I have to say it has been an amazing year on the west coast of the island. Going from no coho last year to too many to count this year
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My father in law and I did one more trip this past weekend and with almost the same success as the past 3 trips I have had.
We left Pt Alberni Friday eve and anchored near Poets Nook Marina and Campground. The next morning we fished out front looking for some incoming Northerns and only managed 3 in the boat. After fuelling up in Bamfield we heard that there was some action on the Big Bank so we motored out there. As soon as we dropped the lines - fish on! It was a hatchery buck about 8lbs.
We fished for about 4 more hours C&R 2 pinks and non stop coho (I would estimate ~15). Around 5pm we had a double header where I landed a 7lb hatchery doe and my father in law landed a 6lb pink.
Shortly after that we were visited by 3 great guys from DFO, they looked at our catch, licenses and equipment and we had a brief chat. They were WAY out at Bank 10 and busted a few boats for retaining wild coho and for some other violations. They had some nice looking fish (coho and halibut) in thier bow. Excellent to see they are protecting the Thompson stock.
After that, we played a few more wild Coho and called it a night.
The next morning, EARLY, we dropped our lines on the Wall just outside of Bamfield, not 2 minutes into the troll I get our first fish of the day on. Spring on! Wasn't expecting any of those on this trip. After a 5 minute fight we get the 15lb buck into the boat. We had the wrong settings on the camera so it looks darker than it was (note the one of my father in law below).
Other boats seeing us get this started to close in, but we got another pass in an bang, spring on and my father in law landed a 28lb buck after about a 10 minute fight.
All in all, an AMAZING YEAR on the VI west coast!
Cheers,
Justin.