Cam stoked on a beauty port renfrew halibut

Blair from Swell Time Fishing gave this Port Renfrew Fishing Report for July 28th – August 4th: “Offshore fishing at Swiftsure Bank has been on fire! Beginning of the week there were tons of chinook with sizes ranging from 8 to 15 pounds, tons of coho, and calm waters. Chinook sizes have been progressively getting bigger, with some 30 pounders being caught offshore near the end of the week. Last week’s 5 pound cohos seem to be this week’s 7-8 pound cohos. Halibut fishing has been consistent all week, with calm weather making it easy and enjoyable; everybody has been tubbin’ out! Fishing on the beach has been good all week, climaxing on Sunday with chinook sizes reaching up to 40 pounds.”

Fantastic fishing……so head out to Port Renfrew, big fun ahead!

Blair from Swell Time Fishing Charters provides the following report on his Facebook page: “Port Renfrew offshore fishing at Swiftsure Bank has been on fire, with lots of chinook ranging from 8 to 20 pounds, tons of coho, and the pinks have shown up too. Halibut’s been a little spotty, with the Ranch producing good sized fish. Fishing on the beach around Port Renfrew is a little hit and miss, but some decent sized chinooks ranging from 15 to 30 pounds have been coming in all week. It’s been really windy offshore earlier in the week, with strong ebb currents making for rough conditions that have been hard to fish in. But as of Thursday the winds have died down and offshore fishing in Port Renfrew has been epic!”

Great fishing in Port Renfrew …. prime time summer action.

It is hot and heavy out on Swiftsure Bank, with chinook salmon, coho, and halibut.

On the Beach, the chinook salmon fishing has been hit and miss lately, with some days great and others slow.  But it has heated up lately, with a few 40 pound plus salmon caught.  As reported by Port Renfrew Marina and Jolly Rogers Fishing (photo below).

Tight lines!

Jolly Rogers Fishing

Swell Time Fishing

No Bananas Charters hosts the Gibbs Tackle crew, showing off Port Renfrew’s excellent salmon and halibut fishing.

Click for the video!

And Jolly Rogers brings home a boat load … great fishing day indeed.

June 15/16 Father’s Day Fishing Derby in Port Renfrew.

Only 50 boats, $500 per boat, top prize $10,000!

Trevor (No Bananas Fishing Charters) and Steve (Seawind Fishing Charters) are sponsors and organizers … should be a fun derby, thanks for organizing it!

And for a fishing report, Seawind Steve says it is pretty good: “What an excellent weather weekend for Port Renfrew. Fishing was slow for trollers on the beach, cut pluggers were doing well on friday. Salmon at the chicken ranch picked up with average size 10-18lbs the odd one bigger, lots of bait showing offshore as well. Halibut fishing continues to be very good on the anchor on the inside, a few boats drifted on the ranch side and were able to get limits of halis 15-35 lbs. Crabbing remains poor in the bay due to 5 commercial crab boats.”

First halibut photo of the season from Port Renfrew.   Hindsight Fishing Charters with a motley crew, bring in some nice flatties on opening day.   The guys on this trip know a thing or two about local fishing!

A video of a September coho salmon fishing day last September…..a little taster for the season coming up.

Halibut seasons opens on Friday, everyone is excited to get out there and chase those great fish once again.  Do be careful in Port Renfrew though, the only launch is in the Gordon River and the river currents are significant with all this rain lately.  And there’s still ocean swells this time of year.  So pick your days and play safe!   Good luck out there.

2 minutes out of fun day salmon fishing with Blair, from Swell Time Fishing Charters. We were fishing for salmon on Swiftsure Bank, an hour from Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island. This was one of many double headers that day. One spat the hook, the other we got aboard…..smiley salmon, smiley young fisherman!

Hindsight Fishing Charters experimented last summer with using a GoPro video camera attached to the spreader bar on the halibut fishing  gear.   The first one gets away, but notice at 0:28 there’s something BIG lurking just out of sight in the background. Later on, another one sticks, and it’s 40 pounds of fresh fish and chips for dinner.

The 2013 halibut fishing opening has been announced by DFO.  The announcement is a little controversial in the recreational fishing community because of the extra restrictions it adds:

• Mar.15-Mar.30: no size limit, 1 halibut per day, 2 in possession; only one may be greater than 83cm
• April 1-season end: maximum length 126cm (approximately 60 pounds)
• 2nd halibut in possession must be under 83cm (approximately 15 pounds)
• Maximum 6 halibut per license annually.

The Canadian Total Allowable Catch has decreased, so these measures have been brought in an attempt to keep the recreational fishing season open longer.

That isn’t as good as prior years, but at least there will be an opportunity to fish for these great white fish.

See you out in Port Renfrew for a fishing trip soon!