Nootka Marine Adventures
Nootka Marine Adventures
Nootka Marine Adventures
July fishing remains outstanding with limits of Chinook 22 to 28 pounds, and Coho 8 to 10 pounds, hitting our docks every day. If the forecasters are correct, fishing should remain excellent throughout the rest of our season, both on the inside and outside waters from here on out. Bottom fishing has also been on fire, with chicken Halibut in the 25 to 45 pound range, seemingly everywhere outside of Maquinna point and out on the reef. Popular areas continue to produce, with Wash rock, Maquinna Point, Beano Creek, and the open area of Bajo reef continuing to be the hot spots.
Spring salmon on the outside remain deeper (in the 55 to 85 foot range) where the water temperature is 6 degrees colder. Fish on the inside – which is picking up every day now – are shallower in the 35 to 55 foot range in the early mornings and then drop deeper in the mid-afternoon, down to 65 to 95 foot range. Coho are anywhere from 25 to 85 feet on random feeding programs. We are encountering bellies full of squid and needle fish in both species of salmon, so we have been sticking to small baits and glow hootchies. Lots of adipose clipped Chinook are showing up on the dock thanks to the great hatchery programs efforts south of us in the US.
A combination of Flasher and straight white or glow white needle fish hootchies, and or anchovy and flasher are still producing the best for salmon; however some spoons and plugs are starting to work as well. Try the Tomic 5” inch 602, or the new CRVP # 294 for spoons, go with the 4” inch Coyote Watermelon, or the Live Image.
Halibut, Lingcod, and Yellow Eye fishing has been very good 3 to 4 miles off of Burdwood to Escalante. Jigging, drifting, or trolling just off the bottom, with cut plug herring has been producing steady numbers and varieties of bottom fish. Just this past week, our fish processing facility cut and vacuum packed a 130 pound halibut, along with 3 other fish over 50 pounds!
All indications show that the Albacore tuna will be in our off-shore waters any day. We are going to start searching for them at the end of this month, stay tuned for updates of school locations on our website and Facebook page, as well as in next month’s area report.
FRESH WATER
Local lakes, rivers, and streams remain strong for Cutthroat and Rainbow trout. Both conventional gear and fly fisherman have been doing very well in the early mornings and late evenings. We have now had a few different hatches throughout the summer, and feeding fish have diets that have changed, from chasing salmon fry to multiple bug and larvae hatches, requiring a change in angling methods, from hardwear to flies.