Hi guys,
I went to Tofino for the first time last week, and fished 3 days up there with my 16 year old son. We stayed at Weigh West, and had an awesome time. First day we went out on one of their fly fishing boats, and did a combination of bucktailing, and I did some casting around the kelp beds, all close in. My son landed 5 coho and I landed 4, between us we lost another 3 or 4. Average size of the coho were maybe 10-11 pounds, really nice fish. I battled and lost one larger coho that looked to be 13-15 lbs. Fished all day, maybe 7:30 to 5:00pm, great fun.
Next day we went out with Graeme Alexander on his boat. We fished with downriggers, and brought at least 30 fish to the boat between my son and I. Largest was a 23 lb king, and several others in the 15 plus range. Went in closer to shore to fish for coho, and I landed a 17 lb fish that put up an awesome fight. Tied for the largest coho of the season, until the next day when a guy landed one 18 lbs! We did all of this in 6 hours, back at the dock by about 12:30.
Fished with Graeme again the third day, and stayed out longer, until about 3:30. Again brought at least 30 fish to the boat, kept two and released the rest. This did not count the fish we lost (maybe 4 or 5), or the shakers. Largest fish of the day was a 25 lb king on the downrigger. Graeme was awesome to fish with, and very accomodating. We switched back to fly fishing for a good portion of the day, and my son caught two bucktailing, both 11lbs or maybe a bit more, and they took all of this fly line and was well into the backing.
He is still working on his casting (as am I!), so the bucktailing was a great way for him to get so many coho on a fly rod. Graeme did say this was by far the best coho year they have had in a while. If you have a chance, go as soon as you can. Graeme used to run the fly fishing part of their operation, and is way into fly fishing himself, and I learned a lot from him.
Best fishing trip I have gone on, and I thought a really good value for the package we had.
Steve