yet for salmon?

 

[RiverBoy]

Sounds like guiding. And then at the end of the day they are disappointed they didn’t load up

reminds me of a guide buddy of mine that guided a lady out of painters lodge back in the whaler fleet days.
he got her into two quality fish both around the tyee mark.
he says to her “ when we weigh these, there’s going to be a crowd of onlookers. if they are not tyees, don’t be upset. these are both beautys. “

Mike puts the first fish on the scale. 29 lbs. a wave of “awwwwws” comes from the onlookers.
2nd fish ? 29.5 pounds. a larger awwwwww comes from the crowd.

The woman left pissed at Mike and gave him no tip

 

[trophywife]

reminds me of a guide buddy of mine that guided a lady out of painters lodge back in the whaler fleet days.
he got her into two quality fish both around the tyee mark.
he says to her “ when we weigh these, there’s going to be a crowd of onlookers. if they are not tyees, don’t be upset. these are both beautys. “

Mike puts the first fish on the scale. 29 lbs. a wave of “awwwwws” comes from the onlookers.
2nd fish ? 29.5 pounds. a larger awwwwww comes from the crowd.

The woman left pissed at Mike and gave him no tip

i hope they got voted off the island.

 

[canadian_bacon93]

Just got back from a week trip. Hit or miss is all I can say. Great day, bad day, skunk, repeat. Bit would come on at the most random times of day. Really had to hunt to figure it out this trip, maybe it's algae bloom, maybe it's early - idk. We fished Cree, Meares, Swale, Kirby, Wall, Pill. Our best days were at Pill on the afternoon tide change and Cree in the morning. Our best depths were 95 and 71, not the usual higher depths. All fish we caught on small 2" spoons and green flashers, occasionally purple flashers. I tried the white hoochie and a variety of other things and couldn't get anything going. There was one day at Meares where it all was happening at 125 feet of wire, after the advice to go deep. And most recently 250 feet of water and 70 down (totally random). I fished like I'd never fished before, (I hate fishing in no man's land)! but we got it done. Never saw a coho. Biggest fish were 25, 23. Lots of smalls. Fish were all loaded with tiny 2" bait, never saw anything else. Good luck everybody.

Anybody been offshore yet for salmon?

Thanks for this. Yeah there last week and had same experience, same depths, same tackle. Meares worked well for us and got a couple really decent Ho’s too. Currently in Tofino until Monday. Maybe will fish on our way back through. Still learning the area. Mind pointing me in the direction of Pill?

 

[Adrenafin]

Red circle is pill point

 

[Tighthead]

Thanks for this. Yeah there last week and had same experience, same depths, same tackle. Meares worked well for us and got a couple really decent Ho’s too. Currently in Tofino until Monday. Maybe will fish on our way back through. Still learning the area. Mind pointing me in the direction of Pill?

 

[Thunder21]

Spent yesterday afternoon fishing swale/howard and picked up one fish around 20lbs. This morning tried Kirby but it was slow so moved down to Pill and bonked a 12 lb Chinook. Both were caught on a green coho killer.

 

[Proframer]

Just finished a long trip into Barkley sound.
July 4th start, trailered the boat this morning.
Was a great trip, my hands were raw from unhooking so many fish the first 4 days. It tapered off to almost nothing then was really hit and miss.
I don't have a scale but got 3 from 74-82cm
4 more about 56cm
3 coho total, one was pretty big. Maybe 65cm
That one was caught between Swale and Vernon bay. All on koho killer. Blue, silver with red eye.
I even tried bucktailing a bit for coho, zero action. Dragged a 2" krockidile on the surface, zero hits.

2 of the big spring were caught on red flasher with herring aid wee G. One out by Taylor rock was on a koho killer with red flasher.
No bananas with green flasher was kind of a search pattern. Random depth, location, weird places.
I also tried some unique things looking for bigger fish. I was told big fish prefer a more basic presentation (no flasher). Big plugs, very little action.
I have a 4" slow troll apex that's probably 20 years old. I put that down by itself and caught about 8-10 fish in the 45-60cm range. It kept the small ones off but didn't find the big guys. Was nice to go no flasher. I'm going to see if there is a 6" model and try it.