Thinking about going up to the Canadian Princess resort in Ucluelet BC next week for Salmon and Halibut fishing. Has anyone been there before? What was your experience?

Thanks!
SA

I've never fished with them. It depends on what kind of experience you want. With them it's all inclusive and your fishing on Westport style charter boats. There's also lots of good charter companies that fish 3 to 4 anglers per boat. I would recommend Murphys Sportfishing if you go that route. They were born and raised fishing those waters and know it like the back of their hand.

For the price, it's a good deal. But, it is charter boat style fishing. Most of their boats came from the old Westport charter fleet. The last time I was there they were 100% jig fishing. They do have pretty decent fishing but all day jigging can be tiring. In addition to the Murphy's you may want to check out Island’s West. They have guided fishing as well as bare boat rentals. A good option might be to go guided one day then rent a boat for the remainder of your stay. Ucluelet has some top-notch fishing for 15-20 lb chinook. Often the best fishing is a seven to twelve mile run and in can get rough.

Thanks for the quick response! I'm interested in the larger charter boat as it may be more comfortable for my wife (who is 5 months pregnant). And all things considered, jigging would give me a big edge on the average Joe. I've been jigging for salmon for many many years.

The prices are very low. $209 gets you two nights stay, one day salmon fishing, and one day halibut fishing. This is why I was a bit suspicious about the deal

SA

It sucks.

You'll hate it.

Stay home and dig through the closet for that old pair of golf shoes.

I went there back in 89, a couple tips I would suggest,

1) pay extra to stay in the lodge rooms, we did and everyone that stayed on the ship (cheaper package) regretted it, its noisy

2) friends of mine had been there the year before and told us about the 100% jig fishing, we asked the capt. if he minded if we brought herring, which he didn't, first day my dad, uncle and myself put on a clinic and had everybody else trying to buy bait from us.

Good luck!

I have been up there several times, mostly in the late 80s and early 90s. AkKings is right on the accomodations - stay in the condos, your wife will especially enjoy that.

It is a great and cheap fishing trip. Never was skunked on a trip and always had a great time. We usually went up in a group from work and took over a whole charter boat. We fished exclusively with jigs then, but they worked great and I like to jig. They had a great breakfast in the morning. We usually booked a bottom fishing trip for the afternoon, which was always un and I even managed to score a nice halibut on one.

Although I haven't been up there recently, I hear it is still a good trip. The flight out there from Vancouver on a clear day is beautiful and short. Although one time we took off then had to land in Naninmo because Princess was fogged in. Then it was a three hour bus ride and we couldn't get the driver to stop for more beer - so I guess if I did have to come up with a complaint that would be it. Have a great trip!

I fished with them in '94 and had a good time. Caught halibut all day Saturday with a few salmon and on Sunday, we caught a lot of salmon with a few hallies. At that time, super lines weren't very popular yet and they only supplied reels with 40 lb mono. I'd bring your own reel spooled with some T.U.F. Line for a better experience just in case they don't offer it yet.

I've done the Ucluelet thing now four times and each time I was with Island West and they provide a top notch experience. But that was later in the summer for kings, silvers and halibut. Being only May they may be after the feeder fish in Barkley Sound so the Princess would save a ton of money and provide plenty of nice 5-15 lb blackmouth.
Regardless of what you do Ucluelet is an absolutely beautiful place. Here's last July's 1st day spread. I highly reccomend this area, but during May I just don't know about larger fish besides the halibut. But at that price I could justify the quality of the fishery to be secondary to just being there.

I am leaving today with a group of 9 for the weekend at the canadian princess. The "party boat" method fit our needs for the trip and I will post up when I get back on Monday.

Supposedly, they have been getting both Halibut and Kings in good numbers lately.

The trip is a blast!
Don't forget your Dramamine!
Bring as much beer and booze as is legal to carry. Bring your full ration of Cigarettes and tip the crew with them.
Here is a bit of a report from another board ...
http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1852
Good Luck!

If you see this guy, look out

I'd have to say that the one time I went on a trip with them was by far the worst fishing experience I've ever had. 22 people on board for two days totalling 5 halibut. I will never give another dollar to OBMG.

I've heard nothing but great things about Islands West but I've never gone with them.

Kramer, What time of year did you go?

I went the first week of July. I guess too late for kings and just bad timing for halibut. The problem we had was that we went out on the morning boats for halibut and evenings for salmon. The morning salmon boats killed them and the evening halibut boats killed them. My biggest complaint was that we didn't have a choice of which one to go on. If you can do some research before heading up you may be able to time the tides and bites better than we did. It was just very frustrating seeing these boats opposite us just unloading tons of fish while we sat and spanked the meatpole.


Good luck.

This weekend was a joke. I just spoke with the reservation person I booked through and sent the following email. I know some of the other boats caught some beautiful fish- we just got the shaft.

I will post up their response if I get one.

______________________________

Megan:



I just wanted to follow up on our conversation with some information you can pass on to anyone who chooses to right this situation. With your assistance, we booked a group of 9 at the Canadian Princess Resort for two nights lodging ( May 21 and 22) and two days fishing (May 22-Salmon and 23-Halibut).



We arrived at the resort on the evening of the 21st, checked in, and went to the restaurant onboard the ship. We enjoyed a good meal with excellent service by a young man then turned in for the evening while looking forward to the next days fishing trip.



