Shore fishing

John Ingram

Well-Known Member
I do not own a boat and all of the extra's that go with it. Can't afford it. My Salmon fishing involves me going to
the shoreline and finding a good spot to fish with spinning gear, buzzbombs and zingers.
I have kept all of my saltwater licences since the late 60's and the total amount of Salmon that I have taken in all those years work out to less than 50 fish total in 50 years. I do not keep all of the fish I have landed. I have lost quite a few also. Spit hooks, kelp and even seals. Anything over 25lbs. would be returned hopefully to survive and to spawn. I would think that a third of these fish were released leaving me,my family and friends with maybe 35 Salmon to share in those 50 years. Now that I'm 65 years old I would like to think that I could have a few more years to catch a few more. Just my thoughts on the subject.


Thanks John I.
 
In My teenage and University years I did the same thing. Was a regular at Ten Mile Point and when I lived in Nanaimo after that, was a regular at Rocky Point. Use to sneak across the golf course fairway in Victoria to the good spot on the rocks and when the Chinook were in the little bay feeding on needle fish in the late evening just to the outside of the Oak Bay Marina. Also caught the odd one off the breakwater but never did the waders thing that some did in Ross Bay - usually for Coho.

What is really sad with the new Otter Point Closure boundary, is that the best spot on it may now be technically out of bounds (I am not sure) but the secondary less good spot on the east side is still legal for certain. There are so few good spots to shore fish for salmon on lower VI and Otter Point is the best of all. Use to make trips to Campbell River and fish off the Argonaut Wharf on the edge of the Tyee pool but that has been closed to fishing for decades. The fishing wharf they built downtown is just not the same.

I agree that especially today, one could spend a huge amount of hours to even get a strike and it is very difficult to catch a large Chinook from shore and get it in with all the kelp and rocks and difficulty in going after it when it runs laterally. As a fishing method, that way of catching Chinook and salmon in general is very inefficient and minimal impact to the extreme, especially today and should be allowed special consideration in the rules. Unfortunately it will never happen. The Govt. long ago began moving away from evidence based fishery management and is now managing fisheries politically to a degree never seen before.
 
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Morning Rockfish,
thanks for the reply... I may have fished with you at all of the places you mentioned. I would pack up my fishing gear onto my bicycle and
wander off to Ten Mile point, Oak bay Marina or the Golf Course. The Golf Course was always my favorite spot and I got 2 of my largest fish there,
a 37 and a 32lb er. That was on an old Diawa 9' glass rod, Mitchell 386 reel with about 500 yds. of 12lb test charter boat line and hand painted lures.
Most days fishing I would just enjoy the wildlife and the scenery. Maybe a 1 in 5 day's fishing in the summer month to even catch a single fish.
There have been a few times at the Golf Course that the killer whales would come by so close that I could have reached out and touched them.
Now most of what swims by are Sea Lions, I counted 25 of them swim by in the 1 hour that I was down there last week.

Any how I'll wait till Aug 1st and may camp out there for the month. Might get one or two.

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My profile picture is me and my partner at the Golf Course about 5 years ago.
 
Likely not the golf course, I did not fish it much but did spend a lot of time at Ten Mile Point. You are a better shore fisherman than me. The best I managed this end of the Island was a 22lb Chinook and later a 15lb Coho one Oct. at Ten Mile. One of my friends did manage a 32 lb Chinook dragging a bass plug across the surface as a joke at Ten Mile Point. Like most but not all I fished a Diawa 7000c reel and also used that crap Charter boat line (it was cheap) but in 15 lb test. Did you ever throw a small salmon to the Mink that lived on the point and would come out to visit the fishermen? The mid winter and especially the Boxing Day blue back fishing was a tradition. I turned in some Blueback heads and they were from the Bellingham Hatchery. Lots of lures got lost on that point but divers would come and collect them and sell them back to us very cheap. You quickly learned to blow air through the Buzzbombs to make sure they were not clogged with the micro shells of little sea animals before you bought them.

You may be interested to know that I became aware that someone owned that rock under a numbered company and was going to put a house on it which would have destroyed the most popular shore ocean fishing spot on south VI. So I got pissed and call the press and had them come out for a little PR and to see all the people fishing on a nice sunny day. As a result of that I got a call from the Lawyer for the Municipality who had me sign an affidavit on how long I had fished there etc. The Municipality apparently took action and Ten Mile Point has remained undeveloped and available to the public for fishing to this day. As a very young kid I was quite pleased with myself.

