I spent Saturday morning trying various depths from 120' to 300 ' off Thrasher. Weather was as fine as you could wish for January. Nothing on the sounder and no birds or mammals on the surface, just me and the ferries.
I was making sure to bounce off the bottom every now and then and caught some frisky lings and the biggest copper rockfish I have seen in a while. The rockfish came up slowly, so was not in obvious distress, but he lay on the surface for a few minutes after release, then dove. Does anyone know how well they survive under those conditions?
A couple of springs came around low slack in 220', one undersize and the other about 12 lbs. Used classic winter gear- 4" white/green and chrome coyote behind a red and chrome hotspot.

I put the boat back in the water this morning at Degnen bay, had to stop at thrasher on the way to Siva Bay where I moor my boat. Boat in the water at 10: AM at the dock at 11:30 with two 8+ springs. 130', one on an anchovie green chrome, the other on a glow green/white #4. One had 3" and 4" herring in it's stomach the other empty.
A happy start to the new year. I hope it is an indication of things to come.

Cheers Hastamanana,

What a great way to splash the boat! The same sized fish and depth we caught on our last charter. I join you in hoping this bodes well for the upcoming season!

I am looking at the water as I compose and it looks like a GREAT day on the water. Hmmm...might just have to sneak out tomorrow for some R n' R!

Again, All The Best for your upcoming season!

Cheers All,

Had a charter on Thursday and what a great day on the water! Several reasons for the thought that spring is not that far away...including fish! Full limits of salmon although the biggest was lost 'long distance' after quite a battle. Consolation prize included full limits of prawns, crabs and more than a legal amount of fun. We took the Gold Medal for a great day.

Back on the water on Sunday.

Was out sailing yesterday, and coming back between snake and the fingers there are massive balls of herring out there, looks like the numbers keep improving on the inside.

Great job FG
My wife and i went out on Friday, what a great day but no fish, fishing in 180 to 260 ft. of water with one side fishing green splatter back @140 and the other side was a coyote spoon @ 120, i am using 10 # cannon balls, ant more help would be great, will put in my time as sooner or later i will get one, 4 days in renfrew and only 1 fish and was the only fish i caught last year, maybe going to fast or to slow, on my gps it reads 2.2 miles an hour but the downrigger line seems to be on quite an angle so i slow down to about 1.8 mph on the gps

Cheers and have a safe day on the water

Tony

weasone...for winter's you may have more luck fishing closer to the bottom (ie bouncing your balls on the bottom).
As for gps speed...that really doesn't tell you much, as the key speed is the speed your gear is moving relative to the water. If your trolling into the current, your gear will be moving faster than your gps speed and vise versa. Go by the angle of your downrigger line and use bigger balls than 10 lb (fishing that deep you may want to try 15's).
Trying to catch fish around Nanaimo is not easy, so don't get discouraged .

Just one guy's advice...take it or leave it

Good luck.

Thank-you DOF
I love being out on the water and catching a fish is a bonus, I guess if i have some one else on board i get a little discouraged as i would love for them to catch a fish, and i don't give up and i will keep trying different things till i get it right, i keep quite and extensive log of every time out from gps, tides, weather, moon and on and on, so i will try the 15 # balls and bounce bottom only thing is i only have 200 ft of cable on my riggers

Cheers
Tony

The Queen and I got out on Friday as well with similar results to Weasone. Drug up one small rockfish when I got too close the bottom, my cut plug was almost bigger than him and had one cut plug chomped in half, but no action. Doesn't really matter, that was just something to occupy us between placing and pulling traps. Limits of prawns and crabs, 2 over 8". I'm going to have to follow Fishing Guide one of these days and bolster my fish numbers.

I used cut plug on one side, 40' down to 150' other side was uv green or purple haze flasher with cop car, green/white, tom mack and wonderbread spoons & a green speckleback hootchie. Nothing touched the artificial side. Fished it mostly around 110 - 125'. Tried slow and fast. Seen quite a few fish on the sounder and the odd bait ball, but nothing significant. Fished around Entrance and across the top of Gabriola.

Oh well, next time.

Cheers All,

Well Stress Medicine...you would have had a good day following us on Friday as we did quite well but you would have been wasting your time on Sunday! That's fishing...the good and the average. But the weather has been fantastic. And we also had some huge dungeness in the past week with one getting closer to 9" than to 8.5". Second biggest one in 20 years!

Had prawn traps stolen on Sunday and will be posting a seperate rant on that.