Guys and Gals, I'll be launching out of Neah Bay on Sat and Sun AM this weekend and hitting the water on your side of the line. I plan to fish Swiftsure for hali and since the water/weather looks like it will be fantastic, maybe make a run a bit farther north to La Perouse bank. While I'm sure I can find hali in either area I'm also interested in catching P-cod or two. I've never caught one yet so if anyone has any tips I'd appreciate it. I was thinking perhaps going towards deeper water near the inshore end of Nitnat. The tide exchange is low this weekend so it might be a good time to try things a little deeper than normal.
Hali Fishing this weekend
- Thread starter seadna
- Start date
Yes - I'm familiar with that one. I ran up to Stevetson a few weekends ago and picked up my Canadian license in person. Also, am aware that I need to phone into Canadian Border Services Agency even if I don't plan on touching shore or anchoring or hovering near another boat.
Rob H
Active Member
Seadna: I have caught the P-Cod on Swiftsure several times while drifting and targeting halibut. We were drifting with spreader bars and large spoons or 8" power bait grubs right on bottom in 200 to 300 feet of water, both lures caught lots when they were present. If they are around in your area you will likely catch lots, many other times on the bank we have caught none at all.
...Rob
...Rob
Thanks Rob. I've heard they were more plentiful near the end of Nitinat Canyon but I don't know if that's true. Also, I just realized that I'd need to be farther N than Nitinat as Nitinat is in the U.S. and I can't legally fish deeper than 20 fathoms in U.S. waters now. Also, I can't fish outside the 12 mile line until I get into area 123.
Hook'n Them Up Fishing
Member
Buddy 70% of the swiftsure bank is an RCA now thanks to DFO and you can't fish the Nitnat mouth anymore either RCA as well means no FIN FISHING I was guiding up there in sooke vic and renfrew but moved to north island this year. best of luck hope the water cops don't get ya.
1) The 30% of Swiftsure that isn't an RCA still fishes pretty well. The RCA has been carefully marked out on my GPS for a couple of years.
2) Nitinat Canyon is NOT the same as the mouth of the Nitinat River. It's about 40 miles offshore of VCI. But as I said above the Nitinat Canyon is in U.S. waters and I can't fish in water deeper than 20 fathoms in U.S. waters now anyway.
3) Not worried about fish cops since I obey the rules.
Other than that, did you have any useful advice to offer?
blackvelvet
Member
Seadna, since you will be bottom fishing BC waters and you cannot bring back U.S. protected rockfish to a U.S. port.............Will you be using a descending device to put bloated rockfish back down ??? Only other choice is to let them float away dead.....I hope you will respect the BC fisheries and send them back down with a descending device..............Personally I think you should be thankful for any advice you get from a Canadian to a yankee......You are launching out of Neah, and going back to Neah,...... pillaging BC fish without spending a dime into their economy except your license.........If I were from BC I would hesitate to give any info to a yankee that only comes to take their fish and spend no money in their country..........and those that have given you advice are just trying to keep you from making the common mistakes that occur by yanks crossing over to catch BC fish............Here's an idea. If you like fishing BC in your own boat, just drag it across the island and stay for a week or so and wherever you end up, the locals are usually happy to give you advice on fishing spots. You'll likely run into other wing nuts (WN on the boat) while you're there and make some new friends, and the money you spend goes into the economies of small towns on the island that depend on revenue from fishermen just like yourself.........Barclay sound (Bamfield, Ukee), Nootka, Esperanza, Port Hardy, Campell river, Sooke.....and more, the possibilities are almost endless and much more fun & relaxing staying there instead of just crossing over to fish then going back......There are also many great independent guides and lodges all up and down both sides of the island, and leaving the boat at home to go with a guide or lodge is a wonderful thing, They know all the regulations, have the best gear, and they will know where to get pacific cod or whether it's even worth wasting time trying for them................. you might try it sometime, well worth it IMO......................BTW, Neah bay is a tribal reservation and the money you spend there only helps enable them to continue their documented out-of-control overharvesting with little disregard for federally mandated quotas.............Tight Lines BV
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nicnat
Well-Known Member
blackvelvet, i'm sure you have no problem taking all those american fish we catch in bc waters. if it wasn't for the american chinook programs in the columbia a lot of resorts and guides on our coast may not be doing as well as they are. he's paid for his license and seems well informed on the regs and i'm sure is as responsible or more so than a lot of our canadian counterparts. you sure a make good case for an american to NOT want to come up and enjoy what we have to offer in bc. good luck on your trip seadna.
