21st June 2013: FISHING REPORT: Port Alberni Inlet, Barkley Sound, Ucluelet (West Coast), Somas-Stamp River System.

by Doug Lindores of Slivers Charters Salmon Sport Fishing
Toll Free Number: 1- 888 214 7206

Doug of Slivers Charters Salmon Sport Fishing and twenty pound Chinook. Picture from Tyee Lodge in Bamfield B.C. This Chinook landed using a green glow four inch coyote spoon. Most guests stay in Beautiful Bamfield. Organize trips early....

It is mid June and the sport salmon fishing in the Pacific Rim areas is well underway. June on the West Coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island brings warmer weather and calmer seas which bring to us plenty of saltwater sport fishing opportunities. Chinook salmon have been plentiful, especially in the Barkley Sound area, over the last number of weeks. The salmon are feeding heavily on needlefish, small herring, and pilchards. Barkley Sound along the surf line locations and as far inshore as Pill Point and Ecoole have had fantastic sport salmon fishing with the Chinook averaging thirteen to just over twenty pounds. The various banks just offshore from Ucluelet and Barkley Sound have not been quite as consistent as the inshore areas as a good number of the transient salmon that are migrating to the big watersheds to the south are swimming close to the beach and feeding on the rich resources of bait fish along the inner and outer edges of the Sound. Coho are also beginning to show inshore and also out on the banks. The numbers of Coho are not large yet but they should begin coming in bigger schools. The early Coho have been averaging six pounds and are feeding heavily on the ample resources of bait fish and often in the early summer months put on up to a pound per week. West Vancouver Island Coho returns are predicted to be very good in the latter half of the summer. The Port Alberni Inlet should see some good opportunities for sport Sockeye fishing in the near future. The retention level for Sockeye beginning on the fifteenth of June is four sockeye per day per person. To June the 16th there has been some harvesting of Sockeye. The current range for returns to the Somass River is 300,000 to 500,000. On the 27th of June there will be a new seasonal forecast. DFO has announced that there has been almost 11,000 Sockeye harvested. The recreational fishery has totalled 400. The Sockeye enter the Somass and swim to Sproat Lake or Great Central Lake. Escapement to date is 1,000 Sockeye to Great Central Lake and 13,200 to Sproat Lake. The Sockeye sit in the lakes for the summer and in the fall spawn in the various tributary streams and creeks.

The 2013 salmon sport fishing season should once again be fantastic along Vancouver Islands West Coast and inland waters close to Port Alberni.

Guide Mel of Slivers Charters Salmon Sport Fishing with Guest Allyn and her big Chinook landed using a green spatter back hootchie. Fishing in the Barkley Sound and offshore areas of West Vancouver Island has been very good since late May into mid June. We are expecting a great summer of fishing

The Sockeye Sport Fishery in the Alberni Inlet opened on the first of May. The retention level per person per day has been two. On the fifteenth of June the possession limit moved to four per person with a two day possession limit of eight Sockeye. It is advised that sport anglers continue checking DFO rules and regulations in case there is any immediate change in the possession limits. To this date there have not been big numbers of Sockeye landed by sport anglers on the troll in the waters of the inlet. There has already been a fairly good number of migrating Sockeye swim the inlet into the Somass River but the fish to date have not schooled. The snowpack in the nearby mountain systems should not be detrimental to the sport Sockeye fishery but a continued cool air mass circulating over the west coast of B.C. has kept the water in the river and inlet cool. Once the water temperatures hit close to eighteen degrees Celsius then some good schools should begin to build. The Sockeye in the Inlet are mostly swimming the top twenty-five to thirty-five feet of water as they sense the water in the Somass River is very cool. Those sport fisher persons hitting the water in the next few weeks and fishing on the troll should find Sockeye in Cous Creek, Dunsmuir Point, the China Creek Wall, the slide, narrows, and the vast waters of Franklin-Nahmint. The key to fishing Sockeye is lots of color behind the boat, a slower troll and shorter leader lengths. The most popular Sockeye lures are a red or pink (mp 2, 16 or 15-bubblegum color) mp hootchie. Leader lengths are best at twenty-two to twenty-seven inches behind a green or red hotspot flasher. Sockeye salmon are the number one commercial salmon and are fantastic on the summer barbeque.

