10th October, 2007: FISHING REPORT: Port Alberni Inlet, Barkley Sound, Ucluelet (West Coast), Somas-Stamp River System.

by Doug Lindores of Slivers Charters Salmon Sport Fishing
Toll Free Number: 1- 888 214 7206

The fall season has arrived rather quickly and seems to be much different than the past couple of years. coho and chinook salmon fishing in canada

The fall rain has come a little early and has filled the Somass-Stamp River, which is currently running high. The water in the river is also high due to the release of water from the dam. Plenty of salmon are entering the lower river daily but the high water has made it difficult to fish during the past few days. If the weather clears for a number of days the river will fall to better fishing levels. Barkley Sound and the Port Alberni Inlet have a good number of returning salmon to many tributary streams and of course to the Somass-Stamp. Many of the salmon (Coho and Chinook) are returning to Robertson Creek Hatchery. Unfortunately however, with the high number of Coho and also Chum returning many of the salmon fishing charter boats and guides are finding the fish not interested in biting. The Chinook return seems to be lower than what was expected. The Hatchery usually needs approximately 7,500 and a natural spawn in the river is also ideal. Current figures show approximately 12,500 Chinook have returned to the system. In 2006 the total return of Chinook in early October exceeded 25,000. Chinook, Coho, and Chum should continue returning to their natural spawning streams and rivers over the next couple of weeks. Coho often continue into November and are returning in good numbers. The third weekend in October is usually open house at the Robertson Creek Hatchery. This is often the peak weekend of salmon entering the hatchery and is a great time for people to visit Robertson Creek and see the process of salmon egg incubation.

Port Alberni Inlet

Salmon fishing in the Inlet has been rather slow since the 6th or 7th of September. Salmon fishing charters and guides have found plenty of salmon in the area but the fish have not been biting. The last real good day was Labor Day Monday, which was the last day of the Port Alberni Derby. At the conclusion of the Derby a commercial gill-net fleet fished and picked up approximately 12,000 Chinook and was followed by several days of a commercial Seine Boat fishery, which was able to fish to limits picking up both Chinook and Coho. This dramatically slowed the sport fishing in the Port Alberni Inlet for guides, fishing charters and sport fishermen. It seemed that the salmon fishing in the Port Alberni Inlet had a very small window during the period of time from August 15th to September 10th. Many of the Port Alberni Salmon Fishing Charters and guides had to continue to travel to Barkley Sound or offshore areas to fish with their many guests. Some people are now fishing for Chum in the Nahmint and Cous Creek areas. Chum are a great fighting salmon and are wonderful when hot-smoked. They are quite oily but again are a great salmon. Chum usually return back in big numbers. The Nahmint area has been slow to date but the Cous Creek area has had some success. The Chum are hitting sockeye gear. They like pinks and reds in the Inlet with 26 to 32 inches of leader connected to green or red hotspot flashers. They seem to like a real slow troll once they hit the influence of fresh water. Slivers Charters Salmon Sport Fishing is not only fishing Chum in the Inlet area but also in the Browns Bay area close to Campbell River. We have entertained guests with a wonderful fishery in this area for the past couple of years with a lot of success. Most people just quit fishing in early September and seem disinterested in Chum. Fishing for Chum Salmon is really a lot of fun. When they are schooled in large numbers one can play up to twenty fish per day.

Barkley Sound

The fishing report for Barkley Sound is poor. The fishing from August into October seemed very sporadic. The salmon just have not held up in their normal holding areas. One has to wonder if this is due to weather conditions or as we get more and more hatchery fish are their patterns significantly changing. Coho and Chinook returning up to the Port Alberni Inlet seemed to enter the Sound in deep water and headed straight up to the Inlet. This trend has continued during the second half of September into October. This is not to say that there have not been any great days. There just have not been enough of them. Last week Kirby Point and the back end of Fleming Island had a few Coho and Sarita Bay was mixed with a few Northern Coho and Chum Salmon. The Coho have been hitting white and green hootchies. The green watermelon, four inch coyote spoon has been excellent. Chum Salmon have been hitting white and red hootchies and have been a fantastic sport fish.

Ucluelet

The weather pattern has changed on the coast making some days difficult to get out on the water. However there are still excellent opportunities for halibut and salmon when the weather cooperates. Southbank, The Lighthouse Bank, and The Wreck continue to have excellent fishing. Halibut fishing off of The Wreck has been great. The fish are still in 175 to 200 feet of water and are hitting glow hootchies when trolling and when using a spreader bar it seems salmon stomachs are the best. Last year halibut continued until almost November 1st. It is looking like this year could be the same. The Coho fishing has been very good. The late Coho are big, averaging 12 to 13 pounds. Some late spawning Chinook are in the mix with some fairly large feeder Chinook. Anchovy, various hootchies and coyote spoons of different sizes and colors are all working. Guide Mike has been using a hootchie referred to as blood and bones, which has worked very well for Coho and Chinook. Leader lengths are 42 to 44 inches behind green flashers. We are planning to fish areas close to the Ucluelet Harbor into mid November. There should be some great fall days on the Pacific into late October.

Somass- Stamp River

As mentioned above the river is currently high. There are plenty of great salmon fishing days to come. Some heavy Thanksgiving Weekend rains have helped the river become high and very difficult to fish. However with the weather looking to improve the water should come down and by mid-week the jet boat fishing should improve.

The Somass-Stamp also has a late summer steelhed run which usually materializes later into October and often peaks from the 10th to the 20th of November. It is expected that the summer or fall steelhead fishing will be very good.

Actual final counts of salmon that have returned will be tallied later in the fall. However the sockeye return, which was last tallied on September 26th was very disappointing. Approximately 150,000 Somass river Sockeye escaped into Great Central and Sproat Lakes. This is a very poor return. Conservation is of outmost importance. This low return of fish will need to be monitored. It is hoped that nature helps with the spawning of these Salmon and that the poor weather of last year (2006) does not return. Flooding could be very detrimental to the spawning grounds.

Coho returns into the system that have gone through the counters at Stamp Falls are almost 40,000. This is a great return to date.

For more information

Contact:

Doug Lindores
Slivers Charters Salmon Sport Fishing
www.catchsalmon-ca.com
www.catchsalmon.ca
dlindy@shaw.ca
+1 250 724 2502 (h)
+1 250 731 7389 ©