Barkley Sound Fishing Report
Updated Mon, Nov 9, 2026 from live weather and water data
Barkley Sound between Bamfield and Ucluelet: chinook, coho and Somass sockeye under DFO notices, and the Broken Group Islands with their finfish closure.
2/5
Slow. The wind owns today.40 km/h gusts make boat control the real battle.
Next tide
High 11:18 a.m. model
Air / High
10 °C / 11 °C
Wind
ENE 29 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Barkley Sound has cold water and fish that move for very little; fish the warmest hours. Today brings cloud cover, wind ENE around 29 km/h, rising pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 11 °C. Tides: high 11:18 a.m., low 5:18 a.m. and 6:07 p.m.: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 10 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 12:09 AM-2:09 AM and 12:28 PM-2:28 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Chinook (spring) salmon
Slow
Winter feeders on the BC coast, deep and slow, on the calm days only. In the Great Lakes, the run is over until next fall.
Tie on: Jigging spoon through the ice · Dead-stick minnow · Tip-up with dead bait · Tungsten jig and wax worm. Prime windows: 12:09 AM-2:09 AM, 12:28 PM-2:28 PM, 8:53 AM-9:53 AM. Similar at 12 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
British Columbia requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from C$11.43. British Columbia fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing chinook (spring) salmon here? Check the size and bag limits with BC Freshwater Fishing before you keep anything; the Chinook (spring) salmon page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Barkley Sound today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (08:21), sunset (17:48), the moon and today's score, with the modelled tide changes in the panel below. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 12:09 AM-2:09 AM and 12:28 PM-2:28 PM; minor 8:53 AM-9:53 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
A modelled tide curve for these coordinates and the forecast for the day.
Tides (modelled)
Modelled sea level curve from Open-Meteo Marine for these coordinates, datum mean sea level. Fish the moving water either side of each change.
A model, not the official prediction: times can drift by tens of minutes inside bays and estuaries. Check the Canadian Hydrographic Service predictions at tides.gc.ca for the exact times before you rely on them.
Mon
LOW5:18 a.m.-0.20 m
HIGH11:18 a.m.1.83 m
LOW6:07 p.m.-1.34 m
Tue
HIGH12:44 a.m.1.29 m
LOW5:55 a.m.0.04 m
HIGH11:50 a.m.1.85 m
LOW6:42 p.m.-1.20 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp10 °C
High / Low11 °C / 10 °C
WindENE 29 km/h, gusts 32 km/h
Pressure101.66 kPa, rising
Sky / Rain100% cloud, 100%
Sunrise / Sunset08:21 / 17:48
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~10 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Barkley Sound
The best day on Barkley Sound this week looks like Wednesday Nov 11, at 3 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Wednesday, Nov 11 — fair at 3/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, Nov 9 — Tough
40 km/h gusts make boat control the real battle.
- Solunar majors
- 12:09 AM-2:09 AM and 12:28 PM-2:28 PM
- Minor period
- 8:53 AM-9:53 AM
- Sun
- 08:21 to 17:48
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Rain, 40 km/h
- Rain chance
- 100%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Barkley Sound: seasons written for the Canadian year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Chinook (spring) salmon
BC coast: spring to late summer; Great Lakes tributaries: September and October
The biggest Pacific salmon, called spring or king on the BC coast. Feeds along the kelp lines, points and tide rips of the BC coast before running rivers in late summer; introduced to the Great Lakes, where it runs the tributaries in fall. Retention on the BC coast changes by area and by DFO fishery notice. Winter feeders on the BC coast, deep and slow, on the calm days only. In the Great Lakes, the run is over until next fall.
Coho salmon
BC coast: July to September; rivers: October and November
Silver, aggressive and surface-oriented. Feeds hard along the BC coast through summer and runs the Fraser Valley and Island rivers in fall, the Vedder and the Stamp among them. Hatchery coho are marked by a clipped adipose fin; what may be kept depends on the water and the DFO notice. Late fish in the rivers are dark and done; the coast is quiet until spring.
Sockeye salmon
Summer, only when DFO opens a fishery
The Fraser and Skeena salmon, prized and tightly managed. Recreational sockeye fisheries open only by DFO notice in years when the run allows; many years they stay closed. Out of season.
Pacific halibut
Spring and summer on the BC coast, under DFO limits
The big flatfish of the outer coast: Bamfield, Ucluelet, Tofino, Nootka and the north coast. Annual and daily limits and size rules are set by DFO and change during the season. Out of season or unfishable weather.
Lingcod
Spring to fall, with a winter closure in many areas
Open now Closes Nov 16, 2026. Outside waters are open to rockfish and lingcod 1 April to 15 November; lingcod 3 a day, 65 cm minimum. Rockfish Conservation Areas, and the permanent finfish closure in the Broken Group, are closed to all finfishing. Rule as read from Fisheries and Oceans Canada on 2026-09-27.
The toothy reef fish of the BC coast, on rock piles and pinnacles. Limits and closures vary by DFO management area. Closed in many areas for the nesting season.
