2022 Nanaimo Reports

[robbiemc]

Anyone have any luck out there today? Saw lots of boats out there at work and the weather was beautiful.

We picked up a 68cm red spring off thrasher yesterday around 4pm. Couldn’t keep the shakers off the line and eventually gave up. Plenty of bait on the north side of thrasher rock but not many good strikes.

 

[Captain Dudds]

View attachment 84515

Ok ya that's crystal clear. I was using the app but that is way better.

 

[Grace underfire]

Anyone have any luck out there today? Saw lots of boats out there at work and the weather was beautiful.

A couple of keepers yesterday evening: 1 off neck and 1 off clark. Also saw a couple guys with singles at the cleaning station. Still some there, and I'm continuing to save fuel not going to Entrance.

 

[Bearded wonder]

Well what a difference a day makes. Went out this morning with a buddy to beat the wind. Lines in the water by 6am, got our limit by 9:30am.
Fished Clark rock to Pipers and the channel beside. 135’ on the riggers was lucky. Spoons caught two and white hootchie caught the other two. Biggest was around 16-18 lbs. nice chrome.

Epic morning. Calm ocean till 8 or so then the wind picked up. Super lumpy on the ride back in.
Lots of bait early in the morning. Saw quite a few nets out.

Had to just add the icing on the cake. This afternoon got quite the harvest of potatoes. Yum yum.

 

[outbeen]

Well what a difference a day makes. Went out this morning with a buddy to beat the wind. Lines in the water by 6am, got our limit by 9:30am.
Fished Clark rock to Pipers and the channel beside. 135’ on the riggers was lucky. Spoons caught two and white hootchie caught the other two. Biggest was around 16-18 lbs. nice chrome.

Epic morning. Calm ocean till 8 or so then the wind picked up. Super lumpy on the ride back in.
Lots of bait early in the morning. Saw quite a few nets out.

Awesome!!

 

[chinookhunter]

Well after 46 straight days of fishing in front of Nanaimo, for 8+ hours a day, I feel an obligation to make my first ever post on these boards.

Hello Everyone... "long time listener, first time caller" as they used to say on the radio call in shows. I've actually met quite a few of you out on the water, back at Brechin boat launch, cleaning station, etc. but this is my first formal introduction online, so here's my 2022 Nanaimo report:

Fishing was excellent, and continues to be excellent, out front of Nanaimo since I first dropped in at Fiver Fingers back on Chinook opening day July 15th, and almost every day since. I was originally scheduled to go up north to Rivers Inlet to run charters for the better part of August, but after seeing how hot things were here in July, and the demand for people who wanted to go fishing here in town, why would I go anywhere else?

I think Unreel covered things pretty well with his earlier reports above, but the Fingers to Neck Point corridor has been remarkably consistent the last 6 weeks. The only reason I fished elsewhere was the pesky NW wind, and even then I sometimes smashed head long into the chop down to Rocky Point in my Whaler and and did the drift down to Clarke Rock because the fishing was just so good.

I keep detailed catch stats in a log book as part of the Avid Angler program for all my charters, and I figured it might be of interest to some of you to share that info with you on here:

Days fished: 46

Total hours fished: 322

Chinook caught: 285

"Slot Size" 62-80cm Chinook caught: 137

"Slot Size" 62-80cm Chinook retained: 101

Days without at least one 62+ cm Chinook landed: 4 (yes, we all get skunked once in a while)

Over 80 cm Chinook released: 3 (Entrance Island July 23, Northumberland Channel July 24, Neck Point Aug 28). Lost one off the Fingers after a half hour battle which I'm pretty sure was a Tyee... there's always that one each season that got away, isn't there?

Coho caught: 7

Pinks caught: 12

Chum caught: 1

Ling Cod caught: 21 (primarily while jigging)

Rock fish caught: 18 (primarily while jigging)

Locations Fished (in order of time spent on the water):

1. Neck Point (on fire the second half of August)
2. Rocky Point (perhaps the most underrated spot we have in my opinion)
3. Hudson/Pipers/Clarke (so much bait in here all summer long)
4. Five Finger Ledge (I don't seem to do as well out here as some, even though I hooked a big boy off the ledge last week)
5. Entrance Island (fishy spot as we all know, but I get tired of dropping my cannonballs half way to Japan down 250+ in the trench)
6. Northumberland Channel (nice spot to hide from the wind if your guests are sea sick... catch and release only for chinook of course)
7. Gabriola Island, between Entrance and Thrasher (would have fished this area more if there wasn't so much NW wind)
8. Thrasher Rock (didn't seem to be very good there this summer... mostly shakers every time I made it out that far)
9. Valdez Island (just southeast of Breakwater Island... those pinnacles are super fishy and give some protection from NW wind)
10. Porlier Pass (only made it out there a couple times... did well for bottom fish there, not as great on salmon)

In terms of gear, I keep things pretty standard. 20 pound rigger balls down any where from 60 (Neck) to 290 (Entrance) feet, but usually in the 140-180 range out front. I always keep one rigger ball just off the bottom, and the other one following the bait, which is also quite often off the bottom. In terms of lures, the usual array of small spoons, hoochies, plugs, anchovy, and even cut plug herring have recently been really successful for me in tight to the beach out front. I think some of the shore casters aren't a fan of me hugging the rocks as I almost got hit by a buzz bomb off Rocky Point the other day... sorry about that, fellas. I'll see if I can find a way to add some photos to this post later from my phone, but in the mean time I wanted to say thanks to everyone for their support in my first full summer of fishing out of Nanaimo. As I wait for my plane up to Masset on my way up to do some guiding at Langara Island for the last three weeks of the summer, I can't help but feel that I'm actually leaving the more productive fishing waters behind in Nanaimo. Best of luck to everyone the remainder of the summer, and save a few winter springs for me later on in the year.

