Port Renfrew’s fishing has been amazing this week. Swiftsure Bank has been delivering up the fish, with quick limit catches of halibut and salmon.

The spring salmon are deep, 200′, and are mostly being caught with white plugs and hootchies — up to 20-30 pounds. Coho and pinks are shallower and will bite on pretty much anything…once you’re into a school of them, it is non-stop action. In a trip on Sunday, we couldn’t keep the gear in the water more than 5 minutes without a bite…double headers common.

The halibut were small chickens, up to 25 pounds, many caught using the regular jigging with a PowerBait grub or large spoon, but most caught while trolling for salmon deep. Port Renfrew Marina reports that large halibut have been caught lately too, up to 160 pounds. They are out there if you want to chase them.

Closer in to shore at “The Beach”, it has been off and on for the big spring salmon. Persistence is the key, with reports of long days trolling, but with success…many fish in the 30s caught this weekend and a few in the 40 pound class. Camper Creek and East Point are the current hot spots.

Come on out to Port Renfrew and get fishing!

Pretty good Port Renfrew Fishing to report. Port Renfrew Marina reports a few big salmon and halibut catches, and improving fishing all around. Here’s a photo of Des from Vicious Fishing Charters at the end of a pretty fun day…6 Red Snapper, 9 spring salmon, 4 Halibut one 99 pounds.

Trevor from No Bananas Fishing Charters reports: “The fish are back boys, salmon on The Beach was fairly decent yesterday and the day before. Camper Creek is the hot spot and both trollers and cutpluggers were geting them but the cutpluggers were getting far better fish with quite a few in the 30′s coming back to the dock. Swiftsure Bank is now in full swing with so many coho it’s almost impossible to get down for springs. On Tues I could not get my downriggers below 100ft without it popping off for at least 2 hours — while fun it’s a tad frustrating when trying to fish for springs. Eventualy the coho slowed and we found a steady bite for springs up to 25lbs. Oh ya huge water out on the bank the last couple of days but it should come down every day now.”

Jolly Rogers Fishing Charters says that earlier in the week The Beach was spotty, but Swiftsure Bank has been really really….huge schools of coho and spring salmon to 25 pounds. There are halibut around too, not fast and furious action, but if you look for them, you can find some.

Come on out to Port Renfrew and get your fun in gear.

Hello to Port Renfrew fishing fans around the world!

Jolly Rogers Fishing Charters reports the fishing in Port Renfrew has been great lately. The coho have arrived early on Swiftsure Bank. They are small, 5-7 pounds on average, but there’s a LOT of them. If you lighten up the gear and let them run a bit, you are in for some fishing fun. We are very hopeful that this early coho action means an excellent season later this Fall….spent a summer fattening up, then the fun really begins in Sept/Oct!

The halibut fishing on Swiftsure Bank has been steady…plenty of “chickens” coming in.

Chinook salmon fishing has been steady too — while it isn’t the frenzy of a month ago, there are plenty of springs around, and there’s a few big ones around. So definitely worth the effort!

Crabbing in San Juan Harbour continues to be excellent.

It’s starting to approach prime time for Port Renfrew fishing….time to get out and give it a go.

Good luck out there!

John at Hindsight Fishing Charters sent in this halibut fishing story from a guest, Terry M: “I caught this monster halibut yesterday fishing with John. It weighed 132 pounds. It took over two hours to get it into the boat. I fought it for the first hour, then Corbin took over. It took two harpoons by John to finally do it in.” Nice fish….well done!

Trevor from No Bananas Fishing Charters also confirms that the halibut fishing in Port Renfrew is pretty decent of late. However, the spring salmon seem to have moved on — the great fishing a few weeks ago has led to pretty spotty chinook salmon fishing of late. The good news is there’s lots of coho salmon though. It is pretty certain the spring salmon will once again begin appearing in numbers any day…the question is whether that will be today, tomorrow, or next week!

Good luck out there.

Port Renfrew Marina is reporting typical June fishing. It isn’t as hot and heavy as a few weeks ago for salmon, but the fish are still there…just fewer and farther between. There have been two 40 pound plus Spring salmon caught this week, plus a bunch of 30 pounders. Not bad if you can catch them! Here’s Keith Cook with a 42 pounder caught last week.

Halibut fishing is reported to be steady…here’s an awesome halibut story from the Marina: “A really amazing story though is on June 9th Randall Pruden and Carl Hien were fishing just west of Camper Creek for springs. They were using Purple Haze hoochies and barbless hooks when they knew they had a big one. It didn’t take very long for them to realize it wasn’t a spring but a Halibut. They could tell it was very big but had no idea it was a 120 pounder! They didn’t have a gaff or spear so they ended up bringing it in with a net! They had to keep bending it to the right shape to get the fish in. How they kept a halibut that big on the line and got it in is what everyone wants to know! Apparently you don’t have to go 25 miles out to sea to get the big ones!”

Crabbing is still excellent, big crabs and many, many of them.

