2025 Nootka Sound/Esperanza Inlet Reports

Hi Guys,
Great thread! I’ve read through it a few times trying to learn a few things.
I’ve booked a few days at moutcha bay resort Aug 19-22 for the family. I have rented a boat as well. This will be my first trip to moutcha/nootka. I am a pretty confident fisherman but have limited ocean experience.

Do colours of flashers/spoons and hootchies changes as the season goes on? What is best for mid August?

What is the best map resource for Nootka sound? I can find some of the sports talked about on this site but not all of them.

Also, what tide location is everyone using.

Any advice you can share is definitely welcome!

Just check out DFO website for RCA’s and any possible closed areas
 
Hi Guys,
Great thread! I’ve read through it a few times trying to learn a few things.
I’ve booked a few days at moutcha bay resort Aug 19-22 for the family. I have rented a boat as well. This will be my first trip to moutcha/nootka. I am a pretty confident fisherman but have limited ocean experience.

Do colours of flashers/spoons and hootchies changes as the season goes on? What is best for mid August?

What is the best map resource for Nootka sound? I can find some of the sports talked about on this site but not all of them.

Also, what tide location is everyone using.

Any advice you can share is definitely welcome!
Fishing can be good depending on the gill net opening in moutcha bay. The last few years it has been around Aug 11. That being said the coho can be excellent out around the light house that time of year if the springs aren’t biting they just had a fair amount of rain so fish will be moving into the river, I would bring a few of your favourite set ups as the rental boats don’t come with a lot of tackle green flashers with white hootchies has always been very reliable for me up there and all around the coast small wee g spoons as well. The rental boats are pretty slick we had motor trouble with our new motor and ended up renting a 22’ from them was a lot of fun and the fishing was excellent! Camel rock, the wall, princess royal point are all good places to start as they are close to moutcha bay. Many great spots inside the sound and knowledgeable staff will point you in the right direction. If the weather is calm and you feel a little adventurous you can poke your nose out to Escalante point which is the boundary for rental boats you should be able to pick up a few Rock fish and lings.
 
Hi Guys,
Great thread! I’ve read through it a few times trying to learn a few things.
I’ve booked a few days at moutcha bay resort Aug 19-22 for the family. I have rented a boat as well. This will be my first trip to moutcha/nootka. I am a pretty confident fisherman but have limited ocean experience.

Do colours of flashers/spoons and hootchies changes as the season goes on? What is best for mid August?

What is the best map resource for Nootka sound? I can find some of the sports talked about on this site but not all of them.

Also, what tide location is everyone using.

Any advice you can share is definitely welcome!

Download Navionics if you don’t have any other depth maps, it will give tides as well. My own opinion is that tide and location/structure is more important than color of lure - run a spoon on one side and hootchy on the other, throw in a plug if you get bored… unless your feeling spendy and want to run bait.
 
We fished late Monday Aug 4 to Aug 6 afternoon. It was our first time so spent a fair amount of time touring around. Lots of boats, quite busy in the popular locations and wifey doesn’t like driving when it’s busy so we fished less popular locations (slow overall) and explored. 17 was biggest spring, most came from around camel rock, a couple from Hoiss and a loaner from down Tahsis inlet past Coopte. Made it out to the lighthouse for about 30 mins before wifey was feeling sick. Picked up 3 legal lings inside, one at 60fow behind Bligh and a couple in 200fow on random pinnacles, couple rock fish for tacos.

Had prawn traps soaking the whole time in 4 different locations, which yielded half to a dozen prawns per set - great size but not worth the effort! She also loves crab so tried quite a few spots for them, got just enough for crab lunch both days (mix of dungies and red rock).

Overall learning for me, which I should know by now, was to capitalize on tide changes. Scout new water and learn the structure during flood and ebb so I’m ready for prime time. Take time to pull lines and have a snooze/relax when it is slow (keep in mind this is fishing with wifey and not a buddy).

Lastly, be prepared for lots of boats - it’s a great area with a wide variety of sheltered water which attracts all kinds. We’ll likely return and bring the kids next year due to that fact of relatively calm water through wifey still likes the Cambell River side better.
We got 6 of 8 springs, it was harder fishing then I anticipated.

Also met Jesse Zeeman (BC Wildlife
Federation Executive Director) on the dock one day and had a great chat. Everyone here should be supporting these organizations (local fish and game club, PSF, etc) so we can continue to retain the amazing recreational opportunities we have here in BC. There are a lot of competing interests and we need folks lobbying for us constantly!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1768.jpeg
    IMG_1768.jpeg
    360 KB · Views: 27
Hi Guys,
Great thread! I’ve read through it a few times trying to learn a few things.
I’ve booked a few days at moutcha bay resort Aug 19-22 for the family. I have rented a boat as well. This will be my first trip to moutcha/nootka. I am a pretty confident fisherman but have limited ocean experience.

