My fiancee and I spent 6 days in Tofino in Aug. and we fell in love with
it. We fished with a guide I know from Mexico and had wonderful fishing for
salmon and halibut.

We decided to spend several weeks up there next summer. We are going to pull a
fully equipped boat up, fish for a week at a time, store the boat and fly back
and forth.

As soon as we returned, we started buying and reading books and are
overwhelmed at the opportunities.

I wonder if you guys could make a recommendation as to where to go?

We are pretty good with boats (I used to keep a boat in Baja).

We are considering Tofino, Sooke, Ucluelet and Bamfield, but are sure open to suggestions.

We would hire a guide the first days to get us started. We are mostly
interested in Chinooks, but also Coho and Halibut.

We would be grateful for any tips.

Marty Martelle

My choices are on the east side of Vancouver Island. This would be in July, and I would head to Telegraph Cove where you can stay in a campground or rent accomadations. You have fishing for the species mentioned as well as whale watching. Secondly, just a little further up the road you come to the Cluxewe Campground, again, you can camp or rent a cabin facing the ocean. The two towns available for supplies are not that far away, Port McNeil and Port Hardy. You would have no trouble getting a guide to show you the area to fish. As a point of information, from the Nanaimo ferry, driving to Telegraph Cove is about 4 hrs on good hwy, and less than another 1/2 hr. to Cluxewe. Hope this helps in your decision making and if I can be of further help drop me a pm.

From the reports i've heard, i would head to Ucluelet sometime in the middle 2 weeks of August.
If you're after big springs, that's where to get'em and lots of them as well.

Shoot me a PM or E naknekm. Email: mattstabler@shaw.ca

I guide out of Ucluelet, so may be a tad biased...
But the fishing out of there the past two seasons has been nothing less then Superb!
Way things currently look, we are likely looking at another Banner Season next year!

I'd be happy to provide whatever information I can, including that relating to a few of the area's better guides.

Cheers & Good Luck with your Decision!

Ukee, but you better have your wits about you.
Dan

Cheers,

You cannot get a better guide than Iron Noggin and I would concur that the fishing the past 2 years has been nothing less than pricelss off Ucluelet. I enjoy the ability to guide and fish almost every day off Nanaimo with good fishing combined with several days of great thrown in. Howver, the last 2 weeks of July and the first 2 weeks of August one would be hard pressed to find anything better on Vancovuer Island that Ucluelet and you will often find me dragging my vessel over there during the peak.

NOTE: While there are LOTS of fish and fishing boats remember this is truely big water. A day that starts as spectacular can turn oh so very quickly and your intent to hire a guide to show you the areas and the safety considerations is a class act.

Good luck and Welcome to British Columbia Fishing!

Definitely Ukee but accommodation is over priced by at least 50%.

Flying in/out of the Ukee/Tofino airport is possible with Orca Air

You'll have to decide if that works for if not you'll be ferrying back to the mainland-many YVR airport hotels will allow you to park your vehicle for extended time periods if you stay a night.

Ukee all the way. It's between Bamfield and Tofino and the CENTER of the Salmon and Halibut Universe !!!

We bought a lot a Salmon Beach so I am a little bias as well but reality does kick in when you think about it as the Center port to accessible fishing etc. You can bomb down to the Bamfield area's or bomb up to the Tofino fishing grounds all from Ukee. You can have it all.

That was pretty top drawer.


Know you fish round there too


Cheers FG

Thanks guys for the help. As I said, I was in Tofino and just simply loved it. I have been reading about Uclee. A question: is there inshore fishing, if it is rough outside? At Tofino, we were able to fish inside the one morning it was too rough to get outside.

We are now looking at campers for our PU truck. Will plan on driving there in mid june, fishing a week, storing boat, PU and camper and flying home. Then returning a few weeks later, fishing another week, etc. I will have 4-5 weeks during the summer to do this.

That is sure some beautiful country and we are looking forward to exploring it, as well as the fishing.

A question: is there good fishing in June, also? We need to spread our weeks out and after Sept 1, we won't be able to get back up there (bird hunting in Idaho)

Again, thanks for the information and we will save this page and get in touch next spring when we will be ready to book a guide on our boat for a few days to get us started.

Marty