Esperanza Fishing?

[northriverrunner]

Just heard that there are lots of coho being caught around Esperanza, is this unusual for this time of year? We've been going up there aound the 1st of August for 4 years now and last year we finally got into them. Is this early or is this going to be a great seaon?

 

[Flyfishinggeek]

It is not unusual. They get an early run this time of year. I have had 20 fish days casting to them on the fly rod tied to kelp off Catala Island. Got to love it!!

 

[Pippen]

I am fishing right now north of Esperanza in Kyuquot, and there are coho everywhere! So much so that they are becoming a real pain in the 'arse'.[]

 

[northriverrunner]

That sounds like a real bad problem. Are they inside, outside, clipped and any size to them? Are they going to be around at the end of July?

 

[Pippen]

It's a real bad problem when you start running low on bait!!

Bulk of them are wild....have managed a few clipped and they are inside/outside/sideways/deep and shallow. Size tends to be averaging 6-10 lbs but caught(and released)a wild one this morning that was likely pushing the 13-14lb range.

I mentioned this on BCFR but I am starting to question to an extent releasing wild ones. I have sent a good number of wild's back this week that likely had little to no chance of surviving; not due to poor handling but more so they were hooked deep and bleeding like crazy. Have hooked a pile of ho's this week with the bulk being wild and to me it would make more sense to 'whack' your 2 fish per day and call it a day on the coho's. "Yes" you are still going to hit them while targetting the springs but sending a 'clearly' dead fish back to sink to the depths just doesn't make sense to me. I do realize there are many angles to look at this and no matter what you do there will be those that will abuse the fishery, but it just has seemed like a waste of a resource when there really isn't too much you can do to prevent it. I am tired of the ho's this week and pushing for springs.....and even if I put 2 in the box I will more than likely hook up more as much as I don't want to.

 

[hooked for life]

Jeez Pip, I kinda almost have to agree with you. last year we were hooking a ratio of around 12 wild to 1 hatch and some were just not gonna survive. We ended up going to large 6" spoons because using bait we could hardly even get down to the springs without a ho hitting as soon as we hit the water.

Changing to spoons definitely helped but we had to have the riggers going down as fast as we could to keep them off, once past 100 ft we were ok.

 

[Dirtdog67]

Plugs are also another way of gettin by the yoyo's if your looking for springs..-dirty

 

[Charlie]

I'd be looking for one of those tomic plugs I got hidden! [:0]