Did you get to know Walter, the owner of the house on the edge of the point, great guy. I think it was he who once rowed out and retrieved a salmon for me that got caught in the kelp bed. I remember a guy name Reed who use to catch more than most who always fished a 4 inch Pink Pearl Buzz Bomb. I also became friends with Dave, a Prof from UVic who fished it a lot and always used a Perkin and met one of my life long friends there. Good Memories.
 
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You may be interested to know that I became aware that someone owned that rock under a numbered company and was going to put a house on it which would have destroyed the most popular shore ocean fishing spot on south VI. So I got pissed and call the press and had them come out for a little PR and to see all the people fishing on a nice sunny day. As a result of that I got a call from the Lawyer for the Municipality who had me sign an affidavit on how long I had fished there etc. The Municipality apparently took action and Ten Mile Point has remained undeveloped and available to the public for fishing to this day. As a very young kid I was quite pleased with myself.
There is a house being built right now. :(
 
That is disappointing. I have not been there in a long time but will go for a drive. Sounds like after many decades they managed to get the municipality to cave. Lets hope that access to the point is not curtailed as a result and there is still legal access and some room to stand and fish above the high water line. The end of the road is public access but the point is to the side where a house would go.

I do know that a lot less people fish there than once did for many reasons. There are less fish, major regulation restrictions and less parking after they put up the resident only parking signs and put in just 4 public parking spots at the end of the road. Obviously those who own ocean waterfront in Victoria have both a lot of money and power.

Rather ironic that the Capital Region District with its green, anti car and fuel use agenda which is always discouraging car/fuel use and building bike lanes would not want to support a fishing alternative to burning fuel in boats. What makes Ten Mile Point special for shore fishing is how deep the water is right close to the point and how close it is to such a large population.
 
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Hi Rockfish,Islandboy.
Yes there is a new house being built on Ten Mile. It's high on the point on the right side of the parking lot.
Still access to the point and fishing there. If I remember correctly the depth at Ten Mile is 90' on a low tide and over 100
maybe 120 at high tide. Plus it drops off very fast.

Rock fish said: "Did you ever throw a small salmon to the Mink"

Not at Ten Mile but there used to be one that lived in the large blocks at the Breakwater... One morning fishing there with a friend
we both caught fish and put them up on the blocks while we cleaned up and got ready to go, We lost one of them to that mink...
Turned our heads for just a moment and when we turned back all we saw was a silver tail being pulled below the blocks.
We ended up splitting the remaining Salmon. Yes a lot of good memories.
 
Anyone try this method?

 
Browns Bay RV park has a nice platform right on Seymour Narrows it is good for shore fishing good drop off and current you can sometimes see the schools of fish swim right underneath plus marine traffic boats and wildlife everywhere.
 
Anyone try this method?


Evening Islandboy,
I have tried this method at the golf links and ten mile point. It's a bit of a pain in the butt when boats, kayaks,paddle boards are always present.
Every time one comes by you have to retrieve the weight off the bottom. A nice quiet place would be the answer for this type of fishin'
I would like to try it in nanimo and maybe otter point with a cut plug. All I've ever caught are some small lings and rock cod.
 
In the early 1980’s we used to fish off the jetty by the old BC Packers building, where the cruise ships dock at Ogden point.
It’s all fenced off now, you can’t get in there.

Juvenile herring used to school up in there up against the concrete walls and that would bring the Chinook to feed on them. The method was to have a small triple hook and a tiny split shot on your line. You would jig up a single herring, hook it back by the tail, let it back in to swim with the pack. Then you wait....

Soon enough, a small group of Chinook would show up. The tell tale sign was the herring would organize into a tight ball. You’d stand in anticipation, holding your spinning rod hoping your herring would be consumed. Suddenly the herring would erupt out of the water as they were being attacked from below. Sometimes you could look into the water and see the salmon attacking. It was super exciting.

There was usually 6 or 8 of the usuals fishing there and often somebody would hook up. Sometimes more than one person. Goddamn that was fun and we caught some nice Springs there.
There was a grizzled old commercial fisherman named “Red” I used to talk to to during slow periods, he lived in his old west coast troller at nearby fisherman’s wharf. The stories from that guy and the fishing...

