Fish are Here!

I finally have something to report!

Left the dock today about 7:30 AM and headed out to Esperanza Inlet with the intention of fishing Rosa Harbour area. Outside seas were calm enough that we ventured outside to the Highway.

Fishing was pretty slow, until we got a little closer to Ferrer Point. We were running three lines on two downriggers bracketing 100' in 300 - 280' of water. No signs of bait or fish on the sounder. Had a good hit on the upper rod with a Green & Glow 3.5" Coyote spoon - no flasher. Fish spit the hook after about 30 seconds of play. While reeling in, spoon was hit a second time and again spit after a minute or so of fighting the fish.

We decided to see if we could get some Halibut and tried drifting and back-trolling from 150' to a 90' hump just SE of Ferrer Pt. Picked up a nice Yelloweye, and two China Rockfish.

After getting a radio report of fish hitting at Ferrer, we moved in and started trolling two lines at 35' & 40'. After a bit, we hit what was the most amazing fish I have ever seen! It hit the outside rod, a Watermellon Apex lure with no flasher and almost spooled the 200 yards of line off the reel in one long sustained run toward shore that had Jim Hicks convinced that he was hooked on bottom until I pointed out that we were drifting toward the direction the line was running in. I believe that the fish made it into the kelp and the line broke at the swivel. Jim will be re-tieing his leaders before the morning!

Jim's partner Kevin picked up a nice 12 pound Chinook in the same spot about 20 minutes later on an green FBR (Franko Bullet Rotator) with anchovy, again with no flasher.
A while later, we picked up a nice 5 pound Coho on the before mentioned Coyote spoon. No flasher. Am I seeing a trend here?

We fished Rosa for an hour, seeing lots of bait balls and some solid fish returns on the sounder, but no bites.

Upon getting back to the dock in Tahsis, we learned that Tyler and his dad, Don also hit some very nice hard fighting fish in the same area that we were in at Ferrer.

The chinook we landed was a nice white Spring. Coho was had for a late dinner, soaked in Orange Juice and various spices to which I want the recipe before the guys leave town on Saturday!