Charlie
Well-Known Member
Might want think and consder this?
Nootka Sound / Esperanza Reports - Spring and Summer 2011
- Thread starter MyEscape
- Start date
directmule
Member
Just got home from 13 days up at Nootka, fishing was out of this world.
Wife & I brought back 8 springs (21 to 10lb), 8 coho (5 to 9lb) 1 nice ling, 4 good size rock cod but no hali, but had two up to the boat, both on salmon gear.
I could not tell you how many coho we released but we gave up about 5 days fishing two rods and just went with one. Also released a good number of springs, the 10lb was our last chance at a big one
but when she got it to the boat it was bleeding real bad, so we netted it and canceled our final tag.
The coho were from surface to bottom of the water, we caught them from 10, 20 down to 100 ft. When we arrived on June 21, the clipped coho we rather on the 4 to 5 lb size but towards the end of the
trip we were getting 8 & 9 lb. The non clipped were quite a bit larger. Gear for coho.........anything, hoochies, plugs, anchovys, spoons etc. The best we found for springs & coho, were white & light green
hoochies. Vanilla Ice were there name if I remember correctly, with two #5 singles
We stayed at Moutcha Bay Resort, excellent place to stay, in my opinion, huge amount of $$$$ has been spent there in the last year. They have the only Govn't approved fish processing plant in the area. $2.00 @ lb.
Good meals and the prices aren't that bad, $10 to $20 and up, fuel was $1.33 @ L while fuel was $1.39 at Critter's, one thing I'll say about Critter's is they have a very good selection of fishing tackle & Scotty
downrigger parts. Moutcha has some but are just getting set up with the new store and Moutcha also has diesel @ $1.35 a L plus propane refilling, sani dump & showers (loonie) free for people staying there.
If you don't want the fish processing plant, you can freeze your own fish free.
The only bad thing about staying at Moutcha is it's at the end of Head Bay, about 6 1/2 miles to Critter's, 8 miles to San Carlos Pt. and 16 miles to the light house and around 20 to 30 miles to the can, depending
where you go. At this time of the year, time of our trip, you have to out to the light house or farther, later this month and Aug, the inside is great. 57ft seemed to be a good depth for us and we went every day out
to the light house or beyond, wash rock, Beno, the can, and farther out. We had just about 10 days of rain, sometimes heavy, sometimes light. Water was sometimes iffy, when your in a 20ft Hewescraft Searunner
with a Yammi 150 on it and you just clear the light house and the second wave hit half way up the windshield and the wife turns and looks at you saying "the light house looked pretty good to me" you know it's
time to turn back to the light house, which we did and about an hour later slowly trolled our way to Beno. One other day we had 3m seas (rollers) which wasn't that bad but when the wind picked up and you had
a two ft wave/chop on them, while it was pouring rain, it made fishing a little interesting, but we caught fish.
For your info, I have a fuel meter on our boat and if I behave myself by running 3200 to 3300rpm it tells me I'm burning between 5.5 to 6.2gph at a speed of 24 to 25mph, I have three gps's on board and that is
where the mph & mileage comes from. Total mileage for the trip was 660 miles and I burnt 516L @ $1.33 a L =$686.00 If you do the math it works out to roughly $1.20 @ mile............if anyone is interested.
This also includes the trolling with a Yammi 8hp/ht and if you want to hit 45mph the fuel meter say's your crazy,.............11.5 to 12gph
We had a blast on this trip, weather was the craps, water made you think a little but the fishing was great. A couple people staying at Moutcha were able to break the magic 30# mark and also a 77lb halli, most
or I should say the greatest amount were caught on salmon gear.
We can hardly wait for the three weeks to go by as we head back up there on July 26 for another two week trip as we left the truck/camper & boat at Moutcha.
One final word of warning, check your downrigger cables, new in 2008 washed of with fresh water after each use but after leaving 4 - 12lb and 3 - 10lb balls plus clips out between wash rock and Beno, it was a
trip to Tahsis for new cable, I had one spare one with us but need both replaced, no problem since we replaced them and NO we were no way even close to the bottom 90 ft of water and balls were at 57ft.
Dennis
Wife & I brought back 8 springs (21 to 10lb), 8 coho (5 to 9lb) 1 nice ling, 4 good size rock cod but no hali, but had two up to the boat, both on salmon gear.
