The football fish have arrived! What is a football fish you ask? Basically it's a short fat salmon. It's more football shaped than lean and long. And they are ideal when we have a maximum size (slot) restriction. I have seem a lot of these fish showing from Comox to Nanaimo this week. This includes one 22lb Chinook that was 79cms long!
It's still smoking hot at Entrance Island and along Gabriola down to Thrasher Rock. The fish are generally still deep, but I'm hearing more success in the shallow areas than last week. Entrance reef has started to produce again when the bait gets pushed in with the tide.
Barkley Sound seems to be running a bit late this year but I expect that to change soon. Nootka has lit up, so Barkley should be picking up any day. But the Alberni Canal is still slow for now.
Glow plugs like 5" Sparkly Herring or Glow 602 are still working well on the bottom. But I'm seeing a lot more spoons and hoochies getting used this week. The hottest spoons have been Skinny G in Purple Phantom and the West Coast Tackles new Sixty-Nine P. (available on line soon)The Sexy P is part of a few new spoons from West Coast and it looks great. For hoochies the Purple Splatter Back has been working well all over. This is normal for this time of year. Purple is my favorite august lure colour.
The top flashers of the week have been Deep water glow patterns like our own custom designed Hit 'n Run and the West Coast Tackles Glow Lemon Lime.
With all this deep water fishing the new R3EF Hi Speed Reel has been working out well. It's a larger arbor mooching reef with a much faster retrieve than other reels. So if you are getting tired reeling in from the depths, or want to be able to keep up with a fish running towards the boat consider the R3EF. We have it on sale, so for the next little it, you can save $100. Spool it up with 100yards of fly line backing, 300 yards of 65lb braid, and a top-shot of monofilament for the ultimate deep-water salmon reel. Send me an email if you are interested.
