2023 Nanaimo Reports
- Thread starter SFBC
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Aces
Well-Known Member
Waiting for Unreel to post his exciting news
banger17
Well-Known Member
beauty morning! And thats some crazy blowback on the riggers there. Impressive! trolling speed?
MikePA
Well-Known Member
2.5mph against the current. Lol can't believe you can see that.
Unreel
Well-Known Member
There was definitely a new wave of springs that moved in overnight. Tried to stay away from the pinks and coho and the crowd of boats. Lost 3 good fish before landing a nice 70cm. About 15 min later trolling back through the same spot had a big hit. By the time I grabbed the rod the reel was screeming, then completely slack as it turned around on me. Even me reeling at top speed I couldn’t keep up, sh*t I lost it, then the rod corks right over and screeming once again. 2 more times it does this before I passed it off to one of my clients. He could barely hold the rod up with both hands while the fish was running. Another turn to the boat and I had to floor the kicker to keep any tension. After about 10 minutes he had to pass off to his dad that fought it the rest of the way. Would have weighed it in the net but I broke my scale last week. Was able to tape it out and it was 40x28 inches. Which, either of the length x girth calculations put it at 40lb or more. It also had a solid chunk taken out of it by a seal or some other predator but it had glazed over and the fish was healthy as ever. Safely released and hopefully off to make some babies! Pink sink spoon did the damage on a slow troll. Not quite as big as my biggest fish off Nanaimo in 2018 but definitely the runner up. 
outbeen
Well-Known Member
Fantastic fish!
Maxpri
Well-Known Member
Amazing, good work man.
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
What a day today. Out of Entrance first light in the smoke until early afternoon. Two nice springs just under the slot, hatchery coho and nice sized lingcod.
Released a ton of fish this morning and lost many more. Was good fishing without all the pinks grabbing everything.
Released a ton of fish this morning and lost many more. Was good fishing without all the pinks grabbing everything.
Maiden voyage for the boat I picked up a couple months back. Had a bunch of fibreglass and trailer work to do first off, then when I went to wire my downriggers I got sketched on the existing wiring so did probably a 75% rewire over the last few weeks. Replaced the non-A1 fuel lines, bunch of other little jobs to get it ready to fish. Still a work in progress but got it to a point I felt I could try and get some blood on the deck. Which we did.
Fished first light to about 11am, stuck in fairly close working in front of pipers and neck point mostly. Bonked 2 pinks and 1 hatch coho. Released about 4 other wild coho, and a beauty spring that was just over the slot at 82cm. That hurt, but I try to play by the rules. Most excitement of the day was when an absolute freight train hit at about 130ft on the wire - popped the pin and started peeling line right from the start before I even got the rod out of the holder. And the drag was set stiff too. Unfortunately, it took a leap right when the flasher broke the surface and was gone. Too far back to ID for sure, but it looked bigger than 80cm. Tough to tell from 30 feet back and the .5 seconds it was out of the water. That was a heart breaker but pretty sure it was either an over the slot spring or wild coho, so wouldn't have been able to keep it either way. Would have like to get it to the boat though. Ah well.
Hootchies were working for us, short leaders. Red and white behind a red flasher and army truck behind a green one were both working. Had a couple hits on spoons but nothing that stuck.
Motor stalled at idle after running fine all morning, so we took it as a sign to call it. Started fine again and got us back to Breckin without further incident. Getting it up my driveway is another story, but I started a separate thread about that in the boats, trailers, and tow rigs section.
Good start with this boat, which we are naming "Half Caff" since that's how I take my coffee.
Fished first light to about 11am, stuck in fairly close working in front of pipers and neck point mostly. Bonked 2 pinks and 1 hatch coho. Released about 4 other wild coho, and a beauty spring that was just over the slot at 82cm. That hurt, but I try to play by the rules. Most excitement of the day was when an absolute freight train hit at about 130ft on the wire - popped the pin and started peeling line right from the start before I even got the rod out of the holder. And the drag was set stiff too. Unfortunately, it took a leap right when the flasher broke the surface and was gone. Too far back to ID for sure, but it looked bigger than 80cm. Tough to tell from 30 feet back and the .5 seconds it was out of the water. That was a heart breaker but pretty sure it was either an over the slot spring or wild coho, so wouldn't have been able to keep it either way. Would have like to get it to the boat though. Ah well.
Hootchies were working for us, short leaders. Red and white behind a red flasher and army truck behind a green one were both working. Had a couple hits on spoons but nothing that stuck.
Motor stalled at idle after running fine all morning, so we took it as a sign to call it. Started fine again and got us back to Breckin without further incident. Getting it up my driveway is another story, but I started a separate thread about that in the boats, trailers, and tow rigs section.
Good start with this boat, which we are naming "Half Caff" since that's how I take my coffee.
Maxpri
Well-Known Member
Just an idea but what about “half gaff”, to incorporate some fishing to it. Nice work.
That is a good idea! Unfortunately, I already sent in my MMSI application. Its also a play on the colour of the boat, which is kind of creamy like a coffee creamer.
Blue Hewes
Well-Known Member
What depth were you getting the springs at? All we found today were a jack spring, wild coho and pinks. We could see fish sitting on bottom in 200 plus FOW wondering if those were springs down deeper.
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
105ft and deepest was 145ft. Not on bottom. They were suspended today.
Tockeyetalmon
Well-Known Member
Did well at entrance yesterday coho pinks and springs. All springs 180-200ft on rigger.
Squire
Well-Known Member
Fished a couple of hours this afternoon at Entrance and three hatch coho and one 63cm spring ended up in the box. We released a few smaller springs and a wild coho but a 94cm fatty spring was the highlight. It was the strangest fight ever as we got him on an anchovy while speeding up to miss some structure we were drifting a bit close to and we thought we had picked off a big ling. It immediately popped the clip but made no real runs and was basically slowly drug in to the boat. It wasn‘t foul hooked and was still strong boat side so no explanation for its behaviour.
Finished off the day retrieving the successful prawn traps we had dropped on the way out.
Finished off the day retrieving the successful prawn traps we had dropped on the way out.
Bearded wonder
Well-Known Member
Got out this evening with my niece in the crazy weather. Some rain at times, wind was up and down and lots of lightning.
Had lots of fun. 7 unders and lost one big hit. Her first time ocean fishing so she had fun playing the smaller fish. Disappointed though that we did get any keepers. Fish Clark Rock/pipers, then in the channel. Lots and lots of bait everywhere. White hoochie got the big hit and herring aid spoons caught everything else. 125’ and 135’ were good depths.
Had lots of fun. 7 unders and lost one big hit. Her first time ocean fishing so she had fun playing the smaller fish. Disappointed though that we did get any keepers. Fish Clark Rock/pipers, then in the channel. Lots and lots of bait everywhere. White hoochie got the big hit and herring aid spoons caught everything else. 125’ and 135’ were good depths.
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