Brown's Bay Bottom fishing

[Prairie Locked]

I apologize for this as I know it's a post I had started a few months ago but I think it was lost with the migration over to this new platform as I can't find it. I ask again because there was a lot of valuable hints, tips and suggestions.

So to start it again, I'm hoping to glean recommendations for bottom fishing for lings and possibly hali, north out of Brown's Bay avoiding the narrows. Will be sometime between June 25 and July 22 and from what I understand, may be a bit early for targeting salmon then so will focus more on trying to land my first ling.

I remember roughly some of the pinnacles and humps as well as focusing on 70-100'ish range on the walls on the east side of the straight, just out of the bay.

 

[RiverBoy]

I personally haven't caught Hali up there, but lots of lings and some snapper. I would focus on your charts and target structure. One of my fave spots up there where I consistently catch nice sized lings is in only 40' of water. For me the fun is in searching new areas out.

 

[TheBigGuy]

I've never bottom fished in that exact area only North of there. So, I can only give you very general advice. In all likelihood no one is going to post exact locations on the Internet even if they wanted to help you. Lings are basically resident, so they can only sustain limited harvest from one location, that is why most knowledgeable fishers will not post specific locations on the Internet. Google indexes everything and making a post on even the smallest forum will lead to huge fishing pressure on any location posted on the Internet. If I could help you I'd PM you some info, but I've only Salmon fished where you are going.

Just some general advice. If you have halibut gear with spectra, use it to prospect for ling. You will lose far less gear when fishing areas you are not familiar with. Use a spreader bar rigged with the largest herring you can buy on about a 16 inch leader of at least 60lb test. At the bottom of the spreader bar have a short section of 40lb test to your 1lb (or more) lead sinker ball. Do not attach the weight directly to the spreader bar, you want to have the lighter line break off on a snag.

In my opinion the most important thing when trying a new area is to hit as many likely looking locations as possible. You may find 90% of the spots you try do not hold good populations. That is why it is so important to just keep prospecting till you find a good honey hole. Once you find a good spot, do not keep pounding it till it becomes unproductive. Move along and find some more productive areas. Pretty soon you will have enough GPS marks that you can spread your take around, so as to not decimate any one reefs population. Persistence pays off, try enough spots and you will have success.

Good luck to you.

 

[Prairie Locked]

I've never bottom fished in that exact area only North of there. So, I can only give you very general advice. In all likelihood no one is going to post exact locations on the Internet even if they wanted to help you. Lings are basically resident, so they can only sustain limited harvest from one location, that is why most knowledgeable fishers will not post specific locations on the Internet. Google indexes everything and making a post on even the smallest forum will lead to huge fishing pressure on any location posted on the Internet. If I could help you I'd PM you some info, but I've only Salmon fished where you are going.

Just some general advice. If you have halibut gear with spectra, use it to prospect for ling. You will lose far less gear when fishing areas you are not familiar with. Use a spreader bar rigged with the largest herring you can buy on about a 16 inch leader of at least 60lb test. At the bottom of the spreader bar have a short section of 40lb test to your 1lb (or more) lead sinker ball. Do not attach the weight directly to the spreader bar, you want to have the lighter line break off on a snag.

In my opinion the most important thing when trying a new area is to hit as many likely looking locations as possible. You may find 90% of the spots you try do not hold good populations. That is why it is so important to just keep prospecting till you find a good honey hole. Once you find a good spot, do not keep pounding it till it becomes unproductive. Move along and find some more productive areas. Pretty soon you will have enough GPS marks that you can spread your take around, so as to not decimate any one reefs population. Persistence pays off, try enough spots and you will have success.

Good luck to you.

Thanks kindly. I know the game, I wouldn't expect those secret locations to be shared let alone out in the open in a forum nor would I share my own honey holes! That's why I try to keep it more general in nature. Like your post, I was given a lot of good info to consider and take to heart, including the obvious areas to avoid and how to overcome currents.