Do colours of flashers/spoons and hootchies changes as the season goes on? What is best for mid August?

What is the best map resource for Nootka sound? I can find some of the sports talked about on this site but not all of them.

Also, what tide location is everyone using.

Any advice you can share is definitely welcome!
I can offer a little help to get things started. Go to Salmon University and look for Nootka Sound fishing advice piece. There is a detailed description of the areas and strategies for most places. I started a few years ago in Nootka and this resource is on my boat every year. I have found that as August proceeds the fish tend to move in waves inside eventually to Moutcha Bay. I will be up there this coming week and I expect to find chinook from Friendly Cove to Moutcha Bay. The key will be to find fresh fish still feeding aggressively.

As for gear, my go to on the outside and waters near Friendly is a white flasher with a white hootchie on one side and a green flasher with a 3.5 coyote spoon in silver and blue, silver and green, and silver and black. I will start my first troll with these at 35 and 57 feet of cable over 65-120 feet of water. I then let the fish tell me what they are looking for on that day. I will vary my spoon size and hootchie profile based on bait size in the areas I am fishing.

I can't wait to get up there and figure things out. I have not yet nailed tide conditions for each area, but the 2 hours before and hour after are usually good, and if they line up with first light...hang on! I am curious if others have favorite tide cycles for Camel, lighthouse, Beano, and Moutcha.

Ok folks. Let's put it out there so we all can learn from your gathered expertise. Mahalo.
 
Haha small world I guess. Yes, too bad we didn't know as would have been good to have a chat and put a face to the screen name. I assume you're in one of the pictures posted there? The group was no bother to us - hard to miss 30 fisherman of course but as I said everyone was having fun and it didn't change our plans or enjoyment of the trip at all. We did have a bit of a chuckle on our boat, thinking about the volume of hard bar we saw consumed on a couple nights, and the idea of some of those same fisherman potentially questioning their choices the next day as they bobbed around in the slop offshore for hali!

Here is a pic with me on the right, my oldest son on the left, and a good buddy from my school days growing up in Alberta.

20250809_154755.jpg

Here are another couple buddies that are showing the affects from the "hard bar" you noted! No chumming, but a few naps between fish!

20250809_161400.jpg

Another long time buddy from school days in Alberta. I have many pictures of him in this exact pose from other trips together. In all of them, never was a drop of beer spilled.

20250809_161704.jpg
 
I can offer a little help to get things started. Go to Salmon University and look for Nootka Sound fishing advice piece. There is a detailed description of the areas and strategies for most places. I started a few years ago in Nootka and this resource is on my boat every year. I have found that as August proceeds the fish tend to move in waves inside eventually to Moutcha Bay. I will be up there this coming week and I expect to find chinook from Friendly Cove to Moutcha Bay. The key will be to find fresh fish still feeding aggressively.

As for gear, my go to on the outside and waters near Friendly is a white flasher with a white hootchie on one side and a green flasher with a 3.5 coyote spoon in silver and blue, silver and green, and silver and black. I will start my first troll with these at 35 and 57 feet of cable over 65-120 feet of water. I then let the fish tell me what they are looking for on that day. I will vary my spoon size and hootchie profile based on bait size in the areas I am fishing.

I can't wait to get up there and figure things out. I have not yet nailed tide conditions for each area, but the 2 hours before and hour after are usually good, and if they line up with first light...hang on! I am curious if others have favorite tide cycles for Camel, lighthouse, Beano, and Moutcha.

Ok folks. Let's put it out there so we all can learn from your gathered expertise. Mahalo.

Where on which tide and why is something I need to spend time on, and this is most likely time on the water as I don’t think it is as simple as pick a point that a flood will push bait up against, or downstream eddy where bait gathers…. I am definitely open to all perspectives and learnings regarding this.
 
Is Cee Pee Cee still selling gas or is it done? Last time I was there they were at the bottom of their tank so it was a little sketchy.
Ceepeecee doesn't sell fuel. It's a former pilchard processing plant now privately owned. If you mean Esperanza, yes, the fuel dock is open.
 
Where on which tide and why is something I need to spend time on, and this is most likely time on the water as I don’t think it is as simple as pick a point that a flood will push bait up against, or downstream eddy where bait gathers…. I am definitely open to all perspectives and learnings regarding this.
it can be critical. wash rock for example . on an incoming tide the springs setup behind the rock ambushing bait being presented towards them. on an outgoing tide, they move to the outside of the same rock and repeat.

same goes for off shore pinnacles etc. the lings out there are schooling. the lings will wait on one side of the pinnacle while the bait washes over them
 
Back
Top