2025 Nootka Sound/Esperanza Inlet Reports
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Salmonface
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I know in the past that Nootka Inlet typically has a Commercial opening/clean-out in August. Does anyone know if that's happening this year and if so when? Just thinking on another trip and want to plan dates accordingly. Thanks.
Back yesterday from another fun trip to Esperanza. Second year staying at Port Eliza - great place to stay if you are serious about fishing as a lot can be gleaned just from chatting over a beer at the dock in the evening.
Last year we got really lucky weather wise and were able to fish outside in our little 17' Arima 2 out of 3 days. This year we were not so lucky - dates we booked a long time ago just so happened to coincide with the South Easter that just blew through earlier this week. Were able to get outside a bit in some specific windows, but not nearly as much as last year. Kind of a bummer as we were hoping to focus more on bottom fish this trip. Still a great trip.
Sunday Aug 3rd
Stayed in Gold River the night before to facilitate an early launch. Boat was in the water by 6:30am or so. Weather forecast was still good for this day with South Easter not supposed to blow in until Monday afternoon, so we wanted to take advantage of that. Decided to wet some lines at Nootka on the way up. Conditions were great for us to fish the Lighthouse out to Wash Rock, so that's what we did. Kept one Chinook and one Coho in the span of about 40 minutes. We had another 3 days of fishing to go and only limited space on our two licenses so released a few Chinook as well. Cop Car Skinny G on one side, Green Flash Fly on the other, both were catching in depths from 75 to 99 on the rigger. Made a pit stop at Critter Cove to top up fuel and ice the catch, before carrying on with the run up to Esperanza.
The rest of the run was smooth and scenic as always. Dodged plenty of otters. Once we got to Esperanza proper, it was still sunny so we decided to try fishing a random inside spot we'd never tried before, nor really seen anyone else fish either. More an excuse to have a beer, soak up some sun knowing the weather was moving in, and see what happens. This was on the north side of the inlet, in some random bays/beaches near the turn off up Espinosa. We did manage to get one more Chinook pretty much as soon as we put the lines down, but other than that just ended up descending a bunch of rock fish. 55' Herring Aid Wee G.
Checked in, unloaded gear, got settled.
Monday Aug 4th
Forecast said low winds in the morning, shifting Southerly and picking up in the afternoon so we decided to go for it for the outside. Honestly was a little sloppy on the run up to Sandstone and Jurasic where we planned to fish, especially coming around Tatchu - but once there it was quite fishable. Lines in the water by 7am, four fish in the boat by 8:20 am. 3 chinook, 1 hatch coho. Released a few as well - and some of the ones we retained probably would have been released if they weren't bleeding. Size of the chinook was nothing to write home about but the bite was fast and they fought hard. Herring Aid flasher with Army Truck hooch on one side, black flasher with an all white WCFT Phat-E on the other, both were hooking up.
Have no doubt we could have hit our limits of salmon if we stuck it out at Sandstone, but as I said earlier we knew the weather window was going to be short and wanted to get some bottom fishing time in. So we picked some structure in about 90'-150' feet of water out front between Sandstone and Tatchu that looked promising, and put down some bottom fish gear on the salmon rods. Hit a couple rock fish, and had a few other taps but nothing that hooked up until something BIG did. I was doing a bait check on the one side at the time, and the bottom was starting to come up so asked the wife to bring up the other rigger a bit. She brought it up more than a bit, 30 feet or so and then pointed out that line was peeling off the reel. I grabbed the rod and whatever was there was heavy, and running. Could not stop it - and when I tried it broke off. Either a big ling or a big hali followed that swim bait up off the bottom when we raised the rigger. The one that got away!
By this point, the fog had closed in and while the water was till workable, the winds were definitely shifting south and picking up a bit - one of those know when to go calls was made and we picked up the lines and headed back into the mouth of Esperanza where it would be a shorter run in to protected water. Once there, things were still workable at the moment so we decided to pick a couple pinnacles and jig them. After a few drifts we managed one ling that was just legal so into the bag it went. Tried a couple others with not much success before the wind made drifting untenable.
We ran in behind Catala where it was sheltered and popped out the other side - put on some Coho gear and trolled in shallow from Double Island out towards Black Rock. It was just around the top of the flood, and didn't take long to connect with three Coho. The first one was on the smaller side and got gaff released. The next two came on a double header, both nice and chunky wilds so those were retained. The swell had picked up considerably by this point and could definitely tell the weather was building - so with 7 fish on board by just after lunch we decided that was a good morning and headed back to the dock to process and relax.