I'm hoping for maybe a quick picture or two if I get lucky and would maybe keep one, more on the smaller side if I felt inclined. I have no interest in keeping larger stock let alone breeding females. I think trying the trolling plugs trick might be worth a try as well, be able to cover more ground and scout potential areas.

 

[Prairie Locked]

I personally haven't caught Hali up there, but lots of lings and some snapper. I would focus on your charts and target structure. One of my fave spots up there where I consistently catch nice sized lings is in only 40' of water. For me the fun is in searching new areas out.

I agree about searching potential areas out, that will be half the fun. Thanks for the depth info, something to keep in mind for sure.

 

[TheBigGuy]

One other thing I might add is bathymetric maps and GPS are fantastic, but often locations on maps that seem super fishy hold squat for Ling. Other locations that you might think look like totatally unlikely locations are loaded with nice ling. All a matter of Trial and error, put in your time and you will be rewarded.

 

[tubber]

Don't you have a smaller boat PL? If so, don't anchor yourself to the bottom with too strong of Hali gear. It's tricky to break off from a small boat in current in my opinion. 50lb spectra with a 40 lb mono leader maybe.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Simply wrap the line around a gaff or fish pacifier handle if you absolutely need to bust off. I've spent many years fishing on 14 foot Lund with Hali gear in strong current waters. It's never been a concern to me. I would definitely not recommend anchoring up in strong current in a small boat though. That can get real real ugly real fast. If you insist on anchoring make sure you have a knife within reach at the ready to cut your anchor line fast if need be. Don't hesitate, just cut it off if things get too much for a small boat. Better to lose an anchor than to lose your life.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Oh ya one other thing you want to check the current tables for slack tide not the tide tables. Not sure about the difference where you'll be fishing, but other places there are major differences between the two. Weynton Passage further North from where you will be fishing has a huge difference from the high/low tide in the tide tablestables, and the slack tide. Around Vancouver the tide apex and slack tide is pretty near identical. Other places it's way out of whack, so print out the nearest current station tables for the area and dates you will be fishing. Use the tables you've printed to keep notes on where and when you had a bite come on. What direction the tide was flowing, etc, etc. Notes really help if your fishing a new area. The next year you go back you might have forgotten some very important details. GPS marks are great, but some spots only fish well on one direction of the tide flow. A year later details tend to blur, notes can really help when learning a new area.

 

[Prairie Locked]

Don't you have a smaller boat PL? If so, don't anchor yourself to the bottom with too strong of Hali gear. It's tricky to break off from a small boat in current in my opinion. 50lb spectra with a 40 lb mono leader maybe.

You would be correct. It's small, but has a big heart! Lol. 14 footer with a 20 HP Yami 2 stroke.

 

[Prairie Locked]

Simply wrap the line around a gaff or fish pacifier handle if you absolutely need to bust off. I've spent many years fishing on 14 foot Lund with Hali gear in strong current waters. It's never been a concern to me. I would definitely not recommend anchoring up in strong current in a small boat though. That can get real real ugly real fast. If you insist on anchoring make sure you have a knife within reach at the ready to cut your anchor line fast if need be. Don't hesitate, just cut it off if things get too much for a small boat. Better to lose an anchor than to lose your life.

For sure, I'd cut off before I'd try to break off, whats a 100' of line or rope? I always have a knife right beside me. If I were to 'anchor' in strong current, I'd prefer to keep the boat in gear and idle up enough to stay at a neutral speed compared to the current and work that way. For the sake of space, I only keep a 100' long anchor line on the boat so that limits me to only anchoring at 20-30' depth at best so not really an option.

 

[Prairie Locked]

Oh ya one other thing you want to check the current tables for slack tide not the tide tables. Not sure about the difference where you'll be fishing, but other places there are major differences between the two. Weynton Passage further North from where you will be fishing has a huge difference from the high/low tide in the tide tablestables, and the slack tide. Around Vancouver the tide apex and slack tide is pretty near identical. Other places it's way out of whack, so print out the nearest current station tables for the area and dates you will be fishing. Use the tables you've printed to keep notes on where and when you had a bite come on. What direction the tide was flowing, etc, etc. Notes really help if your fishing a new area. The next year you go back you might have forgotten some very important details. GPS marks are great, but some spots only fish well on one direction of the tide flow. A year later details tend to blur, notes can really help when learning a new area.

