September 23
The summer of 2013 is slowly coming to an end but some of the
season’s best salmon sport fishing on the west coast of Vancouver Island,
Barkley Sound and the Alberni Inlet is currently ongoing and is very good
with excellent results and happy faces on all anglers. Of course this is not
to take anything away from the summer of 2013 salmon fishing which
in one word was simply terrific. The offshore sport fishing off the west
coast continues to be fantastic. Many guides and sport fisher people
are having tremendous success outside and offshore from the Bamfield
and Ucluelet Harbor. Most are fishing the twelve mile, Big Bank and Rats
Nose. September, has been said to be the month with no fog and no
wind, has seen some great offshore fishing with nice sized Chinook in the
mid to high teens, plenty of Coho from nine to thirteen pounds and some
nice halibut in the deeper water. The warmth of the late summer air has
made it very comfortable for many opportunistic sport anglers seeking a
big Chinook offshore or a nice undersized Chinook in the inshore surf line
locations of Barkley Sound and also for those big Coho making their way
to many of the Pacific Rim Creeks, Streams, and Rivers. Many locations
of Barkley Sound have had unbelievable Coho and Chinook fishing and
the Alberni inlet especially out towards the Franklin Wall and Bells Bay
has witnessed fantastic Coho fishing. Of course at this time of year the
salmon are moving to their natal streams but with the very warm day
time and night time air temperatures and surface water temperature the
salmon are holding. Once the fish begin to move the West Vancouver
Island Rivers and streams will develop a fantastic Sport Coho fishery. We
are expecting great fall Coho salmon fishing in the Stamp, Nahmint, and
Sarita River systems. In the meantime the saltwater fishing continues
in most Pacific Rim areas. We are hoping this continues until well into
September.
September is the month that two very popular salmon derby’s take
place. The forty-second Port Alberni Salmon Festival and the Ucluelet
Ladder Derby occurred during the Labor Day weekend. The Port Alberni
Derby was a Coho Derby only with sport fisher persons fishing in the
Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound seeking a large Coho salmon. The
Ucluelet Ladder derby was predominately an offshore Chinook Derby.
Sterling Robinson of Gibson B.C. won the Port Alberni Salmon Festival. He
landed a seventeen point one pound Coho around the Swale Rock area
on the Saturday morning of the long weekend. His take home prize was
$10,000. He won $3,000 for the largest fish of the day and an additional
$7,000 for the biggest fish of the derby. The Ucluelet Ladder Derby fish
off winner was local Ucluelet fisherman Brett Thomas who landed a
thirty-three point 7 Chinook salmon using a hootchie out on the Big Bank.
Port Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound
This sport fishing year the Alberni Inlet from Chup Point right into
the Somass-Stamp River System has non retention of Chinook salmon.
The rule came into effect on August first and continues until the end of
the current season. From Chup Point out to one mile off the surf line
sport fisher people are able to retain Chinook salmon under seventyseven cm in length.
The current rules have really not hampered the sport
fishing in the Sound or in the Alberni Inlet. The West Coast Vancouver
Island Coho returns have been phenomenal which has developed some
great fishing in the Inlet and Sound. There have been plenty of Chinook
in Barkley Sound in which some have been transient salmon returning to
the large water sheds to the south. Many of these Chinook have been
undersize. They come into the Barkley Sound area where there is bait
fish and feed on these rich resources of food before continuing their long
journey. There has also been a good number of returning three year old
males to West Coast streams located in the Sound that have been under
the seventy-seven cm retention size. With the huge numbers of Coho
salmon and with the smaller Chinook the sport fishing in the Sound has
been fabulous. The Coho fishing in the Alberni Inlet has been the same.
In Barkley Sound the best salmon fishing in September has been Swale
Rock, the Bamfield Wall, the backside of Fleming Island on the Imperial
Eagle side and Assets Island. The Coho and Chinook salmon are on the
move but if they get into an area with bait fish they are holding. Swale
Rock has definitely been an area with holding fish as the area has been
filled with bait for a good number of days. The fish have been shallow in
the areas mentioned and have predominately been found in thirty to
sixty feet of water. The salmon are hitting hootchies, spoons, and bait.
