2025 Nanaimo Reports
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seachicken
Well-Known Member
Ya got about the same again today and the new trap had a dozen or so.
Couple hours at Thrasher this morning, 2 45ish cm on the white Hoochie, lots of small on a reddish WCTW spoon. No keepers.
Grant_J
Active Member
Porlier Pass on Friday was loads of undersized Chinook and mostly unclipped Coho, but we did get 1 keeper clipped Coho. We’ll be over to Five Fingers or Entrance on Sunday.
As a 3 yr newbie, reading these reports at first I thought it was a typo but I’m seeing so many posts with “X feet down and X + 20” or more on the downriggers. Damn. You guys are dragging your balls on the bottom!
. No wonder I’m doing ok getting Coho and under size springs but can’t find a decent keeper Chinook. I don’t have the guts to drop the downriggers like that.
As a 3 yr newbie, reading these reports at first I thought it was a typo but I’m seeing so many posts with “X feet down and X + 20” or more on the downriggers. Damn. You guys are dragging your balls on the bottom!
. No wonder I’m doing ok getting Coho and under size springs but can’t find a decent keeper Chinook. I don’t have the guts to drop the downriggers like that.
Rain City
Crew Member
Just do it, what's the worst that could happen?Porlier Pass on Friday was loads of undersized Chinook and mostly unclipped Coho, but we did get 1 keeper clipped Coho. We’ll be over to Five Fingers or Entrance on Sunday.
As a 3 yr newbie, reading these reports at first I thought it was a typo but I’m seeing so many posts with “X feet down and X + 20” or more on the downriggers. Damn. You guys are dragging your balls on the bottom!
I hit bottom at entrance all the time and haven’t lost a ball there. The herring are sitting deep. Find the bait find the fish. Good luck!Porlier Pass on Friday was loads of undersized Chinook and mostly unclipped Coho, but we did get 1 keeper clipped Coho. We’ll be over to Five Fingers or Entrance on Sunday.
As a 3 yr newbie, reading these reports at first I thought it was a typo but I’m seeing so many posts with “X feet down and X + 20” or more on the downriggers. Damn. You guys are dragging your balls on the bottom!
Blue Hewes
Well-Known Member
Fished entrance Friday and Saturday. 2 man limits on Springs and coho each day but took a long time to get those hatchery fish. Coho were 100ish and up and the springs were exact as per flywheels comment on bottom with plugs near the bait. I don’t have a lot of plug fishing experience but man do they work. We used both 5” tubby and 6” classic plugs. I found switching to 20lb balls helpful to limit the blowback when fishing deep like that. Yesterday evening was hot on the high tide, surprised to see only a half dozen or so boats out there and pretty much had the place to ourselves. Go get ‘em boys!
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Grant_J
Active Member
Another shout out to @Flywheel and @Rain City for the advice about going deep and into the bait balls. We decided to skip any possible smoke at Fingers/Entrance and headed out to Porlier Pass again. Out by 7:15 and after a few hours of farting around with a few shakers at shallow depths, I decided to stop ignoring the large bait balls at 200+ feet near the mouth of the pass. Time to go big or go home (not quite dragging the bottom, but pretty damn close). Every time we went with the current and deep, about 1.8-2 knots we got a fish on the line. I’m more of a spoons guy but it didn’t seem to make a difference - cop car and blue coyote spoons were clearly attractive enough. I really appreciate the advice on this forum it’s made a big difference.
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Bearded wonder
Well-Known Member
Out yesterday for an afternoon fish. Started at Snake Island, marked lots of fish, not much bait, one wild coho on a white hootchie.
Next went to Entrance, not much going on, boats seemed everywhere looking, two wild coho on a spoon and 4” plug. Few shakers. Some bait and fish deep ( 160+), to deep for my 15lb balls.
Ran to the Fingers and it was steady on coho. Found fish and bait close to the island (120 fow). Tried bouncing bottom but no keeper springs just more coho. Found one hatchery and released 5 wilds. Spoons and apex worked. 65 and 115’ on the riggers.