Tuesday August 5th
Forecast was not nice for this day. We weren't even sure if we were going to be able to fish at all, so didn't set an alarm. Woke up early anyway though. Watched all the other boats leave the dock, laid around for a bit but by 9:30am boredom set in. We made the call to poke our nose out and see what was what. With winds solidly out of the South East now, it was a bit choppy getting across but we could see Rosa was fine, as evidenced by pretty much the entire fleet working it. We ran across and joined the pack. It was pushing 11am by the time we finally got lines in the water - one Coho released pretty soon after dropping the gear, then mostly weeds and jellyfish for the next hour. Lots of boats, lots of junk in the water, made for challenging fishing. Spoons and hoochs were not finding anything for us. We saw nets out once in a while but didn't seem red hot by any means - I heard it had been better earlier in the morning while we were drinking coffee on the dock. I switched one side to anchovies and we managed to connect with one Chinook right on the bottom. Made an attempt to try the coho tack from Double Island to Black Rock again, but that was a fool's errand in our boat. I don't think we even put the lines down - just ran over and looked at it and said "nope". Back to the dock to ride out the weather. Most other boats were back early as well. Windy evening and plenty of rain overnight.
Wednesday August 6th
Last full day of fishing, so we set the alarm and got moving early - even though it had been pissing on and off all night, and was still pretty heavy in the morning. The new top and canvas I put on the boat this winter was going to pay for itself today. Forecast had the winds starting to lay down in the morning, followed by the rains easing by the afternoon and finally a switch back to NW and some sun in the afternoon. That's pretty much exactly how it went. We thought maybe it would be laid down enough in the morning to push out towards the mouth a bit, but we got as far as Black Rock again and decided that would have been a slog at best, to potentially still unadvisable. So back to Rosa we went.
Found the same weeds and jelly fish as the day before, but fewer boats at least so a little more room to work with. The morning was slow for us. Missed one or two, but mostly washing gear and clearing weeds. Around 11 we decided to troll down to Garden Point, as we hadn't fished it yet this trip. I also switched over to a dummy flasher with herring in a teaser head on the one side. We hit a nice scrappy chinook on that just getting to the top of the flood. He wasn't much size wise, but with no flasher and the hit coming at 55' he was up to the surface and launching out of the water like a Coho quick. Great fight and into the bag he went. Started to see some bait and arches consistently down low on the finder, so started running the herring at 99' in 100' FOW, and connected with two more pretty quickly. Also great, fights. The last one the wife brought in and turned out to be the largest of the trip - 14 lbs according to the dock scale. Second trip in a row she has out fished me on the size of the fish. Yes, fish were on the smaller side for us this trip but they all fought hard.
That was our possession limit for Chinook, so we trolled around Centre Island a bit to see if we could scare up some Coho but to no avail. Sun had come out by now and so had the NW winds so it was sloppy but doable trolling. We gave it a good go for 90 minutes or so and headed in for dinner.
Enjoyed the weather change and a few beverages on the dock for the last evening, along with some good dock chat. Uneventful and pleasant run back to Gold River Thursday morning, including a quick pit stop to jig some rock piles in Nootka. One under ling released, 1 canary retained. Can't always have the horseshoe up your butt weather wise, but we made the most of the cards we were dealt I think.
Last year we got really lucky weather wise and were able to fish outside in our little 17' Arima 2 out of 3 days. This year we were not so lucky - dates we booked a long time ago just so happened to coincide with the South Easter that just blew through earlier this week. Were able to get outside a bit in some specific windows, but not nearly as much as last year. Kind of a bummer as we were hoping to focus more on bottom fish this trip. Still a great trip.
Sunday Aug 3rd
Stayed in Gold River the night before to facilitate an early launch. Boat was in the water by 6:30am or so. Weather forecast was still good for this day with South Easter not supposed to blow in until Monday afternoon, so we wanted to take advantage of that. Decided to wet some lines at Nootka on the way up. Conditions were great for us to fish the Lighthouse out to Wash Rock, so that's what we did. Kept one Chinook and one Coho in the span of about 40 minutes. We had another 3 days of fishing to go and only limited space on our two licenses so released a few Chinook as well. Cop Car Skinny G on one side, Green Flash Fly on the other, both were catching in depths from 75 to 99 on the rigger. Made a pit stop at Critter Cove to top up fuel and ice the catch, before carrying on with the run up to Esperanza.
