Early Season Spoon Size.... & patterns

ILHG

ILHG

Crew Member
I will be up at QCL lodge in about a month. It's a early trip for me and I am going self guided. I will be bringing my best friend on this trip who has never Salmon fished before & I want to show him a great time.

I'm concerned about how best to approach using spoons this time of year. I have a wide selection of AP Tackle Works spoons & some coyote & silver horde.

I have no clue what to be pulling this time of year & where to pull? Truth is it's starting to keep me up at night.

I would love any experience you guys would be willing to share.

Going after the early season feeder springs is a different ball game. (I think)

I know most people just pull bait around but I just love the felling of dialing it in using gear.
 
Fish in the Charlottes are wicked aggressive.

Coyote 5.0 and 6.0 Live Image spoons in Blue, Green and Chrome and they work great as a Multi Speed spoon. They do bend so watch out for that. Have a few spares. There's a reason why Mark Pendlington was raving on them and reasons why lodges ordered them by the case load.

Go to Pacific Angler and buy any of the larger 5.0 and 6.0 Pescas...similar colours...they work AWESOME up there. Winners!

PNT has some large TKO's which are awesome too. Get some spare hooks for your spoons while you are at it. Two thumbs up for these.

5.0-6.0 Wonder Spoons, Canadian Wonders and the like also are great....I fished them up there when fishing got scratchy and produced well.

The 5.0 Diamond Lance in 212 and 500 colours were great as were the 5.0 Tom Macks.

If you want to do bait...Rhys Davis Whole Herring work great too. Purple Haze, Charteuse and Clear Heads.

Flashers with anchovies are popular now too....because they work. Too much time spent retying.

5.0 and 6.0 Plugs were fun... :) but you gotta fish 'em fast.

Clendon Stewarts in 5, 5.5 and 6" were good to me... :)

O'ki 5.5 look great but I haven't fished them in a high fish traffic area to know if they are as productive as I would like.

If they're not working...use bait until you confirm they're there and then dial in the gear.

Personally cut plugging off the Kelp in certain spots always produced the slabs.... but these past years early season always had tons of cookie cutter 12-17 pounders depending on the trip.

Ask the guides and they'll pick out the gear for you when you get up there.
 
fishin_magician said:
Fish in the Charlottes are wicked aggressive.

Coyote 5.0 and 6.0 Live Image spoons in Blue, Green and Chrome and they work great as a Multi Speed spoon. They do bend so watch out for that. Have a few spares. There's a reason why Mark Pendlington was raving on them and reasons why lodges ordered them by the case load.

Go to Pacific Angler and buy any of the larger 5.0 and 6.0 Pescas...similar colours...they work AWESOME up there. Winners!

PNT has some large TKO's which are awesome too. Get some spare hooks for your spoons while you are at it. Two thumbs up for these.

5.0-6.0 Wonder Spoons, Canadian Wonders and the like also are great....I fished them up there when fishing got scratchy and produced well.

The 5.0 Diamond Lance in 212 and 500 colours were great as were the 5.0 Tom Macks.

If you want to do bait...Rhys Davis Whole Herring work great too. Purple Haze, Charteuse and Clear Heads.

Flashers with anchovies are popular now too....because they work. Too much time spent retying.

5.0 and 6.0 Plugs were fun... :) but you gotta fish 'em fast.

Clendon Stewarts in 5, 5.5 and 6" were good to me... :)

O'ki 5.5 look great but I haven't fished them in a high fish traffic area to know if they are as productive as I would like.

If they're not working...use bait until you confirm they're there and then dial in the gear.

Personally cut plugging off the Kelp in certain spots always produced the slabs.... but these past years early season always had tons of cookie cutter 12-17 pounders depending on the trip.

Ask the guides and they'll pick out the gear for you when you get up there.
Click to expand...



Wow thanks for all the good info!!! Early season do you fish the spoons deep?
 
I Love Haida Gwaii said:
Wow thanks for all the good info!!! Early season do you fish the spoons deep?
Click to expand...

I used to do well in the 30 to 90 foot zone...when the fish got scratchy 100-150 was good. find the bait and fish around it or just under it and Fish on!

