2024 Campbell River Reports
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ryanonthevedder
Active Member
+1 on eating it. I kept one and a friend cooked it Portuguese style (?) and it was damn fine. It tasted just like the prawns it was eating just with a touch more chew which was preferable.
10/10 would do again
Northfish
Well-Known Member
Made a short video of our outing a couple days ago, admin please remove if not permitted! Couple important notes I forgot; all fish were caught in the first hundred feet of water on plugs trolled FAST. As in at least 2.8 knots with most strikes being at 3+ knots while turning.
Northfish
Well-Known Member
I've seen some jumping here and there but none today. Saw some strange finning at the surface as well, didn't look like salmon but not too sure what else it could have been. Bottom fishing was really good, lots of just undersized lings before we got onto a school of big pacific cod!
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17 ft sea ranger
Active Member
any Toba reports out there?
Coho that are returning as adults in fall 2024 would have been released in the spring of 2023 and would have been marked during the fall/winter/spring of 2022-23 so would not have been impacted by covid. So hopefully no issues with Marked fish out there.
pacemaker
Well-Known Member
We headed over to area 15 today to see what was happening over there for fishing. Included in the boat were my 2 granddaughters, aged 9 and 10, who were given a day pass from school so they could fish with their Gramps. Both girls have lots of boating experience, and are very capable rod-handlers. They are very good at whatever they set their mind to do.
The youngest one, the 9 year old, often seems to be in the unfortunate position of being given the rod that has undersized fish on that subsequently have to be released. Meanwhile, the older one, 10 years, seems to often luck-out and be given the rod with keeper sized fish that later end up in the tub. Today was no exception.
The first few fish of the day all seemed to be just undersized. Knowing that my 9 year old granddaughter might likely be somewhat frustrated at having to release them when they were determined to be undersized, I played the fish and released them when they were in fact undersized. All is good, no problem.
Finally an obvious keeper is hooked. I quickly turned the rod over to the 9 year old, and the fight is on…. Between her and the fish…….. It didn’t take long before we all came to the realization that this fish might have to be released because it is simply too big for the 80 cm size restrictions. After a solid 20 + minute fight the fish finally came to the surface just a short distance from the boat, and proceeded to gently circle the boat for a couple of minutes while we manoeuvred the boat to keep everything in position. I was on the video camera for a lot of this time, trying to keep things for posterity.
Both my son and I have been fortunate over the years and we have caught several fish over 40 lbs, so we know what they look like when we see them. This was one of those fIsh. It was obviously over 40 lbs, and probably closer to the solid mid 40’s. We all knew that it had to go back, but how to release it with as little damage as possible to both the fish and a young 9 year old fisher lady.
It finally came to the boat without any thrashing or bashing about. As my son gently grabbed the leader and brought the fish boat side and reached out, the hooks gently pulled free from the fish on their own. It was free, without being handled by any of us, or being put into a net prior to release.
We were all thrilled and amazed with the size, strength, power and beauty of this fish, and very happy that it was released unharmed, except of course for a certain 9 year old who had to release yet another one that she couldn’t keep. She did have a huge smile though, knowing what she had just accomplished, and recognizing how excited we were too.
Her 10 year old sister did manage to catch and keep a nice 70 cm Chinook later in the day, a very nice fish for anybody, but an especially nice fish for her to hold bragging rights over her younger sister who had nothing physical to show for her efforts on the day.
Sibling rivalry starts young. I’m very privileged to be their Gramps and to be with them on parts of their journey in life.
The youngest one, the 9 year old, often seems to be in the unfortunate position of being given the rod that has undersized fish on that subsequently have to be released. Meanwhile, the older one, 10 years, seems to often luck-out and be given the rod with keeper sized fish that later end up in the tub. Today was no exception.
The first few fish of the day all seemed to be just undersized. Knowing that my 9 year old granddaughter might likely be somewhat frustrated at having to release them when they were determined to be undersized, I played the fish and released them when they were in fact undersized. All is good, no problem.
