Hi Everyone
As the Beatles so aptly put it, ” It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter”. Here comes the sun baby!! and we are back!
Harbourside is up and running. Hopefully you have all dusted off your rods and reels and are ready and eager to get at it!
It’s happening on the west coast of Vancouver Island and Barkley Sound is alive with marine life and of course, fish!
We moved the boat up the 2nd week of May and then on the long weekend in May we spent 3 days cleaning and moving stuff. The first week after the long weekend I brought up 42 students from our school for a week. So harbourside was put to the test early. Everything was and is good to go.
I fished the end of May for a week with our students and have also been up this past weekend for 5 days. Fishing has been good with some very decent size fish put into the boat for this early in the season.
So let’s get to it.
May, June and July can be very productive fishing months in Barkley Sound. We are blessed with healthy hatchery runs of chinook salmon making their way south to various rivers in Washington, Oregon and even Northern California. There is a strong squid spawn that happens on the west coast. That combined with needle fish, sand lance and immature herring will draw fish in close to the Sound. Obviously this happens in waves so some days are better than others but it’s always just a matter of time before another wave shows up.
So what’s the best plan of attack? Fish the perimeter of the Sound. If the water (wind and waves) allow, fish places like Austin and Cree, Sail Rock (Sail Rock is a different location than Swale Rock), Edward King and Beale. Those places will hold springs providing there is feed for them. You aren’t wasting your time at places further inshore such as Kirby, Sandford, Flemming or the Wall but I’d be trying the fringes of the Sound first.
Match the hatch, to use a fly fisherman’s term. Small spoons trolled 6 feet behind your fav flasher will work beautifully. And of course, as the opal squid are spawning, get you hooch on! Glow white hoochies one arms length or shorter behind a flasher can be deadly this time of year. My fav go to set up is a white turd hoochie behind a lime green flasher fished close to the bottom. On the other rigger I’ll drag a green and white skinny g knock off (either a West Coast or Amundson spoon, they have much better hooks!) anywhere from 40 to 65 feet down. Run this set up and you can’t go wrong. Bait will work but no need to add the extra expense at this time of year.
Coho are showing but they may be here one moment then gone the next. Outside the Sound it’s clipped coho only, inside you are good to take 2 wilds.
June and early July is our best time for hali hunts. They are close by at the moment. Any hump off shore or on the bank may hold fish. Salmon bellies being your best bet. Remember the new regs are one hali a day no greater than 101 cms long. I hear many folks are trolling the bottom with hali gear and doing well boating some nice chickens.
As I said earlier the lodge is in full operational mode. There are rooms available and moorage too. Call Brenda at the lodge (1-250-728-3330) her cell (604-813-1604) or email her at brendaharbourside@gmail.com.
You can’t catch any fish with a dry line, so you know, get here!
Coach (aka Jonathan)