I wonder if you fellas remember fishing there?
 
In the early 1980’s we used to fish off the jetty by the old BC Packers building, where the cruise ships dock at Ogden point.
It’s all fenced off now, you can’t get in there.

Juvenile herring used to school up in there up against the concrete walls and that would bring the Chinook to feed on them. The method was to have a small triple hook and a tiny split shot on your line. You would jig up a single herring, hook it back by the tail, let it back in to swim with the pack. Then you wait....

Soon enough, a small group of Chinook would show up. The tell tale sign was the herring would organize into a tight ball. You’d stand in anticipation, holding your spinning rod hoping your herring would be consumed. Suddenly the herring would erupt out of the water as they were being attacked from below. Sometimes you could look into the water and see the salmon attacking. It was super exciting.

There was usually 6 or 8 of the usuals fishing there and often somebody would hook up. Sometimes more than one person. Goddamn that was fun and we caught some nice Springs there.
There was a grizzled old commercial fisherman named “Red” I used to talk to to during slow periods, he lived in his old west coast troller at nearby fisherman’s wharf. The stories from that guy and the fishing...

I wonder if you fellas remember fishing there?

Hi Kildonan,
Yep I was there in the 80's every weekend catching herring and setting them out on a bobber. Caught a few nice fish there. Also used this technique
at turkey point beside the oak bay marina... the salmon used to drive the needle fish right up to the gravel beach and we would snag a bait and put it out on a bobber and small treble. some great fishing in the 80's and 90's

I remember Red :)
 
I fished he the old BC Packers building, where the cruise ships dock at Ogden point in the early 70's caught a 65lb skate with heavy hand line and 2 herring on it was setup by the 2 20 years scouts that used to fish the breakwater they rode bikes one of bikes was the old paperboy bikes with the small front wheel and the big paper carrier on the front we fished for octopus and when they caught them they would take them to Chinatown and sell it on the street.
 
I fished he the old BC Packers building, where the cruise ships dock at Ogden point in the early 70's caught a 65lb skate with heavy hand line and 2 herring on it was setup by the 2 20 years scouts that used to fish the breakwater they rode bikes one of bikes was the old paperboy bikes with the small front wheel and the big paper carrier on the front we fished for octopus and when they caught them they would take them to Chinatown and sell it on the street.

Back in the 80's we fished Ten Mile almost every weekend. There used to be a great grilse run there. Everyone caught their limit on small red buzzbombs. We
would freeze them up in milk cartons. To us Ten mile point was called the "LUMBO WALK" because of the herbals we were using at the time... Not to much fun walking down the rocks there when you was a bit cut.

When we fished the packer docks in the winter for coho we would have to hide in between all of the pallets to stay out of the wind,rain and sleet. And run out every now and then to throw a cast out. Some days our line would freeze on the reel as we brought it in. Had a large thermos of coffee and a small bottle of rye to get us through the morning.

When I was a kid in Sidney we would tie a green cod line to the docks at the end of Beacon Ave. and bait it with a large piece of salmon or whatever we could find.
Come back the next day and see what we had....our largest catch was a 90lb. skate.. We sold it to the fishing shop. The owner would meet us at the beach with his truck and crane and haul it away.... easy money for them and a few extra bucks in our pocket too.
 
Yeah, I did the Oak Bay Turkey head thing. Winter Springs using bobbers and snagged needle fish. In the summer you could either lose lures in the shallow bay between the OB Marina parking lot and the little Dallas rd pull in, or you could just wait on the beach until a coho ran up on the beach chasing needle fish.
 
Actually, it was interesting for me to listen to the thoughts of the old fisherman ... Ahah, forgive me for calling you old :)) I’m almost 40 years old and I’m thinking about transferring all my businesses to my son and starting a new life somewhere on the lake. I have a house on the lake and I want to move to live there on an ongoing basis. I am also looking for inexpensive boats and fishing equipment. I want to do this not in order to sell fish and make a profit, but for moral relaxation. It seems to me that it will be interesting ... Think for yourself what could be better than fishing on your own boat and watching your favorite series Paper House :) By the way, I recently found great shimano reels at a very affordable price. This is the original Japanese shimano and this site will make delivery from Japan. The problem is that I have never used shimano reels before and I don’t know how durable and high-quality they are. Your advice would be useful to me!
 
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