Hedgehog, good one....you forgot about the extra wait for his buddy to finally show up with the beer too!
2015 Nanoose Bay / French Creek
- Thread starter rowswell
- Start date
Jeep09
Member
Started in front of the marina and worked my way up to the bump off Eaglecrest. Released a high dark teenager and a smaller feeder. A few dogfish around too. Some nice bait balls near the bottom and lots of bird activity. Ran up to Big Q for slack water, 1 dark jack about 5 pounds, only a few boats up there. Beautiful morning on the water.
Prawnhunter
Member
Beauty fish! Should fill the smoker or BBQ nicely
Seafever
Well-Known Member
Olde School
Well-Known Member
Out this p.m. with about 20 boats at the Little Q.
It was as calm as it gets, beautiful evening.
Slow for most boats, some skunked.
We landed one, SASHIMI!!!
Saw a crazy Sea Lion show on a double header that one boat was lucky to get.
It was as calm as it gets, beautiful evening.
Slow for most boats, some skunked.
We landed one, SASHIMI!!!
Saw a crazy Sea Lion show on a double header that one boat was lucky to get.
Jeep09
Member
I was that boat with the doubler header, friggin x%#2$%% sealion
Olde School
Well-Known Member
My relatives in the Princecraft close to you apparently got some images. I will try to grab them and send them your way. BYW you were the hot boat out there from what we heard talking to other boats.
Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
MRWood
Well-Known Member
Seafever, your hoochies are works of art.
Fished Ballenas and a few other spots in the area yesterday morning and got nothing trolling. Then went jigging and salvaged the day with a nice red snapper and an 8lb ling.
The highlight was releasing a huge ling (30lb?) that had latched onto a quill back. I thought i was on bottom when i hooked it as i couldn't move it. We moved the boat to the area where we thought we were hooked on bottom to try and get my zinger freed. Once over there it seemed as there was some give but not much. The rod had a weird vibration but it didn't seem like a fish. I was able to start bringing it up and said to my partner i think i have a submerged branch. After awhile I got the line up and saw it was a huge ling and then realized that it had a nice quill back in its mouth and the quill back had my zinger. I knew from reading on the forum that we needed to let this gal go and so we prodded the ling to let the quilly go and it eventually did. The big ling then slowly floated down and swam away. Pretty cool. As for the quill back we put it back and it swam off too.
Fished Ballenas and a few other spots in the area yesterday morning and got nothing trolling. Then went jigging and salvaged the day with a nice red snapper and an 8lb ling.
The highlight was releasing a huge ling (30lb?) that had latched onto a quill back. I thought i was on bottom when i hooked it as i couldn't move it. We moved the boat to the area where we thought we were hooked on bottom to try and get my zinger freed. Once over there it seemed as there was some give but not much. The rod had a weird vibration but it didn't seem like a fish. I was able to start bringing it up and said to my partner i think i have a submerged branch. After awhile I got the line up and saw it was a huge ling and then realized that it had a nice quill back in its mouth and the quill back had my zinger. I knew from reading on the forum that we needed to let this gal go and so we prodded the ling to let the quilly go and it eventually did. The big ling then slowly floated down and swam away. Pretty cool. As for the quill back we put it back and it swam off too.
hedgehog
Member
Well Seafever, I tried similar hootchies to yours today and didn't have much luck. I did manage to nab a smallish wild coho (released) and two rock fish (released) both caught on hootchies, one green/white the other purple haze. Also tried several others and spoons as well. Perhaps I was trolling a bit to slow but was at least 40' off the bottom. Another guy I talked to only caught a couple of dog fish. Wind started to pick up so that was it for me and the dog.
MRWood - sweet catch! I haven't caught a ling yet this year but I remember it being pretty much like realing in a rubber boot filled with water. Of course I would have to launch at Schooner or North West Bay to get to Ballenas. I heard you have to pay for the year at NWB now, can anyone confirm. Is Schooner still OK for launching or have they turned nasty too?
MRWood - sweet catch! I haven't caught a ling yet this year but I remember it being pretty much like realing in a rubber boot filled with water. Of course I would have to launch at Schooner or North West Bay to get to Ballenas. I heard you have to pay for the year at NWB now, can anyone confirm. Is Schooner still OK for launching or have they turned nasty too?