I could not tell you how many coho we released but we gave up about 5 days fishing two rods and just went with one. Also released a good number of springs, the 10lb was our last chance at a big one
but when she got it to the boat it was bleeding real bad, so we netted it and canceled our final tag.
The coho were from surface to bottom of the water, we caught them from 10, 20 down to 100 ft. When we arrived on June 21, the clipped coho we rather on the 4 to 5 lb size but towards the end of the
trip we were getting 8 & 9 lb. The non clipped were quite a bit larger. Gear for coho.........anything, hoochies, plugs, anchovys, spoons etc. The best we found for springs & coho, were white & light green
hoochies. Vanilla Ice were there name if I remember correctly, with two #5 singles
We stayed at Moutcha Bay Resort, excellent place to stay, in my opinion, huge amount of $$$$ has been spent there in the last year. They have the only Govn't approved fish processing plant in the area. $2.00 @ lb.
Good meals and the prices aren't that bad, $10 to $20 and up, fuel was $1.33 @ L while fuel was $1.39 at Critter's, one thing I'll say about Critter's is they have a very good selection of fishing tackle & Scotty
downrigger parts. Moutcha has some but are just getting set up with the new store and Moutcha also has diesel @ $1.35 a L plus propane refilling, sani dump & showers (loonie) free for people staying there.
If you don't want the fish processing plant, you can freeze your own fish free.
The only bad thing about staying at Moutcha is it's at the end of Head Bay, about 6 1/2 miles to Critter's, 8 miles to San Carlos Pt. and 16 miles to the light house and around 20 to 30 miles to the can, depending
where you go. At this time of the year, time of our trip, you have to out to the light house or farther, later this month and Aug, the inside is great. 57ft seemed to be a good depth for us and we went every day out
to the light house or beyond, wash rock, Beno, the can, and farther out. We had just about 10 days of rain, sometimes heavy, sometimes light. Water was sometimes iffy, when your in a 20ft Hewescraft Searunner
with a Yammi 150 on it and you just clear the light house and the second wave hit half way up the windshield and the wife turns and looks at you saying "the light house looked pretty good to me" you know it's
time to turn back to the light house, which we did and about an hour later slowly trolled our way to Beno. One other day we had 3m seas (rollers) which wasn't that bad but when the wind picked up and you had
a two ft wave/chop on them, while it was pouring rain, it made fishing a little interesting, but we caught fish.
For your info, I have a fuel meter on our boat and if I behave myself by running 3200 to 3300rpm it tells me I'm burning between 5.5 to 6.2gph at a speed of 24 to 25mph, I have three gps's on board and that is
where the mph & mileage comes from. Total mileage for the trip was 660 miles and I burnt 516L @ $1.33 a L =$686.00 If you do the math it works out to roughly $1.20 @ mile............if anyone is interested.
This also includes the trolling with a Yammi 8hp/ht and if you want to hit 45mph the fuel meter say's your crazy,.............11.5 to 12gph
We had a blast on this trip, weather was the craps, water made you think a little but the fishing was great. A couple people staying at Moutcha were able to break the magic 30# mark and also a 77lb halli, most
or I should say the greatest amount were caught on salmon gear.
We can hardly wait for the three weeks to go by as we head back up there on July 26 for another two week trip as we left the truck/camper & boat at Moutcha.
One final word of warning, check your downrigger cables, new in 2008 washed of with fresh water after each use but after leaving 4 - 12lb and 3 - 10lb balls plus clips out between wash rock and Beno, it was a
trip to Tahsis for new cable, I had one spare one with us but need both replaced, no problem since we replaced them and NO we were no way even close to the bottom 90 ft of water and balls were at 57ft.
Dennis
Island Fish Lifter
Well-Known Member
heading there tonight for a 7 day tour.
directmule
Member
Quote: "Great report mulie! 5 weeks in Nootka!!! Man, life must be good! Now all we need are some pictures!!!"
Well it's not 5 weeks, only two 14 day trips so let's say 4 weeks. I had a little shorter trip planned but the wife said NO DAMN WAY..........can't argue with the boss, as she caught most of the fish.
Should have added to my first report, one of the guides at Moutcha pointed out to shorten my leaders up to around 26" for the hoochies, as I usually have ran longer ones, WOW!!! did it make a difference. We both used a silver with green trim flashers. Also used Mrs. Stewarts blueing on the anchovies, when we used them, sure did brighten them up.
