WFN’s Ultimate Fishing Town challenge is on again, and Port Renfrew has been nominated … 60 nominations and climbing!
Check out the nominations to ready why people think Port Renfrew should be Canada’s Ultimate Fishing Town.
Submit your own entry, to get Port Renfrew on the map as a prime Canadian fishing location and also to help with $25,000 for the town’s many needy causes. Below is my entry. If you agree, then post your own!
*****
Quite simply, THE.BEST.FISHING.I’VE.EVER.HAD
The fishing in Port Renfrew can be so good that it frankly spoils you for fishing anywhere else. I have had so many Swiftsure Bank days with non-stop action from start to finish for halibut, spring salmon, and coho salmon … so good it is all you can do but laugh. It gets to the point that your boat-mates start begging you to take their turn on the rod, because they are tired of all the reeling. No lie!
Port Renfrew is known for both quantity AND quality of fishing. The southern Vancouver Island fishing leaderboards are inevitably topped by Port Renfrew salmon and halibut … I’d guess 70-80% year-to-year of the top fish caught in this region are from Port Renfrew’s waters. Have a look at the Port Renfrew Marina’s “Over 40 Pounder” club … if you dream of catching a 40-pound plus salmon, or maybe even a 50-pounder, this is the spot to do it. Not to mention 25-pound trophy coho, and halibut towards 200-pounds.
Be aware, though, that this is a pretty hardcore fishing town … not really a latte kind of place. This town is Stanfield sweaters and pick-up trucks, sunburned noses and camp-fires, fish guts and full coolers, big smiles and faraway looks from anglers who‘ve had a fishing day as good as it gets.
But it is also a fantastic place to visit … sandy beaches, great nature watching, excellent fresh water swimming nearby (with rainbow trout too!). Not to mention some pretty good surfing beaches and windsurfing and kiteboarding too. And all this a two hour drive from Nanaimo or Victoria, with just a ferry ride in between for the Vancouver folks.
I think Port Renfrew is the ultimate fishing town because there’s nowhere else I can think of that is better!