Hello Nootka fishermen/women. Just got back from 15 days in Nootka and it was great. Arrived July 16th at dinner time and spent the next 5 hours bullshitting with everyone at Critter. I should have gone out fishing but the BS took precedence.
My main goal in the morning was to deliver a couple of packages to Nootka Lodge and Saavedra Island. So I was not going to set my alarm and try and sleep in. At 0445 the first bird went CHIRP and one eye opened, then another bird went PEEP and the other eye opened. Now that I’m awake why not go fishing. Into Critter to get coffee and a muffin from Carley and Tes (the girl from Australia) and away I go. My plan was to drop the gear in at San Carlos and troll my way to Nootka Island to drop off the stuff.
Absolutely nothing was setup as tooooo much BS the night before, so I set the rods and downriggers up. Then wondered what lures would be the ticket for my first morning in Nootka? It always takes a bit to feel like you’re dialed in when you first start fishing for the season. Why not tie on the lures that you know worked last year? Into the tackle box I go and grab the Codfather 6” spoon (double sided 639 with pilchard dots) and tie that on my ugly stick and down it goes to 50 feet. The next rod gets a Codfather 5” tubby plug (639 with pilchard dots) and down it goes to 60 feet.
By this time I’ve gone from the light at San Carlos to the point starting into the log dump bay, about 500 yards. Now it’s time to think about coffee and the muffin that was waiting on the table for me. So I step into the cab and start taking the lid off the thermos and I hear this noise (zzzzz, zzzzzz, zzzzzzz) and look back to see the plug rod getting hammered. By the time I get to the back of the boat the spoon rod is now getting hammered as well. So I leave both rods in the holders, point the boat straight out and get the downriggers up. Then hope the fish cooperate with me and not start zigzagging. Netted the first one (24#) and then 10 minutes latter netted the next one (26#). After getting both fish in the cooler and all the gear in order, I sat for a minute and thought WOW is that how Nootka was going to be this year? It was 0555 and I’m tagged out for the day.
After all that its set a course on my auto pilot for Nootka Island, I spent 2.5 hours trolling in a straight line in the middle of the channel. By the time I get to Nootka Island I hooked and release 4 springs looking for a Coho. Lots more BS as I drop off some stuff it’s time to head back to Critter to take the morning girls out fishing. There was 2 hours to kill so I put the gear in at Salter Point and was going to troll to Critter. Within 5 minutes bang, and three more fish on and released and I’m not even at Hoiss Pt.
Pack up blast to Critter and clean fish and pick up Carley and Tes for a troll. Down the gear goes at Camel Rock and bang, bang all kinds of fish there too. Pics to follow.
Next morning back to San Carlos with 20 other boats and the bite was on. Caught 2 - 20
pounders and released them, then hooked a bleeder and threw that one in the box. At one time at the bottom end before Beer-Can-Bay there were 8 boats with fish on at the same time including me. Now that’s a bite. About 0800 my plug rod went off with the tip bending into the water shaking the whole boat. So I turned towards the middle of the channel and for the next 40 minutes fought with this HOG. In the cooler it goes, all 35 pounds of him. Within an hour of that fish, two other people caught a 35 and 33 pounder in the same place.
Fast forward a couple of days to July 20th when I can finally take my new group offshore to the Bajo Reef. That night Catherine had the new lures (still wet) brought out to Critter from Tomic (thanks Cam) and I was like a kid in the candy store. After fishing all winter and spring in and around Nanaimo the hot lure was the Irish Cream. The problem with them for me in Nootka is they are TOOOOOO small. Remember what I always say, BIGGER LURES = BIGGER FISH. So with a sparkle in my eye I open the box and take out the new 6” Tomic Irish Cream. One model with the Pilchard spots, the other without spots. I asked Catherine not to put these lures out until I have a chance to test them and give them the stamp of approval or not.
Down the three rods go, one on each downrigger with the following on.
5” Codfather Tubby plug 639 with dots to 60 feet.
6” Irish Cream with dots to 50 feet.
6” Codfather 639 spoon with spots to 40 feet.
Within the first 3 hours 12 springs to the boat. 10 fish on the Irish Cream spoon. 2 fish on the plug and 9 coho on the top rod with the 639 spoon.
We finished at 1700 hrs with 25 springs in total with 20 on the new spoon. We kept 10 springs; the biggest fish was 31 pounds on the plug. So when I got back to Critter my first stop was in the office to see Catherine and let her know the new spoon is on fire and to put it on the shelf. Two boat loads of fishermen (Go Fish, and Green Monster) were standing behind me when I said to put the lures out and they snapped up a dozen. The next day both boats went out to the reef and caught a couple dozen fish each on the new spoon.
I stopped at Pacific Net & Twine and talked to Rob and he is going to get some in along with doing up a new spoon. The Mike Pilchard with the back painted Glow/UV. This spoon will be very hot as every fish we caught on the reef last week was full of BIG Pilchard. So when in Rome use the same things the fish are eating.
Dane from Harbor Chandler has reordered these spoons a couple of times and can’t keep them in stock so you might want to get him to put a couple aside for you to try.
One July 27th we headed out to the Bajo Reef and made one pass from the bottom end to the top at the Horseshoe. We caught 3 springs around 20# and I decided to head offshore to the Highway looking for something BIG. On the way out I could see a few boats way off in the distance. They turned out to be commercial trollers as we got closer. They were all in a direct line right on the Highway trolling North/South. After looking at my screen I could see 20 feet off the bottom was loaded with BIG fish about 30 feet thick. So down the line goes until it hit the bottom, I came up a couple of feet and locked it in. The counter on the downrigger read 400 even; yes that’s right 400 feet. Within 2 minutes BANG fish on. We spent two hours catching one after the other until my guests arms could not reel in another fish. If you’re going to try fishing deep you will need at least a 15# ball, I’m using a 20# to keep the angle around 25 degrees.
Anyway sorry for the long winded post but after 3 weeks with no phones, email or internet I’m trying to catch up. Back to Nootka in the morning until Aug 30th, so good luck fishing gang.
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