cougar creek

[Sofa King]

does anyone have a # for contacting for reserving a site?
a friend is having trouble trying to get ahold of them.

[hutch]

If you mean cougar creek in gold river its first come first serve no reservation . Will be up there end of July

[Jim Prawn]

As far as I know there are no reservations. They do a good job of cramming everyone in though. Worst case scenario you end up in the overflow area across the road. We lucked out last year and got the spot right at the corner at the top of the boat ramp. We were there third week of July and fishing on the inside was just picking up. Managed to scratch up a limit for 3 of us in 3 days but then fishing went nuts the following week. Good luck, hope your boat floats!!!
JP

[Sofa King]

i kinda thought I was first come.
I heard some gong-show stories though, of the boats tied at the docks being 3-deep and people having to crawl through others boats to get to theirs.
I've been to cougar creek, but only to leave our vehicle there as the fishing lodge sent their boats to pick us up.
last year we launched at gold river and boated out there.
also heard the road into cougar is pretty rough now and not advisable to be hauling any larger boats that way.
true??....or exaggerations?

thanks for the info guys.

I was there last year for the first week of august, the fishing was great.

[digger dogger]

Its been 10-15 years since ive been.
First come first serve.
Bring some dough, for the showers, at the floating resort.
Critter Cove, i think it was called awhile back.
The road SUCKS, from Gold River.
And we caught some monster salmon, usually trolled by camel rock.

[Onesock]

roads good just dusty.

[fuzzybiscuit]

i kinda thought I was first come.
I heard some gong-show stories though, of the boats tied at the docks being 3-deep and people having to crawl through others boats to get to theirs.

Three deep on each side of the dock is a slow trip. I've seen it five and six deep on each side. Don't be the first one in at night or you'll have a hard time getting out in the morning until a bunch of boats leave.

Also, don't leave anything of value in your boat. I've been there in the morning after someone has come in at night and cleaned everything of value out from tackle boxes to power Scotties.

Vehicles from the lodges used to take up all the camping spots and I was there one year when someone flattened every tire on the ones that were parked in a spot where someone could camp but had been turned away because the lodge vehicles were taking up a lot of spaces.

It's still a great place to camp and fish although the average size of the fish is not what it used to be. Back in the early nineties for every fish you caught in the twenties you would catch one over forty, with the rest in the thirties. Now it is hard to get an honest thirty pound fish. I've had quite a few trips there in recent years when we did not break the thirty pound mark.

[.264winmag]

Tahsis is a nice place to stay. From there you can access Nootka or fish out Esperanza for some real chromers:) There is a small campground near the government wharf and some provincial sites on the Leiner river.

[.264winmag]

As far as I know there are no reservations. They do a good job of cramming everyone in though. Worst case scenario you end up in the overflow area across the road. We lucked out last year and got the spot right at the corner at the top of the boat ramp. We were there third week of July and fishing on the inside was just picking up. Managed to scratch up a limit for 3 of us in 3 days but then fishing went nuts the following week. Good luck, hope your boat floats!!!
JP
Did you try Bajo? Was out Esperanza 12-15th last year and couldn't keep them off, Ferrier...

[Jim Prawn]

Did you try Bajo? Was out Esperanza 12-15th last year and couldn't keep them off, Ferrier...

Nope. Don't like going outside. Might spill my beer. And my guts.... I specifically go there to fish the reservoir like inside waters of the Inlet. 3 out of 4 years we never emptied the boat of fuel in 4 days.

Sofa King, we towed my dads 18' Malibu in there last summer. The road was rough for towing even that size of boat. I forget how long it took us on the gravel to get to the camp site but I have done it without a boat and know we were WAY slower towing. And still managed to break off two rollers on the trailer and snap the steel winch cable. Granted it is an older trailer and the cable was a bit rusty. If you have 3 or 4 going and are taking two vehicles with a boat and RV I would launch the boat at the mill and run it out the inlet to the campsite. In terms of dock access, we had front row seats mid week but were 3 deep over the weekend. If you come in early and go out late your boats always tied right to the dock though...
JP

[Sofa King]

that's the exact thing I heard also, jim.
is that you don't really want to be hauling a rollered trailer in there.
lots of stories of broken rollers, etc.

personally, I would never go in that way I don't think.
I've done it once, without a boat.
last year we went in at gold river and boated around.
it's cheap to get a spot at critter cove, and a lot less gong-show sounding than cougar creek seems to be.
a friend was asking about going in to cougar creek with his boat and to camp, I guess he doesn't like the idea of the long boat trip around from gold river, I don't know.
all I know is that it's kinda nice to stay on the pavement right to the launch, and the vehicle-storing was pretty fine as well.

[Jim Prawn]

Better contact Critter Cove ASAP if your thinking of staying there. I'd be surprised if they aren't booked solid already for that peak period; end of July- early August. If the fishing isn't "easy", try fishing deeper than usual. Last year we got there when things were slow, and my dad had already been there for 3 days and only had 3 fish. Typically we would fish 30 - 60 feet. He told us the last 2 he caught were at 80 feet so we started fishing around there and outfished just about everyone for the next 4 days. Good luck!
JP

[Sofa King]

we have a boat we can sleep on, so we are pretty good, we just need a place to tie-off.
stayed at tuta last year, and my bro stayed at critter at the end of aug, it was pretty not-busy by then, but the fishing had drastically fell off as well.
but in early aug we fished at I think it was 24' and 75' and did really well.
we hooked into a couple biggies that never got landed.