Com prawners left at end of June and I think they took all the prawns with them, we made 3 different sets with 2 traps per set in a couple spots that have always produced but came home with about 10 prawns, threw around 10 smaller ones back to grow up for next year.
Crabbing was worse than the prawning............not even one crab and other people staying at Moutcha, including the resort themselves came up blank
Last couple of days noticed a few boats off San Carlos Pt. but didn't hear of and fish being caught
Lings were hard to get as they need to be 25" in length, the wife loves her bottom fish and I bet she released around 25 to 30 undersize lings, made it interesting when they come up and you look at them thinking this looks good and the tape say's 23" or 22".........................anyone on this forum know who makes a "Ling Stretcher"
We went out at around 5:15 - 5:30am every morning and came back in around 1:30 - 2:30pm, the early part was good but we caught fish all day, some went out in late afternoon early evening and they did good also, we had to get back in a little early because we left the hound in the camper or other wise we would have stayed out all day.
We also picked up our keeper ling at 57ft while fishing in 90ft of water, also a couple of the rockies at the same depth.............go figure that one out
We didn't take many pics, a few and will post them in the near future.
The two hali's were a loss to us, as the first one came up and we saw what it was, I grabbed the gaff and as was just going to gaff it, it did the famous freak show and hit the side of the boat..............gone with the hook. The second one, when it hit, peeled line for a long ways and then slowly the wife started to gain on it, about half way up the reel started to scream again, YES I thought, a decent size spring. After a while of cranking she said take the rod I can't hang on my arms a giving out, so I cranked for a while slowly gaining on our "tyee", it appeared below the water and I saw the size and thought "there is no way I'm going to gaff this barn door and with no harpoon I decided to net it figuring I would probably wreck the net but if I grabbed the outer ring and the handle I should be able to reef it on board. The big mistake I made was I didn't realize how big it was and it wouldn't fit in the salmon net, as it's head and part of the body started into the net, I scooped towards it and yanked back & up and it flew out of the net and I ended up on the other side of the boat on the floor with the wife laughing at me. The boat now has a harpoon and when I bought it, he laughing said, "now you probably won't see another hali"..........don't know if he has a connection with the great fish god or not but he was right, but we are ready for the next trip.
Dennis
Well it's not 5 weeks, only two 14 day trips so let's say 4 weeks. I had a little shorter trip planned but the wife said NO DAMN WAY..........can't argue with the boss, as she caught most of the fish.
Should have added to my first report, one of the guides at Moutcha pointed out to shorten my leaders up to around 26" for the hoochies, as I usually have ran longer ones, WOW!!! did it make a difference. We both used a silver with green trim flashers. Also used Mrs. Stewarts blueing on the anchovies, when we used them, sure did brighten them up.
Com prawners left at end of June and I think they took all the prawns with them, we made 3 different sets with 2 traps per set in a couple spots that have always produced but came home with about 10 prawns, threw around 10 smaller ones back to grow up for next year.
Crabbing was worse than the prawning............not even one crab and other people staying at Moutcha, including the resort themselves came up blank
Last couple of days noticed a few boats off San Carlos Pt. but didn't hear of and fish being caught
Lings were hard to get as they need to be 25" in length, the wife loves her bottom fish and I bet she released around 25 to 30 undersize lings, made it interesting when they come up and you look at them thinking this looks good and the tape say's 23" or 22".........................anyone on this forum know who makes a "Ling Stretcher"
We went out at around 5:15 - 5:30am every morning and came back in around 1:30 - 2:30pm, the early part was good but we caught fish all day, some went out in late afternoon early evening and they did good also, we had to get back in a little early because we left the hound in the camper or other wise we would have stayed out all day.
We also picked up our keeper ling at 57ft while fishing in 90ft of water, also a couple of the rockies at the same depth.............go figure that one out
We didn't take many pics, a few and will post them in the near future.
