2016 Nootka Sound/Esperanza Inlet Fishing Reports

Hit Nootka thurs pm. Ramp as reported. First run for the boat this year -primarily a white fish trip but I promised to report on salmon. If I don't name a spot I didn't fish it. I hit all the spots with this years anchovy one side and any of the following on the other-- cop car GLO spoon, coho killer,602 white hootchy, clear hootchy with a double flash LED light from Lighthouse lures, coyote spoons-assorted patterns. Fished -San Carlos ,Coopte pt, Monument to Wash rock until dark. A little bait at Coopte pt but no salmon takes. Gorgeous day on fri-spent 14 hrs fishing-able to travel at 30 mph off-shore. I had plotted a couple of ling and hali spots well off-shore-didn't know what to expect- but it was without a doubt the best ling and hali fishing I have ever experienced. A big shout out to the new smaller size LED from Lighthouse_ I put them in a very large hoochy, spreader bar with a 9inch herring and circle hooks-- outfished the same 9 inch herring and no light by an embarrassing margin. We were limited on Hali's and lings by 0930. I was far to the south so went out to 350 ft and tried for salmon. Nothing . Traveled back up to 4 miles outside the Bajo Reef moaning buoy(400 ft)-no sign of salmon and little bait. Went into the reef and along the south side. Worked around Maquinna -picked up a small hali on a chovie-released. Wash Rock and the monument. Fish cleaning- a brew, excellent chilli , homemade sausage, and good nights sleep. Did hear of some bait at Beano creek but no report of salmon. First light did the Burdwood shore-3 shakers. What can I say-excellent trip-best white fish trip I have ever done. There are trollers working off-shore-hope they have better luck than us. Early days!!!!
 
Codfather/Spring Fever, great reports. Thanks for sharing. Fingers crossed its a productive year for Springs at Nootka ....
 
Hi SF,
What color Lighthouse LED were you using?

Thanks,

Flounder Dave


Hit Nootka thurs pm. Ramp as reported. First run for the boat this year -primarily a white fish trip but I promised to report on salmon. If I don't name a spot I didn't fish it. I hit all the spots with this years anchovy one side and any of the following on the other-- cop car GLO spoon, coho killer,602 white hootchy, clear hootchy with a double flash LED light from Lighthouse lures, coyote spoons-assorted patterns. Fished -San Carlos ,Coopte pt, Monument to Wash rock until dark. A little bait at Coopte pt but no salmon takes. Gorgeous day on fri-spent 14 hrs fishing-able to travel at 30 mph off-shore. I had plotted a couple of ling and hali spots well off-shore-didn't know what to expect- but it was without a doubt the best ling and hali fishing I have ever experienced. A big shout out to the new smaller size LED from Lighthouse_ I put them in a very large hoochy, spreader bar with a 9inch herring and circle hooks-- outfished the same 9 inch herring and no light by an embarrassing margin. We were limited on Hali's and lings by 0930. I was far to the south so went out to 350 ft and tried for salmon. Nothing . Traveled back up to 4 miles outside the Bajo Reef moaning buoy(400 ft)-no sign of salmon and little bait. Went into the reef and along the south side. Worked around Maquinna -picked up a small hali on a chovie-released. Wash Rock and the monument. Fish cleaning- a brew, excellent chilli , homemade sausage, and good nights sleep. Did hear of some bait at Beano creek but no report of salmon. First light did the Burdwood shore-3 shakers. What can I say-excellent trip-best white fish trip I have ever done. There are trollers working off-shore-hope they have better luck than us. Early days!!!!
 
I was using a double flash green-but they also have a double flash red which I want to try. They are a bit smaller than the older version which were fine for the really large hoochys used for hali's but these ones slip into a cuttlefish hoochy with ease so I am going to use them for salmon as well. Remember that a light has to be within 1 meter of the hook by the regs.
 
Thanks for the reports, I`m headed up Thur for the first trip of the year set up camp, primarily targeting hali, ling but also try for springs and shrimp? hopefully have the same success as SF and the winds stay down! Report on return.
 
My buddy was out for the weekend and fished the Bajo Reef on Sunday. Within 2 hours they limited out on nice springs, they were all from 18 to 20 pounds.

