2024 Campbell River Reports

[spring fever]

Spring fever, good to hear you have been hitting springs at Wilby, we’ve been having a really hard time with the chinook. Lots of coho, but very few chinook in the mix. You mentioned “very early”, do you find that more chinook are on the shoal in the early morning? We’ve been getting out around 0830. Jigging as well!

I;m out there by 6-tomorrow will be 5-or else I can't get parking and the tide is low. There was deep bait along the shoal edge around the green can this am and a lot of springs in that. Then the birds were wheeling and dealing on the shoal around 7 halfway to francisco point-lot of coho in that but some springs. I felt it had slowed by 830-9 and left

 

[CR Bill]

Just in from a quick evening tour around the Hump- one keeper coho then nothing until sunset then two nice keeper springs and 3 or 4 unders.

 

[RiverBoy]

There are springs in the shallow. We jigged one up and trolled two up along with our limit of coho. Plugs on the bottom. The coho must follow the plugs around for a while because every time we would turn or reel up to check gear we would get a hit. On that shallow water it would honestly be a good tactic to continually do S turns. Would drive everybody nuts mind you !!

 

[Decks]

Had two very productive evenings Monday Tuesday on lighthouse drift everywhere from 40-150 constant action with 3 virgin rodholders who now think it's normal to catch 30-40 fish in a trip. Hitting keeper springs and coho for hours on end at 45' in front of lighthouse. Skinny G in any pattern or any green red white spoon was catching everything. 10 year old new fisher brought in a big spring with 3 sharks on it which got some wide eyes from guests and him raving about that all trip.

Went 3/3 hatchery first 3 coho the first day and then about 1/15 the next night.

 

[Gong Show]

There are springs in the shallow. We jigged one up and trolled two up along with our limit of coho. Plugs on the bottom. The coho must follow the plugs around for a while because every time we would turn or reel up to check gear we would get a hit. On that shallow water it would honestly be a good tactic to continually do S turns. Would drive everybody nuts mind you !!

Nobody is taking a straight line in the shallows.
That is why they are all trolling around with their bumpers out.
Enter at your own risk!

 

[spring fever]

Well I beat my record-made it to the shoal by 5- The birds didn't start flying until 515. LOL-I was by myself so fully intended to just jig-but the bait was very scattered so decided to follow my new hybrid fishing pattern which is -troll until you find concentrations of bait-then if I like the look of the bait I jig. So this am trolled the outer edge of the shoal close to the gr can-2.5 plug 1 rigger and chased the bottom just off the shoal. Less than 5 min-nice spring to the side of the boat. Still no concentration of bait but lots of birds wheeling and settling. Put my plug at 35 and ran all over the shoal-what a fun morning-non stop action. Chased birds and caught coho-never got a hit from a spring on the shoal and more importantly never really saw a solid concentration of bait. It was around and could have tried to jig but trolling was more effective this morning. Bird activity really trailed off by 715. Heading into Pplayground by 0 745. There are guys that leave their trailers there for weeks at a time making parking a nightmare even at 5 am. Great morning-so busy forgot to eat breakfast!!

 

[Northfish]

Big spike in activity during the afternoon slack but tapered off after that on the shoal. Took an hour to find them again but we did at 135 fow and fished just above their heads at 110' on the rigger. New prototype plug absolutely slayed, need to run it again for more comparison but it's looking very promising so far. 78 cm karma hatchery and 72 cm wild with eye damage that we retained both absolutely inhaled this new plug, the entire 5 inch plug was in their mouths! 6 or so wild coho to the boat including a double digit fish, and 5 or 6 chinook in about 4.5 hours yesterday evening all on plugs. I never thought I would say this but I think I like trolling more than jigging now!

 

[spring fever]

Big spike in activity during the afternoon slack but tapered off after that on the shoal. Took an hour to find them again but we did at 135 fow and fished just above their heads at 110' on the rigger. New prototype plug absolutely slayed, need to run it again for more comparison but it's looking very promising so far. 78 cm karma hatchery and 72 cm wild with eye damage that we retained both absolutely inhaled this new plug, the entire 5 inch plug was in their mouths! 6 or so wild coho to the boat including a double digit fish, and 5 or 6 chinook in about 4.5 hours yesterday evening all on plugs. I never thought I would say this but I think I like trolling more than jigging now!

Bait was damn near non-existent this morning early-few birds so trolled again-trusty 2.5 inch plug right on the bottom-two overs and a 3 high cm others. Trolling a plug is almost better than jigging -very productive in the right situations. Flashers are non-existant on my boat-at least for me.

 

[RiverBoy]

Bait was damn near non-existent this morning early-few birds so trolled again-trusty 2.5 inch plug right on the bottom-two overs and a 3 high cm others. Trolling a plug is almost better than jigging -very productive in the right situations. Flashers are non-existant on my boat-at least for me.

where were you mike? it was thick off green can in the am. did peter off a bit later on tho

 

[Northfish]

Bait was damn near non-existent this morning early-few birds so trolled again-trusty 2.5 inch plug right on the bottom-two overs and a 3 high cm others. Trolling a plug is almost better than jigging -very productive in the right situations. Flashers are non-existant on my boat-at least for me.

I found a fair bit of bait tight to structure but finding the fish was trickier, once found it was lights out though! I'm actually out fishing jigs 2 to 1 on my plugs now, just took a bit to figure it out is all. I don't think one technique is better than the other all the time, just situation and season dependent in my experience. No flashers allowed on my boat either! Way more of a headache than they're worth and frankly I don't think they make any real difference (controversial I know).

