The prime time to fish here is all summer – well not quite, but since we fish three areas there is usually somewhere to catch salmon and halibut. Most recommended times are

• December to May for the feeder Chinooks and some halibut starting to show in Ucluelet around mid May
• May – July for Halibut in Ucluelet and large numbers of Chinook(King) salmon.(they run all summer).
• July 15 – September 10 in Ucluelet for large Kings
• July, August and September for Coho in Ucluelet

Ucluelet has been very hot the last few years and is expected to continue for this year. If you are trying to decide what time in the summer to come, any time between May and September is good. While June, July and August are peak months, September and October can still see good action as well. Many people are concerned about catching fish, so one thing to note about Ucluelet is that it is not like some other areas that have really slow times and really good times. We have a large area to choose from and there are so many fish travelling past, that you almost always have a good shot of a good days fishing, whether coming in May, June, July, August or September.

Ucluelet, BC

Right now….

Sprout Lake Loggers Salmon Derby March 6,7

The 27th annual Sprout Lake Loggers fishing Derby March 6 and 7 was a great success. The top 3 places were 29 lbs 5 ounces, 27 lbs, 23 lbs 8 ounces. The top place broke the prevous record of 27 lbs. Often this time of year, the derby winner is in the teens, but this year there were at least 14 Chinook weighed in over 20 lbs. March fishing generally brings much smaller feeder Chinook than this, so this is a great sign confirming predictions that we are going to have one of the best years ever for LARGE Chinook! Chinook were taken all over Barkley Sound and there were over 450 tickets sold. We will have pictures coming soon.

General Report

Chinook fishing continues to be very strong close to the harbour. Our guide Dan fished Saturday morning for a few hours and hooked 10 Chinook and Sunday morning for 3 hours and hooked 8 all between 12-15 lbs. Lures of choice are staying very much the same; Needlefish hootchies and and 3.5 inch coyote spoons. Beg Island which is just outside the harbour, Great Bear and Sail rock are still the best places to fish right now. The weather has been incredible the last couple weeks. Make sure you watch the depth sounder for schools of broken up bait. If you don’t get a hit on one pass, try again. Usually there are salmon close by. Halibut should be showing up close to shore soon and you will probably see some halibut pictures once we officially start the season in March.

Of course the excitement level around Ucluelet is building for the summer season, especially in regards to the fishing derby being planned.

Update for Ucluelet Salmon Derby 2010

Last year we did our first annual salmon derby on the weekend of Aug 22-24 with a top prize totaling around $5000. In our last report we talked about planning a derby with a top prize of $20,000. Now we are planning the top prize at 40,000 and the derby will run the course of the summer. There should be 10 top prizes handed out and the current leaders will be updated regularly. We are still discussing ideas and will be letting the public know very soon what is happening. Our next meeting will be March 12 to decide more specifics. You can always check out www.uclueletsalmonderby.com or email us.

Pictured below is Sam Vandervalk and Bonnie Broughton, last years winner!

And if I stay it will be double…

Should I stay, or should I go?

The Clash, lyrics: Should I Stay or Should I Go?   1982

The longer I fish, the more I realize that many life lessons can be learned from the art of fishing. Intuition, or that “sixth sense” is definitely no exception. Every now and then we’re faced with decisions that seem to require guidance from outside ourselves. Or maybe, deep within.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re thinking about changing careers or pulling out of the stock market. Or sticking it out in a certain area waiting for the bite to come on, or pulling the gear and making a run for greener pastures. Is it better to stay with a chosen course, or change plans and hope for a better outcome?

There are so many factors to consider as a professional fisherman. Wind, tide, fish and bait movement, light conditions–they all factor into the decision making process. If it was a full moon last night, were the fish feeding all night? Will they be as hungry as usual in the morning?

I think the pressure to perform can be just as intense in the sport fishing profession as other more publicized venues. Only I am performing without a camera following my every move. Decisions on whether to move to a different area, change lure size or color, or even fish a little deeper all end up affecting the size of the catch at the end of the day.

For me, there’s few things worse than hitting the dock with only 2 or 3 salmon in the hold and seeing the competition laying out 12 beautiful salmon and halibut. (Of course, his has never happened to yours truly).

