Painters Lodge questions

[Fisher_dude]

What's up fellow fishers. Another member of the Hunting Bc forum told me yo post my question here because you all would be a lot more knowledgeable then the people there. So, here it goes.

I'm looking for any information on Painters Lodge. If you fished there, how was your overall experience? If you ate there, how's the food? How helpful did you find the guides? Did they do a great job? Or a poor one? What time of year is the best time to catch a few decent sized springs out there? How's the halibut fishing out there? Any and all info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Charter Tofino]

If your looking for good fishing its unfortantly not the place...Campbell rivers fishing has bombed over the years. There are no hali around. Springs are hit and miss through the summer but august is likely best. If you wait until october the chum fishing is good. Ive been twice and was not that impressed. You fish out of small 16 ft whalers and the last time i went my guide was not very good. We switched fishing styles all the time, he rarely checked lines, mangled the dogfish we caught ect. If you want great fishing the north island,west island or charlottes is the place to go.

 

[Fisher_dude]

I wish I could head up into the Haki pass area but to no avail. I actually won a trip through The World Fishing Network to go to painters lodge for an all inclusive 4 night, 4 fishing days stay. I just found this out yesterday so I'm just asking around to see how other peoples experiences were.

 

[Last Chance]

Painters is great if you got a bunch of businessmen that want to sip cocktails and play on the boats for a bit near home in the lap of luxury, but you are really going to be pressed to find fish. You are fishing from small open boats when you are there, and the fishing is overall quite poor.


Myself and a lot of guys on this forum could show you great Hali fishing in the spring (March-June) off Victoria, world class salmon and Hali fishing on the West Coast(Renfrew-Winter Harbour), or the Port Hardy Guys can put on a good show for you just about any time.

But hey, for free, it's cheaper then trailering to a provincial campground LOL.


Last Chance Fishing Adventures

www.lastchancefishingadventures.com
www.swiftsurebank.com

 

[scott craven]

The facility is quite nice, with a decent restaurant and bar.
rooms are also fairly nice.
April point lodge is a 10min. shuttle across the water.
They have a better restaurant and very nice facility.

Bring your golf clubs, !

 

[Duffer]

Last season was great in June close by but the Painter boats dont come down our way. They are limited to where they can fish because they are small boats and I think there trips are only six hrs max. The food there is ausome it is a nice place to relax and have some cocktails. Fishing is hit and miss depends if your there at the right time and if you get a good guide. Enjoy your trip the price is right. Like others have said West Coast is best consistantly for fishin.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

FD,, you don't have to post a joke here for your first post,..lol To give you any decent report, I need to know WHEN you are coming! Painters lodge has some very good senior guides, that can and will put some nice fish in the boat if the timing is right. The boats are not 16', but 17' boston whalers. The lodge is very nice, and so is the food. The lodge has a free shuttle service over and back to April point Lodge. Great food there also. If you have fishing for 4 days, you will probabily get 2 morning, and 2 afternoon or evenings fishing. Don't expect to get all early mornings. There are some senior guides on this forum, from painters, hopefully you will get some better input from them. ...BB

 

[Fisher_dude]

I'm not exactly sure when we will be going. Just waiting for my dad to return home from work so I can fax these waivers off.

When would you reccommend going? I'm not sure when the runs come through up there.

 

[Deewar25]

quote:Originally posted by Fisher_dude

I'm not exactly sure when we will be going. Just waiting for my dad to return home from work so I can fax these waivers off.

When would you reccommend going? I'm not sure when the runs come through up there.

If you can pick, I would go mid to late August for best shot north of the narrows, or late September if they are willing to guide you in Tyee Pool. The fishing definitely isn't what it used to be, but free trip - why the heck not! As for guides - if you CAN select a guide, find one that posts on here or fish BC and see if they can arrange it. I won a trip to April Point a while back and it was very clear they gave us the bottom of the guide pool - the guy was clueless while people were catching sockeye all around us and had to scream to other fishers as to what they were using and how long the leaders were. Was pretty sad (and since I wasn't a sockeye expert, I just had to sit quietly and curse to myself!)

As said though, what you will get is a beautiful resort with great food and great scenery. Definitely go on a wilderness tour if you can through upper/lower rapids etc - that makes up for lack of fish, but you can certainly still get hogs around north Quadra in late season, and the tyee pool is definitely a must for the experience if it comes with the package.

