Salmon & Trout Fishing on Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, and the adjacent mainland boast some of British Columbia’s most consistent year-round freshwater and saltwater sport fishing. Saltwater anglers can combine the pursuit of salmon with drift-jigging for bottom-dwelling species in a choice of destinations: the swells of the open Pacific Ocean; swirling whirlpools and back eddies in tidal narrows around the Gulf Islands; or calm, sheltered inlets. There's excellent fly-fishing for salmon in river estuaries and along the beaches of eastern Vancouver Island from mid-summer to fall, and for sea-run cutthroat trout throughout the year.
The spectacular fjords of this vast region’s mainland portion are harder to reach (accessible only by water or air), but offer blue-ribbon wilderness fishing. In several major mainland inlets, anglers have the opportunity to hook that monster, once-in-a-lifetime tyee. The rivers that enter the heads of the fjords offer unforgettable stream and estuary fishing for salmon from late summer through autumn, followed by steelhead fishing well into the spring, and sea-run Dolly Varden char or cutthroat trout anytime.
Freshwater fishers can find rainbow, cutthroat, and Dolly Varden throughout Vancouver Island’s many lakes and streams. The Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. augments natural populations with over a million trout reared at their Vancouver Island Trout Hatchery in Duncan. Many lakes in southern Vancouver Island and on Salt Spring Island are now home to largemouth and smallmouth bass, and even catfish.
Northern Vancouver Island
Major currents and tides push fertile, well-aerated water into Queen Charlotte and Broughton Straits, which lie between northern Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland. At the entrances to Knight and Kingcome inlets, hundreds of protected passages in the Broughton Archipelago and other channel groups funnel and hold dense schools of feed before they are squeezed through Blackfish Sound into Johnstone Strait. This bait-rich region attracts bottomfish like halibut, lingcod, and Pacific yelloweye rockfish....
Pick up your copy of West Coast Sport Fishing Guide for detailed location information and fishing forecast reports from Daniel Wei and Suzanne Clouthier.