Every once in awhile, I’ll hear a fishing charter captain lamenting the fact he burned 400 litres of fuel and covered 60 miles of ocean in search of good salmon. On the surface it sounds impressive, admirable even. He was so committed to finding fish for his customers, he gave no thought to the money vaporized into the ozone on burnt fuel.

But here’s the thing.  Nine times out of ten, that guy is a rookie. He hadn’t factored the tide change into his plans.  He hadn’t considered which side of the bank he should be on when the tide changed. He probably only had a rough idea what the fish were feeding on that day. Basically, he didn’t have a well-thought out itinerary when he left the dock, and he kept “winging it” from there on out, with predictable results. (I speak from experience, as once upon a time, I too was a rookie.)

Without a well thought out plan, pretty much all that’s left is to “go with your gut” and hope for the best. Throw the dart. Drop the chips, and let them fall where they may. All too often, people who go with their gut will tell you, “I just had a feeling.” When it works out, they look like geniuses. If they come up empty, however, you usually hear very little. I think we all tend to remember our victories, while the times we came up dry fade into the recesses of our memory.

The same principle applies to the poker table. Some of you might know I’m a poker buff. About once a week, I’ll play in a small stakes Texas hold-em poker tournament. The guy who just won a big pot with a terrible starting hand invariably gives a little grin and says, “I just had a feeling.” The thing is, if you watch the same guy over the course of the evening, he gets these “feelings” fairly often and, most of the time, he’s wrong. Good for me, because this is where I pick up most of my chips. In the long run, the math always rules.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m a big believer in “going with my gut” and all that. It’s just that I’ve become a little more scientific in my thinking over the years than chalking it all up to some special foreknowledge, some magic, and some intuition that makes me a little special. Hunches, or going with your gut, are usually based on prior remembered experiences, whether subconscious or otherwise.

Our subconscious “remembers” things we’ve long forgotten. Sometimes these memories show up in dreams, or are triggered by a smell or sound we haven’t heard for eons. Suddenly, memories come rushing back, events and people from long ago. That’s why we sometimes can’t put a finger on why exactly we did something, only we knew it was the right thing to do.

I think most of you would agree that history and experience teach us that keeping to a well thought out course for the duration pays off handsomely in the end. Investing consistently every month, through ups and downs over fifty years it seems to be a recipe for success.

But then again, we’ve all heard of the guy who switched stocks at the last minute and made a killing and retired at 40 years old. Or the story on the dock about the fisherman who pulled into a spot at the last minute and filled the boat. There’s nothing quite like choosing a course of action, all the while harboring a nagging feeling that you’re really missing out. So what to do?

A couple of years back, I had a group of guys from Alberta fish with me for 3 days. One guy in particular by the name of Wade really wanted to land a salmon over 30 pounds. Usually I don’t pay too much attention to clients telling me they want a certain size fish unless they make a good case for their request. I take the boat out every day, do my best to catch fish for everyone, and let fate decide who catches what.

Sometimes I get told they want the biggest salmon in the world. I smile and say, “We’ll see.” Some 45 minutes later, when they’re struggling with a 10 pound silver and asking for help because, “My arms are killing me”, I smile quietly inside know they wouldn’t last 10 minutes with the world’s biggest salmon. But this guy had fished all over the coast and was still in search of that elusive tyee, a Chinook (King) salmon over 30 pounds

Now a 30 pound salmon is a special fish. In Ucluelet, during late July and August, they seem to come a little easier, but they don’t necessarily happen every day. Every year is different (fortunately this year we are expecting great fishing for big fish). Some days you can hit a good patch of fish and catch 2 or 3 over 30 and a few just under 30. Then a couple days will go by and there won’t be anything over 29 pounds. So you never know. Besides all this, this was early July. I really wanted to get Wade a tyee because I could tell he had paid his dues and fully understood what was involved.  I knew I had my work cut out.