~tight lines~

SC

Nice work Capt. DP

 

[Bearded wonder]

Looked busy out there this morning. Anyone have luck?
Trying to get out there this afternoon

 

[Captain Dudds]

Looked busy out there this morning. Anyone have luck?
Trying to get out there this afternoon

We picked up one about 12 lbs at 730. Every boat I passed seemed to have one. Our was close to Rocky point. Missed another close to 930 but other than that just a few shakers. Nice calm day to be on the water.

 

[banger17]

Working the Pipers to Neck stretch now. No blood in boat yet but wow, what a beauty out here!

 

[banger17]

Went 3/3 tonight lol. Released a dinker, tossed back a monster pink (biggest I’ve ever caught), and then debated whether to keep this spring. In the end, let it swim another day as was around 64cms. All the action was off Neck in 100-150 feet of water. Pink at 47 and springs at 87 all on my go-to spoon.
Tough to beat a September evening like this one!

 

[Bearded wonder]

Got out from 4-7. Started at Clark Rock and did a bunch of passes where I had luck on Saturday Near the end decided to troll up to Fingers.
Slow go. Just a couple of unders. Seemed slow in general. Didn’t see many nets out and not a lot bait. All the boats seemed to troll everywhere, no one seemed to stay in one general area.
Tried spoons and hoochies.
Beautiful out there though!!

 

[outbeen]

I was out 630-8. Great fishing between Piper's and Clark rock tonight. Only brought one rod tonight. Got an 83cm and 63cm. Both fish on a 6" thrift store plug (white with a hand painted green line and lots of teethmarks on it). 137 feet of wire out. Both hookups immediately after cannon balls touched bottom. Bait didn't really seem to stack up until around 730 then we started seeing big marks chasing bait.

 

[fish brain]

I was out 630-8. Great fishing between Piper's and Clark rock tonight. Only brought one rod tonight. Got an 83cm and 63cm. Both fish on a 6" thrift store plug (white with a hand painted green line and lots of teethmarks on it). 137 feet of wire out. Both hookups immediately after cannon balls touched bottom. Bait didn't really seem to stack up until around 730 then we started seeing big marks chasing bait.View attachment 84697

No picture of the plug?
Prespiring minds want to know.

 

[Aces]

I was out 630-8. Great fishing between Piper's and Clark rock tonight. Only brought one rod tonight. Got an 83cm and 63cm. Both fish on a 6" thrift store plug (white with a hand painted green line and lots of teethmarks on it). 137 feet of wire out. Both hookups immediately after cannon balls touched bottom. Bait didn't really seem to stack up until around 730 then we started seeing big marks chasing bait.View attachment 84697

Gotta appreciate the “thrift store plug”

 

[outbeen]

No picture of the plug?
Prespiring minds want to know.

Gotta appreciate the “thrift store plug”

Got it at the thrift store in Coombs west of the bridge. The had loads for 3-4$ each.

 

[essyoo]

I only see the min size for chinook now on the regs. Just to avoid confusion, does that mean the 80cm limit is now removed?

 

[Aces]

I only see the min size for chinook now on the regs. Just to avoid confusion, does that mean the 80cm limit is now removed?

yes

 

[It'ssooooeasy]

Went 3/3 tonight lol. Released a dinker, tossed back a monster pink (biggest I’ve ever caught), and then debated whether to keep this spring. In the end, let it swim another day as was around 64cms. All the action was off Neck in 100-150 feet of water. Pink at 47 and springs at 87 all on my go-to spoon.
Tough to beat a September evening like this one! View attachment 84691View attachment 84692View attachment 84693

hey there:

not to pick a fight, yet if "debated to keep this spring" meant your 3rd picture, that is a coho, not spring

 

[banger17]

hey there:

not to pick a fight, yet if "debated to keep this spring" meant your 3rd picture, that is a coho, not spring

No fight picked. All good.
My brother was giving me the gears about the same thing. I looked and looked at the side of the boat the the deep black bottom gum and spots scattered all over the tail were why i thought it was a spring.
Maybe a hybrid? Didn’t seem as clear-cut a coho as I’ve had in the past.

Regardless of what it was, I was more than happy to play catch and release so that you or another lucky angler can catch it this week and throw it in the tub.

 

[It'ssooooeasy]

No fight picked. All good.
My brother was giving me the gears about the same thing. I looked and looked at the side of the boat the the deep black bottom gum and spots scattered all over the tail were why i thought it was a spring.
Maybe a hybrid? Didn’t seem as clear-cut a coho as I’ve had in the past.

Regardless of what it was, I was more than happy to play catch and release so that you or another lucky angler can catch it this week and throw it in the tub.

Roger that

For me tho, all gear has been cut off for the season so hope she makes it to the spawning grounds!

Good luck