MRWood
Well-Known Member
NWB is a waste of time going there. The owner basically doesn't want boats launching there….I think he sold 10 or 12 season launching passes and no more. I'd like to see that place sold to someone more customer oriented. Schooner is good for launching, cost is $10.50 and they are happy to have you.
Ryan A
Well-Known Member
Fished low slack this morn out between the humps and FC...got a 10lb white spring within about 5min at 200' in 230' on a green splatterback hoochie and a green onion flasher. Couple shakers over the next couple hours and that was it for me. Saw lots of bait at all depths and lots of marks also from the humps in.
Seafever
Well-Known Member
HedgeHog..
Last time I was at the marina in Northwest bay (about a month ago), we were refused launching there. Said he wanted nothing to do with public launching any more.
If you live at the marina or have a marina membership it might be a different story though.
He never mentioned anything about buying a season pass to us.
Schooner Cove is still ok to launch.......but the ramp is starting to get a bit deteriorated and chunky with holes in it......and I don't think they're going to spend any money on fixing it in the near future because
once the FairWinds project gets launched , the ramp will be no more anyway. (They want to put a hoist in).
Last time I was at the marina in Northwest bay (about a month ago), we were refused launching there. Said he wanted nothing to do with public launching any more.
If you live at the marina or have a marina membership it might be a different story though.
He never mentioned anything about buying a season pass to us.
Schooner Cove is still ok to launch.......but the ramp is starting to get a bit deteriorated and chunky with holes in it......and I don't think they're going to spend any money on fixing it in the near future because
once the FairWinds project gets launched , the ramp will be no more anyway. (They want to put a hoist in).
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hedgehog
Member
Thanks for the info guys. What are we supposed to do? There is already a shortage of ramps and marine space as far as I'm concerned. French Creek cannot handle much more traffic without things getting ugly. Who do we call? We have to start now because it'll take years for anything to get done. I personally don't want to see any more boats out there as there are only so many fish to go around but we need to replace the ones that are stopping service or run by dick heads.
It's not just for the locals, there are a lot of tourist dollars at play here for the town that wants to increase marine services.
It's not just for the locals, there are a lot of tourist dollars at play here for the town that wants to increase marine services.
Jeep09
Member
I waited 1/2 hour to get out of French Creek last night, boat owner couldn't find keys, truck problems, confused. He refused to move his boat "out of the way" over to the wharf side/second side of the ramp so trailer traffic could proceed. His fishing mates were up at the top of the ramp and told me they were distancing themselves from the situation. A local said he has there a 1/2 BEFORE I arrived trying get his boat out. Thing is , everyone has stuff not go as planned, just be respectful enough to get out of the way.
Seafever
Well-Known Member
There a couple of things they need to do at French Creek ramp. Where they get the money though I don't know.
(1) They did upgrade the ramp tie-up dock some time back. If you can call it an upgrade.
They should have built the middle dock so the anchor poles were in the middle....not on the south side only. Right now all the classy boats prefer the non-pole side.
They didn't do that.....but it should be done.
(2) Install wood wharf extensions on the outer sides. That would make for four boats in and out at the same time. There's room on both ramps for two vehicles at once side by side.
Right now if you are a small aluminum owner you can launch off the outer ramp walkways....but little else can.
(3) Reroute the 'looky lou' traffic and people going to the seafood store by extending the surface area and putting a bypass road behind the existing fence so they don't continually have to clog up the launching area as they drive back and forth.
There's lots of talk in the tourist mags about "fishing beautiful British Columbia" and plenty of gushing about fantastic salmon fishing.
But really I don't think anyone or anybody gives a crap about fishing facilities or ramps or wharves or anything else on the east coast of V.I.
It takes money.....and investors would rather spend the bucks on something that can make them a much quicker larger profit.
The Liberal provincial government? I wouldn't count on them parting with any money for the sake of fishing any time soon.
Everybody around Parksville and Qualicum seems to want a pier built here somewhere as well. I doubt I'll ever see one in my lifetime though.
They've been talking about the Horne Lake connector highway for now 112 years. Still hasn't happened.
(1) They did upgrade the ramp tie-up dock some time back. If you can call it an upgrade.
They should have built the middle dock so the anchor poles were in the middle....not on the south side only. Right now all the classy boats prefer the non-pole side.
They didn't do that.....but it should be done.
(2) Install wood wharf extensions on the outer sides. That would make for four boats in and out at the same time. There's room on both ramps for two vehicles at once side by side.
