2023 Nanaimo Reports

[Unreel]

There’s definitely not the chinook numbers around that we’ve seen in previous years. Nor is the huge schools of bait fish off the fingers, neck, pipers etc. Some days are serious grinds to find any springs over 60cm. On the upside coho fishing has still been fairly decent, some days all unclipped and others a good ratio. Today got the biggest hatch coho of the year so far,65cm. The spring was a 74cm and the other hoe was 58cm. All down deep 175-200.

 

[Aces]

There’s definitely not the chinook numbers around that we’ve seen in previous years. Nor is the huge schools of bait fish off the fingers, neck, pipers etc. Some days are serious grinds to find any springs over 60cm. On the upside coho fishing has still been fairly decent, some days all unclipped and others a good ratio. Today got the biggest hatch coho of the year so far,65cm. The spring was a 74cm and the other hoe was 58cm. All down deep 175-200.View attachment 95324

Nice work man!

 

[JWS]

There’s definitely not the chinook numbers around that we’ve seen in previous years. Nor is the huge schools of bait fish off the fingers, neck, pipers etc. Some days are serious grinds to find any springs over 60cm. On the upside coho fishing has still been fairly decent, some days all unclipped and others a good ratio. Today got the biggest hatch coho of the year so far,65cm. The spring was a 74cm and the other hoe was 58cm. All down deep 175-200.View attachment 95324

I’m pretty new to Nanaimo fishing, but compared to last summer, fully agree on lack of sizeable Chinook this year. I fish more around gabriola and thrasher, and the odd time I’ll head to entrance, but i haven’t seen as many coho as reported by others (most seem to be fingers reports), I’ve got a few hatchery and probably twice as many wild mixed in.

This could be partly to me being a ****** fisherman

 

[outbeen]

There’s definitely not the chinook numbers around that we’ve seen in previous years. Nor is the huge schools of bait fish off the fingers, neck, pipers etc. Some days are serious grinds to find any springs over 60cm. On the upside coho fishing has still been fairly decent, some days all unclipped and others a good ratio. Today got the biggest hatch coho of the year so far,65cm. The spring was a 74cm and the other hoe was 58cm. All down deep 175-200.

Nice fish. I agree there seem to be way less bait.

We did one pass tonight before the wind kicked up. Got a 77cm marble in front of pipers at 165ft on rigger in 140 feet of water. Green hoochie / green flasher 38" leader at 3mph

 

[Maxpri]

Spent the afternoon off the grande, got into a a couple unders at the tide change and one 60cm that was pretty thick. Had a frayed rigger cable and no spares riggers on board so was down to one immediately. All action on a trailhead skinny g, green reflective flasher, down at 160-175 in 150-200 FOW. Definitely agreeing with the consensus that there isn’t much bait around.

 

[Grace underfire]

I'm often reading a lot of (what looks like) bait at 200 -300 feet. Often appears to be fish at those depths too, but too deep to fish.

As far as last year vs. this... Last year was a weird one for me; it was the first time recently I didn't feel the need to head to Entrance regularly as the fishing was so good in close, and yes there was a lot of bait that seemed to help keep them there. But size was down; I only had to release one fish that was over the slot and a buddy who guides released 3 overs out of 150 legal sized fish. This year size has been good, and while I haven't seen a lot of bait, catching a couple of keeper chinook in an evening has been the norm. The big change I've seen this year is the numbers of clipped coho; I've never bothered even trying to fish for them in the past as a clipped fish seemed like a unicorn. This year a lot of the coho are actually clipped.

 

[DasBrew]

Anyone else hear rumours of the Silva Bay derby happening the first weekend of September?

 

[JWS]

Anyone else hear rumours of the Silva Bay derby happening the first weekend of September?

Yes, a friend of mine is helping to organize it

 

[Tomfoolery]

Fishing still seems pretty consistent out front. It was a bit bumpy this morning but we got our allotment of coho and picked up a 76cm whitey off Fingers. Released three or four wild coho and a few undersized. Bait was spotty and down deep but our fish came at 120-170 ft. Glow Irish Cream spoon in 3.5 inch has been killer this year... outfishes everything else 3:1 even thought the thing is bent weird now and has teeth marks all over it. We did get the big one today on a green hootchie though.