Finally an obvious keeper is hooked. I quickly turned the rod over to the 9 year old, and the fight is on…. Between her and the fish…….. It didn’t take long before we all came to the realization that this fish might have to be released because it is simply too big for the 80 cm size restrictions. After a solid 20 + minute fight the fish finally came to the surface just a short distance from the boat, and proceeded to gently circle the boat for a couple of minutes while we manoeuvred the boat to keep everything in position. I was on the video camera for a lot of this time, trying to keep things for posterity.
Both my son and I have been fortunate over the years and we have caught several fish over 40 lbs, so we know what they look like when we see them. This was one of those fIsh. It was obviously over 40 lbs, and probably closer to the solid mid 40’s. We all knew that it had to go back, but how to release it with as little damage as possible to both the fish and a young 9 year old fisher lady.
It finally came to the boat without any thrashing or bashing about. As my son gently grabbed the leader and brought the fish boat side and reached out, the hooks gently pulled free from the fish on their own. It was free, without being handled by any of us, or being put into a net prior to release.
We were all thrilled and amazed with the size, strength, power and beauty of this fish, and very happy that it was released unharmed, except of course for a certain 9 year old who had to release yet another one that she couldn’t keep. She did have a huge smile though, knowing what she had just accomplished, and recognizing how excited we were too.
Her 10 year old sister did manage to catch and keep a nice 70 cm Chinook later in the day, a very nice fish for anybody, but an especially nice fish for her to hold bragging rights over her younger sister who had nothing physical to show for her efforts on the day.
Sibling rivalry starts young. I’m very privileged to be their Gramps and to be with them on parts of their journey in life.
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seascene
Crew Member
Last year 2 miles off bell bouy Comox also got into Pacific cod. Nice to see they are becoming more common or perhaps always have been just no body fishing for them. Sounder picked up lots of fish 200' ... between green bouy and Mittlenatch a month ago. En route so did not fish but suspect Pacific cod.
Northfish
Well-Known Member
Considering what the limits are I suspect it's a lack of popularity, which I'm not complaining about! I've gotten into some hake just above the bottom as well so maybe that's what it was? Whenever I've caught pacific cod I've never had anything discernable show up on the sounder..
Was there this weekend Saturday and Sunday. It was quite good, lots of people catching fish, we got our limits both days and had lots of action. Channel Island and the entrance to Waddington were the most productive.
We fished Dean Point and Brettell this morning, 4 unders was all we could manage. We saw lot of fish on on the other boats but all looked small. Maybe the larger fish are deeper? We fished a plug, anchovies, white hootchies at as deep as 190’ on the downrigger. What depths and techniques are the more successful fishers using?
Northfish
Well-Known Member
Why so deep? All the fish I had not long ago were in less than 150' and caught at 25' to 75' on plugs.
Thanks, we were trying different depths but havnt tried anything less than 100’ on the rigger in 150’ of water and deeper, last year the ones we caught were deeper but I’ll mix it up and try some shallower depths in some shallower water. Much easier to fish those depths, I’ll be out there again in a few days and report back.
Northfish
Well-Known Member
Returning fish will *generally* travel in shallower water at shallower depths to better locate their home waters, that's the theory from biologists ive met anyway. Fish in general prefer to ambush from below (thus the counter shading of nearly every fish in the ocean), so fishing below them is typically a waste of time. In my personal experience it's better to fish 25' above the fish than 5' below them for that reason. Work plugs really fast and don't be afraid to stop once you find bait or a school and cast or jig. Trolling is a search tactic and ripping off into the distance once fish are located makes no sense at all
RiverBoy
Well-Known Member
The fish we caught in Toba this year were both at 190-200 feet of water. they follow the bait. 40 or 50 feet difference is nothing to a fish that swims 30 miles per hour.
Northfish
Well-Known Member
All the coho I caught today were full of krill but smashed my 4.75" plug with no dense bait on the sounder, I'm sure there's lots we don't have any understanding of really.. Just means more to experiment with! We limited out on hatch coho in 1.5 hours on plugs between 40 and 110' including two double headers, evening bite was incredible.
Northfish
Well-Known Member
I jigged a bit as well but trolling vastly outproduced as I think the schools were pretty active in the upper water column. Going to make some stick baits and poppers soon for those times when there's schools on the surface. Should be a blast
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