2016 Nootka Sound/Esperanza Inlet Fishing Reports

[Olde School]

back from 4 days near Bligh
high winds kept us inside, it was the slowest fishing that I have ever seen, we got one 5lb spring and were the highliners lol
reports were solid from the outside of Esperanza...

things are sure to pick up any day

 

[Evenweight]

got back last night from nootka. We fished Dolly's Cove, Friendly Cove, the Monument, Eagle and Wash rocks. We fished Friday, Sat, Sun, Maonday and Tue morning. We came home with 2 springs and a chum. Tough fishing. We did not get out to Beano or Bajo because of the wind. Tuesday we stayed near home due to out departure time. It was finally calm on Tuesday morning. Fish were caught on the Andrew P sandlance spoon and a white hoochie.

We had a great time and looking forward to being back up there again with better fishing results.

Richard

 

[eriks]

Also just got back from 3 days of fishing Esperanza. Yesterday actually turned out to be beautiful, and we made it out to the Highway for a couple hours, but didn't get any takers. Seemed to be fish at 110-90' depth.
You need to fish the outside. We fished Ferrer for a few hours and got a single spring. Very disappointing fishing on the inside. 6 mile reef was good if you could get out there. All the springs seemed small though. We lost quite a few, but were fishing in some big water, so I don't know if it was the rollers or the chop on the rollers, regardless, it's nothing like Vancouver!
Lots of Hali's though, but you need to work for your springs. As Cohochinook said, white glow hoochies and bait worked for us too. I tried silver AP Sandlance, but all metal just wasn't really working for this time.

 

[pescador]

doesn't sound promising at all. off today for a 5 day trip. I don't see anybody mentioning anchovy?

 

[spring fever]

Don't you believe it Pescador I would always have chovie down one side til somebody took 2 fish on something else. LOL Trying to talk myself into going over for a very short weather window sunday and Monday but the weather is unrelentingly bad. If there are few fish around the monument by Sunday then this year is going to be bad!! Just sayin! Good Luck!!

 

[cohochinook]

Just got back from three and a half days fishing at Rodgers fishing lodge in Esperanza Inlet. Had an amazing time, food was terrific Guest Services excellent and the fishing was pretty good.

First day it was quite rough and we fished farrier.. Tons of kelp in the water which made it quite difficult to fish. Hooked 7
fish but only landed two and spent much of the day getting weeds off the line. Pride for halibut write-in Rosa and manage to get a 12-pounder and a 50 pounder, quite surprisingly. My son was very happy as this was his biggest halibut ever.

The next day we battled our way offshore in very rough conditions 2 about 4 miles ourwebsite . We must have hooked over 20 salmon, but lost over half of them because of the rough conditions. Got a couple Coho as well.

Finally on the wind subsided and we got out off shore again. Fish salmon in the morning and manage to go 7 for then ran for halibut and got 2 and a yellow eye.

The final morning we started about four miles offshore, but only managed one. Made the decision to run out far and got a double-header right away and then only really small bottom fish. Had bought one of those big Lighthouse Tofu cheese that spring fever talks about at Westview Marina from fish on John. Put that down to 225 feet and right away we had a 40 pound halibut, put it back down again right away we had a 25 pound halibut, put it back down again and we had a 12 pound halibut. My son then put it down to 250 feet and we got a 23-pound spring. Called it a day after that.

Fshing was tough but was still very good. You had to be versatile and willing to experiment different depths in different areas the salmon weren't all in one area. My main tactic was to watch for bait. I was using anchovies white hoochies and that big Lighthouse splatterdder back.

Anyone looking for some excellent fishing great hospitality and really good food should check out Rodgers this summer. A big thank you to Doug Ro2gers for another great trip!

 

[pescador]

well that looks better than other reports. congrats cc. looks like you had a very good/successful time. sf, if you see me up at critter drop by for a cool one....

 

[profisher]

The last 10 days of July will tell the story. By then fish will be milling and holding inside and lots more will be arriving from the outside. The earliest I've gone to Nootka was the 15th and for the first 5 days we fished the outside, mainly at Beano and found numbers. After the 20th there was good fishing on the inside at daybreak and during the changes.

 

[spring fever]

Good report CC. My kind of fisherman-not afraid to experiment and then when it works you tell people!! Whether they listen or not is another matter!! LOL Again well done and I'm sure you made some great memories with your son!!

 

[saanauk]

Fished the mouth of Esperanza today without even a sniff of a fish. Lots of boats fishing in close due to the weather and didn't see a single fish caught. My worst day fishing here in the last five years. Have had better days in May. Didn't see any salmon brought into the marina.