As always, excellent posts Big Guy. You make me chuckle, you go from the 'no GPS coordinates for you' fish **** (totally tongue in cheek) to some excellent info and perspective. I'd bet this thread kept you up last night as you tossed and turned and ruminated about what else to add! Lol. Much abliged!

I thoroughly appreciate your's and others info. Good point's about the current tables. Typically I use the Navionics app so would use the current tables for Separation Head. I assume cell coverage is decent there since it's close enough to Quadra and C.R? And another thing, I wouldn't fish this area alone for safety reasons. Because of boat size, I'd plan more for weather and wind with more emphases on that than on the currents but would try to match everything up where possible. Decent winds, good slack and more moderate flood/ebb tides. I'm thinking there may be a one or two day window at best over the 4 weeks I'm in the area and will probably be a last minute dash up from Courtenay!

Have a great day everyone! We hit the road in 4 hours, 44 minutes and 16 seconds....

 

[N2013]

Don't count on cell reception. It's spotty. Just spent a day up the Okisillo channel and there's some good bottom fishing along there. Tides are about an hour later Browns Bay. It's about 30min north.

 

[Prairie Locked]

This is my setup. Posting on my phone, sorry about the orientation.

 

[Prairie Locked]

Updated picture, reformatted.

 

[supermario]

Prairie Locked:

Your rig looks slightly smaller that the small OBMG Whalers that fish Browns Bay and north. They are running 50s instead of a 20HP, carrying 2 guests and a guide. Seymour Narrows has current strong enough at times to swamp a smaller vessel. These links are your guide to the current tables in the area (horizontal flow instead of vertical height):
http://www.tides.gc.ca/eng/data/table/2016/curr_ref/5000#s4
http://www.tides.gc.ca/eng/data/table/2016/curr_ref/5100#s4

They are generally accurate to within minutes (depending on weather).

Just to complicate things, the tide information above links is listed in Pacific Standard Time. Add one hour to account for Pacific Daylight Savings Time. I write tides down on waterproof paper, even to this day, before heading out (especially if the area is new to me). The tidal information that you may (or may not) have in your FF is based on the X-Tides algorithm; which is good but it is best to have all the information possible.

Flood tides are typically more difficult to navigate but give both the flood and ebb equal respect. As noted above, the east side of Quadra Island and beyond, the change in vertical height is askew from the directional flow by about an hour and 15 on most days (meaning the horizontal directional flow can change and hour+ before the vertical change happens). Fishing is generally best around slack (change in horizontal flow).

Be safe.

 

[papalorge]

That boat should be fine in and around browns bay just stay near shore when the tides rippin ie don't try to shoot up the center of the narrows

 

[TheBigGuy]

I spent quite a few seasons fishing out of the exact same size Lund. They are great seaworthy boats for the size. Mine was the high transom model, which is well suited to the ocean. I can't tell from the picture if yours has the full height, or drop down transom. I would consider fabricating some splash guards to raise the height of the transom if you own the model with the lower height transom. I totally beefed my transom up by bolting on starboard and aluminum plating. I had a heavy 25 hp 4 stroke injected mercury that was tons of power and trolled beautifully on it. I ran a large gauge fuel line under floor boards I constructed up to the bow. I had a v shaped fuel tank under the hatch at the bow. I see you constructed a similar hatch cover for the bow with hinges attached to the front seat. Locating the fuel tank at the bow helped offset the weight from the heavy 4 stroke and my big but at the Stern of the boat.

I snaked electrical wiring through the aluminum trim around the top of the hull to the bow. That allowed me to have permanently mounted running lights at the bow and Stern with the wiring out of the way and hidden. At the Stern I mounted a water tight fuse block enclosure for all my electrical connections (sounder, etc). I was always redoing my connections until I mounted a watertight enclosure for all the electronics.

