2021 Port Alberni and Alberni Inlet Reports

All singles, 4/0 I believe. I even tried trimming the squirt so the hook is almost dangling back. As far as color mostly black but I did run some silver as well. It didn't really seem to matter as we got lots of hits just not a lot of reliable hook ups. Thanks for the suggestion on doubles. I'll give that a go.
I dropped my hooks a bit farther back by adding a extra bead or two also.
 
Calling all China Creek Sox pro's. Firstly I am no sockeye expert. I think I've fished them 6 or 7 times in my life. I've had successful days with limits and very frustrating days with lots of misses that I blame on "soft mouths" My two trips to CC this year were the later. 4 for 12 last week and 2 for about 20 yesterday. I'd love to say that it isn't my fault but many others are putting meat on the deck with no major problems. One of the things I've started to consider is that we fish straight braid on all our rods and have for about 20 years or more. I'm not looking to open a discussion about the pro and cons of either as my mind is made up there but I am pondering if mono would be far more forgiving and superior with respect to the sockeye fishery. I just can't understand why we are having so much trouble getting them to stick. Half the time they are gone before we can even get the rods out of the holders.

Thanks in advance for any tips,

Brian
One thing i do to help get them in the boat is to idle right down and have less pull on them. Even circle around on them.
 
One thing i do to help get them in the boat is to idle right down and have less pull on them. Even circle around on them.
Good points. I didn't idle back as I was fishing 4 rods with two guys in a 14' tin boat. I considered slowing down but in the wind and with all the gear in the water I wanted to avoid tangles (which we did manage to avoid).
 
Switched to shorter rods and just drag them in, I find these are not really a fish you play just drag them in. We fish 4 rods and don't stop or slow down, just keep trolling straight. What ever side it hits on we just swing the downrigger to the back and that will free up that side of the boat to net them.
 
Switched to shorter rods and just drag them in, I find these are not really a fish you play just drag them in. We fish 4 rods and don't stop or slow down, just keep trolling straight. What ever side it hits on we just swing the downrigger to the back and that will free up that side of the boat to net them.
Great points as well.

Thank you
 
Calling all China Creek Sox pro's. Firstly I am no sockeye expert. I think I've fished them 6 or 7 times in my life. I've had successful days with limits and very frustrating days with lots of misses that I blame on "soft mouths" My two trips to CC this year were the later. 4 for 12 last week and 2 for about 20 yesterday. I'd love to say that it isn't my fault but many others are putting meat on the deck with no major problems. One of the things I've started to consider is that we fish straight braid on all our rods and have for about 20 years or more. I'm not looking to open a discussion about the pro and cons of either as my mind is made up there but I am pondering if mono would be far more forgiving and superior with respect to the sockeye fishery. I just can't understand why we are having so much trouble getting them to stick. Half the time they are gone before we can even get the rods out of the holders.

Thanks in advance for any tips,

Brian
I usually only make one or two day trips a year for sockeye, driving up from Nanaimo at 3am and usually heading home by 9am…on the years it’s worth going. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and only ever use two rods with two dummy flashers off the canon ball. This year was the worst I’ve had for losing them as well ! I brought home 8 but lost probably 12 to 14 more ? We had 3 people in the boat so 8 was not our limit. Anyway I think next year I will go back to double hooks and maybe a size bigger…only thing I can suggest !
 
Hey you Alberni guys, what's the etiquette in the river? Heading back to Cleutsi today just past the mill we joined 3 or 4 boats in procession. The lead was off the step and moving up river slowly. The other guys slowed down for him and followed, so did I. Traffic was coming down the river as well. A Parker Pilothouse decides to overtake us all, split the small gap on step for the marina with oncoming traffic. Classy move to say the least. Rodney Dangerfield would be impressed!
 
from the gillnetters FB page

Regular Thursday Barkley Harvest table meeting was help today.

No new information because we already had the extra meeting on Monday.

The FN have allocation left, but are not fishing until they see more escapement.