The first day, a brisk Northwest wind was blowing, making an offshore trek a little dubious. Since we were trying to track down a trophy size fish, I started at the north entrance to Barkley Sound, just inside Cree Island. Even though it was July, I was hopeful we could find an early fish working it’s way back to the Stamp-Somass system at the head of the inlet. I fished anchovies in a teaser head 6 ½ feet behind a Hot Spot flasher. We landed a 2 Chinook in the teens, a bunch of shakers and a few sea bass. Right at the end, a good fish popped the downrigger clip and swam right to the surface behind the boat. Once there, it rolled and the hooks came out. I saw the bronze and gold on it’s side and knew we had lost the fish we were looking for. Not quite the start I was hoping for.

The second day, we headed offshore to Big Bank. At 18 nautical miles out, fish from just about every major river system in North America will migrate through at some point during the year. Huge white springs from the Harrison, the thick, fat fish from the Columbia, and the hundreds of thousands of Fraser fish.  Fishing was fast and furious. We trolled up our “chicken “ halibut in record time, and had the Chinook coming over the stern every 15 minutes or so, because the Coho (Silvers) were everywhere and were distracting us from getting our trophy. At the end of our trip, the trophy ones were conspicuously absent, our biggest weighing in at 23 pounds.

The third day, we started at Wya Point, a few miles north along the coast. I figured that since we had hit one fish the first day farther south, maybe more of the main body of fish was farther north. About 10 o’clock with nary a fish on board, I had a decision to make. I had made a calculated guess, and guessed wrong. We had no fish to show for 3 hours fishing. Should I stay, or should I go?

On the one hand, we had little success the day before on really big fish on the offshore waters. But for some reason, I kept thinking about Southwest Corner, about 11 miles out. Was it intuition? That sixth sense? Or something else?  Logically, it seemed like the decision was a bit of a toss-up. We’d tried offshore the day before, and hadn’t found anything over 23 pounds. Beautiful fish nonetheless, but not that trophy salmon. On the flip side, we hadn’t hit anything through the tide change where we were, so a move seemed to be in order.

All at once, I made the decision to go. It was a perfect day. Slightly overcast, no wind on a gentle swell. Travel time of about 28 minutes. I started at the bottom end of the Corner and let the current push us in a northwest direction towards the Starfish, another place that can sometimes produce good results. I was still fishing anchovies behind a flasher and decided on a depth of 85 feet on the port side and 50 feet starboard, even though we were in 160 feet of water. I kept our speed right around 2 knots, much slower than what I would troll with conventional gear. 40 minutes passed, and we hadn’t had so much as a sniff.

I had my back to the port side, but I heard the downrigger creak a bit and I turned just in time to see the rod trip. Wade was on it in a flash and quickly reeled up the slack before the reel began to shriek. It kept going, and going, and going. I knew this was it.  Sure enough, 20 some minutes later, he was the proud owner of a 38 pound tyee salmon. We finished the day out with 2 more beautiful salmon in the twenties and headed for home, a jubilant group.

How did I know to pick up the gear and run 11 miles for the last 3 hours? In heady moments after landing a really big fish, it’s easy to believe that somehow I have a special gift, a sixth sense of where and what to fish. But I believe it’s usually a little simpler than that.

Good decisions cannot be made without good information. Some of that information is cognitive, where I have a logical reason for deciding a course of action, and some of it come from years of storing tidbits of data that come back to help the next time around. And there’s always time to listen to that still, small voice that seems to come from outside ourselves that lets us know exactly what to do. Some of you know of whom I speak.

Til next time,

Ray Vandervalk

If you ask me, bait of just about any kind is more effective than the artificial lure. It doesn’t matter whether I’m fishing with herring strip, the rotary salmon killer, anchovy, or cut plug herring. Fishing for Coho or Chinook, bait will get more strikes, 8 times out of 10. Many of the biggest fish I’ve brought aboard were hooked on bait.

But here’s the thing. Even though I am a professional charter captain, I fish with bait less than 10% of the time. I am paid to produce the most amount of fish in the shortest period of time. Here’s why I choose the artificial lure:

1. Fishing with artificial lures allows me to fish faster and cover more water.

2. I don’t need to worry about not having the right action on my lure. As long as I’m fishing within the speed range for that particular lure, all I have to do is wait for a strike.

