I noticed adams and IO charters headed up towards trial or beyond? my guess is that they are fishing those little island north of the flats. Where do you think they are fishing?
on a positive note, the people that were fishing the wall on Sunday were all civilized and following the counter clockwise tack and not stern gating. Thumbs up.
Was up on the pier in Port Renfrew yesterday (wet ones on the Pub deck) and watched the charters come in. Big fish 20lbs + and lots of them. Brought an optimistic tear to my eye. They are out there and lets hope they are coming this way.
yeah it was slow at the wall - did not see anything caught and only a few boats even trying -
THe bait right now is super small too. I think they are little herring about 2 inches long. I wonder what would work well to mimic this? or do big springs even bother chasing small bait like this?
It gave me lots of time to play around with herring rolls. I actually got some decent rolls. I used the red package as advised and found that when I put a little piece of wire inside the fish I could bend it just so and get a sweet roll. SO stirred it up tried some different things enjoyed the boat ride.
Sounds good.
Just FYI
Tom Brown's sport bait ( in the red packs ) They are 5.5"-6"
Rig them as per usual. I tried inserting a wire to aid in tuning however I found hooking one point of the treble just behind the dorsal but on the radius of the back opposed to being on the lateral line for a much better roll.
I've landed 20+ lb fish in July by the breakwater when the bait is small using small Kippled K green/silver spoons. If you can find some of those very small 20 pack anchovies they might work as well. It's usually spotty at best by the breakwater in July.
Had the chance on Tuesday to fly in a friend's private plane across Cordova Bay, around Ten Mile Point and across the waterfront. Very cool!!!
In Cadboro Bay we could see the grey whale that has taken up residence near Flower Island. We got permission to circle around and drop to 500ft and I got some great video of it.
Lots of birds and bait activity in Cadboro Bay too. There also seems to be a major algae bloom going on as the water in both Oak Bay and Cadboro Bay was bright green right to the tide line.
The tidal currents were ripping very strong -- it was about 3:30 and right in the middle of a big flood. Not many boats anywhere along our route.
yeah it was slow at the wall - did not see anything caught and only a few boats even trying -
THe bait right now is super small too. I think they are little herring about 2 inches long. I wonder what would work well to mimic this? or do big springs even bother chasing small bait like this?
It gave me lots of time to play around with herring rolls. I actually got some decent rolls. I used the red package as advised and found that when I put a little piece of wire inside the fish I could bend it just so and get a sweet roll. SO stirred it up tried some different things enjoyed the boat ride.
Sounds good.
Just FYI
Tom Brown's sport bait ( in the red packs ) They are 5.5"-6"
Rig them as per usual. I tried inserting a wire to aid in tuning however I found hooking one point of the treble just behind the dorsal but on the radius of the back opposed to being on the lateral line for a much better roll.
The Esquimalt Anglers Association just completed releasing about 100,000 Nitinat chinook pre-smolts into Esquimalt Harbour a few weeks ago. We have been releasing chinooks every year since the early 1990's into Esquimalt Harbour and into Fleming Beach at the Anglers' ramp. We missed 2008 as were unable to acquire eggs from Nitinat hatchery because of low chinook escapement there. In earlier years the fry were held in a net pen in Esquimalt Harbour and fed for approx. a month before release. Various problems, including returning adults in the Graving Dock, necessitated the elimination of the net pen. Because the fry are not fin clipped, the benefits of these plants are difficult to determine. In some years there was a good return of spawners into Esquimalt Harbour and fish were caught off Esquimalt. In recent years the benefits have been marginal. These fish return in late August and September and the numbers do not seem to be there as they should. Close to 200,000 chinooks have been released in most years and with only a 1% survival this should put 2000 spawners off Esquimalt for anglers to catch.
Fished the ledge from Brotchie to the far side of Clover and back to Esquimalt. DEAD. Only spotted a few fish out off of Clover point in about 180' of water. No Bait to be seen. Tried bait and rubber and spoons. Nothing. Was out at 8am to noon. Should have gone for a motorcycle ride???
DUCKMAN: I don't believe any of these fish have been clipped over the years. It is labour intensive but not costly to clip. Ideally they should be clipped and nose tagged so that hard data can be obtained when heads are turned in. This would tell where these fish are caught and how many return to release site. I will check this out further.
Victoria Spring, and Halibut Summer 2010
Posted - 07/13/2010 : 11:22:42