cheers nicnat
cheers nicnat
nicnat
Well-Known Member
wow, didn't realize blackvelvet was a yank, shoulda read his profile 1st. my apologies, I think most bc fisherman would not take your position on this instance blackvelvet, and I'm sure he has or will be up here spending some loot in our sport fishing industry.
cheers nicnat
cheers nicnat
Well, i did drop several grand in BC last year and a few hundred so far this year. Also, one can bring rockfish back into us waters legally so I'm not sure where Bv gets his info. What i can't do is fish in Canadian water and then fish in us water with Canadian rockfish on board or land yelloweye or canary rockfish in the u.s. And yes, as mentioned in a previous thread, I do use a descender for the very few rockfish I need to return.
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He means the Yelloweye. You can't have them in the boat in U.S. waters. I have fished the Canadian side of swiftsure from Neah bay a few years ago and plan on doing it again this year. It's a great trip, we caught some chickens, rockfish and a few salmon. Lots of fun! Good luck to you!
BTW I also take a trip up north with about 8 guys whereby we contribute about $10,000 to the Canadian economy. Good times!
BTW I also take a trip up north with about 8 guys whereby we contribute about $10,000 to the Canadian economy. Good times!
finaddict
Well-Known Member
Just a note to all you "yanks" coming up to fish Canuck waters..........Welcome! Us Canucks have enjoyed the grace of your hatcheries for years and I am a very grateful Canuck for your efforts. Please come up and help yourself to a few of your wonderful Columbia hatchery fish. You likely won't find too many Canuck fish left because we have had the amazing foresight to decimate all of our hatchery programs and catch all but a very few remaining of our own fish. Any Canuck who gets too protective of you fishing in our waters needs to take a real good hard look at what it is that he is harvesting.
BTW, I do not benefit in any way by you coming up here and fishing in our waters, I am not a guide, I don't run a lodge, a marina, or get anything other than fewer camping spots, and more boats on the water. I just find that the vast majority of Americans that fish our waters are respectful, courteous, friendly and very appreciative to be here. I have more problems with locals who think they personally own the waters than I do with "yanks" who come up here.
BTW, I do not benefit in any way by you coming up here and fishing in our waters, I am not a guide, I don't run a lodge, a marina, or get anything other than fewer camping spots, and more boats on the water. I just find that the vast majority of Americans that fish our waters are respectful, courteous, friendly and very appreciative to be here. I have more problems with locals who think they personally own the waters than I do with "yanks" who come up here.
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I'd guess that for every Columbia River-bound spring Canadians catch, Alaskans catch one that was headed for BC rivers. I also know that if I wanted to fish in "American waters" (a term that's highly disputed due to different interpretations of where the boundary is ) in Dixon Entrance, I'd have to go through a huge rigamarole. That said, since seadna seems to have leaped through many, many Canadian hoops, it's pretty hard to begrudge him the trip.
Obviously he could trailer and ferry his boat to Vancouver Island at considerable cost in time, money, and inconvenience, or leave it behind and pay a fortune to hire guides, but since he can conveniently launch and expeditiously fish from near home, as long as he's willing to deal with the red tape, I doubt the dent in the resource will be noticeable, or that a stampede will ensue.
Obviously he could trailer and ferry his boat to Vancouver Island at considerable cost in time, money, and inconvenience, or leave it behind and pay a fortune to hire guides, but since he can conveniently launch and expeditiously fish from near home, as long as he's willing to deal with the red tape, I doubt the dent in the resource will be noticeable, or that a stampede will ensue.
Brief report - I did fish on both Sat. and Sun. with myself, my wife and my buddy on board. Each time we crossed the border, we checked in with Canadian Border Services as required. Since I have traveled to B.C. before on my boat and since I have a Nexus card, the check-in process goes pretty quickly. You answer a few questions and get a reporting number and you're done. I was slightly amused when I explained where I would be (off the west end of the straight of Juan de Fuca and no father north than La Perouse bank) and the CBS agent asked me "Where's the Strait of Juan de Fuca?" and then made me spell it for him. I didn't expect he'd know where La Perouse bank was at, but the Stait - that I kind figured he'd know. Same thing happened on Sunday with the female agent. So I asked and found out they work out of Ontario.
