Hi All
So happy to be back and ready to go here at Harbourside. Hope you all have weathered our west coast winter well and are eager to get out to enjoy the bounties of Barkley Sound.
Let’s get to it then. It’s been a very productive spring and all things are pointing to an even more productive summer!
May and June have seen a prolific squid spawn in the Sound and mature spring salmon have been dipping into many areas of Barkley’s waterways and are gorging on fat opal squid. Beale, Little Beale, Whittlestone, Kirby and Edward King have all produced springs trolling near the bottom with glow white flash flies, turds and a variety of different squid imitations. Keep your leaders to 30 inches or so and don’t be afraid to troll fast.
There is also an abundance of immature herring for this year’s herring spawn hanging around our waters. Trolling 3.5 inch spoons such as the Gibbs skinny gs has been productive as well. This is a great tactic over at Austin and Cree. I like to work depths from 60′ to 100′ on the down rigger. Make sure you fish through the tides. I find Austin and Cree often have solid bites come on at the tide change.
Offshore halibut has been lights out. Find the humps coming up from the bank and fish in and around them. Salmon bellies and herring have been the usual go tos.
Coho have started to show up in the Barkley. That said, they’ll be here one tide then gone the next. If you are fortunate enough to get into them it’s 1 wild then 1 hatchery or 2 hatchery for your limit.
I’ve been up twice this spring and found fishing all through the Sound to be encouraging for so early in the season. My first crew is ready to go starting friday June 26 so by early next week I will have a better grasp of things and I’ll get a report out asap.
In the meantime I hope you can get out and enjoy this incredible west coast.
Hope to see you all soon,
Coach…