2018 Nootka Sound/Esperanza Inlet Reports

i appreciate the encouragement! We will probably end up going it's just hard to leave really good fishing this season here in Washington! Thanks again for all your guys help. I have been on a lot of fishing forums and this one is by far the most helpful
 
Just got back last night. Fishing was fairly slow on the inside, that full moon didn't help. I had my starter screw up so going outside was a no go, fished inside on the kicker and managed a few fish. Lots of hours on the boat and little to show for it. The fishing seemed to be picking up yesterday as a few fish came into the dock early. All fish were on anchovie.

Mike
 
Did a day trip up to Nootka from Campbell River yesterday. Got up left C.R. at 3 am and was fishing at Camel Rock by 6:15 am. Lots of boats and saw a few fish caught. Lots of bait balls showing on the sounder, the bait we saw on the surface was pretty small. We fished from 6:15 am until around 4:30 pm managed to pick up three springs ranging from 10 to 20 lbs. Picked two up at Camel Rock and at San Carlos, all three fish were caught a little deeper. All three were caught on Anchovy in a bloody nose teaser head. We felt a bit lucky to pick up three judging by what other boats were doing, even though we had to put in a full day to get them.
 
We are headed to nootka on thrusday till Sunday for the first time. I see some mentioning of fog. Is this peasoup type fog or can you see a few 100 yards? Is the fog both inside and out? We dont have radar and I am just trying to get a feel for what to expect
 
We are headed to nootka on thrusday till Sunday for the first time. I see some mentioning of fog. Is this peasoup type fog or can you see a few 100 yards? Is the fog both inside and out? We dont have radar and I am just trying to get a feel for what to expect

last week i was there fog was inside and out; it burned off later in the day but visibility sucked. visibility was less than 100 yards for sure. i went out side anyway like an idiot ( i too have no radar) i slowly cruised out to the light muttering” this is stupid this is stupid this is stupid” the entire time. i would classify that as pea soup. i was slowly making my way thru the spanish pilot group trying to avoid other boats. in any event NOT smart but you get “trip commited” and start justify your actions.
 
last week i was there fog was inside and out; it burned off later in the day but visibility sucked. visibility was less than 100 yards for sure. i went out side anyway like an idiot ( i too have no radar) i slowly cruised out to the light muttering” this is stupid this is stupid this is stupid” the entire time. i would classify that as pea soup. i was slowly making my way thru the spanish pilot group trying to avoid other boats. in any event NOT smart but you get “trip commited” and start justify your actions.
Thanks for that riverboy. Thats exactly the type of experience I dont want
 
Thanks for that riverboy. Thats exactly the type of experience I dont want

It can get bad both off shore and right around the Lighthouse in my experience. The problem with fog is its hard to tell if you can see 100 meters or its 500 meters once you're in it. Perspective gets clearer when you're out of it or you have radar. I've been out at Bajo a few times where I see fog in the distance in the West. Before you realize it its right on top of you. Of course its great fishing so you stick it out and follow your gps bread crumbs and turn on the radar well in advance to get a sense for distances. On the west coast you need radar. No exceptions.
 
It can get bad both off shore and right around the Lighthouse in my experience. The problem with fog is its hard to tell if you can see 100 meters or its 500 meters once you're in it. Perspective gets clearer when you're out of it or you have radar. I've been out at Bajo a few times where I see fog in the distance in the West. Before you realize it its right on top of you. Of course its great fishing so you stick it out and follow your gps bread crumbs and turn on the radar well in advance to get a sense for distances. On the west coast you need radar. No exceptions.

I agree radar would be good. However having fished bamfield I would say most boats that aren't guide boats dont have it. I am assuming nootka is not much different. For me I fish the west coast once a year and it's basically never foggy in my home waters so pretty hard to justify the cost. We are smart boaters and if its peasoup we would just stick close to the lodge but have mo problem running around if I can see a few 100m. I am just trying to get an idea of what to expect. Thanks for your reply.
 
Got back from Nootka yesterday, we launched at the GR boat launch, when parking my boat and trailer I noticed a boat trailer license plate hanging off bush. It looked like someone had backed their trailer into the bushes and when they drove away it got caught on a tree branch and ripped it off their trailer. I picked it up figured I would see if anyone here is missing it. First three digits are WFF *** and the registration expires AUG 25th 2018. If this is yours or you know whos it is let me know and I will fire it in the mail to you.
 
Fished pretty hard July 29-31 without much to show for it. Boated a real nice chinook an hour into the first morning then it just went cold the next two days, released a few small springs and couldn't keep our gear in the water because of rockfish at times. The weather was strange this year, one morning the fog was so thick you could barely see 100 yards or so, by the afternoon it would be clear/partly cloudy, also it seemed a lot windier this year than in years past. We pretty much stuck to the usual inside spots with the exception of one trip outside. Didn't see alot of nets out, nor did we see many fish being cleaned at cougar creek but small anchovies (as small as possible) and hoochies seemed to be the ticket. It rained the morning we left and supposedly there was more of a bite but who knows.
Even though the fishing was lean this year it was still a good trip in my book, it's always a nice get-away heading up there.

