The salmon fishing in this area has continued to be “fantastic”. Many avid anglers have now enjoyed well over five weeks of sport Sockeye Salmon fishing in the Alberni Inlet. The limit per day remains at four with a two-day total retention limit of eight. With very warm temperatures and lack of any precipitation the salmon have moved to deeper water and seem to be anywhere from seventy to one hundred feet down. Hopefully with some extra water flow out of the lakes the Somass River will have some cooler water so that the fish are able to migrate through the fish counters and into either Sproat or Great Central Lake where they will remain until the spawning season begins in the fall. The Sockeye are in relatively big schools in the inlet and they are still hitting the shorter sixteen-to-twenty-inch leaders with either a pink and blue or pink and black mp hootchie or just “black hooks” behind a variety of different colored flashers. The key to the fishing is keeping everything close to the boat and having extra dummy flashers which creates plenty of color attracting the salmon toward one’s lures. We are hoping the sport Sockeye fishing will continue to late July. Chinook and Coho fishing in the Inlet historically gets underway between the tenth and fifteenth of August.

Barkley Sound fishing has been very active for large amounts of feeder Chinook and there have been plenty on Coho in the five-to-seven-pound range in most locations. The larger salmon have been on the surf line and have been in locations such as Sail Rock, Austin-Cree, Beale, Edward King, and Kirby Point. Some larger migratory salmon have also been landed further in as the there have been large quantities of rich resources of bait fish found around Swale Rock, Pill Point and Diplock. Many individuals are using a variety of spoons in the two and a half to four-inch size. Lately some of the bait has been smaller so the smaller spoons have been working in cookies and cream and herring aide in the Coho killer. Bait in a variety of teaser head colors is also something anglers should now have on board their sport boat. West Coast Vancouver Island salmon will start to show relatively soon and anchovy in teaser head colors such as glow army truck, chartreuse, cop car, herring aide, green and purple haze are good color selections. Many anglers prefer hootchies and it does seem that the old standby AORL 12, green spatter back, Army Truck and Purple haze are often the four best.

As of July 15^th offshore salmon fishing for Chinook began. The current limit offshore is for two Chinook but until the 1^st of August all retained Chinook must be eighty centimetres or less. Many individuals are fishing South Bank and the Big Bank and doing the salmon-halibut combo trips.

Tight lines

Report & pics submitted by Doug Lindores, Slivers Charters Salmon Sport Fishing (888) 214-7206 dlindy@shaw.ca; www.catchsalmon-ca.com

Cheanuh marina reported that salmon fishing has been EXCELLENT.  fishing has been GOOD between Aldridge Point and the Trap Shack. The coho are mostly between 2-3 lbs in size with a few larger ones being caught. Pink salmon are now being caught by those fishing for coho. Most anglers fishing coho and pinks are using spoons as lures. Anglers fishing for chinooks were having FAIR success catching hatchery marked springs up to 15 lbs within the Becher Bay retention area north of Fraser Island. Depths of 50-70 feet have been the best for catching springs. Halibut fishing was SLOW this past weekend. Lingcod anglers were catching fish when jigging near Aldridge Point. Crabbing has been FAIR inside the bay

The fishery notice for the retention only area states, “that portion of Subarea 20-5 northerly of a line drawn from 48°19.554’N, 123°37.768’W to 48°19.589’N, 123°36.533’W, then following the shoreline of Frazer Island east to the RCA boundary at 48°19.700’N, 123°36.267’W, then to 48°19.633’N, 123°35.681’W; and effective immediately to 23:59 hours July 31, 2021, one (1) Chinook per day hatchery-marked only.” Anglers wee having some success with hatchery marked springs up to 18 lbs being caught on the weekend. The DFO is closely monitoring the area with plane and drone surveillance