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Halibut Fishing Reports & Halibut Recipe Forum

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Halibut Fishing Reports & Halibut Recipe Forum
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Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

Everyone I've talked to says Ucluelet and the offshore banks of Vancouver Island's west coast are red hot. Lot of halibut in the 15 to 35-pound range. Where did all of the halibut come from?

Who cares, as long as we can catch them.

I reccomend fishing with a spreader bar and a white Berkley Power Grub or Luhr Jensen B2 Squid in white or Triple Glow.

Good luck, see you on the fishing grounds. This is one of my favorite places to fish. When I do, I always fish with Bill Von Brendel, one of the best halibut fishing guides I know. He's never skunked me!
John

Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

I mistakenly posted this to the Barkley Sound board when it should have been here. I couldn't find an edit option so this is a repeat. Sorry.
Just returned from a quick 3 day trip to Canadian Princess in Ucluelet. Very inconsistant and generally slow fishing. Salmon on the inside banks were in fair numbers with related bait schools. MacDeeps and 4oz Salmon slayers with the occasional larger (30-60#) Halibut mixed in (most all the bigger Halibut are coming from the Salmon trips on the inside: inside/outside South Bank and Lighthouse). The saddest thing we noticed was that the resort is keeping ALL Halibut on the 'Big Bank' (21-23 mile). Average size has been reduced to 7-10# with a 15#er being large. Some trips are getting only a few, 4-6, and some are limiting 25+ with most all being these tiny 7-12# fish. It was really sad. If we were fishing by ourselves we would never keep these fish. We also heard our captain grumbling that Oak Bay management is starting to 'nickle and dime' as well, chasing away all their good skippers and long term staff. We also noticed decreased options on their breakfast buffet as well as no coolers of extra water or pop on their fishing trips. Definately downgrading the product; sad actually. We were told when we enquired about reserving our group of 14 for next year, they are discontinuing the included breakfast and box lunch incentive for early booking, groups, and returning guests. Sad to see an organization that large, that sees so many guests, cheapen their product to such a degree. Oh yea, once again (third year in a row) the reservations for our group were wrong. Late flights instead of early, quad rooms instead of doubles, scheduled for Salmon rather than Halibut on 22 passenger boats rather than 14 (that's why we take a group of 14 so we can have our own boat), a mistake in not including breakfast and lunches as promissed to part of our group. No big deal, but we reserved a year in advance so they had plenty of time to get it right. Oh well, there's always next year. Maybe they will suprise us.
Tight Lines,
Jean Carufo

Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

ya i was out there in early june with the princess too...what a joke! not only was the fishing horrible, but when i finally had the only decent fish of the day on (probly a 30-40 pounder) the deckhand walked by and out of nowhere tightens my drag "it's too loose" well then my fish takes a run...and the hook pulls out..thank you deckhand. anyway there was only 4 halis caught with the biggest being 15 pounds the rest under 10- that is really sad. it was the same thing last year when we went too. needless to say we wont be going back there.

Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

Wow,

to bad that Oak Bay is having some problems. I don't like keeping small halibut either and don't reccomend anyone keeps an under 10 pound halibut. The bigger fish are there, trust me on that. But you have to sort through them or use a method to just catch big fish.

I'd suggest you try Island West Resort next door. They cost more, but the experience is far better.

John

Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

ya we have a buddy who guides out of there and tells me of the excellent fishing they have all year, and i quote- "if you don't have your limit of hali's in 40 minutes- your doing something wrong"- so ya they are definately the better place...but unfortunately a little too pricey for poor old me . any idea of some locations around the island a guy with a smaller boat (16 foot aluminum) could get into some halis? love to fish for them but don't get many chances.

Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

I've taken halibut in close, off the green buoy. Also taken a decent halibut off the back of the small island, can't think of its name, near Grapefruit Bay. Go north from the green buoy, and look for the small islands. Also took a 77-pounder three miles out and to the south from the buoy. Watch for the underwater troughs.

Most people don't even fish these areas for halibut because they don't know they are there. And they want the get 'em quick locales. It will take more time and effort in these close in areas, but the effort is worth it.

You might also try inside Barkley Sound, especially if the herring or candlefish are spawning.
John

Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

thanx for the tips

Re: Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

I know the original posting was in July, but I'd thought I'd put a few points down about the subject anyway, in the Canadian Princess' defence. Firstly, as far as catching small halibut, we always ask the guests if they want to release each fish or keep it. We never force them to keep small halibut, but since there is no size limit (yet! and hopefully there will be soon!) they are free to be baby killers. As far as horrible days of fishing, I'm sure anyone that has fished the west coast knows what the weather can be like and drift fishing the way we do is tough when you are drifting fast and can't touch bottom. As far as the placing of guests on boats, unfortunately this is handled down at the head office. By cheapening the product, you mean level of service and "nickle and diming", when it costs $99 to go out for a 7 hour trip, you do what you have to to keep as many long term staff as you can. It is hard. So the alternatives are to up the prices, which we are doing, and pay the crew more so they will stay from season to season. If anyone has any complaints, or comments please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Ken Roberts
Marine Operations Manager
Canadian Princess Resort
250-726-7771
canadian_princess@obmg.com

Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

Hey guys,

Dad and I will be taking a trip to Vancouver Island (rest of family goes to Mexico leaving the two of us behind, I'm still trying to get my head around that one...) for a fishing trip for a few days, with he intentions of going after halibut. We have the gear for hali (stout rods, heavy lines, and levelwinds), but will also have salmon gear on us (mooching and down-rigger gear, single action reels).

I have had quite a lot of experience wiht hali fishing, so gear and tackle isn't an issue (other than a harpoon, but I'm working on that). We have an open console 40 hp 17.5 ft aluminium boat, we have used it in the ocean a lot, but would rather stay closer to shore. We will also have the standard saftely gear, life jackets, gps, cell phone, VHF, sounder, etc (but no radar).

Any reccomendations of locations, the main place were looking at at the moment is Sooke (weather permitting) and the surrounding area, I think this is where we will most likely be heading to, but are still open to suggestions or warnings. (The boat is on a trailer, so we can move a bit if necassary)

This is probably the last "major" fishing trip me and dad will have together as I am approaching exams and university stuff, and I'm away all summer. So we'd like to make it a good one.

Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

Fishing Reports for Ucluelet on Vancouver Island www.salmoneye.net

Re: British Columbia: Ucluelet Fishing Reports

For Ucluelet fishing reports visit www.salmoneye.net