The rest of the run was smooth and scenic as always. Dodged plenty of otters. Once we got to Esperanza proper, it was still sunny so we decided to try fishing a random inside spot we'd never tried before, nor really seen anyone else fish either. More an excuse to have a beer, soak up some sun knowing the weather was moving in, and see what happens. This was on the north side of the inlet, in some random bays/beaches near the turn off up Espinosa. We did manage to get one more Chinook pretty much as soon as we put the lines down, but other than that just ended up descending a bunch of rock fish. 55' Herring Aid Wee G.
Checked in, unloaded gear, got settled.
Monday Aug 4th
Forecast said low winds in the morning, shifting Southerly and picking up in the afternoon so we decided to go for it for the outside. Honestly was a little sloppy on the run up to Sandstone and Jurasic where we planned to fish, especially coming around Tatchu - but once there it was quite fishable. Lines in the water by 7am, four fish in the boat by 8:20 am. 3 chinook, 1 hatch coho. Released a few as well - and some of the ones we retained probably would have been released if they weren't bleeding. Size of the chinook was nothing to write home about but the bite was fast and they fought hard. Herring Aid flasher with Army Truck hooch on one side, black flasher with an all white WCFT Phat-E on the other, both were hooking up.
Have no doubt we could have hit our limits of salmon if we stuck it out at Sandstone, but as I said earlier we knew the weather window was going to be short and wanted to get some bottom fishing time in. So we picked some structure in about 90'-150' feet of water out front between Sandstone and Tatchu that looked promising, and put down some bottom fish gear on the salmon rods. Hit a couple rock fish, and had a few other taps but nothing that hooked up until something BIG did. I was doing a bait check on the one side at the time, and the bottom was starting to come up so asked the wife to bring up the other rigger a bit. She brought it up more than a bit, 30 feet or so and then pointed out that line was peeling off the reel. I grabbed the rod and whatever was there was heavy, and running. Could not stop it - and when I tried it broke off. Either a big ling or a big hali followed that swim bait up off the bottom when we raised the rigger. The one that got away!
By this point, the fog had closed in and while the water was till workable, the winds were definitely shifting south and picking up a bit - one of those know when to go calls was made and we picked up the lines and headed back into the mouth of Esperanza where it would be a shorter run in to protected water. Once there, things were still workable at the moment so we decided to pick a couple pinnacles and jig them. After a few drifts we managed one ling that was just legal so into the bag it went. Tried a couple others with not much success before the wind made drifting untenable.
We ran in behind Catala where it was sheltered and popped out the other side - put on some Coho gear and trolled in shallow from Double Island out towards Black Rock. It was just around the top of the flood, and didn't take long to connect with three Coho. The first one was on the smaller side and got gaff released. The next two came on a double header, both nice and chunky wilds so those were retained. The swell had picked up considerably by this point and could definitely tell the weather was building - so with 7 fish on board by just after lunch we decided that was a good morning and headed back to the dock to process and relax.
Tuesday August 5th
Forecast was not nice for this day. We weren't even sure if we were going to be able to fish at all, so didn't set an alarm. Woke up early anyway though. Watched all the other boats leave the dock, laid around for a bit but by 9:30am boredom set in. We made the call to poke our nose out and see what was what. With winds solidly out of the South East now, it was a bit choppy getting across but we could see Rosa was fine, as evidenced by pretty much the entire fleet working it. We ran across and joined the pack. It was pushing 11am by the time we finally got lines in the water - one Coho released pretty soon after dropping the gear, then mostly weeds and jellyfish for the next hour. Lots of boats, lots of junk in the water, made for challenging fishing. Spoons and hoochs were not finding anything for us. We saw nets out once in a while but didn't seem red hot by any means - I heard it had been better earlier in the morning while we were drinking coffee on the dock. I switched one side to anchovies and we managed to connect with one Chinook right on the bottom. Made an attempt to try the coho tack from Double Island to Black Rock again, but that was a fool's errand in our boat. I don't think we even put the lines down - just ran over and looked at it and said "nope". Back to the dock to ride out the weather. Most other boats were back early as well. Windy evening and plenty of rain overnight.