 

[eriks]

Fished the mouth of Esperanza today without even a sniff of a fish. Lots of boats fishing in close due to the weather and didn't see a single fish caught. My worst day fishing here in the last five years. Have had better days in May. Didn't see any salmon brought into the marina.

I didn't want my post to sound negative, but this sums it up. If u can't get offshore, you're hooped at the moment. The wind blows all the crap into Ferrer, so your lines are constantly fouled (the stronger the wind, the worse the problem). Only Hali's in the inlet.
CC (an excellent fisherman no doubt) fished it on a day I went outside (only blowing 15), and since he did fairly well by normal Ferrer standards, I thought I'd give it a go the following day in 25knts wind. I could only fish the inside section, as the seas were so confused right close in to the rocks, where I like to fish. I ran a chovy almost constantly, also ran hoochies, herring, all sorts of metal and kept changing to try get some action. Nada for me.
It's good offshore, lots of salmon and Hali's. The problem is just getting there, and if you can't, there's unfortunately no alternatives. Apparently the fish should be coming inside any day now.

 

[spring fever]

Taking the Flying circus and Gong show over on Sunday into less than perfect weather conditions. Tired of waiting so will try anyway-back tues and will report-good or bad. See you there!!

 

[cohochinook]

Good report CC. My kind of fisherman-not afraid to experiment and then when it works you tell people!! Whether they listen or not is another matter!! LOL Again well done and I'm sure you made some great memories with your son!!

Thanks spring fever. It was really great to get over there with my sons. They're turning into pretty good little fisherman. A couple of the guests at Rodgers joked that they'll be guides one day, after watching them out in the boat in the rough seas.

Really enjoy your posts and all the info that you share. Thank you for all the help!

The main thing I found this year is you have to be versatile and willing to adapt. It seems like the fish are moving quite quickly and can be in certain areas one day and gone the next. It's also challenging right now with all the kelp and weed in the water. When I fished Ferrer the first day I was running the boat almost right into the kelp and then circling out and picking fish up that way but it was a constant battle with getting kelp off the line and even lost a cannonball to the kelp. What I would traditionally be successful on wasn't working either, which is bait that I normally use at Ferrer. They were only bitng White hoochies and the area that you could fish was only about the size of a football field because of all the kelp.

Offshore I found that the bait was condensed as well and you found fish at different depths so if you weren't getting something at one that you had to move it to adapt.

Last bit of advice I would say is check the lines constantly. With all the crap in the water; I found weed was getting on them a lot as well there are a lot more jellyfish than I've seen in the past.

Good luck to everyone who's getting out in the next couple of days!

 

[Itchy]

Was out at Nootka from June 28th to July 6th. Got out to Beano for the first few days and did OK, using just an anchovy in a teaser head or a whole herring, got two to the boat and long lined a few more. Was fishing alone and the weather coupled with all the junk in the water created "interesting" fishing conditions. Don't know if anyone else has been "troubled" by the amount of jellies in the water, was constantly removing slime from my baits all day long. I think if I had the baits in the water longer I may have tied into a few more fish (as my Dad used to say "Can't catch a fish if your hook isn't in the kitchen"), fishing 33 and 44 feet with 10 -15 feet thrown in during the early first light. I found the tide change to be the ticket on the second day with all the action occurring around these timeframes. Was doing the Children's Heart Weekend over the weekend so really didn't do a lot of fishing as the weather was quite rough on the little ones (nothing like cleaning up a lot of colored Cheerios after partial digestion). LOL
Tuesday and Wednesday the weather smartened up and headed out to Bajo for some decent fishing. Again the tide change showed the most production with a few double headers keeping us on our toes. Fished the same rigs and the anchovies were the ticket though depths kept ranging from 22 down to 70 so I can't say what was the best depth. Watch for the bait and try to work them over if you see some interesting marks around them. Not a lot of jellies outside and the water is a lot cooler and cleaner the farther you head out. Biggest fish was just over 26 and never did catch a coho or try for bottom fish as the `lure of the Chromie` continues to possess me. The fish are in great shape and the fight is just crazy, however, I have been fishing Nootka for over 20 years and it was quite ``spotty`` most of the time with reports of one fish here, or one fish there on the inside. Hopefully it picks up on the inside as the ``proposed`` regulations will limit the outside shore fishing to very limited areas. Don`t know what else I can offer, will be heading back to Nootka starting on the 16th and can post when I get back to land on the 28th. Good luck everyone.

