2015 Nanoose Bay / French Creek

Went to little Q (yesterday) but didn't mark much there and it was way too windy for us so headed back to Humps to wait for the die-down.

Used Purple Haze flasher, 32 inch leader and small pink hoochy.

10lb Chinook on before I'd even finished lowering gear in the water .Kept that one.

After that it was a Pink-fest on same gear.

Lure depths from 70ft to 140ft.

Later on switched to Super Gold Betsy flasher, 38 inch leader and green Splatterback hoochies. More Chinooks but not quite legal. More Pinks. Lost a big Chinook.

We ended up keeping 4 nice size Pinks.

All the Pinks were very healthy looking with no sores, cysts or whatever at all. Some up to 6lbs.

Best bite was 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm. High slack was about 4p.m.
 
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fished low tide at hump this morning. Few bait balls, many random marks. Many taps at all depths, several hits off clip-gone, released 2 sharks and 1 pink and a couple small coho. Pink and 1 shark caught on anchovie in teaser head with purple onion glow flasher down 190 feet deep. Other shark caught on kermit glow spoon and same flasher at 129 ft. Almost any combination got some action of some sort.
 
Today was hootchie day. Purple haze one side, green and white splatter back the other. Early AM as usual fishing at 222' in 245' of water (French Creek). The green hootchie caught a nice 23# spring which cooperated quite nicely getting into my net. That was followed almost immediately by a beautiful wild silver coho same depth, same lure. Time was short again today but I'll be back tomorrow if the weather cooperates.
It's nice to catch a larger fish once in awhile and helps to make up for the one I lost a few days back.
 
Went out on Wednesday night and took a run up to big q and hooked into two and lost one. Lost a biggy but ended up landing a decent 12lbs Chinook. Both were hooked right on the bottom with a green hootchie and orange trim flasher. Didn't see much on the sounder other then a little bit of action on the bottom but did see many finning on the surface.
 
Fished Bamfield but went home early due to the storm. Put in at french creek for a few hours and quickly caught n released a smallish ~5 spring, then landed two in the mid teens.

White spoon right on the bottom. Two hits with the tide, one going against it. 11am.

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Fished Bamfield but went home early due to the storm. Put in at french creek for a few hours and quickly caught n released a smallish ~5 spring, then landed two in the mid teens.

White spoon right on the bottom. Two hits with the tide, one going against it. 11am.

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Surprised was calm enough for an outing at French… was blowing all day here in Courtenay… Nice springs. What were those honey Browns biting on??

PB
 
The honey Browns were a bit harder.. Had to troll an empty 6-pack holder in a Sleemans teaser head. But once in the boat they were real easy to bleed out :)


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Same thing as a week ago. Fished in 240' of water or so, trolling a green and white hootchie with black splattered back at 222'. One 23 1/2 spring in the boat by 7ish. The same size and area as last week. Between the harbour (FC) and the hump. One dogfish right after that on the way down. After that the weeds was the only thing I caught, boat out by 8:30, off to work.
 
Fished high tide on hump. Few marks and even fewer bait balls with the odd log thrown in. Coho caught at 111 ft with green glow flasher and kitchen sink glow spoon, saw the net and made a quick get away. Caught a coho at 130 ft with race car glow flasher and purple hoochie (wild, released). Caught a shaker at 50 ft with a purple onion glow flasher and cop car spoon, released.
 
Out from 2:30- 7pm today. Fished from 225' up to 35'. Right out front of marina lots of bait balls near the suface and on the bottom in about 230' of water. Tried splater back hootchie ; army truck hootchie ; cookies and cream and a green and white hootch. all to no avail. Stayed out mostly 250 - 200+ ; finally had luck with a mini hootch a few used last year in light pink. comming up got about a 10" coho then landed and released another from 180' about 4.5lb and another pop off at 165'.
never saw anyone head to the rivers. all seemed to be out front ; never saw net out.
 
Fished high slack this morn inbetween the shore and humps...saw very little bait...was using a turd hoochie that I had alot of luck with in winter harbour but got nothin with it here, had a blue and silver coyote on the other rod with the same result. Went to big q around 12:30 for an hour and got one hit on a white glow hoochie right on the bottom at 140'.
 
