Fished Tofino on the west side of Vancouver Island for the first time over the weekend and had a great time. Fished with Bob of Weigh West Marine on both Sat. and Sun. Three of us on the boat and we all limited with kings on both days, biggest around 22lbs, average in the mid teens.
Bob did a great job for our group and really worked to get us into the fish.
All in all a great way to spend the weekend. Weigh West Marine

Has the one mile restricion been lifted or did you have to go outside?

That is a great place to fish and Weigh West is a first rate outfit.

Was the inside open for Coho?

I fished up there a couple years ago, pretty nice. First year got skunked. 2nd year, skunked the first day, limit on 2nd day

how are the cocho up there? sizeable? we got to 15 lb.'ers, man I live Coho (we couldnt keep them though, we were in the wrong zone... could only keep Kings in that zone )

There is a really neat lake not far from Tofino called Lake Mejin. I caught a floatplane ride into that lake a few years ago in July. We ended up floating down the lake to the saltchuck, and caught some georgous 18" sea run cutthroat. We probably caught about 20, only keeping two. Apparently the Mejin river gets some winter steelhead in April. I bet they're beautiful!

We had to fish outside. The inside opens later this month or the first of July (can't remeber what the exact date was). We fished portland point which was about 7 miles out. The coho aren't there yet and there are some restictions on retention depending on where the are caught, but the guide said there is a great inside coho fishery from july through september.

You guys are driving me nuts with the Tofino reports. Great to hear things are off to a good start and the inside could be open. Hey baddawg, how were the views in the Weigh West bar?

I'm going up there next month. Are there any do's and don't's that I should keep in mind? I am wondering about things like crossing the border with a weeks worth of fish, carrying other guys fish, any documentation that I need to bring to establish citizenship, etc...

Any help would be appreciated.

you shouldnt have any problems.... I dont think there gona care about you having a bunch of fish in the back of your car or trunk... and going up should be easy....

But if they do want to search you chests full of fish... have some type of back up...

Hope you need 5 ice chests (i.e. catch lots)

We were told to bring proof of citizenship (birth certificate) and picture id. Fish must be transported whole not filleted or steaked. I transported a friend's fish and had to have his liscense along with a note authorizing the transport. American customs checked all these things. Seems like a lot of hoops to jump through but we are more security consious these days the trip was certainly worth it.

Canada has very specific regulations for packaging and transporting your catch.

You can fillet your fish, but their are precise stipulations to it. If you're packaging big chinook, you can usually fillet it, but you have to leave the tail on one of the fillets.

You can transport someone else's catch, you just need a letter from them with a bunch of their info, including their license number.

You can read the specific regs here.
http://www-comm.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/english/sfg/general/transport_e.htm

-N.

I stand corrected, StorminN. The folks in Tofino probably told us those things to keep us from screwing up. You, sir, are a wealth of accurate information. In any case, I didn't have any trouble at either end.

jcw,

I didn't mean to correct you, but you had me worried for a minute, so I had to check again for myself. I hadn't checked on the Canadian packaging/transport regs since 9/11 and they very well could have changed, so I was happy to see they hadn't.

I've gone through all that trouble before, filleting just the right way, packaging and labeling just the right way, only to get the whole truck/boat/trailer pretty much waved through at the border. ALWAYS TAKE THE TRUCK CROSSING... that's my one tip.

-N.

No offense taken, SrormN. I'm old enough to know I ain't perfect and still young enough (somehow!?) to appreciate any new thing I might learn.

After reading the rules it is easy to see why we were told to leave the fish whole. It is just a helluva lot simpler that way. If space is a consideration then a person should be able to puzzle it out.

I took the Port Angeles/Victoria route because I love Victoria and wanted some cigars. I don't particulary care for Cubans but, with such a favorable exchange rate, good Dominicans are an excellent value in British columbia. No big problems going either direction although the ferry was loaded to the gills on the way back.

Looking forward to learning more about the Vancouver Is. west coast. It is my kind of country.