In all a great 4 hours on the water.
Next went to Entrance, not much going on, boats seemed everywhere looking, two wild coho on a spoon and 4” plug. Few shakers. Some bait and fish deep ( 160+), to deep for my 15lb balls.
Ran to the Fingers and it was steady on coho. Found fish and bait close to the island (120 fow). Tried bouncing bottom but no keeper springs just more coho. Found one hatchery and released 5 wilds. Spoons and apex worked. 65 and 115’ on the riggers.
In all a great 4 hours on the water.
Tomfoolery
Well-Known Member
Yep, it's a great forum and there is a wealth of experience on here and really great that people will share their secrets so more people can be successful and enjoy their day on the water. There are lots of fish to go around and good karma always pays dividends.
Fished around the flat tops this morning for a couple hours. Took home 2 clipped coho, released a few wilds and 2 springs, one under and one over at 82cm. 50/50 white hootchie and cop car spoon, 150&170 for all.
Two others I talked to today were into many many more coho than Chinook.
Two others I talked to today were into many many more coho than Chinook.
Had a great evening fishing last night near entrance. The bait and fish sitting deep last week moved. Found them shallow for quick limits of coho and springs jigging which was fun for some first time jiggers onboard. Interestingly we only hooked clipped coho which was a treat. A good reminder to search out the bait.
We fished Thrasher this morning and we had not a sniff! Lots of bait and what was probably krill which was keeping the numerous humpbacks happy. We fished Flat Tops area this aft and we had much more action. We kept a 78 and a 68, released several unclipped coho and maybe 5 chinook unders. Spoons were working best fished fairly deep, 175 to 225 on the riggers.
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Brave Ulysses
New Member
Fished north of Fingers yesterday and C+R 6 wild coho, and kept 2 marked. Tried going deep but coho hit before it could even reach 150 feet.
Did OK on prawns at 390 feet. Lots of big ones, mixed with pink shrimp.
Did OK on prawns at 390 feet. Lots of big ones, mixed with pink shrimp.
baddogg
Crew Member
Had another great day on the water yesterday albeit a bit slower than our last venture. Lines in around 0930 at Hudson Rocks. Picked up 3 springs, all just undersized and then got into a bunch of shakers. Moved away from there to avoid them. Took most of the day to get our limit of 6 hatchery coho due to the large amount of wild ones we were catching. Saw two dead floaters, wild coho. Fish were caught in the area of the Fingers on spoons. Depth did not seem to matter. Why can't we just catch our limit of two coho, any kind, and then be done?
We were checked by DFO just as we were netting our last keeper. They checked for barbs, licenses and glanced into our cooler. They looked at our last coho, still in the net. A young female officer said " are you keeping that?" Fish was already bonked. Was quite funny actually. A very nice interaction with the two officers who thanked us for being compliant.
We had about an hour left in our day so fished across to Snake down as deep as we could go and no love. Still looking for the first elusive keeper spring of the season.
We were checked by DFO just as we were netting our last keeper. They checked for barbs, licenses and glanced into our cooler. They looked at our last coho, still in the net. A young female officer said " are you keeping that?" Fish was already bonked. Was quite funny actually. A very nice interaction with the two officers who thanked us for being compliant.
We had about an hour left in our day so fished across to Snake down as deep as we could go and no love. Still looking for the first elusive keeper spring of the season.
Fished first light this morning off the flat tops. 83cm right off the hop, released. A couple shorts, the first pink for me this year, and a wild coho after that. Finished up with a 73 marble spring that came home. Most fish caught on a white hootchie. Keeper was on a bare silver 5” spoon.
Had a great Friday evening fishing around Entrance. Decided to try something different - we caught herring on a sabiki rig and then mooched live herring. It was very productive and a ton of fun watching the bite. Released several over sized chinooks which gave a great fight.
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