I'm not sure but I think I usually catch springs well into September out front of French Creek, if not there's the elusive hatchery coho. Yesterday I caught one tiny pink and one coho - deep fishing which I lost long before it got to the boat.
Maybe with all this rain some of the local fish have already headed upstream but I think there are some tourist fish passing through to be had. Any thoughts?
 
At Little Q last night. First time out locally in 2 months. 8 boats there, beautiful night but we touched nothing and saw nothing. 1 of the jiggers had 1 hit. Saw 1 jumper all night. Anyone have any word on the Big Q? I know a bunch of fish are already up in the Big Q but don't know if the rain pushed everything up in both rivers. Can't believe how quiet it on this thread about fishing in front of the rivers.
 
Red....It's been pretty quiet. My neighbour got a 14lb and lost another earlier this week at Little Q. Last week did pretty well out at Ballenas fishing little squirt hootchies at 100-150 on the riggers. There was plenty of bait around last week. I'm going to be fishing the local spots (Ballenas, Sangster etc) this weekend/week....got all next week off.
I had to buy an extra boat this year as I didn't get time to finish my project on my Seasport. Bought an old timer, 1974 Marlin Glascraft, with a 1980 Johnson 70 2 stroke. Had a little 4hp Mariner kicking around and put that on as the kicker, works good. Here's a pic, if you see me around give me a wave.
 

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Thanks for your update, I knew about some of last weeks fishing but it has not been bionic that's for sure. Hopefully they are not done yet.

Classic backup boat....you are now officially on your way to being a fleet manager:) May see you around this weekend, tight lines.

Red....It's been pretty quiet. My neighbour got a 14lb and lost another earlier this week at Little Q. Last week did pretty well out at Ballenas fishing little squirt hootchies at 100-150 on the riggers. There was plenty of bait around last week. I'm going to be fishing the local spots (Ballenas, Sangster etc) this weekend/week....got all next week off.
I had to buy an extra boat this year as I didn't get time to finish my project on my Seasport. Bought an old timer, 1974 Marlin Glascraft, with a 1980 Johnson 70 2 stroke. Had a little 4hp Mariner kicking around and put that on as the kicker, works good. Here's a pic, if you see me around give me a wave.
 
Had a new low at French Creek marina, waiting for a guy and his elderly dad to back down at about 4:45 yesterday, they were taking a bit of time but well into taking the west side and I am staged. Then guy in a 25' sun-bridge style footer/Ford 4x4 pickup waiting , he wheels, in cuts EVERYONE off and is very proud of his actions. Called him a few choice works for sure. He then yelled at me and asked if I was a tough guy. He wanted me to "back up" his Bully behaviour by coming down the dock . I waited and dropped in my turn, went to park. My wife was waiting with our boat and he said something to her and snapped her picture on his phone.
I have been going to that ramp for 40 years, NEVER have a seen somebody so blatantly not with the program.
 
Is there a fee to launch at FC? If so, does the marina provide any supervision of the ramp? Apparently not.

2 ramps in Penticton, city operates one, a double wide, and charges 'parking' fee of $10, gives SFA in return except for enforcement of fee paid. Ticket machine takes money or cards. At the other end of town the non-profit yacht club has the contract to operate and they do a stellar job. Parking space is similar but ramp is only single wide, they have a volunteer on duty to take fees and supervise parking. Most of them actively organise the truck/trailers and determine whose turn it is to launch or retrieve. They even have a 'parking lot full' sign that goes out or comes in according to capacity. I'll gladly pay a fee for such service, it's a pleasure to launch there because there's no aggro. The unsupervised one at the other end of town is a gong show in comparison, despite the double ramp which should make for faster turnover.
 
I know how you feel Jeep09 but you have to realize that there are a-holes everywhere and we can't let them ruin a good day fishing. My favorite is when the guy backs his boat down to the water, then unties it, gets his gear out of his truck, puts the boat in the water, checks the oil and such, gets his fishing gear ready then buggers off to get a parking pass and have a dump. 20 or 30 minutes later he meanders back to his boat then proceeds to have a conversation with someone on the dock, all the time oblivious to the boats that are waiting to come in and go out. Take a deep breath, relax, there's nothing you can do about it.
I was out front today, 3 hours, no fish, no hits, not even a weed. Tried different colour spoons and hootchies from 50' -250' natta - zilcho. It was still a great day to be on the water and I didn't run into any buttholes.
 
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