On Sat. we fished off the west end of the closure at Swiftsure. There were plenty of Canadians out there fishing for salmon but none bothering to bottom fish (at least that I could tell). I'm always amused that when salmon season is open, the herd of Canadian boats concentrates very close to the border while the American fleet seems to concentrate just on the other side. It's as if both groups seem to think the fishing must be better on the other side of the border and the best we can do is get close to it.
We drifted along in the AM on Sat while the current was slow (it was very slow in the early AM). We caught one hali around 25lbs and a nice keeper ling. Using the big jigs we were using AND fishing an area that is mostly flat shelf off the west end of the closure, we caught precisely zero rockfish on Sat. We released two sub-legal lings. When the current started moving, we ran around to check out a bunch of other spots later in the day. We were as far north as La Perouse bank, didn't catch anything up there but had fun poking around a bit. It's been 9 months since I was out there and I enjoyed burning the fuel and just seeing the sites. There's a lot of spots I haven't fished so I checked out a few.
On Sunday we again fished the off the west edge of the closure. We picked up two hali both of which were a little smaller than the one on Sat. We were using bait (mostly squid) for much of the day but we did catch a few yellow tail rockfish on a jig. When the current started ripping a bit, we got out the downriggers and trolled near the bottom in the hopes of catching a hali. We played catch and release with a couple of springs and just for fun, we caught and released about 6 coho and a pink. The coho and pink were all caught dragging a funky chicken coyote spoon 50' out the back behind a 4-6oz banana weight. The springs were caught on a large B2 size squid imitation behind a green flasher. All salmon were returned unharmed. The bottom fish we caught returned with us to the U.S. and the resource was (of course) respected.
The weather was excellent, no descender was used nor needed and we had a good time. All-in-all, it was a nice way to spend a father's day weekend.
BTW - the water temp was much higher at La Perouse than it was further south. I recorded temps of up to 61F at La Perouse while temps were in the low 50's F most other places. Just some info for those with tuna on their brains.
On Sat. we fished off the west end of the closure at Swiftsure. There were plenty of Canadians out there fishing for salmon but none bothering to bottom fish (at least that I could tell). I'm always amused that when salmon season is open, the herd of Canadian boats concentrates very close to the border while the American fleet seems to concentrate just on the other side. It's as if both groups seem to think the fishing must be better on the other side of the border and the best we can do is get close to it.
We drifted along in the AM on Sat while the current was slow (it was very slow in the early AM). We caught one hali around 25lbs and a nice keeper ling. Using the big jigs we were using AND fishing an area that is mostly flat shelf off the west end of the closure, we caught precisely zero rockfish on Sat. We released two sub-legal lings. When the current started moving, we ran around to check out a bunch of other spots later in the day. We were as far north as La Perouse bank, didn't catch anything up there but had fun poking around a bit. It's been 9 months since I was out there and I enjoyed burning the fuel and just seeing the sites. There's a lot of spots I haven't fished so I checked out a few.
On Sunday we again fished the off the west edge of the closure. We picked up two hali both of which were a little smaller than the one on Sat. We were using bait (mostly squid) for much of the day but we did catch a few yellow tail rockfish on a jig. When the current started ripping a bit, we got out the downriggers and trolled near the bottom in the hopes of catching a hali. We played catch and release with a couple of springs and just for fun, we caught and released about 6 coho and a pink. The coho and pink were all caught dragging a funky chicken coyote spoon 50' out the back behind a 4-6oz banana weight. The springs were caught on a large B2 size squid imitation behind a green flasher. All salmon were returned unharmed. The bottom fish we caught returned with us to the U.S. and the resource was (of course) respected.
The weather was excellent, no descender was used nor needed and we had a good time. All-in-all, it was a nice way to spend a father's day weekend.
BTW - the water temp was much higher at La Perouse than it was further south. I recorded temps of up to 61F at La Perouse while temps were in the low 50's F most other places. Just some info for those with tuna on their brains.
Hook'n Them Up Fishing
Member
ok you have fun with that one I'll tell the boys to keep there eyes peeled for ya!
I would think that by now it would be clear that I did not, do not and will not violate any fishing regulations or other laws. So send the boys by, I'll have a few extra cold coca cola's in the cooler for them!
Finished Business
Well-Known Member
Great report. I guess the yanks are only welcome if they are booking with Hook'n Them Up Fishing Charters. LOL
Sounds like you covered a lot of water and had a great day. Some pics would have been nice though Rog!
Cheers
Sounds like you covered a lot of water and had a great day. Some pics would have been nice though Rog!
Cheers
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