Jolly Rogers Fishing has posted another excellent youtube video, “A Day in the Life: Port Renfrew and Swiftsure Bank Fishing.” Check it out:

Good luck out there!

Getting to Port Renfrew will soon be easier! With the Cowichan road paved, accessing Port Renfrew from either Victoria/Sooke or from Duncan/Lake Cowichan may be equally good. In fact, with the Cowichan road paved, it may even be easier, especially for those towing boats — those bouncy sections on Highway 14 are hard on trailers.

This should be a great help to Port Renfrew’s tourism.

Article from Victoria Times-Colonist:

The last five kilometres of the once-infamous road between Port Renfrew and Lake Cowichan will be paved next week, providing the final link in a scenic circle drive for tourists and an alternative for drivers when the Malahat is blocked — provided they have plenty of time.

The 52-kilometre stretch, slowly upgraded over several years from a zig-zagging logging road, was well known for breaking axles, bursting tires and skiddy, gravel-topped curves.

Four years ago, the road was spotlighted when the province invented the Pacific Marine Circle Route as a marketing tool to attract tourists. It became a segment of a circuit running from Victoria through Duncan, Lake Cowichan, Port Renfrew and Sooke. But the Port Renfrew-Lake Cowichan link was so bad that tourists had to be discouraged from using it unless conditions were perfect or they had heavy-duty vehicles.

Some help came in 2007 when a newly applied coating on Highway 18 failed. The coating was stripped off, remixed with other road-building material, and used to upgrade the Port Renfrew-Lake Cowichan road.

Other parts of the road were gradually paved or chip-sealed, but five kilometres in the middle remained in rough shape.

“You definitely needed a four-wheel-drive for that,” said Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce director Rosie Betsworth.

But from early next week, it will be an easy drive, said Transportation Ministry spokesman Dave Crebo.

“It is a huge improvement. You could drive at 70 or 80 kilometres an hour along about three-quarters of that road,” he said. “It’s wider and much better quality.”

Port Renfrew residents hope the completed road will bring more tourists.

“I’m sure it will help,” said Karen Pearson, a bookkeeper at the Lighthouse Pub. “I will take my car over it and I wouldn’t before. It was a washboard and there were so many accidents.”

For Dorothy Hunt, Pacheedaht First Nation band manager, who works in Port Renfrew and lives in Lake Cowichan, the paved road will reduce the commute to about 50 minutes. “And we need that out here to create jobs,” she said.

Crebo said $11 million is being spent on replacing two bridges on Highway 14 and straightening some of the curves.

One bridge will be completed this fall and the second by the fall of 2010, he said.

Dan Harvey, from Pacific Sports Fishing, sent in this picture of a beautiful 45.5lb Chinook salmon caught off Port Renfrew Thursday.

Dan’s report: “Fantastic day…Flat, Calm,and Sunny! Fishing with Bruce Miller (Miller Time Charters). Carmen saw the hit, Bill set the hook, I played the fish, and Bruce netted the brute, while Colston cheered us on! It was team work all the way! It took 30 minutes plus to get it to the boat. What can I say…a great way to start the season!”

Great summer weather, BIG salmon, halibut plentiful, crabbing amazing….what more incentive do you need? Get out to Port Renfrew and get fishing!

The fishing season is kicking in along Vancouver Island’s wild west coast.

Des from Vicious Fishing reports limit catches of Chinook salmon, 15-30 pounds, and halibut from 15-120 pounds.

The two Johns, Jolly Rogers and Hindsight Fishing, took a trip out to Swiftsure Bank on Monday and found lots of coho. That’s a good sign of what’s to come…big fun to be had out there….time to start heading far, far, west.

Speaking of fun fishing days…Jolly Rogers posted a youtube video of a halibut adventure last week. Check it out.

Finally, the crabbing in the Harbour out front of Port Renfrew continues to be amazing.

Good times!

Sooke’s salmon fishing was a mixed bag last week. A few slow days, and then some really nice fish in between, a few 30 pounders and even one 40 pounders! The big fish was taken at 70 feet on a blue anchovie teaser head. So…definitely worth getting out there and giving it a go.

Crabbing in Sooke Harbour is quite good, lots of good size Dungeness crabs.

Trevor from No Bananas Fishing Charters reports: “well it looks as though fishing has slowed a bit, we did not see many fish caught in the last couple days. But we thankfully got lucky with the magic combo: purple haze squirts with purple glow flashers. Here’s a couple pics, first the Magivern group with a limit up to 19lbs, then Doug Carter with a 25lbr from Saturday morning (we landed 20 fish in five hours! I guess even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while). Some beautiful sunrise shots too”. Great report, thanks Trevor!

Jolly Rogers Fishing Charters had a good halibut day, catching three good ones: 110 pounds, 95 pounds, and 40 pounds. His guest, Dale from Australia, reports a “personal best, any species”. Nice!

Crabbing is still fantastic, big Dungeness crabs, hard shells, very sweet.