Barkley Sound salmon fishing has been fantastic for the last number of weeks. For those who like fishing in fairly calm water Barkley Sound is perfect. The Sound is scenic and the water is pristine and calm in the mornings and evenings. The open water of Imperial Eagle Channel and Trevor Channel can have some wind in the afternoons blowing in from the cooler waters of the vast Pacific Ocean. Generally the two shorelines are easy to fish most of the day. Barkley Sound has had good numbers of bait fish in small herring, needlefish, pilchards and anchovy. The migrating salmon that are termed the early summer run headed to the watersheds to the south have been entering Barkley Sound and feeding heavily on these bait fish. Most of the salmon have been Chinook with the odd Coho in the mix. The Coho numbers should become more numerous as we approach the end of June and the beginning of July. The Chinook have been found in surf line locations such as Cree Island, Austin Island, Meares, Kirby Point, and as far inshore as Pill Point, Ecoole, and even as far inshore as Chup Point. Some of the best fishing has been at Meares, Swale Rock and Vernon Bay. The salmon have been averaging thirteen pounds to the low twenties. There have been a few fish in the low thirties landed. One guest last week landed a thirty-three pound Chinook just off of Meares fishing at ninety feet with a silver glow coyote spoon. Swale Rock has been consistently remarkable on the Imperial Eagle side and also on the back towards Howard Point. Vernon Bay has had fantastic sport fishing along the wall and the beach and also towards Alan Point. The fish are deep with best results fishing on the troll from one hundred to one hundred and forty feet. The best fishing rule right now in the Sound is “where the bait fish are the salmon are close by”. The fish have been hitting various coyote spoons in three and a half and four inch sizes. Green glo, green and blue nickel, and silver glow have been working very well. Anchovy in Rhys Davis Teaser heads in army truck, green haze and chartreuse have all been good. Hotspot flashers in green glow and also the chartreuse flasher in glow on both sides have been great with various coyote and Gypsy spoons and anchovy teaser head colors. Barkley Sound sport fishing should be very good in June and July for Chinook and Coho salmon.

Mansel of Calgary Alberta fished with family and was guided by Doug of Slivers Charters Salmon Sport Fishing landed this twenty plus pound Chinook out in Barkley Sound Vancouver Island. Mansel was using anchovy in one hundred and thirty feet of water.

June is truly a very amazing month to be fishing off the coast of Vancouver Island. The transient salmon are in the midst of their long journey back to their spawning grounds. This year all of the inner and outer offshore banks will have a very abundant mix of Chinook, Coho and “odd year” Pink salmon. Ucluelet fishing has been historically one of the best locations for summer salmon fishing on the west coast of British Columbia. The fishing in the early spring months is often relatively close to the Ucluelet Harbour. We are now into mid June and the salmon fishing is now locating out to the various banks. The latter half of May saw Long Beach producing some good halibut and Chinook fishing. The fishing which was very good in this location faded and over the past week the better fishing results are coming in from the inner and also outer South bank areas. During the past weekend South Bank areas especially the Turtle Head produced Chinook salmon up to the low twenty pound range and also some nice hatchery Coho averaging six and seven pounds. The Chinook this past weekend on South Bank were located from one hundred and twenty feet to the bottom and the Coho were swimming from 90 feet to the bottom. Coyote spoons in the four inch size seemed to be working the best. Green is always a good color in June. Green Nickel and the green glow coyote behind a green glow or chartreuse glow hotspot flasher was working very well. Anchovy in a green haze teaser head was also working very well. Some guides and sport fisher persons were doing well also with blue nickel and also the different coloured spatter back hootchies and cuttle fish. The weekend weather and water conditions especially Saturday was perfect offshore. It was T-shirt weather and great salmon fishing for all. The Ucluelet Ladder Derby is underway with tickets for the year at fifty dollars and daily tickets at ten dollars. There are great monthly prizes and also the opportunity to be in the final fish off during the second weekend of September.

The summer of 2013 should prove to be another great season of saltwater sport salmon fishing in Barkley Sound, Port Alberni and Ucluelet inshore and offshore.