FISHING REPORT SUMMER 2024

Incredible is the best way to describe the 41st summer at our family owned & operated fishing lodge in remote coastal BC Canada. It was some of the best most consistent & fishing we have ever seen, all season long & now for multiple years in a row. The “experts”, from fisheries biologists to seasoned anglers are not exactly sure why we are seeing such strong returns & this record abundance of fish? Fingers point to a few factors; many years of reduced commercial fishing pressure, better environmental stewardship & the positive effect of over 40 years of hatchery programs enhancing our Rivers Inlet fish. For us at our fly-in lodge, our incredible fishing experience is mostly due to our remote location. Our direct 90-minute seaplane flights bring you to our pristine, off-the-grid fishing paradise. No roads mean no crowds.
This past summer, the usual push of early Chinook/King salmon run showed up in mid-June as we were setting up the lodge. We had some great “training days” catching many of these spectacular hard fighting early run fish averaging in the 20lb. range. By the time we opened at the end of the month, the fishing was already hot with abundant Chinook/King catches & a good early showing of coho/silvers. July set records again for consistent Chinook catches & the cohos just got bigger & thicker in numbers throughout the summer. Overall, the size of the Chinook caught was above average & the coho topped out around 18 lbs. at the peak of the run, in late August. Another factor that made this season so exceptional (besides our amazing team), was that the best fishing was consistently only minutes around the corner from the lodge. There were a few days when it was worth making the crossing over to Calvert Island in search of fish. Mostly we were getting the best action in our back yard, minutes away from the lodge, in calm waters. As for terminal tackle, we had a real surge in spoon use over hoochies, but at the end of the day both were effective.
Halibut fishing was more popular than ever & the catches were exceptional with the average size way up. Our halibut fishing is only minutes from the salmon fishing grounds so it is easy to target them on the tide change for a couple of hours & then go back to salmon fishing. There was more interest than ever in lingcod fishing, so we saw increased catches & the largest tipping the scales near 30lbs. With the exceptional fishing we have had year after year bookings are solid for our 2025 season, with some dates already almost sold out. If you are planning a fishing adventure with us in 2025, please don’t delay. Call today & secure your spot on the fishing adventure of a lifetime! Tight Lines from the RISC Team.