How would you rate your Spring fishing this year?

[IronNoggin]

Methinks we all got raher used to the Bonanza runs of Big Springs off the WCVI the past few years. Perhaps for many a little too comfortable. Then along comes a year such as this, with both smaller numbers and smaller sizes overall, and many folks acted quite surprised not to be able to tag Smilies and Tyees basically at will on pretty much every outing. Nature of the beast as it were, the resource is cyclic, and this season well indicated a bit of a downtrend in that.

Probably the slowest year for the Big Boyz I've seen in my out there. Collecting any of size was more than challenging, and the few that did certainly raised eyebrows returning to the docks. Commercial trolling in Auguest indicated the same - we did not see nearly as many "Large" as we had gotten used to in the plug fishery. But... the recent September troll catches show a good presence of robust 3 year olds, some already pushing into the twenties! Methinks that next season will likely prove to be a LOT better as a consequence!!

Looking Forward to finding out...

Cheers,
Nog

 

[spring fever]

I agree Nog-'2009 was an excellent re-bound year following a disasterous 2008 and I'm hoping that history will repeat. Tight Lines.

 

[JAC]

any idea of whats to come next year??

 

[Duffer]

Best year locally I've seen in 12 years I've lived here in the Valley for Size and #s. The fish were full of large Herring which I thing has a lot to do with it. Was curious if that had anything to do with the season the Herring commercial fishery didn't happen because the Japanese Earthquake. Probably that and the Pugent Sound Hatcheries in the States doing a fantastic job! Thank You Obama.

 

[trendsetter]

Similar to a lot of folks I got lots of small springs this year and nothing large. Well, one 19lb off Gabriola back in the early summer.

3 trips to barkley sound and I got my fill of the american hatch springs. They were all 3 year olds (2009 brood year) and 10lbs or less.

Last year I caught fewer springs but they were all in the teens (14-18lbs). This year was on fire for coho tho.

 

[nedarb2]

i did awesome off shore and in shore in june, july, early early august. rest of august and on wards was slow fishing and really small fish.
had 2 great trips in middle of sept though

 

[Englishman]

Off Sooke we caught some nice teener American hatchery fish in April/May and into early June. Then it died and I only caught two small chinook (8 and 10lbs) between June 7th and today (15 times out). The coho have been fantastic though and kept us going out. Otherwise, I would have "summerised" the boat on the trailer, taken up golf, and got it out again this November....!!

 

[chris73]

I'd say I had an ok year. Maybe slightly below average spring success in Sooke but still a few fish up to mid 20s. Would agree the tendency towards the smaller side this year. Up island was great to me and first time Nootka early August was ok for a newbee. Did get one 30# but lotsa small but mature springs on the inside in Nootka - surprised me, thought they would be larger on average. Tropical weather and water (up to 23 celcius!!!) certainly made it tough for Nootka inside this year. The big boys from the outside brought home some beautiful fish though.

 

[Pippen]

Had a lot of fish around when in Tofino.....great spring fishing but definitely smaller sizes on average.


But......salmon, shmalmon......tuna fishing is where it's at!!!

 

[arima arima]

Fishing was Very good And very productive for me around the nanaimo area, Springs in the mid 20 most of the year with limits almost everytime.
Offshore was slower for big ones but halibut was good and made up for that.

 

[hambone]

But......salmon, shmalmon......tuna fishing is where it's at!!!

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

 

[Seafever]

There must be a sign up out front of French Creek that says " Attention Chinook.....No Loitering".

While places such as Kitty Coleman had the best season they ever saw, and Nanaimo wasn't too shabby (although not as good as last year overall) it seemed F.C. just plugged along with a few fish here and there of note.

Regardless of the b.s. fishing reports posted in monthly periodicals by fishing- business owners.....it was IMO quite a step down this year off F.C.

While there was lots of shakers and small baby Coho around all the time.....I wasn't seeing the big schools of bait and fry around like I usually do out front of Eaglecrest/Whitedoor/Humps etc. in the summer.

Maybe that had something to do with it.....

I had to go to Nanaimo to get decent-size fish.....mostly everything I caught off F.C. was undersize.

