IronNoggin
Well-Known Member
Just in from the West Coast, and thought I'd run up a report of sorts...
We had a one-day commercial troll opening last Sunday - plugs only. Given the rather spotty presence of larger springs of late, we really had to scratch our heads over just where to look. One day doesn't leave much in the way of opportunity to run around looking, so you really want to land on the "right spot"!!
I had quite a few reports in over the past month, and had a few occasions to have a look around myself. From what I could put together, there were quite a few larger fish being seen up-Island (Kyuquot, Nootka, Esperanza) a tad earlier in the season, and suspected these would soon show up off Ukee & Tofu... Then a couple of calls from the Ladz down in Rupert - they now were seeing bigger fish in decent numbers. Huh? Reports from the Ukee area weren't noting much of the same, but it certainly seemed those fish were wandering through? Hmmmmm.....
Looking back over the records of previous years, we saw something somewhat similar before the trend of land-fast close to shore Bonanza style fishing for the Biggies became so common over the past 3 or 4 years. Back then, the fish appeared to run "outside", well offshore and close to maximum striking distance for the majority of the sport fleet. Was the same occurring this year?? We decided we'd take the chance it was, and set off for a boo...
Late Saturday afternoon found us near 30 miles off the beach. There, the sounder was literally going nuts! Stacks of bait like nothing I've seen this year! Herring in some spots, pilchards in others, stacked from the floor right through to the ceiling!! And mixed in and around them, the signs of many many predators!! Looks GOOD!!
Tough to sleep that night, the anticipation was downright overwhelming...
Up and readying the gear well before daylight as a consequence.
The next morning slipped up on us over a flat sea, schools of bait fining on the surface as far as the eye could see.
Dropped the gear (7" plugs in our case) to an instantaneous response!! Hungry springs of mixed sizes, ranging from feeders right up through the larger migrating spawners! SWEET!
Over the course of the day, we found enough biters to keep us smiling. The odd coho hit and was released, indicating that they also must be there in numbers for them to tag such large offerings. A little lull occurred mid-afternoon, and then...
Right around 4:30pm, a massive wave of larger fish rolled in. From then to dark we struggled to keep up, backs and arms long out of practice screaming with the effort.
As we pulled the gear the final time at dark, reports came in from the other boats scattered up and down the coast. It seems that we had indeed found the Hot Spot, as most of those unfortunately did not find the numbers nor sizes we had. Damn Lucky!
From this it seems to me the returning fish are skirting the outside edges of the Bank in our area. Not to hard to understand given the HUGE bait presence out there! Bit of a jog for a sports rig, but indeed it can be done when the weather cooperates...
Since, some of these larger fish have been observed moving closer to the beach, with catches out of both Tofino and Ukee reflecting that. Certainly hoping this trend continues! It did just that back in the days we've witnessed this particular scenario before, so there certainly is reason to believe we'll find an increasingly large number of the Biggies nearer shore over the next little while...
Ran the sport rig out the the Big Bank yesterday - more action than anyone could hope for, mixed bag of coho (some over 10 pounds already!), halibut and springs. We didn't manage to find any of the Big Boys, but a couple of our Buddies did, again indicating they may well be thinking of wandering closer...
So, the larger fish do indeed exist. They are passing by daily, and showing signs of wandering well withing our striking range. Methinks the next little while is going to prove rather interesting out there, and suspect there will be some awfully HUGE Smiles for those lucky enough to get out there and play with them!!
Still have the odd spot left on the old Dance Card if anyone is interested. Might be the right time to give us a shout if you're leaning towards some REEL FUN on the Big Pond!!
Cheers!
Nog
We had a one-day commercial troll opening last Sunday - plugs only. Given the rather spotty presence of larger springs of late, we really had to scratch our heads over just where to look. One day doesn't leave much in the way of opportunity to run around looking, so you really want to land on the "right spot"!!
I had quite a few reports in over the past month, and had a few occasions to have a look around myself. From what I could put together, there were quite a few larger fish being seen up-Island (Kyuquot, Nootka, Esperanza) a tad earlier in the season, and suspected these would soon show up off Ukee & Tofu... Then a couple of calls from the Ladz down in Rupert - they now were seeing bigger fish in decent numbers. Huh? Reports from the Ukee area weren't noting much of the same, but it certainly seemed those fish were wandering through? Hmmmmm.....
Looking back over the records of previous years, we saw something somewhat similar before the trend of land-fast close to shore Bonanza style fishing for the Biggies became so common over the past 3 or 4 years. Back then, the fish appeared to run "outside", well offshore and close to maximum striking distance for the majority of the sport fleet. Was the same occurring this year?? We decided we'd take the chance it was, and set off for a boo...
Late Saturday afternoon found us near 30 miles off the beach. There, the sounder was literally going nuts! Stacks of bait like nothing I've seen this year! Herring in some spots, pilchards in others, stacked from the floor right through to the ceiling!! And mixed in and around them, the signs of many many predators!! Looks GOOD!!
Tough to sleep that night, the anticipation was downright overwhelming...
Up and readying the gear well before daylight as a consequence.
The next morning slipped up on us over a flat sea, schools of bait fining on the surface as far as the eye could see.
Dropped the gear (7" plugs in our case) to an instantaneous response!! Hungry springs of mixed sizes, ranging from feeders right up through the larger migrating spawners! SWEET!
Over the course of the day, we found enough biters to keep us smiling. The odd coho hit and was released, indicating that they also must be there in numbers for them to tag such large offerings. A little lull occurred mid-afternoon, and then...
Right around 4:30pm, a massive wave of larger fish rolled in. From then to dark we struggled to keep up, backs and arms long out of practice screaming with the effort.
As we pulled the gear the final time at dark, reports came in from the other boats scattered up and down the coast. It seems that we had indeed found the Hot Spot, as most of those unfortunately did not find the numbers nor sizes we had. Damn Lucky!
From this it seems to me the returning fish are skirting the outside edges of the Bank in our area. Not to hard to understand given the HUGE bait presence out there! Bit of a jog for a sports rig, but indeed it can be done when the weather cooperates...
Since, some of these larger fish have been observed moving closer to the beach, with catches out of both Tofino and Ukee reflecting that. Certainly hoping this trend continues! It did just that back in the days we've witnessed this particular scenario before, so there certainly is reason to believe we'll find an increasingly large number of the Biggies nearer shore over the next little while...
Ran the sport rig out the the Big Bank yesterday - more action than anyone could hope for, mixed bag of coho (some over 10 pounds already!), halibut and springs. We didn't manage to find any of the Big Boys, but a couple of our Buddies did, again indicating they may well be thinking of wandering closer...
So, the larger fish do indeed exist. They are passing by daily, and showing signs of wandering well withing our striking range. Methinks the next little while is going to prove rather interesting out there, and suspect there will be some awfully HUGE Smiles for those lucky enough to get out there and play with them!!
Still have the odd spot left on the old Dance Card if anyone is interested. Might be the right time to give us a shout if you're leaning towards some REEL FUN on the Big Pond!!
Cheers!
Nog
