It’s early July and Barkley Sound has been very productive on the fishing front.
Spring salmon from various rivers to the south have been stopping along many of our traditional hot spots and feeding up on needle fish and immature herring. It’s been a very good start to the season.
Just finished up with my first group of the year. The Underhill brothers, along with family friend Gilbert, have been guests of mine for some years now. We fished hali last weekend and managed our limit. We fished the humps at 12 mile using spreader bars and extra large herring. 205 feet of water was magic as the bite came quickly and it wasn’t long before we had 4 nice flatties in board.
The next two days were salmon days. With a high pressure system bringing very strong norwesterlies, the best place for us was over in the Broken Group at Austin and Cree Islands. The winds were strong but it was fishable. We fished anchovies in a green teaser head 6′ behind a Guide Series green moon jelly flasher at 55′ on the down rigger. On the other side we fished a Bon Chovy Skinny G at 65′. We found the slot between Austin Island and the under water pinnacles the most productive. Lots of feed, needle fish mostly, were showing on the sounder with arches of feeding salmon below them. It was constant action, especially on the Skinny Gs. We had to wade through tons of feeders but by the end of the day we managed 8 nice spring from 9 to 16 lbs. Next morning we went back to the scene if the crime as the north west winds were forecasted to blow strong once again. We fished half a day and boxed 5 lovely fish, the largest tipped the scales at 18 lbs.
The north west blow ended a two days ago. I have two days off between guests. I was really looking forward to getting out on the water with my partner Makiko and exploring some old haunts which I hadn’t had time to get to. We motored down towards Seabird Island Rocks with Tom’s son in law, Brian in tow. Between the two boats we fished the reefs and kelp beds of Seabird. This maybe my favourite troll. It’s technical, it’s’ tight to the rocks and boy can it ever produce! Makiko and I trolled a Bon Chovy Skinny G at 30′ and a Herring Aid Skinny G at 27′. Within 10 minutes we had our first fish on. In 35 minutes we out 4 springs in the boat, including a double header and we were done for the day. All cookie cutters, teenagers between 15 and 18 lbs. Gorgeous fish. Feisty, acrobatic and just a whole ton of fun. Brian’s boat also did well. They had 8 springs to the boat and boxed 4. One lovely fish at 24 lbs. Brian’s fish all came on a blue / silver Skinny G.
All the fish we have cleaned over the last few days have been gorging on small needle fish. Small spoons have been the best imitator of the available feed. Definitely for us the Skinny Gs have been the ticket, but I would think any small 3.5′ spoons would be effective. Silver Horde’s Herring Aide and Irish Cream have also been working well.
Both Aussie John and Tom are around. The store is running full swing, gas dock is going strong so no excuse not to drop by. Harbouside would be happy to help make your Bamfield adventure just a little bit more special.
I have The Morgan group in next for the weekend. I’ll update you after the weekend on how it all goes.
Till then,
Coach (aka Jonathan).