Wednesday August 6th
Last full day of fishing, so we set the alarm and got moving early - even though it had been pissing on and off all night, and was still pretty heavy in the morning. The new top and canvas I put on the boat this winter was going to pay for itself today. Forecast had the winds starting to lay down in the morning, followed by the rains easing by the afternoon and finally a switch back to NW and some sun in the afternoon. That's pretty much exactly how it went. We thought maybe it would be laid down enough in the morning to push out towards the mouth a bit, but we got as far as Black Rock again and decided that would have been a slog at best, to potentially still unadvisable. So back to Rosa we went.
Found the same weeds and jelly fish as the day before, but fewer boats at least so a little more room to work with. The morning was slow for us. Missed one or two, but mostly washing gear and clearing weeds. Around 11 we decided to troll down to Garden Point, as we hadn't fished it yet this trip. I also switched over to a dummy flasher with herring in a teaser head on the one side. We hit a nice scrappy chinook on that just getting to the top of the flood. He wasn't much size wise, but with no flasher and the hit coming at 55' he was up to the surface and launching out of the water like a Coho quick. Great fight and into the bag he went. Started to see some bait and arches consistently down low on the finder, so started running the herring at 99' in 100' FOW, and connected with two more pretty quickly. Also great, fights. The last one the wife brought in and turned out to be the largest of the trip - 14 lbs according to the dock scale. Second trip in a row she has out fished me on the size of the fish. Yes, fish were on the smaller side for us this trip but they all fought hard.
That was our possession limit for Chinook, so we trolled around Centre Island a bit to see if we could scare up some Coho but to no avail. Sun had come out by now and so had the NW winds so it was sloppy but doable trolling. We gave it a good go for 90 minutes or so and headed in for dinner.
Enjoyed the weather change and a few beverages on the dock for the last evening, along with some good dock chat. Uneventful and pleasant run back to Gold River Thursday morning, including a quick pit stop to jig some rock piles in Nootka. One under ling released, 1 canary retained. Can't always have the horseshoe up your butt weather wise, but we made the most of the cards we were dealt I think.
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Nisquallydave
New Member
Awesome report and thanks. I will try to follow suit when we return from Moutcha. Mahalo!
Nisquallydave
New Member
Very nice fish. How's the bite at Camel and 3 bay? Did you fish Moutcha Bay at all? Mahalo.
adbk
Member
Bite was good when we were there. Limited on springs pretty quickly but I think it was good all over the place there, lighthouse, wash, wall, hoiss…all producing. We were fishing 57 down in the am w spoons and going 2mph…. Slow was the ticket for us. Caught on spoons and hoochies at other times too. Sounded like a lot of nice coho being caught on the outside.
Eden Island
Well-Known Member
Esperanza and Critter are enroute. Tahsis for amenities. Moutcha as well.
It was time for another friend's and family trip this year. I didn't know that @chille51 was there at the exact same time, but I hope our group of 30 fishermen didn't cut into his enjoyment at Port Eliza Lodge! As described in his fantastic report, we had a bit of everything weather wise over the 3 days we were there. Knowing that the wind was going to be a factor on day 2, my boat of 3 headed offshore first thing on day 1 and limited out on Lings about 7 miles out. We then headed to a favorite Hali hole of our guide and anchored up. It took awhile for a tide change that he was waiting for, but once we had our first hook up, we landed 3 within half an hour. Our biggest was 102 on the nose and weighed in at 34 lbs. The other 2 were mid twenties and around 15 lbs, so it was a great day on the bottom fishing front.
A sample of our catch for the day.
Day 2 featured the SE wind that Chille described. This limited our opportunities to the inside fishery. Fortunately, there seemed to be plenty of Chinooks available and most of the boats we saw at Rosa had decent hookups over the course of the day. Our boat didn't do as well as some of our buddies, as we only managed two keepers, although we would have limited out if our landing ratio was a little better on the day!
We also had to contend with showers off and on, but it could have been a tough slog if the fish weren't inside yet.
