Well thats not quite a straight as you might think. You can catch halibut all along the west coast of British Columbia. You could argue fishing is best on northern Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii.
But there is good halibut fishing in Nootka Sound, Ucluelet, Tofino, Port Renfrew and Victoria depending on when you come.
And proximity, weather and cost may play a role in your decision.
Let first talk about weather.
For weather I am mostly talking about wind. If you look at a marine weather map for BC the Ucluelet/Tofino region generally gets the best. But there are protected water spots on the north coast too.
So that brings up proximity. How far do you want to travel?
There are pretty good options for flying into Haida Gwaii with possible stormy weather being the only real hinderance. This doesn’t stop small airplane flights too often during the summer months but is possible.
For halibut I always like to ask is size important? Is catching them quickly important?
Catching them quickly and happen both north and south but happens more often up north. For limits and size, you may not come back with much more halibut on a trip in Northern BC, but it is possible.
In areas where there are less fish, you can be with a really great guide and still get a lot of fish. So that matters as well.
Where you go in Northern BC matters too. Places like Rivers Inlet don’t get as many halibut as Haida Gwaii, Winter Harbour or Nootka Sound.
Ucluelet, Tofino and Port Renfrew are generally very good from mid June to early September.
You may not catch halibut in the 20-40lb range quite as quickly as up north, but there are lots of Chickens (10-15lb) halibut on places like Big Bank and Swiftsure bank.
Recently around Tofino and Ucluelet there are more halibut being caught closer to shore in the 15-40lb range on anchor.
Around Port Hardy you generally need to travel an hour to get there but halibut fishing is often very good here too.
So finding the right place is just a matter of preference. I would suggest that choosing what other fish you want to catch is important and the time of year you can come is important as well.
Victoria can have decent halibut fishing during the winter months. They no longer have raw sewage coming into the ocean so I can recommend winter fishing for halibut here.
If you would like help finding the right place to fish, please send us an inquiry so we can help you out.
Methods of catching halibut
Most guides and fisherman anchor for halibut using a spreader bar with an artificial scented swim bait, salmon belly, mackeral, or just herring. If your guide is only using one type of bait it is generally not a good thing unless there are tons of halibut around.
If I am a guest in a guided boat and halibut are coming in the boat quickly, I don’t question the method used too much. If halibut fishing is slow and different baits are being tried than as a guest its ok to question the methods used.
Trolling for halibut
Trolling for halibut isn’t as common today as was before 2010. While you can get larger halibut trolling with the right methods, generally sitting on anchor is more productive for halibut larger than 15lbs.