Port Renfrew, Canada salmon fishing

[AnglerBob]

Here’s a quick report on some incredible salmon fishing in Port Renfrew, BC.

I own a home in Vancouver, Canada and visit once a year on average. Sometimes I make it out fishing; sometimes I don’t. This year my wife elected to stay home so I decided to head to the west coast of Vancouver Island, home of some of the best salmon fishing in North America, IMHO.

Fishing in this area requires a pretty serious ocean going boat, so if you don’t have one, you need a charter and this is admittedly a splurge. I was on my own, which made the cost that much more onerous, but I knew a guy there who can really rack up some numbers and since my time is inevitably so short, I figured I’d lump it for a day’s fishing with high hopes of success. This chartermaster is Kelly Wagner of Last Chance Fishing Adventures in Port Renfrew (winters, they operate out of Victoria).

Port Renfrew is not hard to get to from Vancouver: no float plane required. Hop a ferry to Victoria, head out highway 14 through Sooke and 93 km later, you’re there. The winding road is challenging, often foggy and damp, but not 4wd territory. The natural setting of the area—which marks the start of the famous West Coast hiking trail—is a beautiful rainforest with verdant cliffs, waterfalls, and abundant wildlife. The town itself is very rustic, and lodging/services are on the costly side, so I ended up camping at the marina, which worked out fine for our 5:30am departure.

Once on the water, Kelly rigged up three trolling outfits: long, whippy rods with single-action reels. These are like fly reels, in that there’s enough drag to keep it from overspooling but beyond that you have to apply hand pressure (watch your knuckles). The drag is not active when you are reeling, so if you feel the fish surge you have to let go and apply as much hand pressure as you dare. The baits consisted of dead anchovies trolled behind large flasher blades on downriggers, usually anywhere from 30-70 feet down.

Rounding the point and entering the open ocean waters of the Juan De Fuca Strait, we began picking up fish immediately. At first it was mostly smaller fish, pink salmon and baby chinook (what we call king salmon, chinook or spring in Canada). Around 7:30, though, the starboard rod pulled from the downrigger pin with a vengeance, and I had a nice chinook on. After a short but exciting battle, I had a keeper of around 15 lbs.

We returned to trolling, changing the depth, distance from shore and speed as tides and results demanded. More pinks, more small chinook, the occasional lingcod or rockfish. Then around 11:00, another big fish. This one really hit hard, spooling out yards of line it would take serious time to recover. When I finally was able to turn him, cranking him in was exhausting, and Kelly warned me he was probably good for another run. He was, but it was brief, and I was able to bring him to the net after a long battle. Kelly estimated his weight at 28 pounds, not the true bragging weight of a “Tyee” (30-pounder) but a very respectable fish nonetheless and definitely a PB salmon for me. (Later, he downgraded the fish to 25 lbs, so perhaps it’s best we didn’t have a scale, if you get my drift.)

We pounded the Strait for a few more hours but the big ones eluded us after that, and the bite pretty much died off for the whole fleet cruising the area. Had we wanted, we could have chased rockfish and bass on light tackle inshore, or tried for coho, but the rush of a big salmon continued to beckon. The weather was fairly sour, mist and occasional serious rain, so Kelly’s heated boat cabin proved useful as a warm spot to hang between bites.

At the end of the day, Kelly cut the large fish into sides and tossed in two nice crabs from his traps in the inlet. I don’t usually keep game fish, but it’s hard to see the point in releasing delicious fish that are commercially caught in the same waters and sold in seafood markets. I purchased a wax-lined seafood shipping carton ($29 for a cardboard box with a styrofoam insert, but what are you gonna do) from one of the luxury lodges there, bought some ice and headed back for the ferry to Vancouver.

Although the fishing over much of Vancouver Island has declined in recent years, the west coast remains hot and Renfrew is an excellent choice for anglers seeking fly-in fishing quality without, well, flying in. I’d highly recommend Kelly’s Last Chance Adventures charter service: he’s an easygoing, likable guy with the skills, knowledge and equipment to catch the big salmon in west VI waters. For an occasional splurge trip, it’s well worth doing.

[sansou]

Congrats on the PB salmon! Looks really pretty and fishy out there!!!

[Troutman65]

Nice report. I really enjoyed reading it . Congats on your catch. Thanks for sharing.