2023 Nanaimo Reports

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Got out with my mom who is visiting from New Zealand, and my nephew yesterday morning. Charter with Turk at Reel Time Fishing Charters, that I booked months ago when my mom first set her plans, and before I bought my own boat. Just as well, since I'm still rigging it and will need a least a couple weeks before its fishable.

Just a morning trip, half day but was quite pleased with the action. We got our limits of slot springs, with my nephew taking the prize at 78cm. Mine was about 75cm, and my mom's maybe 72 (didn't get measured). Also found 2 hatch Coho, and a 4th smaller spring for the guide. Couple dogfish in the mix, including one I managed to tail hook somehow. And the nephew pulled up and released a Pacific Cod. A little drama as neither my mother or nephew have a lot of experience. She managed to wrap her spring around the prop on the kicker, and the nephew got his coho around the downrigger line. Both landed still, thanks to some quick work from Turk. I had to admire his professionalism as I didn't hear a single F bomb get dropped in either incident - or even back at the dock when the float plane came up the other side of the dock and took his anchor light out with the wing of the plane! Would have been a rod and a VHF antenna to add to the tally if he hadn't been quick on his toes and got them down in time.
 
chille51 said:
Got out with my mom who is visiting from New Zealand, and my nephew yesterday morning. Charter with Turk at Reel Time Fishing Charters, that I booked months ago when my mom first set her plans, and before I bought my own boat. Just as well, since I'm still rigging it and will need a least a couple weeks before its fishable.

Just a morning trip, half day but was quite pleased with the action. We got our limits of slot springs, with my nephew taking the prize at 78cm. Mine was about 75cm, and my mom's maybe 72 (didn't get measured). Also found 2 hatch Coho, and a 4th smaller spring for the guide. Couple dogfish in the mix, including one I managed to tail hook somehow. And the nephew pulled up and released a Pacific Cod. A little drama as neither my mother or nephew have a lot of experience. She managed to wrap her spring around the prop on the kicker, and the nephew got his coho around the downrigger line. Both landed still, thanks to some quick work from Turk. I had to admire his professionalism as I didn't hear a single F bomb get dropped in either incident - or even back at the dock when the float plane came up the other side of the dock and took his anchor light out with the wing of the plane! Would have been a rod and a VHF antenna to add to the tally if he hadn't been quick on his toes and got them down in time.
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Congrats on an awesome trip! We chatted about your trip (Turk and I) later that day and we were both convinced you had brought a horseshoe or rabbit foot with you considering the luck in landing those fish that got caught up in the kicker and downrigger. The odds of that very slim, ask me how I know!! 😫
 
Heading out this afternoon. Any suggestions on locations and depth would be appreciated. Haven't been out in a couple of weeks. Taking a couple of newbies, hoping for the same luck as above. Thanks in advance.
 
baddogg said:
Heading out this afternoon. Any suggestions on locations and depth would be appreciated. Haven't been out in a couple of weeks. Taking a couple of newbies, hoping for the same luck as above. Thanks in advance.
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Bait and springs have been right on the bottom in around 100 feet of water. Small spoons have been the ticket. The springs seem to be concentrated around structure.
 
Unreel said:
Congrats on an awesome trip! We chatted about your trip (Turk and I) later that day and we were both convinced you had brought a horseshoe or rabbit foot with you considering the luck in landing those fish that got caught up in the kicker and downrigger. The odds of that very slim, ask me how I know!! 😫
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Yeah I am aware that both of those fish were basically flukes. That said, there was no drama to speak of the fish I landed ;)
 
A-a-Ron said:
That is pretty big for a hatch chinook. You guys see many hatch that large over there?
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Funny, I never even noticed that until I read your response. You make a good point though; I don't keep written notes, but we don't get many hatch chinooks over 20 lbs. I'm sure someone has a better idea than I do, but I'd imagine we're talking about 5+ year fish at that point and I don't think hatcheries are producing a lot of those.
 
TipUp said:
Bait and springs have been right on the bottom in around 100 feet of water. Small spoons have been the ticket. The springs seem to be concentrated around structure.
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100% agree with this based on our last couple of trips. The only thing I'd add is that our big ones, including the over a few reports above, were often on plugs. The bigger guys have usually had good sized herring inside.
 
Grace underfire said:
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.
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Why is 200-300 too deep to fish? We fish that depth exclusively in French Creek north to CR and that is where we have the most success for springs.
 
Big Green Machine said:
Why is 200-300 too deep to fish? We fish that depth exclusively in French Creek north to CR and that is where we have the most success for springs.
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With 15 lb cannon balls at 200 or so on the rigger I'm not hitting bottom at 150. Not sure how much cable I'd have to let out given the increased angle created by doing that to actually get to 200 feet; that's probably doable, but it'd be about the limit... at least the way I'm fishing.
 
We ended up with 3 hatchery Coho and no springs. Small spoons and structure weren’t working. Switched to hootchys and deeper off the Fingers for some success.
 
baddogg said:
We ended up with 3 hatchery Coho and no springs. Small spoons and structure weren’t working. Switched to hootchys and deeper off the Fingers for some success.
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Its weird sometimes fish aren't around structure at all. Like fishing in Nootka where you sometimes hammer fish mid-channel. Find the bait find the fish 😁
 
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