50' down in some days the water is so clear depending on the right light you can watch your spoon or cut plug disappear and simultaneously watch the rod pop off :)

Pay attention to where the senior guides are locating them.... don't go wandering off reinventing the wheels unless it is slow.
 
Hope your able to find a 6.0 live image spoon been to shops all over the lower mainland and their always sold out kinda of annoying because I don't think people use it around here.
 
I think if I could pick one spoon it would be the 6.0 blue Live Image Coyote. Nog's Iron Needle spoons are awesome as well...definitely have a couple of those with you.
 
@I Love Haida Gwaii the spoons have already been doing well up there this early season and slayed them last spring and summer. From guide, guest and hardcore fisherman feedback up there....every size and shape will work depending on the wide variety of structure you chose to fish. I had pictures sent in of a 40lb chinook caught on the 3" Sandlance all the way up to the 5" Herring. When you arrive...pick the guides brains as to what they are feeding on and go check what's in the bellies at the cleaning table. Match the bait! Have fun up there!
 
Assloads of small needles early season out of Naden . Fishing your Andrew p's in the mud around the mazzaredos, or from the kelp line out to the 90 foot contour up at Green Pt should yield you good success . Those were always go to early season for me.
 
Loved fishing off Green.
Why use spoons when you can use bait up there but agreed on needle patterns being your best option to match spoons to. Try chovies if you go with bait
 
adanac said:
Assloads of small needles early season out of Naden . Fishing your Andrew p's in the mud around the mazzaredos, or from the kelp line out to the 90 foot contour up at Green Pt should yield you good success . Those were always go to early season for me.
Click to expand...


When you say in the mud, are you talking about fishing the spoons off bottom?

Up at Green point how deep are you talking about there?
 
Thanks for all the feed back guys. It will not go to waste!!
 
Most serious guides up there will not touch anything but bait, but in the origional post he stated that he liked fishing gear . To each their own.

Yeah on the bottom at the Mazz, up at green it varies, shallow inside tacks and deeper outside tacks, all through the water column till you find what's working for you . Generally shallower in low light hours ( morning evening ) and deeper as the sun comes out.
 
adanac said:
Most serious guides up there will not touch anything but bait, but in the origional post he stated that he liked fishing gear . To each their own.

Yeah on the bottom at the Mazz, up at green it varies, shallow inside tacks and deeper outside tacks, all through the water column till you find what's working for you . Generally shallower in low light hours ( morning evening ) and deeper as the sun comes out.
Click to expand...

Thank so for the info. I hear what your saying with bait & will still pull it but it's nice to have something being pulled that can have a hit & not get screwed up.
Nothing worse than pulling up bait & seeing you missed a strike & you have been pulling around just a teaser head for 20 min.

I will have a Chovie on one side & spoon on the other. One thing I won't do is run an inline flasher. That's the beauty of fishing up there. You don't need flashers to catch fish. If it's scratchy I will hook up an dummy. Every Tyee I have caught has been shallow with no flasher.
 
Don't be afraid to follow the tide lines out deeper off Green and elsewhere(90-150ft), typically you won't be targeting the hogs but you can have lights out fishing. Check your bait every 20 mins max and always within 2 mins after any bump and absolutely inspect your leader every time you check your bait/spoon not just after every fish.
 
Go to Canadian Tire for the 6.0 Coyotes...pretty sure I saw some there.

Call Berry's and see if they have them....or PNT.

Most of the bait is 5-6" Herring predominantly...later in the season lots of needlefish abound.

Guides generally do bait....but tackle fished right will do as well if not better when the fish aren't Super concentrated.
 
Old Blue said:
Don't be afraid to follow the tide lines out deeper off Green and elsewhere(90-150ft), typically you won't be targeting the hogs but you can have lights out fishing. Check your bait every 20 mins max and always within 2 mins after any bump and absolutely inspect your leader every time you check your bait/spoon not just after every fish.
Click to expand...


What depth are you fishing out deeper? Is the 90-150' the depth to bottom or depth fishing?

I will definitely try this. Instead of working bird II for 3 days strait
 
It's all fine & dandy to say fish in the mud but the sheer numbers of tiny Halibut mean it's hard to maintain your enthusiasm.
 
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