 

[spring fever]

Got to the gr can about 0530-nothing much there. I have a friend with Parkinsons and he can't jig so I put down a plug and moved half way to Fransico pt and started picking up springs. Called it a day at 0800 -needed to get back cause of tide. Went through a huge gaggle of boats off the can- thought they might have bait. I didn't see any but only the single pass. I'm fishing alone next week so will get serious

 

[jackfish]

I found a fair bit of bait tight to structure but finding the fish was trickier, once found it was lights out though! I'm actually out fishing jigs 2 to 1 on my plugs now, just took a bit to figure it out is all. I don't think one technique is better than the other all the time, just situation and season dependent in my experience. No flashers allowed on my boat either! Way more of a headache than they're worth and frankly I don't think they make any real difference (controversial I know).

I'm trying flasher alternatives. Especially when trolling deep, dragging that big flasher is just too painful to reset.

Trying: dummy spinning flasher. dummy regular flasher. no flasher at all...just trolling with a spoon out. or just 8" flasher inline.

Aside from all the tangles I got while learning how to set and hold a gap between the dummy and the line, I'm convinced that this is the way I want to go.

Fighting a nice sized chinook with no inline flasher...nothing better.

Was dragging two cannonballs, one with dummy spinner flasher and the other with classic inline flasher. Whatever the reason, the dummy with a spoon back 20' was getting fish 10:1 of the regular inline flasher and 3.5" spoon. The only downside was that I seemed to catch alot of undersized on the line with no inline flasher.

The huge upside is reduction in drag (better for depth), and being able to reset a line in a couple minutes without fighting the flasher drag.

 

[Xena]

Fished 8-10am trolled in the pack, released 2 "wilds" and a few shakers. 175ft and 78ft for the coho. Spoon and hootchie. My plug did nothing ...

 

[spring fever]

Fished 8-10am trolled in the pack, released 2 "wilds" and a few shakers. 175ft and 78ft for the coho. Spoon and hootchie. My plug did nothing ...

How deep were you fishing the plug?? What size was the plug??

 

[spring fever]

Fished 8-10am trolled in the pack, released 2 "wilds" and a few shakers. 175ft and 78ft for the coho. Spoon and hootchie. My plug did nothing ...

I'm trying flasher alternatives. Especially when trolling deep, dragging that big flasher is just too painful to reset.

Trying: dummy spinning flasher. dummy regular flasher. no flasher at all...just trolling with a spoon out. or just 8" flasher inline.

Aside from all the tangles I got while learning how to set and hold a gap between the dummy and the line, I'm convinced that this is the way I want to go.

Fighting a nice sized chinook with no inline flasher...nothing better.

Was dragging two cannonballs, one with dummy spinner flasher and the other with classic inline flasher. Whatever the reason, the dummy with a spoon back 20' was getting fish 10:1 of the regular inline flasher and 3.5" spoon. The only downside was that I seemed to catch alot of undersized on the line with no inline flasher.

The huge upside is reduction in drag (better for depth), and being able to reset a line in a couple minutes without fighting the flasher drag.

I fish very deep because I love catching springs! Statement of fact! I am now77 and find it a real pain to bring up a flasher from 260 on the rigger. So I do a couple of things-Fish plugs or spoons naked (that's the lures)- If I have a partner fishing the other side of the boat I will fish just above his depth and use his flasher as the attractor or I like a Kone zone as a dummy. Pretty basic but it works! OR JIG!!

 

[Xena]

How deep were you fishing the plug?? What size was the plug??

55-70 ft, 5" plug. I know you guys fish deeper, but I was targeting coho as I can't stand having to release an over-sized spring. I had to release a 30lber 2 years ago. I get 3 springs a year so I was pretty choked!

 

[spring fever]

55-70 ft, 5" plug. I know you guys fish deeper, but I was targeting coho as I can't stand having to release an over-sized spring. I had to release a 30lber 2 years ago. I get 3 springs a year so I was pretty choked!

I get the releasing bit but if you are using a plug the actual release is pretty easy and you have had the thrill of playing a huge fish with no flasher. So my take is if you want to consistently catch springs chase the bottom or the bottom of the bait balls. If you use the smallest tomic with a 4/0 hook in say a 602 pattern releases are easy and if you bring the rigger up to 33 feet you can zip all over the shoal and get lots of coho. So not exactly sure how big the plugs are but 3 inches has been working. Trolling tomorrow-solo wednesday so Jigging--I hope!!

 

[Xena]

I get the releasing bit but if you are using a plug the actual release is pretty easy and you have had the thrill of playing a huge fish with no flasher. So my take is if you want to consistently catch springs chase the bottom or the bottom of the bait balls. If you use the smallest tomic with a 4/0 hook in say a 602 pattern releases are easy and if you bring the rigger up to 33 feet you can zip all over the shoal and get lots of coho. So not exactly sure how big the plugs are but 3 inches has been working. Trolling tomorrow-solo wednesday so Jigging--I hope!!

Thanks! Can't go again until Sunday but now I'm excited!!

 

[RiverBoy]

Fished 8-10am trolled in the pack, released 2 "wilds" and a few shakers. 175ft and 78ft for the coho. Spoon and hootchie. My plug did nothing ...

it was definitely slower today. and lumpy. after tide change it laid right down and was quite nice.managed a couple hatch coho and released a keeper spring on the smaller size. like spring fever i usually jig and will second trolling plugs deep.

 

[Xena]

it was definitely slower today. and lumpy. after tide change it laid right down and was quite nice.managed a couple hatch coho and released a keeper spring on the smaller size. like spring fever i usually jig and will second trolling plugs deep.

Thanks!