The hatchery said they are expecting 100K fish back to the Conuma and a high percentage of 5 year old fish. I hope it's true and we can put some Tyee's on the board this year. Last year was the worst I have ever seen for big fish over 30 pounds. Yes there were lot's of fish between 15 and 20 pounds and that's not a bad thing, it's just not the same as a screamer that takes you to the backing.

Codfather
 
Just got back only fished a couple of days due to mechanical issues. Plenty of lings and bottom fish, few hali. We did not fish salmon but had reports of fish being caught at maquinna and as CF reported around Bajo.
 
Was up camping, surfing and did a bit of fishing up on Nootka this last weekend. The surf was bigger and better than expected so we didn't really fish that much. Friday we surfed our brains out. Saturday morning we went up to Ferrer Point first thing in the morning and on the first pass we got a beautiful 15lb chinook on the middle rod with slip weight and XL AP Sandlance Spoon, which is exactly what we were needing to feed us for a couple days. With that, we headed back to camp. Sunday looked pretty sloppy out there so we opted for cutthroat fishing up the creek that we were camping on. The creek was also rammed full of coho (pretty darn sure) smolts in the last section before hitting the reef flats. There was literally hundreds. Got some very cool gopro fottage of them. On the way home on Monday we were a bit pressed for time so we gave 20mins at Bajo and about an hour around the monument on the way back to Cougar Creek. No bites. Sounds like we should have stuck around bajo! Here are a couple pics and i'll post a video of the weekend when I get a chance. All in all....great weekend!
Wolf tracks
Coho Smolts
GOPR0358.jpg IMG_6279.jpg IMG_6289.jpg
 
Was up camping, surfing and did a bit of fishing up on Nootka this last weekend. The surf was bigger and better than expected so we didn't really fish that much. Friday we surfed our brains out. Saturday morning we went up to Ferrer Point first thing in the morning and on the first pass we got a beautiful 15lb chinook on the middle rod with slip weight and XL AP Sandlance Spoon, which is exactly what we were needing to feed us for a couple days. With that, we headed back to camp. Sunday looked pretty sloppy out there so we opted for cutthroat fishing up the creek that we were camping on. The creek was also rammed full of coho (pretty darn sure) smolts in the last section before hitting the reef flats. There was literally hundreds. Got some very cool gopro fottage of them. On the way home on Monday we were a bit pressed for time so we gave 20mins at Bajo and about an hour around the monument on the way back to Cougar Creek. No bites. Sounds like we should have stuck around bajo! Here are a couple pics and i'll post a video of the weekend when I get a chance. All in all....great weekend!
Wolf tracks
Coho Smolts
View attachment 27828 View attachment 27829 View attachment 27830



Great report and awesome pictures. Really like the salmon cooking over the fire.
Need more info on the cooking , and how it turned out. Jealous of that for sure......BB
 
ditto on the great pics and video. brings a story to life!
thxs!
 
Man I love that gaff. Project time! There is a very healthy population of wolves in Nootka. Watched them walk the beaches while trolling Tahsis Inlet, and also while camping on Bligh Island. Kept us up one night howling. Guy I know witnessed a buck get taken down right on shore by a pack of wolves. Andrew, love your spoons btw.
 
Great report and awesome pictures. Really like the salmon cooking over the fire.
Need more info on the cooking , and how it turned out. Jealous of that for sure......BB

The cooking works great. There are a ton of ways to do it, and this is the way I like to do it. The center stake gets reused and this one in particular has about a dozen salmon cooked on it all over the coast. It's made of cedar and if you burn it....you know your fire is too hot or you have it too close. Then you just need to find a good straight piece of cedar and split it into 1/4" skewers and alternate between through the meat just in from the skin and then outside skin. Then weave the sides and finish with a couple pieces to prevent a the fish from falling apart. Wrap a piece of tie wire around the bottom. I like to lean it towards the fire at about a 15-20 degrees off vertical. Meat first until it is done(30-60 min depending on thickness), then flip around hit the back for 10-15 min. Do not go back to the front or the meat will fall off.

I'm just slapping together some gopro clips that capture what I would call a great morning. I'll post when done.IMG_6258.jpg
 
Beauty pics Andrew.

Great posts over this season. Appreciated!

Looking very forward to bent rods in Nootka come summer. I wish I lived closer.

PW
 
diesel still available at Esperanza fuel dock in Hecate ch?

i know it was last fall.... i would guess that it's still available..
 
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