 

[spring fever]

Thank you for a good useful report!! Yeah those jellies have been bad!

 

[Gordon J]

Fished Nootka/Esperanza June 30-July 5th. Nootka fishing was spotty, springs caught were high teens full of fight mostly around Wash Rock & Beano. used anchovy, lots of kelp & jellyfish. Fished hard with meagre results. One day not even a strike. Discouraged we went to Esperanza July 4 & 5 for the first time ever in the five years I have been going to Nootka. Was the right choice, lots of fish offshore. Fished offshore at Six Mile in ten foot swells , could only troll with the swell then run back & start over.Second day was much calmer. Did well limited out keepers were 22-15 lbs. beautiful bright springs .Released many smaller springs, . Used army truck hootchies at 85 & 100 feet in 130-175 feet of water. Will definitely go back Tahsis here if Nootka poor.

 

[saanauk]

Well just wrapped up three days of fishing out of Tahsis. Guess eventually a person needs to end up with a really bad trip to appreciate all the good ones. As posted earlier on our first day it was a complete blank fishing at the mouth of Esperanza due to the poor weather conditions. Second day we thought we would go down and try Nootka because the weather conditions were not good to run offshore. Well we ran down and the conditions were even bad inside at Nootka. There were half a dozen boats fishing behind Canal Island to be out of the weather. We poked out heads past Salter Point and decided the original plan of the Lighthose was not going to work out. We spent several hours fishing around Salter Point and up the inlet a bit. Didn't catch anything except for a half dozen smal 2 to 3 # fish. Didn't see anyone else catch anything but shakers. Stopped by Critter for a few and the report there was slow. We were fishing anchovies and an assortment of hootchies.

The third day the weather was halfway decent. We ran up towards Tachu Point to try for halibut and chinook. Spent a couple hours trolling and had no action so decided to run to Ferrer. Dropped in at Ferrer and picked up a small chinook pretty quick that we released. Trolled for several hours and finally hooked into a nice chinook that made a couple good runs and the then ran straight into the kelp bed at a very high speed. No way to turn it and figured that a sea lion grabbed it as there were a half dozen huge sea lions around. Finally broke it off after messing around with it for ten minutes and losing a couple hundred yards of line. Around 2 we finally hooked into another decent fish and were able to land a low 20# fish. I never thought I would be so excited about one fish but we had avoided the skunk. Picked up another around 7# shortly after that. Hooked and released several 2 to 3# fish also. We caught the two fish we kept on a cloverleaf hootchie behind a green flasher and caught a bunch of smaller fish on
anchovies behind a green flasher. We were fishing between 30 to 40 ft down in water from 40 ft to 80ft deep. The two fish we cleaned had some tiny fish in the stomachs that looked like baby herring except they had orange ish bodies and tails. Went back into the dock and only saw or heard of four other chinook being caught even from the guys that went offshore.

Hope the fishing picks up soon as it sucks right now and the weather conditions are not helping. Will be back in a couple weeks to try again.

 

[PapaWisky]

Well...not unlike the last weeks worth of posts, fishing was remarkable slow.

Stayed at Critter Cove 3 days - Wed, Thurs and got back Friday night. This year was like none I have experienced out there. (Last year at this same time was unbelievably productive.) Perhaps the major low pressure system changed fish behaviour. Rained almost entirely the whole time...my gear is still drying out.

Got to Cougar...Dick said "the US fish were here last week, the Canadian fish are still not coming through".

We had one little window for going on the outside. Started at Monument and then onto Wash Rock, moved just south off Wash Rock, onto the flats, had a zinger hit and lost it (white / blue spackle hoochie) right on the bottom. Rolled chovie on the left, hootchie / spoons the right. Water went relatively flat so made a run to the Red Can at Baja, not one hit. Got a bit late so turned and ran back to Coopte ... lots of jacks. Chatted with a few folks on the docks Wednesday night. A few fish came in from the Reef on Tuesday and Wednesday (bit better weather)...one older fellow from Washington brought in a 33lber...his story was awesome, broke the net bringing it in. Another couple had 2 teens and a couple ling.

Thursday ... hello rain ... good grief. Made the choice for Burdwood, spent the morning high and low tide there, lost one nice one, caught a dozen or so jacks. Saw Cod Father and a few whales. On way back in for a little break, a couple humpy's put on a show worth a million bucks. Back out to try monument and Wash Rock, big water for a 20 footer....NO ONE was out there. Dropped lines for about half hour, one little chinny. Turn and back to Coopte and Hoiss. 8pm ... BAM, zing, fish on and a good one. Good friend, and Nootka green horn, on the reel thought that trying to stop the run was a good idea ... NOT! Broke off. At the dock learned that ammo dump was solid... big bumps getting there and back was the price to pay.

