Many people are realizing the west coast of Vancouver Island is the place to be for Chinook (King) salmon. You can read why we believe fishing in British Columbia (https://www.salmoneye.net/blog/canada-vs-alaska-salmon-halibut-fishing-2024.html) is way better than Alaska for King salmon.

The forecast in 2025 is very good. Again.

The Columbia River is one of the large contributing rivers for Ucluelet’s Chinook with salmon passing from April to August. The majority comes through in June and July. For 2024 Adult fall Chinook return was predicted to be around 550,000 fish and actual returns were about 123% of the forecast. Almost all stocks from tributary rivers had higher returns than 2023.

The jack return (2 year salmon which give an indication of the next years returns) was also higher than 2023.

The Fraser summer and fall Chinook returns show some promising signs as well. The August Stamp run was lower than expected last year which was perplexing to many. Its possible the Alaska commercial fishery intercepted a large percentage of the run. We hope to see that back for 2025.

95,000 Chinook came through for the Stamp this past season which was below the 130,000 forecast but we had some very good bites in the afternoon. The official forecast will be released in April. Given that the prior year was about 200K, we still expect a good run to come through.

Early indications are larger than normal Chinook in the feeding grounds where the Chinook currently are wintering so we will have to see what happens.

Halibut fishing

Was good in 2024 and we expect the same for 2025. Halibut Fishing was good close to shore for most of the summer which cuts down run time and also gives more fishing time for Chinook, Coho and Lingcod. This can’t be expected all the time, but its been happening more often the past few years.

Lingcod fishing

Lingcod is the favorite white meat among many avid fisherman. Halibut is good but Lingcod between 5-10 lbs are amazing. They have more flavor and don’t need much added spices or flavor to have an amazing meal. An oaked Chardonay wine, butter and flour and lighly cooked lingcod could be an appetizer or desert.

There are more people recognizing this and the best time to come for Lingcod is early season.

 Coho (Silver) Salmon

Fishing was good offshore starting in July and is the best late August and early September. There were times the Coho fishing was good in close to shore during July and August but it wasn’t consistent. Most people here have a priority of 1. Chinook 2. Halibut 3 Lingcod and 4 Coho. We generally say Coho are bonus fish and in photos you will still see quite a few of them. They are often mixed in with Chinook and the red meat of Coho is delicious and my second favorite to Chinook salmon.

Suporting hatcheries:

We are a big believer in supporting our local Thorton Creek hatchery since they work many hours swimming rivers monitoring habitat and counting fish, raising salmon smolts, and helping other local hatcheries. We were proud to donate money from each package sold as well as help raise support through a Father’s day fishing contest which raised an additional $4000.

If you are wanting to go fishing let us know and we will do our best to fit you in any open spots.

Check out our fishing packages for the easiest booking to get you fishing, vacuum packing and freezing and staying in brand new cabins.

We are booking now for 2025 for our multi-day packages. You can read about why we think Ucluelet is your best option for booking a salmon fishing trip.

We have parking for trailers if you are wanting to bring your own boat and stay in our accommodation if it is available. If you would like tips on what do do in the area check out www.ucluelet-info.com.

If you would like to see our fishing videos from 2024 checkout https://www.salmoneye.net/your-experience/video-gallery.html.

Tight lines,

Sam Vandervalk

Salmon Eye Fishing Charters

www.salmoneye.net