 

[Fisher_dude]

I guess it won't hurt to ask about the guide situation. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get one on here to talk to me about it all. I think my dad might snap if we got stuck with a newb guide.I could see him trying to take over the guides job. Haha. He grew up fishing around there and it would be nice to get a guide that at least knew some of the history around there and catching some fish would be a bonus.

 

[Dogbreath]

See if you can get Bruce the Goose (can't remember his last name) for a guide-he has all kinds of experience in the area has been guiding up there for decades.

 

[Haze]

With all the new regs by Transit Canada the guides were all forced to take a whack of courses over the last two years. You'll find it thinned out most of the rift raft guides at Painter's.
As for Halibut as mentioned before rarely does anyone fish for them and succeed in catching one. A few are caught as by catch of the salmon fishing, but I wouldn't really hope for one.
The fishing for Chinook is usually pretty decent from the end of May straight through till the end of August if you have the right guide and are willing to do either several days of short trips or a couple of longer 8 hour outings (you can book more than 8 if you want, just ask). Also if you can read a tide chart try and book for an ebb tide this usually results in more fish pre July after July there are more options for fishing locations so it's not as important to fish the ebb. The good guides can still catch you fish on the flood early in the year it's just more work for them.
I can name you a few of their top guys but don't request them if you aren't going to tip, they'd kill me if it ever came back I sent ya.
Randy MacK - funny guy good stories great fisherman
Richard B - excellent fishermen
Russ Lim - catches lots & good for partying people
Stewart/Stewie - another great guide
There's piles more of good guys but if I was paying those are some of my top pics, but like I said don't ask for them if you don't tip!

 

[Fisher_dude]

I don't want to seem rude, but when I worked at a guiding outfit, I wouldn't get tipped unless I got the clients on the fish. I'd assume it works the same way out on the big water.

 

[Fisher_dude]

Or is it just common practice now to tip just because?

 

[Charter Tofino]

Unless they are completely incompetent i would tip. Especially in an area like CR where the fishing is sometimes just slow and the guide cant do anything about it.

 

[Fisher_dude]

I suppose that's why they call it fishing and not catching!! Even I know that sometimes the fish just aren't biting no matter what you throw at them.

 

[cliffjumper]

Went once for my lady's birthday weekend on a neat package deal, train trip & fishing incl'd. "They pick you up at the train station..." NOT, they forgot. The breakfast buffet is excellent, but otherwise, they burn fish to cardboard, porkchops to shoe leather, a maitre'd fop who is unbelievably professional at obviously ignoring people for half-hours at a time in a justifyably near-empty restaraunt. Serving staff were great, but a'la carte food wasn't.

Very nice lodges on both sides, enjoyed the boat shuttle back & forth. They had good beer in the April Point bar. The fries were good at Painter's.

I did catch a feeder on the guided whaler, but the guide was rude past the point of being an ......., I think he'd been doing that job for too many years, like a dude ranch trail horse. Aside from that, I caught more keepers off the point & dock at April Point by myself, so fishing wasn't too bad. It was one of only two really terrible guided experiences I've had anywhere up & down the coast. If you were paying, I'd suggest another outfit entirely.

I wrote Mr Wright to indicate the value received for my money and to get me off their mailing list. Their director of sales wrote back & kindly offered to take me off their mailing list... Thank goodness, their package deals are so darned attractive and I'd hate to get suckered into another one again.

When you're about to leave for CR, it's a good idea to call just to remind them you're on your way so you do actually have a room, a spot on a boat, and if you're lucky, a shuttle waiting to pick you up at the airport to take you to the lodge.

I sincerely hope you have a good time and enjoy your trip.

 

[Cuba Libre]

No wonder they didnt pick you up at the train station...... They dont have one!!!!

20ft Alumaweld Intruder

 

[ReelAffair]

We just did a trip to Painters last week....20 guys 10 boats out, the guide we had was great. I didnt hear one complaint from any of the guys that were with us. The food was awesome, the waitresses were awesome. Overall an excellent trip. When it comes to an all expense paid trip I dont think a person can complain....but that being said alot of people do complain. Out of 10 boats we had 8 fish biggest being 20lbs....but the best thing was we had an awesome time and all it cost us was tips

 

[Fisher_dude]

Seems like it's a hit and miss type thing. I'm not to worried about the trip going bad. Just sit back and enjoy the ride! What are typical tipping rates these days anyway??