The purple haze, AORL 12, jelly fish, and spatter back hootchies with
leader length of thirty-four to forty-two inches of leader behind a variety
of hotspot flashers have been very good. The best coyote spoons have
been in the three and a half and four inch variety. Watermelon, green
nickel, green glow, and the kitchen sink have all been working. Many
fisher people are using a variety of leader lengths. Some anglers have
spoons trailing flashers and are using thirty-six inches of leader while
others are using leaders from four to five and a half feet. For many boat
speed plays a huge factor. Anchovy in a green haze, purple haze, and
solid green Rhys Davis Teaser Head have been great lures for those using
bait. The Coho in the sound have been averaging up to twelve pounds. It
is not uncommon to hook into two or three seventeen or eighteen pound
Coho on each trip down to the waters of Barkley Sound. With the vast
amounts of surplus bait in the sound, especially around Swale Rock, and
the continued flood of incoming salmon we are hoping with continued
good weather conditions that the salmon fishing will carry on until the
end of September.
The Alberni Inlet has had some wonderful Coho fishing. Coho have
been migrating into the inlet for a good number of weeks. There are well
over 25,000 Coho in the Somass River system. The best Coho fishing has
been in the narrows, Mctush, Bells Bay and right out to the boundary
located along the Franklin Wall. The Coho are big and have been arriving
in huge numbers. Limits have not been hard to come by. The current
limit per person for Coho in the Alberni Inlet is four. The fish can be
either wild or hatchery. Hootchies and a variety of spoons are working.
Boat speed at two point seven to three miles per hour has been generally
been an excellent speed with slightly shorter leaders. The shorter leaders
and the higher boat speed does help prevent bi catches of Chinook
salmon. We are expecting some great Coho fishing right into October.
The numbers of Coho down in Barkley Sound are just phenomenal. Many
of these Coho will migrate up into the Inlet waters before entering their
natal bodies of water.
Ucluelet
Much of the fishing out of the Ucluelet Harbor has recently been
out to the big bank or shallows and also the Rats Nose. Out on the banks
there have been good numbers of Chinook salmon that are averaging
fifteen and sixteen pounds, Coho that are also transient and averaging
eight to twelve pounds, and Pink Salmon that are mostly headed for the
Fraser River. The Fraser is expecting up to twenty-six million pink salmon
this fall. Many have also been trolling or jigging for halibut and are
finding many averaging fifteen to eighteen pounds. The Coho for much of
the summer out on the banks were non-existent but now are in very good
numbers. The fish have been hitting hootchies and are in deeper water.
At eighty to one hundred and twenty feet the spatter back, Sonora,
and T-Rex hootchies have really been the best lures. The water and the
weather offshore have both been absolutely perfect for the past number
of days which makes the trip at this time of year more than miraculous.
Stamp River
The Stamp River is expecting, in early season forecasts, up to forty
to fifty thousand Coho salmon to return this fall. With returns into the
system already exceeding twenty-five thousand many are expecting
returns of up to seventy thousand pieces. This plus a healthy surplus of
summer or fall steelhead will provide a tremendous fall fishing season
that should continue right into mid November. The highlight of the river
season is usually from the tenth of October through November when
fly fishing is at its best. The Summer Steelhead will become very active
at this time of year. Salmon eggs floating in the river from the natural
salmon spawn create a frenzy of feeding activity by the Steelhead. Coho
usually continue migrating into the system right in early December. Look
for the 2013 fall fishing season in the Stamp to be one of the best seasons
ever.
For more information: contact:
Doug Lindores
250 724 2502 (home)
250 731 7389 (cell) plus text
1 888 214 7206 (toll free)
dlindy@shaw.ca (email)