2024 Nanaimo Reports

[Unreel]

Somewhere in this book, Gaunt mentions research showing a hoochie with a bit of herring or anchovy strip impaled on the hook performs better for cohoes late in the season.

Amazon.ca

Does it work to catch more hatchery ones? lol Cause holy smokes its getting harder to find clipped coho out there, all the big ones over 10 pounds are wild of course. Also no clue why area 14 is open to one wild and area 17 isn't, more senseless regs.

 

[Bobloblaw]

Yep. I'd much rather catch and keep one either hatch OR wild, than catch 12 wild with three killed from bad hookup. Shameful!

 

[chille51]

Gave the boat one last run today, since the weather was good. Didn't try trolling for salmon at all, plenty in the freezer already. Tried jigging for lings for a change of pace, and because its the last day. Got a few but none keeper size. Oh well, boat is put to bed and ready for the list of winter projects on it I have in mind to start.

 

[JWS]

Had one of the most fun days I’ve had all season yesterday afternoon. Fished off Gabriola. Found the birds, found the bait and started jigging…with minimal success. I’m a horrible jigger, my friend is not and is usually quite successful. Fish were finning all around us, good size coho swimming all around the boat. So we started casting to them. Very quickly lost count at how many hookups we had. 4 +/- 10lb wild coho, all released, so many smalls and a pile that didn’t stick. We were hooking up almost every cast, often multiple hits that didn’t stick on the same retrieve. So much fun!

 

[JWS]

Fished off the flat tops for a couple hours after work. Pretty quiet. A couple shakers and a hog of a wild coho. Lots of chum (assuming) jumping and a pair of humpbacks just in sight out in the straight.

 

[twogone]

Went out to Thrasher last Friday (11th) looking for some chums to smoke. Got 2 nice ones but hooked (and released) numerous wild Coho. Some were a pretty nice size. Also released 2 - 25"" springs....;.;.;just could not shrink the tape enough to make them legal. Unless there is some really nice weather I will probably put the boat away for the winter and patiently wait for May 1st. Hope you all have a great holiday season & see you out there next year. Cheers; Togone

 

[Mav the fish killer]

Hi by any chance can someone please let me know am I allowed to fish above the overpass on the Nanaimo river and if I can fish Haslam Creek

 

[chille51]

Hi by any chance can someone please let me know am I allowed to fish above the overpass on the Nanaimo river and if I can fish Haslam Creek

This can: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/s...shwater-fishing/region_1_vancouver_island.pdf

 

[Babyduck Industries]

Got out quick today fished the flood from noon till 2:00 on the gabriola flats. Chinook opened today in 17-10 so I figured I would see what out there. Fishing in 220, riggers at 220. Got a few shakers off the hop and then a double header. Was fishing solo so only landed one, it was 68 cm chinook. I was just looking for a dinner fish so I turned and burned at that point. No bannanas coho killer on one side and a bloody nose cop car on the other, most of the action seemed to be following the cop car, but I did get hits on both sides. Long leaders (6') from the summer and they seemed to be working well. Light south wind which meant the flats were flat!....lol.

 

[Grace underfire]

Not really a fishing report, but more of a returns report inspired by a news item I saw about coho returning to a creek in Victoria:

While a few coho are usually counted by VIU coming up the Chase River, this is the first year (in 20 years of looking) that I've seen adults returning in significant numbers. Nice to see the increased numbers we're seeing in the Strait starting to translate into better river runs (I hope).