 

[Aces]

Yes, a friend of mine is helping to organize it

Will fish from the Fraser side be eligible?

 

[JWS]

Will fish from the Fraser side be eligible?

I hope so, cause that’s where my entry is coming from

 

[ab1752]

Will fish from the Fraser side be eligible?

What, there's no fish over this side, come on haha

 

[Aces]

What, there's no fish over this side, come on haha

Nobody believes that, lol

 

[Grace underfire]

Fishing still seems pretty consistent out front. It was a bit bumpy this morning but we got our allotment of coho and picked up a 76cm whitey off Fingers. Released three or four wild coho and a few undersized. Bait was spotty and down deep but our fish came at 120-170 ft. Glow Irish Cream spoon in 3.5 inch has been killer this year... outfishes everything else 3:1 even thought the thing is bent weird now and has teeth marks all over it. We did get the big one today on a green hootchie though.

I've got a Kitchen Sink the same size that has a bunch of the paint scratched off of it and some rust appearing where all the tooth marks are that I've fished for a few seasons. Same thing: it catches everything and it's rare it gets outfished by whatever shiny new thing I put on the other side.

 

[Tomfoolery]

I've got a Kitchen Sink the same size that has a bunch of the paint scratched off of it and some rust appearing where all the tooth marks are that I've fished for a few seasons. Same thing: it catches everything and it's rare it gets outfished by whatever shiny new thing I put on the other side.

I used to keep a kitchen sink out on one line all the time because I caught so many fish on them, but this year I don't find them to be working as well and I have tried a few different sizes... even the one with a ton of teeth marks! Maybe I am just not patient enough. My wife says I have OCD when I fish because I switch things up regularly if we aren't getting hits. I have another Skinny G in herring aid that is hot too, but I like to throw other stuff out too. I haven't run plugs yet this year but may have to try again... never much luck here with those.

 

[banger17]

Put in a quick 2 hour shift this evening and tried something a bit different than the pack. Chose to fish up along the structure and 120ft contour line past Neck Point towards Brickyard. Plenty of action, but mostly a few smalls/just undersized that we threw back. Had a couple really good pin-popper hits and a couple long line releases that felt nice. Highlight (and lowlight) was a really nice wild coho that we had to release. Probably over close to 10lbs no problem. Surprised it even made it to the boat after a rookie 14 year old on the rod did everything a rod holder wasn't supposed to do. Amazing fight and tons of jumping and spins.
No keepers in the tub, but good to get the kids some action out there.

 

[outbeen]

Fished night bite from 730pm to dark with my dad who is visiting from our of town. Jigging only produced shakers so we switched to trolling. Green / blue hoochies at 41 feet did damage. Missed a few good ones. Ended up with a big hatch coho and ripe 78cm chinook

 

[DasBrew]

Will fish from the Fraser side be eligible?

what I remember from past derby’s was no more than 3 miles off shore from Gabriola.
for reports, I’ve fished Grande a few times the last weeks and caught 1 over slot and one barely legal with lots of undersized springs, a couple big pinks and coho sprinkled in.

 

[Ophiodon99]

Fished Grande to Whalebone yesterday from 4:00 till 7:00 in 130 -180' of water, 150' on rigger, 3.5" Irish cream, 2.2 - 2.7 kn. Four wild coho, 3 wild springs, one of which was probably just barely legal, but released. Only a couple other boats out, but too far away to see nets out. I had several long releases as well.

 

[Haymaker]

Fished night bite from 730pm to dark with my dad who is visiting from our of town. Jigging only produced shakers so we switched to trolling. Green / blue hoochies at 41 feet did damage. Missed a few good ones. Ended up with a big hatch coho and ripe 78cm chinook

that ripe chinook looks like a female and those blunt nose are usually red. that is a big coho for a hatchery, very nice..cheers