Just back in from The Briney, and dog tired! But thought I'd run up something of a report on what we saw over the past 5 weeks or so...
This is amongst the slowest starts we've witnessed for springs along the coast of
The Rock. Decided to wander up to Nootka and points north as that's where they usually show in numbers first. Had the odd good day, but the vast majority were "
scratchy" to say the least. poorest catch rate I've seen in a great many years. Situation to the south (Ukee & Tofu areas) was even worse according to the dismal reports form those who stayed down there to work it. Small fish, and damn few of them all over the banks and nearshore in the southern areas.
The water up north was like gin, and damn
COLD! Didn't take the Helly's off for the entire duration as a consequence. Methinks the whole system is running about a month behind our calender this year, likely due to the cold water effects.
Lower western US opened for their troll fleet a little better than a week ago, and their catch rates remain dismal as well at this point.
That said, reports from Alaska suggest the huge predicted biomass of springs does indeed exist, just they are very much taking their time to wrap their minds around wandering south. Suspect in the next little while, the situation will turn around abruptly, and we should be in excellent shape when it comes time for the impending sports fishery. Right looking forward to that alright, and if the sizes of the fish we did see in the northern Island areas is any indication, we'll likely see more than a few Real MONSTERS this season!!
The Good news was the final testing of the new prototype needlefish spoon went much better than expected! The fish literally beat the paint right off of it, and was still catching them faster than most the other gear when I pulled it! Didn't want to lose the one that worked so well to the Goddess, so it's now off to the production line. Letcha know when & where you can grab one as soon as it gets that far...
Nice to be home. Been a spell...
Cheers,
Nog
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Topic: WCVI Report - A Trollers Perspective (Read 1186 times)