2015 Nootka Sound/Esperanza Inlet Reports

Ya and it's probably older than the guy holding it.That fish could be 50+ years old at that size.Better not say what I'm
thinking or it may start another forum "debate" LOL
 
Yeah whenever I hook a yellow eye.. It's to the frying pan! I did some research and basically there's not much you can do for them other than not target them. 5lbs of meat off a 15lb fish or something like that. Tasty though :)


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That yelloweye is a monster....

Yes, that is a nice Yelloweye, but no "monster". At 14.5 pounds, I would consider that a nice eater.

Here is a trophy Yelloweye:

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This one hit the scale at 25 pounds and was just a few ounces under the world record at the time. I'm sure bigger ones had been caught, but nobody had them officially recorded. This was in the summer of 1995. I have heard that bigger ones have since been recorded, but I'm not up to date on what the record is now.

If you look closely, you can see the pain in my eyes - I dislocated my shoulder about 6 weeks before and had to heft that damn fish out of the water about 30 times to get this photo.

That was a great summer. Fished over 80 days, caught a near record Chum Salmon, a near record Yelloweye, caught all 5 Salmon species in one day, saw the biggest Chinook Salmon caught in BC that year (70 pounds!). Great fun!
 
Not quite true. While some don't survive if the bladder isn't punctured they can survive.

http://www.descendyourfish.org/recompression-techniques

I personally use a 3 lb barbless leadhead on a real meatstick with the jig thru the lower lip and slowly drop the fish down to the bottom, after a minute or so i give it a big snap and the fish come off the jig. If they don't survive they float up to the surface. Some days nost make it.

I use this so we can keep fishing for Lings when both species are in the same area we are fishing.
 
x2 with FT - great video
i tried this a few times , IT WORKS most times, the odd one came back up , but most disappeared into the deep ,
or maybe just a meal for a large bottom dweller , im better with that i think , the eagle thing gets old lol...
bit of a pain for most im gonna guess ,worth it to me ! but yes , an upside down weighted hook gets them back down ,
i use a large jig head as well or just a large barbless single hook with a 16 oz weight ahead of the hook ,
free spooled to the bottom , usually release themselves in short order
when tryin new areas , we always seem ta find bycatch when chasin lings and or hali ,
kinda get upset seein the floaters , i meant well on releasing them , the inflated bladders just wouldnt let that happen ,
good feelin lettin n me know they atleast have a chance !!

nothin wrong with that size yellow eye , good eats , nice work...



fd
 
We had a great weekend camping on Nootka. The surf was pretty good so there was way more surfing than fishing. The few hours we tried around Bajo we couldn't find a salmon. There is certainly no shortage of ground fish and we let go some huge lings and kept some smaller ones for the camp fire. Had a blast testing out the new Peetz one way drag reels. The weather was great. The road to tahsis was certainly in great shape. There were wolf tracks going past camp each morning and never once did they veer to check us out. We had some nice catch and release cutthroat fishing. All in all a great time with some good buddies. Here's a couple pics.
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Coming to Nootka in 3 1/2 weeks. Wondering if it is worth it to bring along the crab traps? Anyone know of decent areas? Tried last year in July and got skunked on crabs. TF
 
We are heading over there on Weds for 6 days. I was wondering the same thing. Planning on taking the crab traps to get one meal.

Cheers, Rob
 
Good Luck-I think crab are few and far between-try mouya bay Not moutcha-as you come out of the inlet to Gold river other side (south ) of the inlet from Bligh island-I'll check my charts and get the exact name-not many but used to be OK years ago.
 
Thanks Sring Fever. I'll have a look at my chart too. I think the problem with Nootka is finding sandy bottom thats not too deep. TF
 
That looks like an awesome trip Andrew P! Is that Skuna Bay you have your boat anchored at? Is there a little protected spot there to anchor for the night? Would love to do a camp trip over there.
 
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THEY ARE BACK!!! Bottom fishing has been over the top GOOD for Halibut, Ling Cod & other Rock fish for the past 3 weeks. But Salmon Catching has been a tough go since the Columbia River fish passed by the mouth of the inlets about a month ago.
All 3 of the above Chinook were boated in Esperanza/Nootka in the last week.
The 1st pic is a 23lb caught at the pins off Esperanza
3rd is a 16lb boated off Wash Rocks in Nootka
2nd is a 25lb caught just off Ferrer point in 80-90ft of water trolling right on the bottom. We also got 3 more smaller Springs, limits of lings, a Hali., 1 COHO & lots of other ground fish while trolling in the same area just off the bottom.
"YES THE CHINOOK ARE BACK"
FOJ
 
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Coming to Nootka in 3 1/2 weeks. Wondering if it is worth it to bring along the crab traps? Anyone know of decent areas? Tried last year in July and got skunked on crabs. TF

Try on the back side of Strange Island, around the log dump. We have done pretty good there in the past. Good luck!
 
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