Early Fishing Forecast 2020 from Salmon Eye Charters

We are expecting a good season for fishing. Why do you ask when some of the forecasts sound a little gloomy? We think this season’s fishing may not be off the charts but it is good. We haven’t seen the official Canadian forecast but early assessments are that it will be similar to 2019. Columbia Chinook forecasts are similar to 2019. Some Vancouver Island rivers are similar to 2019 including the local run which in 2019 was at a 20 year high. Much has been made about the “blob” that is hindering Chinook survival. What happens in actual season numbers is more what we care about. 2019 was a good year. We had great early season halibut fishing. Chinook fishing stayed consistent throughout the summer.

The season started off well with good fishing in May. The inshore fishing was a bit slow during parts of June but the ground fishery was good. Chinook fishing really heated up in the last 10 days of June inshore and then during a little lull in July really picked up offshore. Mid to late July was some of the best fishing we have seen a in a few years at Big Bank with our guides limiting out in only 2-3 hours of fishing. Big Bank continued to produce well in August and then our inshore Chinook fishing started early August and stay good into September. The inshore August fishery was very good and consistent with large numbers of Chinook heading into the Port Alberni systems. I can’t promise this will happen again in this exact form and rarely do fishing years exactly repeat themselves. But fishing does seam to follow trends from year to year so while areas where fish caught change, the amount of fish brought back shouldn’t change too much.

The only wild card for us are regulations. Last year we did our best to work around them. I expect this year to be the same given it’s the same government in power. Last year the regulations didn’t make any scientific sense which is unfortunately what we expect of those in power now. Is it all doom and gloom? Definitely not. Despite some of the negative media hype about low salmon numbers, the inside of Vancouver Island saw some of its best fishing in a long time despite the closures. So the salmon live on. The volunteer sport fishing associations that work so hard to see that this sustainable fishery keep going deserve a lot of credit so please donate if possible. Enjoy your time on the water and tight lines. We will have more of a numbers based forecast coming out soon.

If you are wanting to come fishing in Ucluelet with us this summer we are at an extreme accommodation shortage. You can check out Ucluelet-Info.com or get one of our fishing packages available at https://www.salmoneye.net/site/fishing-packages.html. We have very little ocean view accommodation but still have some cabins available.

Tight lines,

Sam Vandervalk
Salmon Eye Fishing Charters
www.salmoneye.net

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