 

[Pippen]

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

 

[Jeep09]

There must be a sign up out front of French Creek that says " Attention Chinook.....No Loitering".

While places such as Kitty Coleman had the best season they ever saw, and Nanaimo wasn't too shabby (although not as good as last year overall) it seemed F.C. just plugged along with a few fish here and there of note.

Regardless of the b.s. fishing reports posted in monthly periodicals by fishing- business owners.....it was IMO quite a step down this year off F.C.

While there was lots of shakers and small baby Coho around all the time.....I wasn't seeing the big schools of bait and fry around like I usually do out front of Eaglecrest/Whitedoor/Humps etc. in the summer.

Maybe that had something to do with it.....

I had to go to Nanaimo to get decent-size fish.....mostly everything I caught off F.C. was undersize.

I leave near the Creek and hardly ever fish it. This year was especially slow.

 

[calmsea]

There must be a sign up out front of French Creek that says " Attention Chinook.....No Loitering".

While places such as Kitty Coleman had the best season they ever saw, and Nanaimo wasn't too shabby (although not as good as last year overall) it seemed F.C. just plugged along with a few fish here and there of note.

Regardless of the b.s. fishing reports posted in monthly periodicals by fishing- business owners.....it was IMO quite a step down this year off F.C.

While there was lots of shakers and small baby Coho around all the time.....I wasn't seeing the big schools of bait and fry around like I usually do out front of Eaglecrest/Whitedoor/Humps etc. in the summer.

Maybe that had something to do with it.....

I had to go to Nanaimo to get decent-size fish.....mostly everything I caught off F.C. was undersize.

Get yourself a black box and you will catch some fish!

 

[ReelSlim]

Fishing for me this summer in Renfrew was good to very good I would say. It might of been that having a place out there just made it that much easier to fish more often.......which I managed to do! lol I fished the most days this summer that I ever have and I think that definitely made the difference for me. It also didn't hurt that I had my boat moored all summer between John of Jolly Roger's and Blair from Swelltime Charters that were more than helpful with current information each day. Fishing on the Bank was great earlier in the year for Springs for me. I got them every trip just some days were harder sledding than others. Although the Coho situation was insane every trip and made it hard to target Springs at times and keep the gear out. Hali was better for me ealier on as well with nothing real big but all good fish. It was the beach fishing this year for me that's was the highlight. I fished a lot of mornings solo before the family was out of the rack and usually cashed in on the early bite. Fishing seemed to be good everywehere fom East Point to Walbran but I got most of my bigger fish around the Rockpile Area. As far as size goes......I would say a far larger average size for me than the previous summer.

Good Thread........always neat to see where and when the fishing was good on the coast.

 

[Karma-Kazi]

This year was the best for numbers ive seen since I have fished Sooke. 14 yrs. Nothing huge but so many fish! Many multiple 18-24 pound spring days.

Biggest was 27 in sooke.

-KK

 

[Sculpin]

I thought the spring fishing was quite poor this year. Water conditions during the prime time were bizarre. I will admit I didn't try that hard though lol.

Pippen is right in a way. Because of the slower salmon fishing it gave me that extra push to try the tuna fishery out in my own boat. Tuna is where it's at.

 

[Englishman]

I thought the spring fishing was quite poor this year. Water conditions during the prime time were bizarre. I will admit I didn't try that hard though lol.

Pippen is right in a way. Because of the slower salmon fishing it gave me that extra push to try the tuna fishery out in my own boat. Tuna is where it's at.

Tuna fishing waay out in the Pacific is strictly for guys with big boats, big bucks and big "cojones". That rules me out on all three counts.....!!!

 

[baddogg]

Most of our west coast fishing was at South Bank. Never made a trip any further as the reports weren't much better there for the most part.

We did well on all of our trips for salmon, limiting out with springs that were mostly in the teens.

We had one great trip, two of us over two days where we managed our limit of springs and halibut.

Largest spring was 30, and the two largest halibut were twin 40's.

I have fish in my freezer to do me the winter, so I would have to say it was a successful year.