I put a lot of love into that little boat and it caught fish like crazy. My buddy has it now, so I still get to go out on it now and then. I fished all over the place in that boat and and it never failed to get me back home safely in some really nasty weather at times. It was one of the nicest little boats I've ever owned. I fished the west coast from Renfrew to Barkley Sound as well as the North Island, and Gulf Islands in it. I fished many big lakes like Shuswap, Quesnell, Kootenay, and even Great Slave Lake in the territories from it. It was a great all around boat for freshwater and the chuck (as long as you exercised. caution) .

I have many fond memories fishing out of the same boat when my kids were young. I hope you have many years of great fishing from your Lund as well. For the size you can't beat that boat for all around versatility. I hope you have a great trip to the coast. Best of luck, and be safe.

 

[Prairie Locked]

Thanks again everyone, really appreciate the feedback and perspectives. It's funny, 'back in the day' (not too too long ago) this was the boat size pretty much everyone used.

I spent quite a few seasons fishing out of the exact same size Lund. They are great seaworthy boats for the size. Mine was the high transom model, which is well suited to the ocean. I can't tell from the picture if yours has the full height, or drop down transom. I would consider fabricating some splash guards to raise the height of the transom if you own the model with the lower height transom. I totally beefed my transom up by bolting on starboard and aluminum plating. I had a heavy 25 hp 4 stroke injected mercury that was tons of power and trolled beautifully on it. I ran a large gauge fuel line under floor boards I constructed up to the bow. I had a v shaped fuel tank under the hatch at the bow. I see you constructed a similar hatch cover for the bow with hinges attached to the front seat. Locating the fuel tank at the bow helped offset the weight from the heavy 4 stroke and my big but at the Stern of the boat.

I snaked electrical wiring through the aluminum trim around the top of the hull to the bow. That allowed me to have permanently mounted running lights at the bow and Stern with the wiring out of the way and hidden. At the Stern I mounted a water tight fuse block enclosure for all my electrical connections (sounder, etc). I was always redoing my connections until I mounted a watertight enclosure for all the electronics.

I put a lot of love into that little boat and it caught fish like crazy. My buddy has it now, so I still get to go out on it now and then. I fished all over the place in that boat and and it never failed to get me back home safely in some really nasty weather at times. It was one of the nicest little boats I've ever owned. I fished the west coast from Renfrew to Barkley Sound as well as the North Island, and Gulf Islands in it. I fished many big lakes like Shuswap, Quesnell, Kootenay, and even Great Slave Lake in the territories from it. It was a great all around boat for freshwater and the chuck (as long as you exercised. caution) .

I have many fond memories fishing out of the same boat when my kids were young. I hope you have many years of great fishing from your Lund as well. For the size you can't beat that boat for all around versatility. I hope you have a great trip to the coast. Best of luck, and be safe.

Thanks Big Guy. A couple of quick points. It's not a Lund, it's a Valco Westcoaster, so a little bit beefier than a Lund. Good beam, draft and nice sharp bow so a good moderate saltwater boat. I can't do a permanent tank up front as I need everything removable to shed weight for transport as I bring it out on a roof rack of the truck. Like you, I've done a bunch of mods and fooling around to make things comfortable, practical and functional.

Good suggestion for the water tight enclosure, something to consider moving forward. Thanks again.

 

[TheBigGuy]

My mistake,, could have sworn it was a Lund. I didn't mount the tank permanently. Tempo (I believe was the brand) used to sell a removable plastic tank with a slight V to it that fit perfectly in the bow. I haven't seen that type of tank sold in quite a few years, but they still may be in some manufacturers catalogue.

Yes smaller boats were totally the norm back in the day. Then the coho stopped being resident in the strait. Everybody had to start traveling further afield for good fishing. Pretty hard to chase the fish offshore in a car topper. The vast majority of people used to fish for salmon in 16 foot and under boats in the old days. Nowadays small boats for salmon fishing are way in the minority.