3. Because I can fish faster with lures, I can use a heavier leader and larger hooks. This cuts my loss ratio when I have an inexperienced client on the rod.

4. I can change the color, shape, and size of the lure to match the feed that’s in the area at a moment’s notice. I rarely take 3 or 4 sizes of bait with me if I plan to fish bait that day. On the other hand, I have dozens of different color lures in all shapes and sizes.

5. I can fish with large lures to attract only the larger salmon. If smaller salmon take a swipe an miss, the action of the lure stays the same and I’m still fishing.

6. Bait attracts all types of fish, and because you generally fish bait more slowly than lures, you can attract more attention from dogfish which if hooked will make you re-tie your leader.

7. Because of the delicate nature of bait, even a small strike can alter it’s action, making it ineffective. Especially when fishing bait from a downrigger, these small strikes can be imperceptible, especially when fishing in rough water. You could be dragging bare hooks or a badly mangled bait for as long as it takes for you to figure something is wrong because no fish are hitting.

8. Bait must generally be changed every half hour or so because of the water drag disintegration of the bait.

9. Fishing with bait usually requires fishing with a lighter leader and smaller hooks. Perfect for the true sportsman in search of his trophy. Not so perfect for a charter operator with a first time client on the rod.

All these factors lead to less time actually fishing, and more time checking and resetting bait, shaking off undesirable fish, and retying those light leaders after each dogfish.

But from time to time, bait can be the solution that will elicit a strike from that large chinook. When I’m fishing an areas such as bays, inlets, and estuaries that are holding places or stopping points for mature king salmon, bait is often the most effective. It’s also my favorite way of fishing when I have time to myself and I am fishing close to shore. There’s nothing like the feeling that at any moment the reel can be zinging and  you hooks in the stomach of another large Chinook!

Bottom Line: Fishing with lures allows me more time with gear in the water, fishing effectively than fishing with bait where it needs to be checked or reset every few minutes. Day in and day out, this will produce more fish for my guests, which is what everybody wants. But if you are looking to catch the derby winning salmon at this years’ Ucluelet salmon fishing derby, you may want a good supply of bait in your cooler. And, if you prefer fishing exclusively for trophy Chinook, check our TROPHY PACKAGE.

‘Til next time

Ray Vandervalk

If you are fishing an inlet, sound, or straits, it should be fairly easy to determine from which direction the water flow is coming. If you are unsure of the direction of the current, such as when you are offshore or fishing a new area, one way to determine is to watch the angle of your downrigger wires as you fish in different directions. When you are fishing with the current, your wires will be the closer to straight up and down than when you fish other directions.

Before you drop your gear in the morning, determine from which direction the current is coming. Consult the tide tables to determine when the current will switch directions. I will often plot out my intended course on the map or GPS before I start fishing, letting the current push me over my intended fishing grounds.

If I can fish over a 2 or 3 mile patch of productive ocean, such as along the edge of a shoal, and then fish back over it when the tide changes, I will measurably increase my catch ratio. If this is not possible, especially if I have hit a few fish on my first tack, instead of fishing back the way I came into the current, I will pull my gear and run back to my starting point and fish it again. That way, I avoid wasting valuable time pulling my gear upstream and noticeably lower catch results.

The second option is to fish cross-current. While generally not as effective as fishing down current, it can work well in some locations.

CHOOSING A GOOD SPEED FOR THE CURRENT

Finding an optimum speed can take a little trial and error. Primarily, I check the SOG (Speed Over Ground) on my dash mounted GPS. This will be different from the speed function available on some depth sounders. The depth sounders use a stern mounted baffled wheel to gauge the speed of water flow. If you are fishing downstream in a 3 knot current, the depth sounder could show a water speed of 2 knots, while the GPS shows a SOG of 4.2. Drifting down a river with no power would show similar results. If the boat was light and stayed with the current, the depth sounder might show a speed of .5 knots, while the GPS would show a SOG of 5 knots.

What you want to achieve is a good speed for the gear you are pulling. And since you will be trolling down current much of the time, in order to have your gear working properly, you will need to make sure you are pulling it fast enough. (See my previous blog.) I check the action of the lures I am pulling beside the boat and adjust the speed as necessary. Trolling down current, you will cover a lot of ground, just as you would trolling downstream in a river.

