Saturday, April 25:
It was a fun and fantastic few days for us at Reel Time Fishing Charters here in Nanaimo this past weekend. On Saturday, April 25, we missed what was an amazing bite between 6-8 am. As I was waiting for my group to show up (a birthday celebration the night before didn’t allow us to leave until later), I was amazed at the amount of boats coming back in early with their catch. Many of those I spoke with later that day also said most if not all their fish were caught between 6 and 8:30 am that morning. Wow, great to see the Nanaimo waters on fire again.
We finally left the docks at 10 am heading out east of the fingers about 1 km or so. After an hour of seeing no bait, we pulled in the gear and headed out to the 2 humps north of the fingers. Within minutes of dropping our gear, we had a swing and a miss and then shortly after, a solid hook-up with a beautiful 20 lber. What a birthday gift that was! We did manage to get a few more strikes later and land one more fish during the minor bite in the early afternoon.
Sunday, April 26:
Knowing the bite would be early, I was eager to head out the next morning. With 3 anglers on board, we left the dock at 6 am all anticipating the early bite. Two things became apparent almost right away. First, the weather predictions were correct…, a strong southeasterly and heavy seas (in fact, we only saw 3 other boats out there all morning). Second, the bite was slow and the fish seemed to be scattered. We finally found pockets here and there north of the fingers and a little closer to shore, between the 300-600 ft range straight out from Neck Point and the Green Lawn. Patience paid off however. Over the course of the next 6 hours, we managed to hook 7 fish, 3 beauties including a 26 lber, 1 undersized and 2 that we lost.
Large Fish, Tackle and Depth:
I was surprised at the number of large fish we caught this weekend. However, almost all of them where white springs meaning large Fraser River fish. In terms of bait, again, I turn to a green, black, and white hootchies on a shorter leader. We hooked the majority of our fish on that setup Saturday. On Sunday though, we seemed to be picking up most of our fish on a spoon called the kitchen sink. Our depth was at around the 100-120 ft mark (trolling at 3 miles per hour, we were letting our 15lb balls down between 145 and 175 ft). We kept changing things up because as we know, every day is a new day out there so it is good to watch for bait and try different gear at different depths and speeds to see whats working.
Well, time to sign off. All the best to all of you anglers out there. And, if you are ever have questions or suggestions, please feel free to call us at 250 667 6950
Cheers from Turk and Reel Time Fishing Charters.