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!

Just for the Halibut - Fishing Video

Just for the Halibut



Fishing for Halibut on the Wild West Coast of Vancouver Island

A Little Snow in Tahsis the Other Day

Still water and fresh snow made Tahsis Postcard perfect a few days ago. Two nights of snow left about 10 to 12 inches of snow around town.

What a Great, but Strange Fishing Season!

Well, the summer fishing season is over and I finally have some time to reflect on what happened this year.

We caught lots of fish, but what a strange year it was for those of us on the West Coast of Vancouver Island!

Normally, we go out and catch Salmon, Halibut, and various bottomfish. This year, we were out chasing Tuna! We also had many reports of people hooking large Humbolt Squid, and one local Tahsis Guide hooked a 147 pound Opah, or Moonfish. Normally these fish are caught in Hawaii. This one took 3 people and 2 hours to land!

There were lots of small "Chicken" Halibut around. We were catching them while trolling for Salmon at 100' in 180' of water - 80' off of the bottom! This is a good sign for the future - there should be lots of bigger Halibut here in coming years.

Lots to Report!

Wow! Lots of new stuff to report - where to beging?







First of all, I have a new and larger boat! The new Sushi Hunter is a 26' Campion Toba Hardtop Cruiser. This is a great boat for family fishing trips. Lots of room to move around in, and protection from extremes of sun and rain. There is a private marine head (toilet) - essential for those long fishing trips!

I have the newest, best and biggest electronics, a new Lowrance LCX-112c GPS/Chartplotter/Fishfinder unit that is truly amazing to fish with. I have a brand new Icom IC-422 VHF Marine Radio with DSC that will transmit the exact location of the boat to the Coast Guard in the event of an emergency (hopefully never to be tested!). On top of all of that, the boat catches fish!

Fishing in the Tahsis area has been very good this year with lots of feisty Coho and great fighting Chinook to test your fishing skills. Lots of Chicken Halibut up to about 20 pounds with a great many big fish showing in the last week in the 100 to 150 pound class!

If you are thinking of a fishing trip this season, phone or email me as soon as possible as there are only a few dates available before the end of the fishing season. Don't wait, do it now!

Jim's New Blog!

Welcome to my new blog!

The purpose of this blog is to provide up to the date fishing reports for Tahsis, BC. Reports will be mostly from the Esperanza Inlet area on the North side of Nootka Island, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Occasionally, I will include reports from the Nootka Sound area, on the South side of Nootka Island, as well as the off-shore areas to the West of Nootka Island.

I will try to give you as much detail in the reports as possible: area, species, depth, lure, etc.


- Jim
www.JimsFishing.com