Mike's  Fishing and Boating Pages
Port Hardy, BC and Ucluelet, BC 2006

Vancouver Island Fishing Trip July 2006

 
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BC Fishing July 2004

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Hydra-Sports 212WA
 

This is my 5th consecutive year fishing Vancouver Island.  This year I split my time between Port Hardy on the north east tip of the island, and Ucluelet, where we stayed last year, located on the south west coast of the island, on the north edge of Barkley Sound.  In past years we have stayed in a lodge at the back of Barkley Sound, and in Bamfield, on the southern edge of Barkley Sound.

I fished with a Charter boat in Sept 2003 and really liked the area so I returned to Port Hardy this year for a few days trailering my own boat with my son CJ along.  This was his first trip up to Port Hardy.

After 4 days in Port Hardy (July 23-27) we trailered to Ucluelet to meet up with my long time fishing partner George and also our friends Bret and Mike and their boats as we did last year.  The fishing offshore from Barkley Sound is always good so we keep coming back.

Port Hardy July 23-27
After mooring the boat we learned that salmon had slowed along with the 85+ degree F
heat wave 5 days ago.   On the first and last day we targeted Taylor Bank.  It is a table top
200ft deep.  We trolled the bottom for salmon and a chance for halibut.  Instead we got
1 salmon, several rockfish, and a couple of nice Ling Cod over 30lbs.


Click in any of the pictures to enlarge

Fishing in Port hardy July 24,25,26

Map of our fishing grounds.  We worked the islands on the left side, Taylor Bank about 5 miles from the mainland coast, and the islands right outside Port Hardy bay.  We had fog most every day, no real rain though.


30lb+ Ling Cod on Taylor Bank

CJ at the helm

Fog was the daily norm in Port Hardy.  The radar came in handy at times.

CJ with the catch of the day.

Chunky salmon, maybe 25lb.  Broke off at the boat during release, stole my lucky spoon!

The 2nd day was windless, but still lots of fog around.


Fishing offshore from Ucluelet
July 27,28,29,30

Bret and his crew fishing about 15 miles offshore from Ucluelet.

Flat water the last 2 days.

21lb salmon caught by George.

One of 3 halibut we caught off Ucluelet.

Mike with a 28lb Chinook.

CJ with a 12lb Chinook.


A couple salmon and couple halibut in the box.  At the end of the last day we fished the rocks for several sea bass.

Moored in Ucluelet at the Island West Fishing Resort Marina July 27-31, 2006. Pictured below is my 2005 21ft. Hydra-Sports 212WA walk around style fishing boat with a Suzuki 140HP 4 stroke motor.  I use a 9.9HP Suzuki kicker motor for trolling.  Top speed is about 34 mph, cruise at 5200RPM is 28-30 mph. This hull has a 17 degree deadrise and is 8ft 9in wide.  It handles rough water well. 

We went offshore each of the 7 fishing days in swells up to 7-9 ft plus some chop.  Winds were probably gusting over 30 in the afternoon we arrived in Ucluelet.  The west coast had been hammered all week by gale winds and was just breaking on our first day there fortunately.  Port Hardy had wind 2 of 3 days, but has no swell to deal with. The remaining days were good, with July 29 and 30 presenting rare flat water making a run 20 miles out seem like a lake trip.
 

In the picture below taken in Ucluelet, Bret's Hydra-Sports 230WA in moored just in front of my boat.