2025 Nootka Sound/Esperanza Inlet Reports

[TheHurtLocker]

Fished Nootka Sunday to Thursday, weather was great. Flat calm on the outside, Ling fishing was fantastic, didn’t target salmon too much but did well when we did. Camel, 3 Bay. Cut plug, and needle fish hoochies.

 

[the force]

Wife and I will be spending a few nights on the hook next week, is there anywhere in Nootka with coin or pay showers that we can swing into to freshen up (critter)?

 

[Islander91]

Wife and I will be spending a few nights on the hook next week, is there anywhere in Nootka with coin or pay showers that we can swing into to freshen up (critter)?

I’m pretty confident moutcha bay has showers in the camp site not sure how the rules are around people who aren’t guests there using them are

 

[chris73]

Critter Cove has coin showers.

 

[littlechucky]

Critter Cove has coin showers.

Coin showers….Best 3 mins of your life.

 

[pacemaker]

Critter Cove has coin showers.

Pretty sure the coin showers are reserved for guests at Critter only. Get dockside moorage for 1 night and that would certainly qualify….

 

[Fishin]

Great day on the water. Started at Hoiss Point. First fish in the boat within 20 minutes. Lots of nets out as we arrived. Lost 2 nice fish and one of my favorite spoons to the local seal. 4 released while we hoped for a bigger one. Decided to head out past the lighthouse to try our luck as the bite slowed inside. Fishing was red hot, back-to-back springs up to 20 lbs. We were limited out before 10 a.m. Tried heading out deeper to look for coho but couldn’t keep the springs off. Can’t complain there! Jigged up a few rockfish for tacos and called it a day. Best trip of the season for me so far. Definitely lots of fish on the inside now. Spoons, hootchies, bait didn’t seem to matter as most people were catching fish around us. Small spoons and hootchies were the hot ticket for us though!

 

[Doubleheader]

Yup same here. It's ******. Fight the fish, bring it up from the depths, tire it out, messing around with getting an accurate measurement on it, just to end up releasing ones barely over. And if you actually want a proper measurement that's pretty crappy to have to do with marks on a pole over the side of a boat while trying to do with a perfectly still fish..it would take a fish in the boat laying still and flat to measure properly and accurately. Which we all know is worse for the fish having to mess around with so much. Having to put ones back a few cms too big is a **** off. Should have left it the way it was. A lot more Hali around in the old measurement size from what I've seen but that's gonna differ from spot to spot too.

Fishing for the smaller ones is a whole different method if you wanna target them and not the big ones... and when you're targeting smaller Halis along comes all the by catch with that that you don't get when targeting a lot bigger Halis. Not saying we wanna go target big females of course but you know what I mean..

If you’re in a proper chicken halibut hole all you’ll catch is undersize hali. Sand n gravel.

 

[Sneaky Weasel]

Fished M-F at Nootka. Stayed at Moutcha. Always good. Expensive but good. Thanks Dad! Red hot M&T. Got selective by W&TH. Lots of jack Springs around. 8-10 pounds. They went back for the most part. Ended with limits - largest 21. Camel & Wall on the inside. Lighthouse on the outside. Not everyday was hot and we worked for them - understatement. Good grade of fish for the most part. Only a few looked to be turning slightly. Weather amazing. Best spoon was the Skinny G. Wee G also put a few in the box. But as others have said it all seems to work if you find the fish.

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

If you’re in a proper chicken halibut hole all you’ll catch is undersize hali. Sand n gravel.

Not true. Sure it can happen you'll get a few chickens in the same spot and no bigger ones but that isn't a rule that happens all the time. Have been catching multiple different sized Halis including Chickens in the same spots for a very long time. Last week, same thing...
Change your gear size, methods, and tactics and see what happens.

All Hali like sand and gravel by the way...not just Chickens

If you’re in a proper chicken halibut hole all you’ll catch is undersize hali. Sand n gravel.

 

[doug78]

Our group picked up halibut from 30cm to 145cm (ish) in the same spot over two weeks of fishing outside nootka.. Got an 87 and 92 within ten minutes pf each other to close out our trip. What a way to finish. Only had to let the one big one go.

Salmon stayed spotty until I left 2 weeks ago, we managed to take home 12 rock fish, 6 springs, 2 hali and 6 lings between two of us in 5 fish days. Wish i had spent a little less time trying to get the last two springs and went and found more lings.

After we left things picked up inside and the rest of the group managed to limit out salmon/hali and get a good amount of lings and rockfish.

 

[Doubleheader]

Not true. Sure it can happen you'll get a few chickens in the same spot and no bigger ones but that isn't a rule that happens all the time. Have been catching multiple different sized Halis including Chickens in the same spots for a very long time. Last week, same thing...
Change your gear size, methods, and tactics and see what happens.

All Hali like sand and gravel by the way...not just Chickens

I’ve got spots that we’ve caught hundreds of flatties for 30 years out of and only a handful of fish over 30. They’re called chicken banks, far from any structure but not way offshore. 220-230’. There isn’t enough food to sustain big fish, tough to grow big on a sandlance diet.

 

[the force]

Worth it! Happy wife, happy life.

Pretty sure the coin showers are reserved for guests at Critter only. Get dockside moorage for 1 night and that would certainly qualify….

 

[the force]

Quality looking fish!
We hope to pick up a couple Hali, you guys get them trolling turds deep or still better off to anchor up and put out bait?
I’m glad to anchor but hard to have patience/trust sometimes

Fished M-F at Nootka. Stayed at Moutcha. Always good. Expensive but good. Thanks Dad! Red hot M&T. Got selective by W&TH. Lots of jack Springs around. 8-10 pounds. They went back for the most part. Ended with limits - largest 21. Camel & Wall on the inside. Lighthouse on the outside. Not everyday was hot and we worked for them - understatement. Good grade of fish for the most part. Only a few looked to be turning slightly. Weather amazing. Best spoon was the Skinny G. Wee G also put a few in the box. But as others have said it all seems to work if you find the fish.

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