spring fever
Well-Known Member
Excellent trip to Bamfield area-had to work hard, do some searching but we had 35 springs to the boat and gave the "wood shampoo" to 12 and 1 small hali .
Before we left set my rigger up for deep water stacking and also to take a Kone zone daisy chain with ease. Had a lot of different lures and an intriguing idea from Pirates Den to test . Arrived Swale at 11 am mon. few boats around not much for nets-put down a customized coyote 3.5 green and white spoon to 180 ft and stacked above that a chovie. Took about 5 min and the spoon offered up a 7lb which was released. Most of the boats left us and we kept 5 springs to 18lbs before it died. Depths that worked were between 140 and 180-stacking a chovie above an led hoochie seemed to be the best combo-lots of work but very effective. The green double glow hootchy -a proven producer would not live up to it's rep and Striper Sniper switched to a Fish Assassin custom needle fish- good producer. Very strange really because all the fish we checked had 6 inch herring in them and only one from around Kirby had needlefish in its stomach. Yet needlefish lures worked well-ie. coho killers in green and white and cop car plus needlefish hoochies in white or clear with red beads either in the body or one in front of the nose. A Pirates Den Turd like hootchy with a double flash white LED was particularly effective.Headed to Kirby around 6pm -slow but did manage a 15 to finish the daily limit. Tried Brady and the wall at Bamfield but pretty dead-hooked-up in Port Desire for the night. First light we headed off-shore-looked great but just before 7 mile it was really blowing-got the gear down and all we could get were wild coho and legal but small springs. Could barely stand on the back deck so Hali was a none issue and we re-routed back to Kirby. Saw Osama who gave us a depth and was soon into a nice 15 ish fish. Had been a good bite at Kirby but we just caught the tail end and then it died. Went back to Swale -deserted but we took fish fairly steadily-it wasn't hot but it was interesting especially with the stacking system. We finished our two day limit at 1 pm and hooked up for the afternoon behind nettles island. Beautiful spot. At 7pm went out to Swale and using just big tomic and gibbs pilchard spoons no flashers we hooked and released 6 nice springs. This morning rigged a 7 inch herring no flasher above a daisy chain plus other side running a pilchard spoon no flasher we hooked and released 5 very nice Springs up to 18lbs. Tested an LED glow wench hoochy took and released about an 18 ib Spring but the nice surprise was a small Hali right off the end of Swale in 150 ft of water. Called it a trip at 0830 am and headed home. Great trip-I can't really discuss some of the stuff I was playing with for Pirates Den but it does look promising and I'm sure Salty Dog will continue its development.
Before we left set my rigger up for deep water stacking and also to take a Kone zone daisy chain with ease. Had a lot of different lures and an intriguing idea from Pirates Den to test . Arrived Swale at 11 am mon. few boats around not much for nets-put down a customized coyote 3.5 green and white spoon to 180 ft and stacked above that a chovie. Took about 5 min and the spoon offered up a 7lb which was released. Most of the boats left us and we kept 5 springs to 18lbs before it died. Depths that worked were between 140 and 180-stacking a chovie above an led hoochie seemed to be the best combo-lots of work but very effective. The green double glow hootchy -a proven producer would not live up to it's rep and Striper Sniper switched to a Fish Assassin custom needle fish- good producer. Very strange really because all the fish we checked had 6 inch herring in them and only one from around Kirby had needlefish in its stomach. Yet needlefish lures worked well-ie. coho killers in green and white and cop car plus needlefish hoochies in white or clear with red beads either in the body or one in front of the nose. A Pirates Den Turd like hootchy with a double flash white LED was particularly effective.Headed to Kirby around 6pm -slow but did manage a 15 to finish the daily limit. Tried Brady and the wall at Bamfield but pretty dead-hooked-up in Port Desire for the night. First light we headed off-shore-looked great but just before 7 mile it was really blowing-got the gear down and all we could get were wild coho and legal but small springs. Could barely stand on the back deck so Hali was a none issue and we re-routed back to Kirby. Saw Osama who gave us a depth and was soon into a nice 15 ish fish. Had been a good bite at Kirby but we just caught the tail end and then it died. Went back to Swale -deserted but we took fish fairly steadily-it wasn't hot but it was interesting especially with the stacking system. We finished our two day limit at 1 pm and hooked up for the afternoon behind nettles island. Beautiful spot. At 7pm went out to Swale and using just big tomic and gibbs pilchard spoons no flashers we hooked and released 6 nice springs. This morning rigged a 7 inch herring no flasher above a daisy chain plus other side running a pilchard spoon no flasher we hooked and released 5 very nice Springs up to 18lbs. Tested an LED glow wench hoochy took and released about an 18 ib Spring but the nice surprise was a small Hali right off the end of Swale in 150 ft of water. Called it a trip at 0830 am and headed home. Great trip-I can't really discuss some of the stuff I was playing with for Pirates Den but it does look promising and I'm sure Salty Dog will continue its development.
but obviously it's not you're first rodeo ..
