2025 Port Renfrew Reports

Here in Washington we have to wait till after the season closes to post any pics or it brings too much pressure and they shut us down😞 it sucks some of our fisheries only get 4 days which is crazy when we only get to keep hatchery clipped fish! Hang on to the seasons you got there never would I of thought they would eliminate winter seasons and cut us back to the point you really have to question owning a boat!
 
I do have a gear question I noticed that over there a lot of people run longer leaders than I’m accustomed too! I generally run 48-55” leaders when I’m running bait in a helmet. But I see a lot of guys running way longer is there a reason for that? Seems the fish are a lot harder to control when near the boat?
 
Bearingdown said:
I do have a gear question I noticed that over there a lot of people run longer leaders than I’m accustomed too! I generally run 48-55” leaders when I’m running bait in a helmet. But I see a lot of guys running way longer is there a reason for that? Seems the fish are a lot harder to control when near the boat?
Click to expand...

I don't find that to be an issue and regularly net fish alone. I know there are other factors rod length...net length and boat etc. I'm 6' tall and use a full stretch when I tie leaders, so they end up being just over 6' by a few inches when tied. Again, depends on a few things but it's what I have always run out there for bait. Good Luck....
 
Been fishing 2 days here now and have kept 7 Chinook. 14 to 17 pounds. Lost 4 or 5 due to various reasons.
Mostly catching on anchovies and AP spoons. Downrigger 35’ to 45’ in 50 to 60 feet of water.

Ran out from Sidney in about 3.5 Hours. Calm till about Sooke and then started hitting some pretty big rollers but very little wind.
Launched a few times.
Today was calm and no wind. Steady action at Camper.
Out again tomorrow

IMG_3525.jpegIMG_3540.jpegIMG_3583.jpeg
 
Hey guys, where do you usually go for the halibut? Do you have to go far for it, or does everyone just fish outside the bay around Owen Point and Cerantes Rock? How far do most people head out?
 
The Hunter12 said:
Hey guys, where do you usually go for the halibut? Do you have to go far for it, or does everyone just fish outside the bay around Owen Point and Cerantes Rock? How far do most people head out?
Click to expand...
Offshore of carmanah is the closest to get into good Hali fishing, not saying you can’t get some closer but slim pickings, one guy got one at camper 2 days ago trolling for salmon
 
Does anyone know the purpose of the J Buoy in the Swiftsure area? Is it used as a traffic separation marker?
Also, I believe this is a common spot for charter boats targeting halibut, please correct me if I’m wrong.
If anyone knows the exact location or coordinates of the J Buoy, I’d really appreciate the info. Thanks so much!
 
Last edited:
The Hunter12 said:
Does anyone know the purpose of the J Buoy in the Swiftsure area? Is it used as a traffic separation marker?
Also, I believe this is a common spot for charter boats targeting halibut, please correct me if I’m wrong.
If anyone knows the exact location or coordinates of the J Buoy, I’d really appreciate the info. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
It’s on your charts
 
The Hunter12 said:
Does anyone know the purpose of the J Buoy in the Swiftsure area? Is it used as a traffic separation marker?
Also, I believe this is a common spot for charter boats targeting halibut, please correct me if I’m wrong.
If anyone knows the exact location or coordinates of the J Buoy, I’d really appreciate the info. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
48°29'36" N 124°43'38" W
 
PS, do not go out there in the fog without radar, unless you want to get run over by a freighter, it’s sketchy at best without fog, your fishing in the shipping lane. Those things go by at 20 knots on auto pilot and you need to get out of the way asap sometimes
 
brutus said:
PS, do not go out there in the fog without radar, unless you want to get run over by a freighter, it’s sketchy at best without fog, your fishing in the shipping lane. Those things go by at 20 knots on auto pilot and you need to get out of the way asap sometimes
Click to expand...
Thanks for the heads up! I’ll probably just stick to fishing halis around and close to Renfrew, well away from the freighters, lol. Lots of good spots out there anyway.
 
School starting soon so kids wanted to have an 'epic' day of fishing. I figured Port Renfrew would be the place of choice. So we got up around 3 am had a quick meal and set off to our trip about 3:30. We arrived at boat launch at 5:45 not as busy as last trip we thought. Only a handful of boats leaving marina. Fog is really thick this morning when we got out of the bay and radar was able to take a 'look' at campers and realize it's not that marina is not as busy it's because we're late!! We counted a good 20+ contacts on screen!
After about an hour ride out to swiftsure we saw only 4 contacts on screen within 4nm radius. That's very quiet. We were tad worried fishing might not be 'epic'.
Since we're here we setup our rods and drop them down to 90'. Before rigger reach 90' top rod popped off. Line slack I thought damn this must be too early otherwise why would I not have clip line into clipper properly. Son reeled in the rod and suddenly line peeling. He almost lost grip as didn't expect a fish on it. He got it in and it was a #10 hatch coho!! Nice start. For the next hour we never had the chance to lower rigger to our planned fishing depth and one or even two rods would get pulled away. Even those that were left drifting 10' behind boat waiting to be clipped to rigger would get yank away! Within that hour we had nxwild coho, 4 hatch coho and 4 mackerels. The largest wild coho we released in that hour is about 67cm!!!I would say 12-13 lb?

Coho frenzy finally slowed down. We dropped line down to 120' in one rigger and 80' in the other. Not long rod 3 got a hard pull down, pin popped and run!! I was resting after that hour of rod set, reset I needed a rest so son and daughter went have fun. Son had a good tag of war with the fish and told his sister to grub the big net she grubbed it and passed it to me. Little one had the fish in good control he got it to glide right into the net it was a beauty spring. 88cm!!! High 5s high 10s and a good squeal from daughter. Man hope boats in the vicinity didn't think it was a siren screaming. We were able to pick up more springs and hatch coho in the next two hours and finally come to our last spring. We since we already had 5 we wanted one of good size. All this time fish finder had been picking up big markings near bottom. So we decided to give those marking a try see what they were. 227' down the lines go. We pulled up a 67cm ling, numerous large grade wild coho. Daughter said to them see you in sooke in October!! Rod 4 has some vibration and kids that line tangle and got the rod and pop it off he reeled and reeled and said it's kind of heavyyyyyyyy fish came alive and was taking line. Fish then decided to charge to surface he had to really reel hard then slack.... there was a moment of silence I thought fish popped off but the son yelled its still on!! The fish now swim quickly side well and all over the place. Finally it got tired and son was able to get near boat and he was going to tighten reel brake to bring it in faster daughter yelled at him don't you dare change any settings!! Sure enough as it saw us it went flap and took another run. That was close. We finally netted the spring and taped out to be 80cm. Kids fell fast asleep on the ride back to ramp.

Kids happy dad's tired but it's an epic fishing trip to be remembered for a long time. The two of them have their grandma flanked and for the past 20 min their telling her how exciting the fishing trip has been.
 
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