Another method I use to make sure my speed is where I want is to keep an eye on my downrigger cables. If I am not fishing too deep and I see them stretched way back, I will understand that the water drag has increased and my gear is probably working much faster. (Not always a bad thing!)
Watching the angle of your downrigger wires at different depths gives you an idea of your speed. The deeper you fish on your downrigger, the more angle you will have on your wires. I call this “the angle of the dangle.”

So in summation, choose where you want to fish in conjunction with the flow of the current, and try to spend more time fishing downstream. It will be worth it.

“Til next time….tight lines

Before I go any further, there are some methods of salmon fishing where this will not be effective. If you are fishing with bait that has no teaser head, or fishing with some types of spoons, then don’t rely on this “trick” to work. But if you are trolling with plugs, flasher and hootchie, or even flasher and herring strip, it can be dynamite.

There is this little known grease that you spray all over your lure and BINGO!! BANGO!! BONGO!! You will have more fish in your net than you will know what to do with. For only $39.95 an ounce….okay, okay.. I’m kidding. I’m sure some kinds of over-the-counter fish attracting oils can’t hurt, but in the saltwater, I still haven’t really decided how effective they are. I still spray my gear with WD-40 from time to time, especially if I think my lure has come in contact with a surface that has been exposed to gasoline. WD-40 works great for steelhead in fresh water, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

I want to discuss one of the most-believed but most fallacious adages of all time in salmon fishing. Here it is. “Fish fast and shallow for coho, slow and deep for the kings.” The first half can be true very often, but some days I’ll catch more coho at 200 feet than anywhere else. The second part, “slow and deep” for kings is based in the experiences of the old-timers and got passed down to us. Before the days of downriggers, to troll below 30 feet took a considerable amount of lead on the line or a planer, like a Deep Six or a Pink Lady. I remember as a kid fishing with a pound of lead on my line in the form of a slip sinker, attempting to get down to where the big one were.

The problem was, the faster the speed of the boat, the shallower the lines would fish. So if the fish happened to be swimming deep that day, it was necessary to slow the boat down and allow the lines to settle to a greater depth. We would putt-putt along, and every once in awhile, would catch a king salmon. We were ecstatic to have landed a king, and the logic seemed to hold true. Slow and deep for kings.

FISHING, 2010

Because of big advances in downrigger technology, I can fish at almost any depth I choose, at what ever speed I want. The latest upgrade I’ve done is to get rid of the stainless steel cable on my downriggers and replace it with 200 lb test Power Pro. The smaller diameter line coupled with a 15 pound cannon ball greatly reduces the amount of water drag, allowing me to troll deeper and faster than ever before.

Since I no longer need to go slowly in order to fish deep, my options are greatly increased. And here’s what I found. Generally, FASTER IS BETTER. Especially when you are fishing with plugs like a Silver Horde or Tomic model, make sure you are fishing at least 3 knots. If you aren’t hitting any fish, go faster. The same applies to fishing with a flasher hootchie. The more flash and dash, the better. The fish have less time to make up their minds and micro-analyze the color, shape, and action of your lure. The frenzy catches the attention of other salmon, and they will compete over who gets your lure first. I’ve caught 35 pound kings trolling at 4.5 knots (yes, that’s about five miles an hour) on flasher and hootchie. They hit so hard, it will straighten the hooks if your drag is set too tight.

Of course, there is still a place for fishing slowly for those big lunkers that don’t want to burn too many calories chasing a small bait. One of my favorite methods is slowly fishing a cut herring in front of kelp beds and shoals for mature king salmon. Too much speed in this case is detrimental, and slow usually rules the day.

But the next time you are trolling and not having much success, bump that speed up..way up. You will be pleasanly surprised.

For all the thousands of hootchie color patterns out there along with dozens of variations of each of these patterns, it is understandable why most fishermen carry at leat 40 different colors in their tackle box. A few years ago the Purple Haze craze swept the West Coast. It seemed like every other salmon was reportedly caught on some variation of the purple haze flasher or hootchie….

