Beechy Head: One of the Best Shore Fishing Spots on Vancouver Island
Beechy Head is, in my opinion, one of the best shore fishing spots on Vancouver Island.
But if I add one condition — out of all the places I’ve personally fished — then I’d probably drop the “one of.”
So far, Beechy Head is simply the best shore fishing spot I’ve ever fished.
And the reason is pretty simple:
There are just so many fish here.
Over the years, I’ve caught almost every iconic Vancouver Island species you can think of at Beechy Head — Chinook, coho, pink salmon, cabezon, greenling, lingcod, and all kinds of rockfish.
I even caught a roughly 4-pound octopus with my bare hands while I was fishing there once.
And accidentally hooking things like sea cucumbers and red sea urchins? That happens more often than you might think.
Of course, not every memory from Beechy Head is a happy one.
There’s one fish in particular that still bothers me.
To this day, I have absolutely no idea what it was.
The second it hit, it ripped about 40 metres of line off my reel. I quickly tightened the drag, but that fish didn’t give me much of a chance.
Almost instantly—
snap.
My 40 lb main line was gone.
I still don’t know what was on the other end of that line.
But one thing I know for sure:
It wasn’t a little fish.
Shore fishing usually isn’t where you expect to hook into monsters. Bigger fish tend to be more cautious and don’t always come close to shore.
But that’s one of the things that makes Beechy Head so special.
You actually have a chance of hooking something big here.
My guess is that a lot of it has to do with the underwater structure. The depth drops off dramatically in some areas, and within casting distance you can already reach some pretty deep water.
Combine that steep drop-off with all the rocky structure down below, and you’ve got perfect places for bigger fish to hide and hunt.
More importantly for us shore anglers, it means we can actually cast into water where those bigger fish live.
One Filipino angler who bought some of my lures was fishing for salmon here last summer when, completely out of nowhere, he hooked a 28-pound halibut from shore.
Another time, I was bringing in a greenling when a lingcod — easily over 10 pounds by my estimate — grabbed it.
I almost got both of them onto shore.
That’s the kind of thing I love about Beechy Head.
You never really know what’s going to happen on the next cast.
And those unexpected moments are exactly what get the adrenaline going.
The 30-Minute Hike Is Part of the Experience
There’s another thing about Beechy Head that I actually consider a plus:
You can’t drive right up to the fishing spot.
You have to hike for about 30 minutes to get there.
And when I say “hike,” I don’t mean a casual 30-minute walk along a nice flat trail.
You’re actually going up and down hills with all your fishing gear on your back.
A lot of people see that as one of the downsides of Beechy Head.
I see it differently.
To me, it’s part of the reward for the hardcore anglers who are willing to make the effort.
The fact that this place isn’t easy to reach naturally keeps some of the fishing pressure away and helps preserve what makes the area so good.
And if you’re willing to make the hike, the fish aren’t your only reward.
You also get some absolutely wild West Coast scenery.
Cliffs, rocky shoreline, open Pacific water — and every now and then, you can even see orcas cruising and hunting in the distance.
It almost feels like a little badge of honour for the anglers willing to make the hike.
The Three Areas I Fish at Beechy Head
I personally divide Beechy Head into roughly three fishing areas.
Each one has different underwater structure, different target species, and a slightly different kind of fishing experience.
Area 1: Where I Fish the Most
This is the area where I spend most of my time, and I also think it holds some of the most fish.
The greenling here can honestly feel almost ridiculous sometimes.
If you can get your lure down to the bottom, there are days when it feels like you get a bite on almost every cast.
But things get even more interesting when you cast farther out.
If you have the right setup and enough casting distance, you can reach the rocky structure farther offshore.
And once you get into that structure, a lot more becomes possible.
Rockfish.
Lingcod.
Cabezon.
They can all show up.
There’s also a little hidden bonus in this area:
There are tons of sea cucumbers and sea urchins down there.
I’ve accidentally hooked them plenty of times while fishing.
That’s another funny thing about Beechy Head — sometimes you really have no idea what’s going to come up on your next cast.
If you look at the underwater map in the picture above, you can see why.
The bottom is covered with rocky structure.
That kind of bottom is exactly what you want when you’re targeting bottomfish, and it helps explain why this area holds so many of them.
