Got back from 'the Rock' yesterday and had a great time with family and all sorts of friendlies from around the world. Parked my camper in a place called Crystal Cove Camground and Resort. Great family/kid friendly place to stay right on MacKenzie Beach; beautiful. As mentioned earlier, I spoke with Jay Mohl and he said it was hot for Coho out there so father-in-law and I launched the 12fter and the the 10hp into Clayquot Sound at Tofino to fish the rising and high slack tide. One of my camping neighbours (nice guy from Victoria) was out the day before with a guide and limited on Coho within sight of Tofino so we decided to try to find where he was fishing by his description. We gave up on that as when he was fishing, it was on the falling tide and the kelpy area he described was under water and we had no sounder and no downriggers and we could see no one else fishing the area. I noticed a number of fishing boats heading out through a gap in the islands toward Ahousat (sp?) and I knew the direction as I had gone out there with a guide a few years ago. We decided to putt along in the same direction (remember 10hp) and saw more fishing machines along the way. We came past a nice kelp bed probably 6/7miles out, so we decided to try bucktailing the area, but no takers. While doing this we saw another larger (everyone else was larger
) fishing boat working the other side of the passage off a nice sand beach so we decide to putt over and try that side. Still no takers with the bucktails so time to switch up to old school gear fishing, with a slip weight, a mini-flasher and a trolling spoon and pops used a hootchie he had luck with from the Queen Charlotte's. After switching we, pretty quickly both got into some smallish ho's (3/4lbs) and some undersized springs. After enjoying this sport for a few hours (with a refreshment or two and a couple of sandwiches) pops gets into a a screamer. This fish made four or so good runs and jumped 3 times before I got him in the net and bonk. All the time we were fishing, the tide was starting to change and this created a nice little seam we trolled along with five or six other boats (as more boats came to join us throughout the day). We saw a few fish jumping in the area (large and small) and the scenery was outstanding. Sunny and beautiful with a nice sea breeze. Pops fish was the only one we decided to keep out of 6 fish to the boat and many more good solid tugs/hits. Great day on the water and I hope to go over to pop's place tonight to eat some of that Coho!! Pop's has some pics of the fish that I'll post when I get them later. Thanks again for the info boys; it convinced me to bring the little boat.
Author
Topic: Clayquot Sound in a 12ft boat (Read 3270 times)