Friday morning first light at Coopte being the first boat there paid off. 1st solid big hit and zing...off to the races. Netted a 17 lber ... monkey off our backs. Spent the rest of the morning there and picked a load of 20 to 24 inch jacks. Sadly 10:15 came along and back to reality.

God I love Nootka...fish or no fish, rain or shine. Got to show 2 old friends from the interior one heck of a beautiful place.

Ohh, the gear ... tried most everything. Range of flashers, spoons (big and small), hoochies (white and white blends) plugs and other crap in the tackle box...and of course. Green flasher and large Irish Cream Coyote worked best, go figure. 50 to 65 ' seemed best. Did try deeper (135) and got a few shakers.

Plan to head back in August. Look forward to it! My buddy just sent a note from Moucha, he's just coming off the water. Same story... no fish.

Great string of recent stories here, keep em coming.

PW

 

[Gaffer II]

Sounds pretty slow out there in comparison to what we are accustomed to. Had some boat issues, we were up fishing last June 24-26 did quite well. Ran the boat hard for three days going min 12 miles offshore 2 of three days. Boat ran great all weekend until last day coming in, were running in down Esperanza around Steamer Point the starboard engine started acting up, (shutting off, coming back on dropping cylinders), We run twin 2006 yamaha hpdi 200's with 650 hrs which have been great. We pulled the covers off immediately and could not diagnose any simple problem so we ran in slowly, no mechanical issues, temperature or pressure issues but the starboard engine continued to act funny. We had to return to mainland and departed. Had boat pulled into service at Westview. Their prognosis was that the boat needed new Suzuki engines...(40k)...this was not going to work for us so I returned on Friday from mainland and had an exhausting trip pulling rig to Boatland in CR, had trailer tire blowout during trip, added several hours to the trip, not nice, but everything worked out. Sam @ Boatland was very good to meet me @ 7.30pm on Canada day to get the boat in their yard. Problem ended up being the high pressure VST fuel filters were well soiled, had them replaced on both engines as well as some other minor servicing, battery terminals, wiring and diagnostics on both engines. Total was $600.00 and engines are tip top. The problem was most likely an ethanol based problem as this was the engines first big run in some time. So all that said it was very good to get the second opinion and will have to be even more vigilant about working around the ethanol issues for two strokes. Had to cancel my four day trip over the Canada day weekend. Will be back up in 2 weeks hopefully it is fast action by then. Look forward to more reports.

G II

 

[hooked for life]

Sounds pretty slow out there in comparison to what we are accustomed to. Had some boat issues, we were up fishing last June 24-26 did quite well. Ran the boat hard for three days going min 12 miles offshore 2 of three days. Boat ran great all weekend until last day coming in, were running in down Esperanza around Steamer Point the starboard engine started acting up, (shutting off, coming back on dropping cylinders), We run twin 2006 yamaha hpdi 200's with 650 hrs which have been great. We pulled the covers off immediately and could not diagnose any simple problem so we ran in slowly, no mechanical issues, temperature or pressure issues but the starboard engine continued to act funny. We had to return to mainland and departed. Had boat pulled into service at Westview. Their prognosis was that the boat needed new Suzuki engines...(40k)...this was not going to work for us so I returned on Friday from mainland and had an exhausting trip pulling rig to Boatland in CR, had trailer tire blowout during trip, added several hours to the trip, not nice, but everything worked out. Sam @ Boatland was very good to meet me @ 7.30pm on Canada day to get the boat in their yard. Problem ended up being the high pressure VST fuel filters were well soiled, had them replaced on both engines as well as some other minor servicing, battery terminals, wiring and diagnostics on both engines. Total was $600.00 and engines are tip top. The problem was most likely an ethanol based problem as this was the engines first big run in some time. So all that said it was very good to get the second opinion and will have to be even more vigilant about working around the ethanol issues for two strokes. Had to cancel my four day trip over the Canada day weekend. Will be back up in 2 weeks hopefully it is fast action by then. Look forward to more reports.

G II

Hi Gaffer, Good to see you got your engines fixed, quite a difference in opinion, hmm makes you wonder. I've found CR Boatland also be first class, they did some work on our boat after we had it so called "serviced" in Lower Mainland but did not run in water. Did same as you ran back to CR and they were first class, can't say enough about them. I'm up July 28th, call sign 3 amigos, cheers
Peter