The Rec fleet will be moved out of the river and out of the harbour down past Lone Tree to gradually start slowing down their fishery. The Rec fleet has over 10,000 left of expected catch, and their effort will drop as people start to switch over to Chinook.

They are going to allow a pulse of water out from the dam to try and cool the water in the Somass river to try and protect the fish that are holding below the counters. It's hard to know how much water to release during sockeye, - of course any water they release now can't be release later. This pulse of water is also expected to pull some fish into the river and we should see a bump in escapement numbers, this should also coincide with a low pressure event, which may even give us a rain shower, so fingers crossed that we see some of the 140,000 plus fish that are hanging around in the canal start to head up the river.

Escapement to date is 91,000 with a target escapement for June of 85,000 and by the end of migration of 330,000. We were tracking pretty close to target in June, but the escapement in July since the heat started has been minimal.

Next meeting is next Thursday, however there is always to possibly of an extra meeting if things change. Keep an eye on the test boat,. We will be looking to see some continued good testing outside (sets over 100) and good testing inside (sets over 1000) to confirm that there are still some fish coming, and that there are still lots of fish holding.

Once the fish start to move, don't be surprised if we see some 10,000+ days of escapement. With the amount of fish holding we should see a couple weeks solid of heavy solid migration (once they start to move).

-Ryan
 
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Calling all China Creek Sox pro's. Firstly I am no sockeye expert. I think I've fished them 6 or 7 times in my life. I've had successful days with limits and very frustrating days with lots of misses that I blame on "soft mouths" My two trips to CC this year were the later. 4 for 12 last week and 2 for about 20 yesterday. I'd love to say that it isn't my fault but many others are putting meat on the deck with no major problems. One of the things I've started to consider is that we fish straight braid on all our rods and have for about 20 years or more. I'm not looking to open a discussion about the pro and cons of either as my mind is made up there but I am pondering if mono would be far more forgiving and superior with respect to the sockeye fishery. I just can't understand why we are having so much trouble getting them to stick. Half the time they are gone before we can even get the rods out of the holders.

Thanks in advance for any tips,

Brian
Your not the only one this year..lots of days like that this.. have a pile of them fall off on any given days... :)
 
Your not the only one this year..lots of days like that this.. have a pile of them fall off on any given days... :)
Two days later Mike and I went and had our limit in about 3 hours. I ran some mono on one rod as an experiment and it made no difference mono vs braid. I think we went 8 for 10 or 12. What a weird fishery.
 
Just got back from China Creek. 1st time to fish in that area. It was nice to touch some Sockeye after so many years. the 1st 2 or 3 days were very frustrating as we only hooked 2 or 3 fish even when fishing with dummy flashers and 4 rods. There was no shortage of fish and everyone around us was getting them but not us. Talked to other fishermen in the camp which by the way everyone was so helpful and generous with their time. Then all of a sudden the last day, 4 fish with an hour. All fished were hooked around 110' to 120' of water so the biters seem to be deeper now.
I also want to thank everyone on this site for the great tips helping me and the family to have a fantastic trip.
 
Just got back from China Creek. 1st time to fish in that area. It was nice to touch some Sockeye after so many years. the 1st 2 or 3 days were very frustrating as we only hooked 2 or 3 fish even when fishing with dummy flashers and 4 rods. There was no shortage of fish and everyone around us was getting them but not us. Talked to other fishermen in the camp which by the way everyone was so helpful and generous with their time. Then all of a sudden the last day, 4 fish with an hour. All fished were hooked around 110' to 120' of water so the biters seem to be deeper now.
I also want to thank everyone on this site for the great tips helping me and the family to have a fantastic trip.
Went a couple of days ago and it was similar for us. Couldn’t get anything at the traditional depths. Went down to 100’+ and we started picking up fish. Even caught one at 130’. Usually the bite dies off in the late morning but not for us. We were still getting regular bites at 1 pm. Fished across from China creek. Lots of markings in the 40’-80’ range but they wouldn’t bite at all. Deeper was the ticket for us. Ended up with our limit in the end.
 
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