2024 Campbell River Reports
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Northfish
Active Member
Got out for a few hours today, beauty weather window! Pretty slow overall, lost a decent fish boatside and shook off a few and only saw a couple nets out. Variety of depths all on some new plugs I was testing, jig some flounder on the light spinning set up for some fun and to warm up a bit.
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RiverBoy
Well-Known Member
how was the bait over there?
Northfish
Active Member
Very sparse, some suspended balls in the top of half the water column with some bird activity but not much otherwise. My previous outings didn't have show much bait on the sounder either but all the fish I've been catching have scrapes alongside their heads presumably from getting after the sandlance on the bottom, I was late for the tide change and I know if I had been out a few hours before we would have had a lot more action. Nice to get out regardless and the freezer is looking healthy anyway so not a big deal, getting out of the house alone was worth it!
RiverBoy
Well-Known Member
good stuff. yah i’ve only been out a couple times this winter as well; all our fish have also been right in the mud. very little bait balls to work.
Northfish
Active Member
Gotten out half a dozen times so far when weather allows, had a couple days of double digits which was amazing! Generally 20' off the bottom trolling and 15-25' while jigging, colour or glow doesn't matter either these fish are so aggressive.
pacemaker
Well-Known Member
Got out this morning with CoyoteSpooner. Headed to Shelter Pt and probably got the gear in the water shortly after 11.00 AM or so. Threw over a non-descipt herring style spoon for a while without much action. Was about to relegate that one to the “also ran” bin when a real nice 15 lb Spring hit it and came in to the tub. Changed it up anyway shortly thereafter. Gave a bit of a lecture to a new Skinny G spoon that I can’t remember the name of, then put the time-proven “pacemaker bend” in to it, and sent it over the side. It was then pretty much non stop action after that. A most enjoyable day of fishing with a great friend.
Hey all thinking about trying some camping up around Pacific Playground this spring. I read back through last year's reports and sounds like salmon will be closed as per usual, but maybe some ling to target? April/May timeframe I'm thinking. Will be up in McNeill in June, and Esperanza in August, so just filling in the fishing calendar! 17' Arima. Reccomendations on timing and tactics welcome.
Northfish
Active Member
Beauty day out there again, this winter has been a lot more enjoyable than the last few!
Started off slow then nailed this mid teens 75cm hatch chinook, released a couple wild ones as well before switching over to jigging. Got our limit of pacific cod (taste terrible don't bother) before heading in as the clouds rolled in. Same shtick as my previous reports, although my controversial take is that the contour most people run at willow point isn't all that.
Started off slow then nailed this mid teens 75cm hatch chinook, released a couple wild ones as well before switching over to jigging. Got our limit of pacific cod (taste terrible don't bother) before heading in as the clouds rolled in. Same shtick as my previous reports, although my controversial take is that the contour most people run at willow point isn't all that.
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Northfish
Active Member
Some ling, hali, etc. should be around for sure, shoal and hump are easy to reach from there. Would also recommend taking the time to run up discovery pass or up to Sonora and make a day of it, so much wildlife in an incredible place! Be aware of the RCA's in various places before dropping lines too.
Typical jigging tactics apply, would highly recommend stopping at PNT in parksville to get the lowdown on tackle and they've got a great selection of jigs to boot. Local stores also have a good selection of swim baits and metal jigs although my favourites are shimano flat falls which have caught everything from tasty flounder to big chinook.
If you have traps, good opportunity for prawns -re-opens for us on April 1 - commies around May 10 usually
Northfish
Active Member
Good point! I haven't fully committed to the whole prawning thing yet, expensive and a lot of pfaff but damn those things are tasty.
Thanks all. I was raised in the interor fishing freshwater lakes, so I'm slowly building up my skill set in the salt. Started the last couple seasons trolling Salmon as that was the closest thing to what I'm used too. Starting to feel confident with that, so want to expand into jigging this year, and try targeting ling and Hali which will be all new to me. Picked up one of the WCFT lightweight jigging rods a few months back, and you may have seen the thread I started about what reel to put on it. Indeed funny you mention Pacific Net and Twine as one of the reccomendations was to go there and talk to Noah. Well, ended up I talked to him at the Boat show last weekend instead, and picked up a Diawa Lexa on his reccomendation. Headed to the store to pick it up this afternoon after they spooled it with depth hunter. Also snagged some jigs and swimbaits at basically half price at the show too. Reading what I can aND looking forward to getting out this season to give it a go.
One thing to remember is fishing is about more than just "filling your freezer"
Northfish
Active Member
Lexa with depthhunter is exactly what I use as well, some corrosion on the line guide which is unsettling especially as I rinse everything religiously after each outing.. Frankly I don't recommend wcft jigs, the paint, eye, hooks, and action is very poor in my experience. They just don't have the same flutter as flatfalls and after using some wcft hardware for a few hours I switched back to shimano/daiwa jigs and started catching fish again, but that's just my experience. The best part of saltwater fishing in my opinion is the variety of species and the year round availability, highly recommend a 4000 size spinning set up with some 80 gram jigs to go work the kelp beds with as there is everything from greenling to coho (summer) down there. Add in shallow clear water and sight fishing with your head over the side brings back the feeling of being a kid on the dock catching shiner perch and bullhead.
I have some Shimano flat falls too, as well as a bunch of the old classics that came with second hand tackle bulk buy I did. Buzzbombs, zingers, point wilson darts - whatever the ones are that look like little bones? It'll all be new to me so I look forward to finding out what works for me. Did see the prawning reports from last year too, don't have any traps but might invest this year.
Northfish
Active Member
Yep they all work, just some better than others but it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. Would also recommend learning to tie your own assist hooks, rigid connections allow leverage for fish to twist and throw hooks so I prefer to have the assist hook on a split ring at the 'top' of the jig going about a third to halfway down the body. Also allows a straight to leader connection without the the weight of the jig flopping around during the fight and working the hook loose!
Slabbedout
Well-Known Member
I’m interested in trying to find pacific cod. Since you don’t care for them…mind sharing the how and where?
Northfish
Active Member
I’m interested in trying to find pacific cod. Since you don’t care for them…mind sharing the how and where?
You'll have better luck asking for steelhead spots
I haven't fully figured it out yet, they were lucky bycatch for a while but slowly finding our where and why!
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