Right now if you are a small aluminum owner you can launch off the outer ramp walkways....but little else can.
(3) Reroute the 'looky lou' traffic and people going to the seafood store by extending the surface area and putting a bypass road behind the existing fence so they don't continually have to clog up the launching area as they drive back and forth.
There's lots of talk in the tourist mags about "fishing beautiful British Columbia" and plenty of gushing about fantastic salmon fishing.
But really I don't think anyone or anybody gives a crap about fishing facilities or ramps or wharves or anything else on the east coast of V.I.
It takes money.....and investors would rather spend the bucks on something that can make them a much quicker larger profit.
The Liberal provincial government? I wouldn't count on them parting with any money for the sake of fishing any time soon.
Everybody around Parksville and Qualicum seems to want a pier built here somewhere as well. I doubt I'll ever see one in my lifetime though.
They've been talking about the Horne Lake connector highway for now 112 years. Still hasn't happened.
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thegreatpumpkin
Active Member
out for the second night in a row. last night in front FC flat calm ; lots of bait between the 200 humps ; in what i call the hole. Not a nibble. very few fish came in most from LQ.
So tried a bit earlier tonight ; out at 3:00 just before tide change. wind was blowing as perdicted (about a 2' sea) but it was fishable. about an hour spent in the 230' range . tried some of the colour seafever showed. nada . decided to bump it out to LQ ; man am i glad we did started with o15 ; basically the the regular size instaed of the mini mp15 on one side purple haze on the other side. I'll start by saying i have been to LQ about 20 times over the last 15 years and 1 fish to show for my efforts there. My friend and I were rewarded tonight. Got there about 5:15. start out 100' -80' south of the river fishing 75-90'. there were only 2 boats there when we got there. 2 more arrived as the sea went flat and the wind was gone. trolled past the river to the point staying between 105-90' one line at 75 one at 85' . about half way up the point fist started showing near the bottom. i don't beleive anyone there was catching anything. I said to my partner big fish at 64' and bang fish on! scored a nice 14.75lb hatchery . it was on the o15 pink so we switched to the same on both lines. that we saw of the other boats they were using mp15s. we moved both lines to 85' with the same lure. following our same line. the fish were showing again in the same spot at 84' mostly but no bites going south . turned at the river back over the same 96' line . more fish on the sounder same deapth same spt going north right away fish on . grabbed it and bam a double header. we boated both . 2 nice 18lb's .circle back south over the school nothing . so made a quick back over the same line north again . soon as we saw fish on the sounder our 4 th hit poped the rigger and it was gone but sure enough and look over and the other line is blasting off with our 4th a 10lber. We cleaned up and shared our intel with the 2 closest boats. One had one almost immediately. We then bugged out for home at 7pm. What a great night!
So tried a bit earlier tonight ; out at 3:00 just before tide change. wind was blowing as perdicted (about a 2' sea) but it was fishable. about an hour spent in the 230' range . tried some of the colour seafever showed. nada . decided to bump it out to LQ ; man am i glad we did started with o15 ; basically the the regular size instaed of the mini mp15 on one side purple haze on the other side. I'll start by saying i have been to LQ about 20 times over the last 15 years and 1 fish to show for my efforts there. My friend and I were rewarded tonight. Got there about 5:15. start out 100' -80' south of the river fishing 75-90'. there were only 2 boats there when we got there. 2 more arrived as the sea went flat and the wind was gone. trolled past the river to the point staying between 105-90' one line at 75 one at 85' . about half way up the point fist started showing near the bottom. i don't beleive anyone there was catching anything. I said to my partner big fish at 64' and bang fish on! scored a nice 14.75lb hatchery . it was on the o15 pink so we switched to the same on both lines. that we saw of the other boats they were using mp15s. we moved both lines to 85' with the same lure. following our same line. the fish were showing again in the same spot at 84' mostly but no bites going south . turned at the river back over the same 96' line . more fish on the sounder same deapth same spt going north right away fish on . grabbed it and bam a double header. we boated both . 2 nice 18lb's .circle back south over the school nothing . so made a quick back over the same line north again . soon as we saw fish on the sounder our 4 th hit poped the rigger and it was gone but sure enough and look over and the other line is blasting off with our 4th a 10lber. We cleaned up and shared our intel with the 2 closest boats. One had one almost immediately. We then bugged out for home at 7pm. What a great night!
