CBill,
In my experience the best "can't miss" time and area for salmon and halibutt would be from mid July through the end of August and fish off the west coast of Vancouver Island. I fish out of Ucluelet which takes a little trouble and time to get there, but well worth it if you can devote at least a week to fishing. I can't think of any other place, short of an expensive fly-in resort, where you can have an excellent chance of landing a 30+ pound salmon within easy range of a small trailerable boat. The halibutt do tend to be smaller 20-35 pound range however.