Fishing Day One - Salmon



We were scheduled on the Chinook Princess for the next day and arrived dockside for the mandatory 6:45AM boarding. When we arrived, there was one deckhand on the boat and I heard him discussing with another employee that the skipper had not shown up, and that they did not have another deckhand (apparently the salmon trip usually have two).



We continued to wait dockside for 10-15 minutes and the skipper finally showed up around 7:00AM. He got on board and got things going and we left the dock around 7:10. We headed out to the fishing grounds and began to fish. The skipper was constantly repositioning for drifts as he could not set up a drift so that gear would run perpendicular to the sides of the boat rather than parallel, while the other princess boats around us seemed to hold their drifts much better. Fishing for salmon was slow for our boat (2 Salmon, 21 people after 6 hours of fishing). When we returned to the dock we saw and spoke with other anglers on the other princess boats. They had much better success and mentioned the majority of their fish came first thing in the morning (before we were at the fishing grounds). Upon our return to the dock, he apologized to a father and son from Calgary who had purchased, but not received their box lunches. He mentioned that it was his fault they had not received their lunch. He said that it is his job to make sure everyone who purchased has their lunch before they leave the dock. The skipper went on that he just needed some extra sleep that morning.



Fishing Day Two – Halibut



We were again scheduled on the Chinook Princess. While I was not happy about the day before, I figured everyone can have a bad day. This morning was beautiful, the sun was up, we boarded on time, and we were soon underway. We were told that is about a two hour run to the halibut bank and to settle in and have a cup of coffee. We left the inlet and began making our way out. A friend and I went in for a cup of coffee only to find there were no cups. I asked a deckhand if there were and cups and was told that they asked other boats for cups at the dock but no one would give them up. We managed to use some water cups for coffee and settle in for the trip. Within 5 minutes the captain had shut down the engines and asked everyone to be patient while he checked an engine problem.



I spend a lot of time on the water and by my judgment we were approximately 2 miles out of the inlet. After the skipper and two Skippers-In-Training spent 30 minutes crawling in and out of the hatch, we proceeded out another mile or so on one engine. We were told to go ahead and fish, everyone onboard began jigging and the skipper and the two S-I-T’s apparently worked on the starboard engine.



After another half hour or so (and no fish hooked) we were told to reel up and as we would proceed on one engine! We went out another 1 mile or so out to where some other boats were and told to salmon fish at a depth of 70 feet. At this point we were probably three miles offshore, certainly not the two hour run nor the Halibut trip that we purchased. We repositioned a few times and one person on board did manage a 10lb. halibut after a couple of hours. About 10:30 the skipper asked us to reel up and we turned South and mentioned that we were going to fish for Cod. Three people on board caught legal ling-cod, there were other assorted small cod, maybe ten in all over the next 1.5 hours. At noon, the skipper asked for lines up and ran us back to the marina on one engine.



One other side note on this trip, the deckhand (Crystal, I think) did a first class job for us and the rest of the guests on Sunday. She worked hard all day, untangling lines, and tending to peoples needs. The father and son from Calgary (mentioned above) caught a nice Chinook while dropping to the bottom for Halibut. The kid really wanted to have it weighed at the dock and asked that it not be cleaned. I was in the rear of the boat and personally witnessed Crystal dumping water on it every chance she got. While we were cod fishing the skipper came back and saw the not yet cleaned fish in the box and just blew up at her. He made a large scene in front of everyone and really let her have it. It was not only unprofessional and totally uncalled for; it makes me wonder about his ability to handle stressful situations that will occur on the water.



I hope this gives you an outline to the experience we had and will be passed on to those who can choose to do two things.



Make this right with paying clients who very simply did not get near what we paid for.
Make any adjustments necessary with this captain and crew so that other clients do not face the same situation we did.




P.S. You may be receiving other correspondence from our party. Several people are in the seafood industry on a number of very visible levels and are constantly asked where to go sport fishing. Making this right would be an important step towards maintaining OBMG’s reputation.



I hope to hear from you soon,

Should be a very interesting reply.

That's unfortunate to hear of your trip. After the trip I took with OBMG I can't say I'm too surprised though.

I don't know about you but I have learned my lesson.

Kramer: You are right on. I will say one thing. For the time it took to drive all they way out there, I could have run my boat all the way up there!

Woulda costs an arm and a leg but I would have got into fish. The salmon that were caught were absolutely beautiful 15-25 lb kings and the guys runing downriggers on the smaller boat hammered the fish.

Island west looked like a nice setup as they run smaller charter boats with trolling gear and I assume they use bait!

All in all a spectacular place- wish I had my boat there.

The people that I have talked with about these trips do not care about quality fishing time. More of the meat fishing type.

Go up to Tofino it's fun. They have private guides with smaller boats. Weigh West has them as well. I haul a boat up and take the Naniamo ferry. I don't like putting my fishing fate in the hands of others.

I have always had a great time fishing with these guys. It is difficult to beat the trip for the price. Two 7 hour trips with transportation and lodging for $300 or 400 is tough to beat. Weigh West will you run you more than per day.

I have always wanted to get up there with a boat of mine own (or better yet, YOURS! ) but being the poor working stiff I am, I don't have the means nor the craft to go out on the Ocean on my own, yet.

Don't right 'em off on one(or two) bad reports. Everyone has an off day. I suspect somewhere there is someone who was on one of the other boats those days who is telling exactly the opposite story.

I only hope that they will make things right for you.