When to come: the Barkley Sound calendar
Activity by species and month for the Canadian year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.
Species activity by month
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Chinook (spring) salmon
Coho salmon
Sockeye salmon
Pacific halibut
Lingcod
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 10 °C (estimated, not a reading).
Angler reports
Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. Nothing here is copied from a shop or a charter. The water log below tracks each day automatically.
No angler reports yetBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Barkley Sound today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
2/5 Slow. The wind owns today. 48 km/h gusts make boat control the real battle. Coho salmon led the card at good. High of 12 °C, wind to 48 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
2/5 Slow. The wind owns today. 43 km/h gusts make boat control the real battle. Coho salmon led the card at good. High of 12 °C, wind to 43 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
2/5 Slow. The wind owns today. 61 km/h gusts make boat control the real battle. Coho salmon led the card at good. High of 12 °C, wind to 61 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
BC freshwater fishing licence, from C$11.43 for a resident adult, with higher prices for other Canadians and visitors. Details and where to buy → In salt water you also need the federal BC Tidal Waters Sport Fishing Licence.
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and protected areas are set by BC Freshwater Fishing and, in salt water and for salmon, by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the British Columbia licence page before you keep anything. The zone-by-zone seasons and limits are on British Columbia fishing seasons.
Access
The DFO tidal waters licence and salmon conservation stamp apply, with barbless single hooks for salmon and, since 1 September 2026, a hook gap of no more than 22 mm.
About this water
Barkley Sound is a bay or coastal water in British Columbia, Canada, covered from the British Columbia reports and listed in all Canada waters.
Fishing Barkley Sound: the full guide
Barkley Sound
Barkley Sound is the wide bay on the west coast of Vancouver Island between Bamfield and Ucluelet, scattered with the Broken Group Islands of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and leading inland up the Alberni Inlet to Port Alberni. DFO manages it as Area 23 inside and Area 123 offshore, and the species limits in the two areas are not always the same. This page scores the day for the middle of the sound and adds a modelled tide curve.
Species and seasons
Chinook and coho feed at the mouth of the sound and along its outer edge through summer. Sockeye bound for the Somass pass through as well, and in 2026 DFO opened them in Subareas 23-1 to 23-11 from 1 May, with non-retention and closed areas added later in the season. Halibut, lingcod and rockfish are fished outside, where the outside-waters rockfish and lingcod season runs from 1 April to 15 November.
Where to fish it
The outer edges and the banks beyond are fished on calm days, and the channels among the islands are sheltered. DFO has permanently closed a large section of the Broken Group Islands to finfishing as a rockfish conservation area, and lists another RCA at Folger Passage. Seasonal closures also apply: in 2026, Numukamis Bay, Toquart Bay and Nahmint Bay were closed to all finfish in August and September. Bamfield, Ucluelet and Port Alberni each have their own page.
Planning a visit
Ucluelet is reached on the highway from Port Alberni, and Bamfield by a long gravel road. The Broken Group is national park reserve: Parks Canada requires a park entry pass even for boaters in its marine waters, and camping is allowed only from 1 May to 30 September, at designated sites on Hand, Turret, Gibraltar, Dodd, Clarke and Gilbert islands, with a backcountry permit.
The water through the year
Early summer brings the sockeye through the sound, midsummer the chinook and coho on the outside, and late summer the chinook moving toward the Alberni Inlet. The island camping season ends on 30 September, and winter storms roll in from the Pacific soon after.
Reading this report here
The tide panel shows a modelled curve for the sound, labelled as a model; the Canadian Hydrographic Service has the official times. Swell and wind decide the outside days, so the score is driven mostly by the wind forecast.
Licence, access and rules
The DFO tidal waters licence and salmon conservation stamp apply, with barbless single hooks for salmon and, since 1 September 2026, a hook gap of no more than 22 mm. Inside Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, harvest limits are lower than DFO’s general ones, according to Parks Canada. DFO’s Area 23 page also carries a condition on halibut for non-residents using an electronic licence; read it before the trip.
Common questions
Where is Barkley Sound?
On the west coast of Vancouver Island, between Bamfield and Ucluelet, at the mouth of the Alberni Inlet.
Can I fish for sockeye in Barkley Sound?
Only when DFO opens a recreational sockeye fishery by notice; in 2026 it opened on 1 May, and some areas were later set to non-retention.
Can I fish around the Broken Group Islands?
A large part of the Broken Group is a DFO rockfish conservation area closed to finfishing; check the DFO map before dropping a line, and carry a park entry pass.
Is fishing good at Barkley Sound right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. The wind owns today. 40 km/h gusts make boat control the real battle.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Tide curve (modelled)
- Open-Meteo Marine, sea level height including tides
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- Pages checked
- notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?pg=view_notice&DOC_ID=3527
- notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?pg=view_notice&DOC_ID=3597
- web.archive.org/web/20260618021456/https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp
- parks.canada.ca/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/activ/broken-group
- parks.canada.ca/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/activ/peche-fishing
- The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on How our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.