2015 Nootka Sound/Esperanza Inlet Reports

bigbruce, the Hwy is about 6 miles out from the Red can at Blind Reef depending on your angle.

Toney, if you look 5 posts down all you questions are answered.
 
Codfather - generally how deep do you fish when fishing the highway? I know it varies but do you still find the fish near the top or do you fish deeper out there?

Thanks

Tight Roll
 
Tight Roll, I fish deeper on the Hwy. My usual set up will be 120' on one side and 150' on the other. I run a 20 pound ball on my side and run it deeper than the 15 pound on the other side. Then I watch the screen and adjust from there. If it's raining and dark I might start at 90' and 120'.

I run my third downrigger off the back and it stays shallow above 60' mostly for Coho and to keep it from getting near the other two.

There can be lots of bait at 200 or 250 feet suspended and I will drop it down and nail the fish.

At times the bait can be right on the bottom 300' and stay there for days. The fish will go where the bait is so you need to watch for that. I have spent many days trolling right on the floor. I let my side down until it hits the bottom, then stop for a minute. The cannon ball will ride up a few feet so then let it back down until it hits again. Now I know it's on the floor where the bait and fish are. Usually when I'm trolling in 300' of water the downrigger will be showing 400'. That's because of the blow back as you still have to troll at your speed. Within seconds most often when you are in the right position on the bottom the rod will go bang, fishon. It takes a lot of work at times bringing a fish in from that deep and other times within a few seconds they are jumping out of the water.

After a couple hours of that everyone's arms are like spaghetti and we go fish some shallow water because the cooler is full.

Tight Roll, I have had days when I'm fishing my usual 150 to 120 and fill the box and have had other boats that have been fishing the same spots come back with no springs just a few Coho. When we are on the dock at Critter and they say we didn't get anything and see the wheelbarrow full we start to figure out why. Normally they are trolling at the 30' to 50' range like you would trolling at the Reef. I'm not saying you will never get fish shallow but most time deeper is always better on the Hwy.
 
Great info about the HWY Codfather

Fished the weekend out of Westview Marina in Tahsis.Great hospitality.John did tell us to go the HWY

We fished the Pins on Friday and got a couple.Then Saturday we fished the lighthouse and released an undersize.Went to Bajo and released some under sized ling.Hooked into something heavy and lost it.Fished Salter Pt on the way back with no results.
Basically not much fish on the inside for us
Everybody at the dock with abundant fish were out at the HWY
 
To the Codfather thank you for some great info.! I've got two questions when fishing with 300-400 ft of line out there do you use a flasher? Ive done it with and without... just blowback is excessive and I only have 15lb balls and really is it necessary? Could you also touch on the location of the "T'?... is it esperenza canyon? Thanks for all the great info.


Cheers CC
 
Thanks Codfather. Exactly what I was looking for, have fished the highway a couple of times and while we did get some fish, it was not as productive as expected. Now I know why.

Out at Critter from June 30 - July 10, perhaps see you out there.

Tight Roll
 
This make a lot of sense to me now. We fished there one time and thought the place is amazing with so many boats in one area and all of them were catching fish. We only got one Sspring and the rest were cohos because when we first got there we were fishing deeper and got one spring within minutes but for some reasons that I don't recall moved our lines up and from there on it was all cohos which was ok for us first timers!
Thanks for sharing your valuable skills and I hope to go back there some day but with the cost of the ferry plus the trip from Edmonton I would love to find storage for my boat in the Island.
Cheers,
Ray
codfather said:
Tight Roll, I fish deeper on the Hwy. My usual set up will be 120' on one side and 150' on the other. I run a 20 pound ball on my side and run it deeper than the 15 pound on the other side. Then I watch the screen and adjust from there. If it's raining and dark I might start at 90' and 120'.

I run my third downrigger off the back and it stays shallow above 60' mostly for Coho and to keep it from getting near the other two.

There can be lots of bait at 200 or 250 feet suspended and I will drop it down and nail the fish.

At times the bait can be right on the bottom 300' and stay there for days. The fish will go where the bait is so you need to watch for that. I have spent many days trolling right on the floor. I let my side down until it hits the bottom, then stop for a minute. The cannon ball will ride up a few feet so then let it back down until it hits again. Now I know it's on the floor where the bait and fish are. Usually when I'm trolling in 300' of water the downrigger will be showing 400'. That's because of the blow back as you still have to troll at your speed. Within seconds most often when you are in the right position on the bottom the rod will go bang, fishon. It takes a lot of work at times bringing a fish in from that deep and other times within a few seconds they are jumping out of the water.

After a couple hours of that everyone's arms are like spaghetti and we go fish some shallow water because the cooler is full.

Tight Roll, I have had days when I'm fishing my usual 150 to 120 and fill the box and have had other boats that have been fishing the same spots come back with no springs just a few Coho. When we are on the dock at Critter and they say we didn't get anything and see the wheelbarrow full we start to figure out why. Normally they are trolling at the 30' to 50' range like you would trolling at the Reef. I'm not saying you will never get fish shallow but most time deeper is always better on the Hwy.
Click to expand...
 
Not hearing many positive reports from Nootka. Heading over this coming weekend hopefully it picks up?
 
Just getting to the rod first is the problem. Rumor has it you'll push an 80 year old over the side to get a rod first. Combat fishing
 
Sorry for the delay crazycanuck, I had to go to work for the last 4 days. If you use a flasher you will have more blowback. I like to use a dummy flasher so that's why I use a 20# ball. If I'm trolling on the bottom at 300' then I don't use a flasher mainly for the blow back but also because the fish and bait are stacked 20 feet deep.

The T is a bit NW towards Kyuquot about 5 miles from the pins at Esperenza. Sometimes when I'm looking for big fish I will troll from the pins around the corner to the T or Whales Tail. That takes a couple of hours trolling at 3 MPH.

Tight Roll, yes I will wee you on the dock as I'll be at Critter Cove starting July 2nd. I'm guiding a group for 9 days at Critter so we can catch up then.

My buddy is guiding for a few days starting tomorrow at Nootka Lodge so I'll have a report when he gets back.
 
codfather know how & where to fish the Hyw. All good STUFF!!
Report on fishing over the past week at the Hyw "IT:S ON FIRE" boats limiting out in an hour, a LOT of doubles.
Will fallow up with pictures later today.
Best Catching is beyond the pins head to the "T"
Take your Hali. setups with you. After limiting on Springs fish between the pens for Hali.
Fish On John
 
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