-Attatched pictures; "Can't say we didn't try" gps of Hoiss lol. And some scenery

Ac6hJpo
boxFsPx

Ac6hJpo.jpg
 
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Just home from fishing Nootka last Sat - till wed. Stayed at Nootka rentals for our 4th straight year. Great place!!! Started out Saturday afternoon. Dead slow. Sunday fished lighthouse and Burdwood caught a couple 10lbs but again fairly slow. Monday went inside and was first boat at camel. Saw 3 fish caught there including our 20lbs. Went out to the lighthouse for afternoon high tide and did pretty well. Got into 6 fish. All around 12 - 18lbs. Tuesday started at lighthouse and hooked into 6 springs for the morning. Watched a Nootka island lodge boat hook about 15 springs. Pretty impressive!! We came in and did the high slack again.. hooked another 10 what a great day.. again nothing over 22lbs but what action.. Wednesday morning we landed 6 and released all but two to get our limit.. all in all it was a great trip. One thing that was frustrating was all the dam salad on the water, it was everywhere,fishing was almost like work!! Almost:) thanks again to Dave Gunn for his great hospitality.. All fish were caught on 5inch anchovies!! Tight lines.
 
Yes that GPS track says it all.

Sometimes at Hoisse to Thasis Inlet you have to troll DEEEEEPPPP!!! No one else seems to but we have cracked the secret a number of times going 90 - 120 on dead days.

Another thing to try is keep going faster and faster on a deep troll to the point where the balls are at 45 degrees and the lines are ready to blow out of the release clips, then put the kicker in neutral and let the ball fall to vertical, then start over.

If the fish are on squid they love this approach. Looks like a squid going deep to escape a predator. Use a glow hootchie for this approach.

Will be up on the 13th for a week. May be river mouth jigging, but best I could do for timing.

Drewski
 
Maybe this'll work

Ac6hJpo.jpg


boxFsPx.jpg


Well two out of three ain't bad
A few weeks back Hoiss was on fire for us and we caught 10/12 decent sized fish there on mornings and evenings. Small anchovies were key as was the all white coho killer. We nailed most right at that estuary to Coopte point and one rod was consistently hitting at 71’ and the other was at 51’. Trolling speed was key and we kept things at 2.1 to 2.3kts. Heading back up on Tuesday with the family so hopefully things will be going off on the inside and we’ll get into some good fishing. Looks like good weather in the forecast.
 
Maybe this'll work

Well two out of three ain't bad

Thank you!

Yes that GPS track says it all.

Sometimes at Hoisse to Thasis Inlet you have to troll DEEEEEPPPP!!! No one else seems to but we have cracked the secret a number of times going 90 - 120 on dead days.

Another thing to try is keep going faster and faster on a deep troll to the point where the balls are at 45 degrees and the lines are ready to blow out of the release clips, then put the kicker in neutral and let the ball fall to vertical, then start over.

If the fish are on squid they love this approach. Looks like a squid going deep to escape a predator. Use a glow hootchie for this approach.

Will be up on the 13th for a week. May be river mouth jigging, but best I could do for timing.

Drewski

We had 100'+ out on the cable by 9 am without much change in luck, some really small ones not worth keeping and a whole lot of dogfish. That's a good tip about fishing with hootchies, we'll be sure to try that next year. It's appreciated!

A few weeks back Hoiss was on fire for us and we caught 10/12 decent sized fish there on mornings and evenings. We nailed most right at that estuary to Coopte point and one rod was consistently hitting at 71’ and the other was at 51’. Trolling speed was key and we kept things at 2.1 to 2.3kts.

Yup, reading the reports we were hoping if we worked that area hard enough we'd pick up a few but we never seemed to be able to get a beat on where the fish were hanging out. I do agree going deep, all of our hookups were 50'-110' on the cable, even early in the morning.
 
928B229D-2D90-42EF-8FDE-B73E6F01C930.jpeg 5A4ECB5F-723E-4D9B-AFF9-8208A5FB43E1.jpeg 095625AB-5702-4225-8108-FBC31D483E47.jpeg Just back from a Nootka Sound trip with my daughter (July 30-Aug 3). Always a great trip but it was much slower on the inside than last year for us. Nothing on the first day. Next morning I really chased the sounder marks with the gear going down as deep as 125’ on a track between Hoiss and Coopte. After about 90 mins of no action we had a double header at 105’! My daughter lost the first one after a few good runs but she managed to get the second one in - always entertaining to see that second rod in the rod holder jumping around with line peeling off the reel while you try to focus on the other fish :). Then a few minutes later we got one more at the same depth.

Next two days we were offshore in the best water conditions you could ask for - lake like conditions. Lots of birds at the red can but no fish. Then went further south a few miles and found a lot of birds working the area - 2 hits but nothing stuck. Then back to Beano for the afternoon flood and got into some hot action. Lots of coho with quite a few being hatchery which was nice. And managed 2 nice Chinook after losing 2 screamers. My daughter shifted to netting as she her arms were too tired to reel anymore . Next day at Beano and the coho were still around - got our limit on hatchery coho but only found undersize Chinook - believe the bait and Chinook may have pushed down toward Maquinna and the Lighthouse area. But we did get a nice surprise in tight to the shore in about 65’ of water. I had a small spoon with no flasher running a few feet off the bottom - hooked a screamer. Long powerful run. Then heavy dead weight coming toward the boat staying down deep - realized at that point we might have a halibut on. Sure enough. Used the harpoon to get control in the water before bringing it aboard. Beauty 46lbs. First halibut my daughter has ever caught which was really cool. And it thrashed like crazy at the side of the boat to put on a show. Great memories until next year!!

Also met Codfather at the boat ramp when we were launching - it was brief chat amidst the launching chaos :) but cool to meet him after all his contributions on this thread.
 
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