The Salmon are heating up!
March 30, 2023 Ucluelet 1 video
Shrimp
Shrimp
Salmon (Chinook)
Salmon (Chinook)

Trip Summary

I went out yesterday, solo trip, to change buoys around, per new DFO regulations. decided to drop my lines in, since I was already out there, of course and got into some thick fish. Trolling between alley rock and great bear rock in 120 feet of water, I had a needle fish dragging bottom and my old faithful herring spoon set at 69feet. day dreaming of summer days and hyper focused on the needle fish, on the bottom, and all of a sudden the herring aid went off. What a screamer! great fight and huge fish for this time of year. I circled back around and blamo! it was game on again with another big salmon. released both of them but I would guess they weighed 15 or so pounds each. There is an early run of chinook in Toquart Bay, in April and those local fish are starting to show up, after the herring spawn. There still aren't tons of fish around but it is only a matter of time before the rest of them show up for the year but the fish that are around are quality fish.
Brandon Wiita
Ucluelet, British Columbia, Canada
Minnesota Charters thumbnail
Do you want to create memories for life? Come out to Ucluelet and join Capt Brandon "Minnesota" Wiita on the mighty Pacific ocean. Offering one of the most affordable ocean fishing charters on all of Vancouver Island.  Charged by the hour, ...

Other reports from this captain

Best day of fishing this year, so far.
Best day of fishing this year, so far.
May 11, 2023
Sick day off, what did I choose to do with it? Well go fishing of course. Went out at 10a to check and rebait prawn traps, got my share of jumbos, so off to the salmon grounds. The status quo hadn't been working the greatest this year, so the other day I happened to find a new spot that really panned out. In front of little beach, the pinnacles create a triangle and in the triangle seems to be slack water that's loaded with bait and fish. 3 hours of fishing, 5 double headers, 20-25 Chinook to the boat. Avg 8-10#s biggest being 12#s or so. Not huge but lots of action. Lots. Status quo tells you to drop to the bottom with a needle fish, status quo was barely getting hit. Once to every 10 fish on the small herring aide spoon set at 9 84ft in 140fow. Smashed em, couldn't keep them off the hooks and eventually was only fishing with one rod because everytime I reset one it would pop off with a fish. Controlled chaos, if you will. Definitely wasn't relaxing for a sick day, worked really hard, had a ton of fun and brought home 10 meals worth of sea food with only 2 fish harvested and some prawn. Moral of the story, don't follow the status quo or you won't have as much fun. What a blast! Ps if anyone can find these herring aids in that size specifically, I'll take you fishing if you bring me a dozen of them. Nowhere on the island sells them anymore and I'm down to 2. Not entirely sure what's attracting them to it anymore since they're so beat up but still consistently working.
Continue reading