Day 3 was a mixed bag, with some rain in the morning and full on sun in the afternoon. Most of the guides chose to head outside first thing in the morning, trying to fill a few dance cards with a Chinook or 2, but also searching for Coho to add to the cooler. Our boat had a look around the corner then gazed over to Rosa, with no one there yet, and our guide made the right call in suggesting we try our luck while we were the only boat there. Our gear wasn't in the water for more than a couple minutes before we had our first Chinook on. By the time the rest of the fleet filtered into the area, we mostly had our limit of Chinook, with 1 spot left for one of my buddies. We were fishing Anchovy exclusively that morning and it was definitely the ticket. The previous day, we tried an assortment of spoons in smaller sizes, with some succes, but nothing like the bait on day 3. When the bite slowed for a bit, we headed outside to see if we could scare up some Coho. The previous day's weather had left the seas a little lumpy, but it was fishable. Alas, it seemed that the rain and change to a low barometric state had scattered the Coho or moved them on, as we never managed to find them at a number of areas that had been producing prior to the change in the weather. There were a few picked up by some of our other boats, but it was very hit and miss. With only an hour or so left in the fishing day, we headed back to Rosa to try and fill my buddies Chinook limit and it didn't disappoint. After losing a couple decent fish, we ended the trip with a double header and it was missioned accomplished for him, while the second fish lived to see another day. A great way to end another awesome friends and family fishing adventure.
In spite of the weather being all over the map, everyone managed to take plenty of fish home and most people limited on Chinook, with Coho being a little tougher as mentioned earlier. Hali and Ling were caught by those of us that took advantage of the calm of day 1. A few people managed to get some Ling on day 3 as well, but it was a much shorter window, as the seas took a bit to calm down. The biggest Chinook for the trip came in at 24 lbs, with another half dozen just over 20 lbs, with a mix of 10 to 18 for the rest of the catch. The biggest Coho was 11 lbs with the average around 7 or 8 lbs.
All in all, it was another great trip and everyone enjoyed their time at Port Eliza with good fishing and much laughter and appreciation, to be able to take in all that Esperanza and the rest of this beautiful coast has to offer.
Here are a few more random pics from the trip.
A sample of our catch for the day.
Day 2 featured the SE wind that Chille described. This limited our opportunities to the inside fishery. Fortunately, there seemed to be plenty of Chinooks available and most of the boats we saw at Rosa had decent hookups over the course of the day. Our boat didn't do as well as some of our buddies, as we only managed two keepers, although we would have limited out if our landing ratio was a little better on the day!
We also had to contend with showers off and on, but it could have been a tough slog if the fish weren't inside yet.Day 3 was a mixed bag, with some rain in the morning and full on sun in the afternoon. Most of the guides chose to head outside first thing in the morning, trying to fill a few dance cards with a Chinook or 2, but also searching for Coho to add to the cooler. Our boat had a look around the corner then gazed over to Rosa, with no one there yet, and our guide made the right call in suggesting we try our luck while we were the only boat there. Our gear wasn't in the water for more than a couple minutes before we had our first Chinook on. By the time the rest of the fleet filtered into the area, we mostly had our limit of Chinook, with 1 spot left for one of my buddies. We were fishing Anchovy exclusively that morning and it was definitely the ticket. The previous day, we tried an assortment of spoons in smaller sizes, with some succes, but nothing like the bait on day 3. When the bite slowed for a bit, we headed outside to see if we could scare up some Coho. The previous day's weather had left the seas a little lumpy, but it was fishable. Alas, it seemed that the rain and change to a low barometric state had scattered the Coho or moved them on, as we never managed to find them at a number of areas that had been producing prior to the change in the weather. There were a few picked up by some of our other boats, but it was very hit and miss. With only an hour or so left in the fishing day, we headed back to Rosa to try and fill my buddies Chinook limit and it didn't disappoint. After losing a couple decent fish, we ended the trip with a double header and it was missioned accomplished for him, while the second fish lived to see another day. A great way to end another awesome friends and family fishing adventure.
In spite of the weather being all over the map, everyone managed to take plenty of fish home and most people limited on Chinook, with Coho being a little tougher as mentioned earlier. Hali and Ling were caught by those of us that took advantage of the calm of day 1. A few people managed to get some Ling on day 3 as well, but it was a much shorter window, as the seas took a bit to calm down. The biggest Chinook for the trip came in at 24 lbs, with another half dozen just over 20 lbs, with a mix of 10 to 18 for the rest of the catch. The biggest Coho was 11 lbs with the average around 7 or 8 lbs.
All in all, it was another great trip and everyone enjoyed their time at Port Eliza with good fishing and much laughter and appreciation, to be able to take in all that Esperanza and the rest of this beautiful coast has to offer.
Here are a few more random pics from the trip.
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