The two hali's were a loss to us, as the first one came up and we saw what it was, I grabbed the gaff and as was just going to gaff it, it did the famous freak show and hit the side of the boat..............gone with the hook. The second one, when it hit, peeled line for a long ways and then slowly the wife started to gain on it, about half way up the reel started to scream again, YES I thought, a decent size spring. After a while of cranking she said take the rod I can't hang on my arms a giving out, so I cranked for a while slowly gaining on our "tyee", it appeared below the water and I saw the size and thought "there is no way I'm going to gaff this barn door and with no harpoon I decided to net it figuring I would probably wreck the net but if I grabbed the outer ring and the handle I should be able to reef it on board. The big mistake I made was I didn't realize how big it was and it wouldn't fit in the salmon net, as it's head and part of the body started into the net, I scooped towards it and yanked back & up and it flew out of the net and I ended up on the other side of the boat on the floor with the wife laughing at me. The boat now has a harpoon and when I bought it, he laughing said, "now you probably won't see another hali"..........don't know if he has a connection with the great fish god or not but he was right, but we are ready for the next trip.
Dennis
Great report Dennis...sounds like you had lots of action. I also appreciate the details of the fuel millage as that can become a significant cost fast. We will be staying in the lodge at Moutcha Bay Aug 12 - 15th so it might overlap your next trip. If not maybe you will post another great update before I go that will help dial us into the fish.
directmule
Member
There didn't seem to be the people or boats up there on this trip as there has been in the last 4 years going at this time of year. Moutcha Bay Resort and Critter's didn't seem to be a busy as the last 3 years in my opinion. We fished mainly from the lighthouse to wash rock staying in 90 ft of water to wash rock then up to Beno. There were usually 2 or 3 other boats doing the same with maybe two boats just hanging around wash rock and always 2 or 3 boats way out 3 - 4 miles plus a few of the bigger ones that headed for the can and that area. The lighthouse area always has 5 to 8 boats hanging around and when the water got too rough for us and we were heading back to camp, there would be 12 to 14 boats at the lighthouse. Never checked out the Burwood side but heard radio chatter that there were a few boats there and farther out.
We popped into Cougar Creek one day and there were around 4 boats there..................no where like it will be later this month and Aug.
It was nice..........we hate crowded water...........remember many times when all the boats are are going one way, turning and then coming back..............just like a big long circle..........and then you get the AZZ hole that decides he is going to fish cross ways............and there has to be one every time.
It will be a lot more hectic when we go up later on the inside..........we can live with is.......it's a large ocean
To sum it up holmes, no it wasn't as busy as other years
Dennis
We popped into Cougar Creek one day and there were around 4 boats there..................no where like it will be later this month and Aug.
It was nice..........we hate crowded water...........remember many times when all the boats are are going one way, turning and then coming back..............just like a big long circle..........and then you get the AZZ hole that decides he is going to fish cross ways............and there has to be one every time.
It will be a lot more hectic when we go up later on the inside..........we can live with is.......it's a large ocean
To sum it up holmes, no it wasn't as busy as other years
Dennis
directmule
Member
I don't know if this will work, never posted a pic here but will give it a try. As I said we didn't take many pics.......camera say's 8
First one is the unit heading up there.
Second is Sheila with her first 2 springs
Third is Sheila bouncing for a hali
Fourth is the lighthouse on the far right of the dark land from 8 to 9 miles out put this one in
because that day the water was great.
Dennis
First one is the unit heading up there.
Second is Sheila with her first 2 springs
Third is Sheila bouncing for a hali
Fourth is the lighthouse on the far right of the dark land from 8 to 9 miles out put this one in
because that day the water was great.
Dennis
Attachments
directmule
Member
By God......it works..........not bad for mule owning dumb stupid truck driver who likes fishing.
Dennis
Dennis
directmule
Member
Besides that I need more posts if I expect to catch up to holmes
Charlie
Well-Known Member
its about quality not quantity
Don't forget about the "quality" lol
Island Fish Lifter
Well-Known Member
Whats your plan there Charlie? Are you gonna be in our neck of the woods this summer?
Island Fish Lifter
Well-Known Member
Give me a shout when youre there, try 69, or 72. Ill be on F2 for sure, dont know if you have those channels though, knowing you, you probably have two radios with those channels! Im heading out in an hour. Ill be posting reports from time to time.
Island Fish Lifter
Well-Known Member
Cam, why dont you join us when Pippen et al.. comes in Aug? Not sure of the dates yet.
Highliner
Well-Known Member
Hahaha, I can't count. I guess my morning coffee wasn't working yet. Where the heck did you find this wife of yours??? I hope you realize how good you've got it.
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