Hi all. I had the pleasure of working at an incredibly beautiful lodge in Rivers Inlet this summer and would like to hear from anyone else who's been lucky enough to have been there.
Between work hours I'd occasionally get out and try to match our guests catch (to no avail, we saw 60-70 lb. Tyee on our dock this year, as well as 105 lb.+ Halibut)I managed to get a 42.5 lb. Tyee in the boat (after a few "long distance" c&r) as well as a couple of beauty cohos @ 11 and 12 lbs! The spring (king, chinook, tyee, whatever you like) was a monster pig football and the 'hos were shiny aerobats. What a blast! Like I said, let me know if you've been there, we've got lots of stories to swap I'm sure. Hey, maybe we've even met!

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Tight lines!

Jones, nice to meet you.

I have been to a resort at Rivers Inlet a couple of times in the past (been 4 years since I have been there), Big Springs is the name. A great place to relax and fish. It is located in a cove right behind the Wall. Hopefully will have the opportunity to go again. What resort were you at? Could be time for me to try a new place.

Good luck

Doubletake

Hey Doubletake!
I don't want to sound like a commercial so I'll quetly e-mail you about which lodge it was.
Ah, the wall. What a scene! Just about on the outside, right near Major Brown rock, yet still sheltered enough to head out on a blustery day. I did most of my fishing up at the head, but the coho I got were just north of the wall at a place called swan rock, just out of Darby channel facing Calvert Island.
Hope you can make it back to R.I. it is truly an incredible fishery and one of those spots on the planet where you can still appreciate what the world used to be like.
Did you get your trophy?

Jones,

I fished there about eight years ago. We towed a 25 footer up to Hardy and then went up into the inlet for a week. We had a blast. Got into some monster silvers but seemed to miss the tyee. What period seemed to see the best return for them?

We fished way inside up by the last lodge prior to the end of the channel. Found a couple real good spots up there. Sure would like to know the run timing a little better and hit it again.

Steve

My brother and I went up there in early Aug and had a blast, we stayed at Black Gold Lodge. Fishing was fair lots of pinks and coho, King fishing was slow, but we did manage to get a 36 lb Tyee, one of seven taken by our lodge over the long weekend, which was about the same as the other lodges that we talked to. We mostly fished the Wall and the Bluff.

I went more up island from there the summer before last but I had heard that their King/spring fishery was really down then. Was this year a big improvement over last year?

July and August were very good this year, with the exception of the odd killer whale pass-through.Lots of big ol' springs, tons of large coho, and pinks up to 8-9 lbs. Not as good as last year from all acounts, but then the weather was dismal for the most part. The Kilbella and Owekeno rivers were high out all summer, and the fish just rolled right on up.
Best bets are Mid-July to Mid-August for massive springs, end of June to late October for Cohos. If you're into pinks, June to end of July can't be beat, you'll have to pull your lines out to get a rest. Bring LOTS of bait, those little pinkies are voracious!


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Tight lines!

FYI: 3 words - Cut Plug Herring.

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Tight lines!

I've stayed at the rivers inlet lodge with Terry & gloria in the summer of "94". I had a great time but only caught one 45lb hen.
My two uncles caught three 15lbers.Fishing was slow but the scenary/food and air plane
ride was worth the $1,400.00 I spent.Haven't
returned,maybe it's time ??????? Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

I did the big spring resort in the summer of 99. Late july. The wall and all that. With the other two lodges that were fishing right in that location there were no less than 40 boats in one small area at any givin time. I would say that out of 100 or so people fishing maybe 3 or 4 kings a day were taken. Of those I would say that during the 5 days I was there only 3 fish over 30 lbs were caught by all the lodges put togther... The fish boys at the lodge said it was pretty avg fishing with very few people catching a king during their trips. Real pretty up there and great food etc but I would have to pass on taking another trip to that location. One of my buddys fishes out of Joes in Haki.. same story, lots of hype but not many fish. I talked with a lot of people while in B.C steelhead fishing this fall and almost all of them suggested farther north. Langara island is what I am looking into for my next attempt at salmon fishing. Its a lot of fun up there so want to do it again just want to get where there are less people and more fish. Fishing at the wall was a lot like driving home from work... bumper to bumper- did catch some nice silvers however.. that part was pretty cool.

Wow! Talk about feedback! Thanks to all for responding. Too bad about some of you getting zip or very little. I personally saw days where over 25 Tyees (30lb. +) came on to our dock alone, so what can I say? Maybe someone should be informing people that while the wall used to be where it was at, things change for whatever reason. The big areas were up at the head this year, and while there's always lots of people, there's also lots of room. If some feel they need to go further north, my advice is to go earlier (May-June), and expect to see the crowds anyway. The big problem is that if you book a trip during a bad week (Orcas, weather, run timing, etc.) you're pretty much hooped and will be left feeling ripped off. But hey... THATS FISHING!!!

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Tight lines!