Area 2: A Shore Salmon Angler’s Paradise
If Area 1 is where you go to experience the variety of Beechy Head’s bottomfish, Area 2 is all about salmon.
In my opinion, this is one of the best places around Victoria to target salmon from shore.
Starting around July and running through the end of October, huge numbers of salmon pass through this area.
And during peak season, the cliffs can get absolutely packed with anglers.
Canadians are usually pretty laid-back about most things.
But when it comes to salmon fishing?
Man, they get competitive.
One morning, I left the parking area at 5:00 a.m.
After about half an hour of hiking, I got to the spot around 5:30.
I thought I was early.
Apparently not.
By the time I arrived, pretty much every easy, comfortable place to stand was already taken.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Canadians work that hard to beat each other to a spot for anything else.
Besides salmon fishing, this area has another nice bonus in the spring for people who enjoy exploring the shoreline at low tide.
I’m not going to tell you exactly what it is.
I’ll leave that one as a little surprise for the people willing to hike in and explore for themselves.
The geography here is also really interesting.
In front of the cliffs is a natural pocket where the water comes in and circulates back around.
During the summer, large schools of baitfish gather in this area.
And of course, where the bait goes, the salmon follow.
A lot of salmon end up hanging around and feeding here, which is one of the reasons this has become such a popular shore salmon spot around Victoria.
Area 3: The Unknown
I haven’t explored Area 3 nearly as much as the other two.
But that’s also exactly why I think it’s worth exploring.
Unknown water. Unknown fish. Unknown possibilities.
There’s something exciting about that.
My very first lingcod came from Area 3.
If you’re looking for a little more of a challenge, this is definitely an area worth trying.
Area 1 has so many fish, and I know the structure and fishing style there so well, that it naturally becomes the “easy mode” for a lot of people fishing Beechy Head.
Area 3 feels different.
There’s less certainty here.
But there’s more mystery.
And sometimes, for an angler, not knowing what’s going to happen is more exciting than knowing you’re probably going to catch something.
You don’t know exactly what’s down there.
You don’t know whether your next cast will get a bite.
And you definitely don’t know what might grab your lure when it happens.
Maybe nothing happens at all.
Or maybe, when you least expect it, this place gives you a surprise.
That’s why I plan to spend a lot more time exploring Area 3 in the future.
And once I know it better, maybe it’ll deserve a post of its own.
Why I Finally Decided to Write About Beechy Head
To be honest, at first I wasn’t sure I wanted to write this article.
Anyone who fishes seriously probably understands why.
When you find a really good fishing spot, sometimes it’s not a bad thing if it stays within a relatively small circle.
Where the fish are.
When they show up.
Where to stand.
How to fish the spot.
Most of that knowledge comes from putting in the time yourself — going out again and again, trying different things, getting skunked, figuring things out, and slowly learning the water.
So when you find a place you really love, naturally there’s a part of you that doesn’t want to put everything out there for everyone to see.
But then I thought about it again.
Beechy Head probably doesn’t need to be kept secret.
The place has its own filter built in.
You can’t drive right up to the fishing spot.
There’s no easy little trail that drops you off beside the water.
You have to carry your rods, lures, water, and all your gear over the hills for about half an hour before you finally reach those cliffs.
And anyone who’s willing to do that just to go fishing?
They’re probably my kind of people.
A hardcore fishing spot deserves hardcore anglers.
So at that point, keeping everything to myself almost started to feel a little selfish.
That’s why I finally decided to write this article and share as much as I can from my own experience.
I’m not saying:
“Come to Beechy Head and you’re guaranteed to catch fish.”
Fishing doesn’t work that way.
What I hope is that someone who genuinely loves shore fishing reads this and realizes there’s a place like this on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.
A place where you have to carry your gear for half an hour just to get to the water.
A place where you might fish all day and never see a big fish.
Or where, on your very next cast, something you never expected might grab your lure and start ripping line off your reel.
You can come here chasing salmon.
You can target lingcod, greenling, cabezon and rockfish.
Or you can catch absolutely nothing and just stand on the edge of the cliffs, watching the waves crash against the rocks, looking out over the wild West Coast, and maybe spotting a whale in the distance.
That’s the magic of Beechy Head.
And for me, at least so far, it’s still—
the best shore fishing spot I’ve ever experienced.