A few years later, the purple haze color was relegated to an interesting footnote in salmon fishing history. It still has a few diehard believers, but there are plenty of other must-have combinations that an “expert” fisherman mustn’t be without.

Here’s my opinion. I can walk down charterboat row and get the “inside” scoop from each charter boat captain, and 18 times of the twenty will each have a favorite color they swear by. Sometimes honest information can be a little hard to come by, as each fisherman has their closely guarded secrets. But the variation in colors leads me to the conclusion that there are as many “hot” lure colors as there are fisherman.

I can honestly say that I will consistently catch salmon on just about any hootchie you throw in my boat. I also say this without a touch of arrogance. I will probably add a few colored beads, and maybe some tinsel as well as my favorite hooks. I will also fish different colors at different depths. For example, if you challenge me with a straight black color, I would not fish it at 250 feet to start. Below 120 feet, I prefer at least some glow capabilities, depending on water color and light conditions.

In my books, leader length, boat speed in relation to the current, and flasher color rank more important than hootchie color. Is this to say that I don’t have my favorites? That I don’t have my “go to” setups for when salmon fishing is slow? Of course not. Every fisherman should have setups that they are confident fishing, or else they will spend more time changing gear and bringing their lines up and down than actually fishing. If you are continually doing this, then you have no time to effectively watch your sounder or GPS and fish the areas, depths, and structure that will produce results. If you are so worried about not having the right setup, how will you be able to keep track of staying with the current along a productive edge or shoal?

If you concentrate on the keys in Part 1, and fish with a simple white glow hootchie, you will measurable improve your success. More tips in the next edition.

Tight lines,

Ray Vandervalk

Mike Hesser group Aug 1, 2009

Bob Stepp group with a 38 and 42lb Chinook Aug 2, 2009

Darren Wiechester group Aug 3, 2009

Kalen Wolf Aug 4, 2009

Jeff Fox Group with some 30-42 lb Chinook, Aug 6, 2009

Davidson Brothers Aug 9, 2009

John Davidson August 10, 2009

Al Miller and Ken Bottomly August 12, 2009

Bill Little Group Aug 13, 2009

Doug Robertson group Aug 14, 2009

Bill Nickel and Jordan Brown Aug 15, 2009

Bill Nickel 45lb Halibut August 16, 2009

Phil Loewen 42 lbs August 20, 2009

4 Chinook 30-42 lbs Aug 20, 2009

Tim Moyer with sons Evan and Stuart, Aug 21, 2009

Stickland Brothers Aug 23, 2009

Brian Lockhart August 27, 2009

Brian Lockhart group Aug 28, 2009

Dennis Adachi group July 8,2009

Ken Lauren group July 10,2009

Scott Tucker group July 11, 2009

Brenda Misfelt group July 13, 2009

Lon Simonetti July 13, 2009

Bob and Joyce Kean July 14, 2009

Ted and Susan Whisnant from South Carolina, July 14, 2009

Sid Kinasewich Group July 18, 2009

Sid Kinasewich 31 lbs, July 19, 2009

Kennett girls (part of 12) July 20, 2009 (They outfished the boys!)

Kennett group (part of 12) July 21, 2009

Kennett group(part of 12) July 22, 2009

Joey Ross, July 23, 2009

Tryg Satterlee Group July 26, 2009

Charlotte O

Pam Liecte 31lbs July 29, 2009

Ed Savage 31 lbs, July 30, 2009

June 8, 2009

Josh Jension Group June 10, 2009

Gary Thorpe group June 12, 2009

Rick Bartling June 13, 2009 reeling in the big one!

4 Chinook after 1 hour

Farmer

Don McNeil group June 18, 2009

Mandy Martini Group June 20, 2009

George Thorton group June 22, 2009

Mike Sughre, Mallerie Mondt June 26, 2009

Judy Wells group June 26, 2009

Mike and Jason Sughre, Mallarie Mondt June 27, 2009

Rand Hillier and son June 29, 2009

Virgil Hawkes May 12, 2009

Shaun Perrault group May 27, 2009

Shaun Perrault Group May 28,2009

Shaun Perrault May 29, 2009

Dave Cyr group May 30, 2009

Dave Cyr Group May 31, 2009