hi Rob
Haven't talked to you since steelhead season.... haven't been fishing much
locally but here's my season report from lower nootka sound.
I left steveston marine a couple months ago now and have started chartering
in nootka. This season has been pretty darn good. The fishing in the last
few weeks of july had us very busy with loads of 25 to 40 lbs springs. Taken
em high between 30 and 50 feet with anchovie and hootchies, glo green
spackle back, white red eye and purple haze... 3 1/2 feet seemed to be the
majic leader but we had to double up big beads in the hoochie to set the
hooks so they were trailing behind. Took us a few days and many missed fish
to figure that one out
. The turn of the month saw whales, weather
changes and a damn gillnet opening on the inside (a first for lower nootka).
as you can imagine, the fishing went south for about a week. This caused us to make runs to escalante pt, friendly cove, maquinna beach,
and of course burwood. Clients seem to enjoy fishing out there more as the
boats are fewer and the scenery is just amazing. There seems to be an off
again on again presence for the coho but when they are on... shmoly they are
on. We've been taking large coho 20 to 35 feet with spoons, gypst 3" cop car
and scurvy, also doing well on the 602 5 " tomic spoon,4" coyote cop car,
and blue neon and the springs on coyote eel (stymies favorite), and the
kermit. We've boated some nice springs out there as well and they seem to
have WAY more zip to em than the fish caught a few miles away on the inside.
Depths on the outside for springs... from 40 to 120 depending on how thick
the bait was. Doing much better with hoochies on the deep lines but when the
bite is on hard... rarely do the lines go deeper than 60 ft. Have been
pulling large cutplug as well for springs and 2 of our biggest fish have hit
those , a 48 lbs and a 53 lbs... a big one for lower nootka. LOTS of
mackeral around, both inside and out so often using bait was just futile,
but when we got away with it....springs on anchovie on a 7 to 9 ft
leader.... #2 trble&5/0 single, green/chartruse chrome teaser and 6" chovies
and of course behind a hot spot golden warrior. For coho, same rig but we
changed the teaser to chrome red or chrome coho blue and a green plaid or
blue dayglo flasher with a 6 foot leader. Have also hit many coho on the
flyrods, skipping bucktails and needlefish in the wash. I called mike eng
about a 28lbs coho.... i embarassed to say this fish was overweighed by 5
lbs... so was evry other fish for a few days till i realized the "tare"
weight on my fancy new digital scale was somehow set at 5 lbs.... oh well, a
23 lbs coho is nothin to sniff at... made the client happy.... but he still
thinks it's a 28 hehehe my bad.
Have gotten into many lings, biggest 33 lbs and a few chicken halibut but
most have been incidentals while bottom dragging bait in 80 to 120 feet of
water off burwood and 2 nice chickens coming off maquinna beach in 60 feet
of water. It's not really the hot time for hali that close in but there's
always a few around. May and June next year I'll be hitting them hard.
Lot's of springs still flowing in, and coho are starting to school up and
shoot for the conuma so they can be encountered on the inside here and there
now as well. Lot's of cookie cutter 24 and 28 lber's over the past few days
been fishing san carlos, the wall and hoisse point. There have been some
dandy after noon tide bites at camel rock as well. Prawning.... is all gone
to crap here and so has the crabbing... not even bothering with it.
Well, I'm here for my last three day charter, 1 day to go, then I'm
parking the boat and will be back in VAN for some fun fishing in the 16
footer. She's already to go all restored and equiped, she's white on black
and called the BLACK SWAN. I'll be hitten the bell buoy sometime this up
coming week, getting back into town early monday.
Well, gotta run.... bites on in 2 hours
Hope all is well
tight lines
Thomas Ingram
High Tide Hunter Fishing Adventures
Author
Topic: Nootka Tom's Fishing Report (Read 2771 times)