I am off to Victoria next week and I am keeping five days for fishing adventures over there . Any tips or info would be more than wellcome as it will be my first time there. As usual carrying the waders is a problem does anybody know whether they can be hired there?
Cheers!

I fished there in 1987, when i was about 17. My uncle owned a hotel out there. The island is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I think Pamela Anderson is from Comox on the island.

We were mainly fishing in the sea off the island doing "mooching", which is sort of jigging sprats on boat rods. yes, i know, i laugh at these people now.. We had loads of springs and coho up to about 15lbs, judging from the photos.

There are quite a few rivers on the island, we were staying in a place called Powell River, which is a logging down on the mainland.

Beautiful place, lovely people, very laid back, clean, no litter and no ****wits in shell suits. ****, i'm going to dig out the photos...

Mullet hairdo....it was the 1980's..

Have a great time, and post some pics when you get back.

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Is youe uncle still there? Remember I'm your buddy...

J.

Haven't been there yet but Haig-Brown always speaks highly of the Campbell River. Check this site, they can probably answer your questions if no one else can. www.washingtonflyfishing.com

Bill

Sorry mate, he came home when the grand kids came along.

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If you've got stocking foot breathables, take the waders and buy some boots when you get there. You can get serviceable boots for $30 - $40 (US). Hodgeman do some canvas ones that are cheap, dry fast, and will pack down for your return journey. If you're passing through Seattle buy gear there, or in Vancouver before you get to Victoria - prices will probably be cheaper.

Vancouver Island isn't the easiest/quickest place to get around. You could easily waste half your fishing time trying to find places to fish (if you can call tripping round such a beautiful island a waste of any kind of time - even fishing)....... I'd recommend either look into a day or two guided fishing, followed by independent trips. Or perhaps go to www.westfly.com and join their Washington forum - the folks there will probably give you some quality pointers.

One thing, don't expect anyone to put you on to good fishing for free, especially online. The best fishing spots are worked for, before becoming closely guarded secrets. Online, you'll get some good general pointers and if you're lucky maybe an offer or two to take you out on a trip (bear in mind arrangements can be sketchy when you establish communication last minute). Alternatively, fly shops can be good sources of fishing info - though quality of information can be proportionate to how much you spend in the shop!?

If you're looking to fish the rivers and lakes, you're going to need a car of course. And if you're based in Victoria you'll probably find the need to drive about an hour at least, to get to good fishing. Some of the best spots are in the centre, and north of the island - at least a few hours from Victoria. There's loads of saltwater salmon fishing available from charters, but that's a sport of its own in those parts?

...........those are some thoughts, hope they're of some use.

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Thank you very much for the info guys, my plan is to roam around the island looking for some fishing spots and try different rivers. I might consider give the saltwater trip a go although it is not on the top of my list. It seems that I would need to pack light and spend some money in tackle dealeres there . I am not very ambitious anyway and as the scenary is secured a few bends in the rod would do it.
I will report when I am back

Here are some pictures from my trip to Victoria island. I got the fishing license from island outfitters in Victoria and they point me toward the Stamp as a steelhead destination. This is a very nice river, wide and streamy. This is at the stamp falls



I spend couple of hours at sunset fishing the bottom of the river, handful of decent size fish showed in a big pool and had a little cutthroat on a black woolly ******. I word of advice, this is really a double hander territory and my ten foot seven weigh is not the best weapon to cope with the big rivers.
Next day had a go upstream of the falls, as the rest of the week marvelous weather (probably not for fishing obviously), and saw deer, bald eagles, bear foot print and not a single fish.
I have to say I did not see a fisherman either so I decided to change venue as this do not use to be a good signal by any means.

Stamp river


I move to the cowichan river, a famous trout river. Truly amazing river, but plenty of holyday makers floating downriver and swimming everywhere, so fishing was not possible. A sort session at the last light brought me few rainbow to my hand.

cowichan river


I headed north to Campbell river the next day. Again very famous salmon venue, but at least a month early for the salmon run. Again I would say a double hander is much better to fish this river, I saw nobody fishing and did not wet a line here. The river looks pretty exciting to fish anyway.

cambell river


Next day I headed to the elk river, a catch and release-fly only stream. Snow fed and crystal clear the first cast with a woolly ****** was rewarded with silvery and fit rainbow. A glance at the first pool revealed dozens of black shadows anchored at the bottom. Although crystal clear the trouts, specially the cutthroats were not very spooky and behaved similar to grayling. Rainbows were far more fit and although small put a nice bend in the seven weight rod.

Elk river



Woolly buggers and heavily weighted nymphs did the trick and it is easy to get up to forty fish in and eight hour session.

Elk rainbow


cutthroat on a woolly


cock cutthroat


I spent two days here and the last hour saw a small hatch of dark which allow me to pick few trouts up in a dry fly, a brilliant end for the day.
Overall amazing scenery, I would recommend a guide in case you do not want to waste fishing time. Fish are not everywhere at this time of the year and good pointers are hard to get but definitely enjoy the trip.

Welcome to my corner of the world.