Knowing What You Know Without Knowing It

 One of the nice things about fishing is renewing acquaintance with areas you have fished in the past. You relearn things that you once knew by heart. And so, I went to Clover Point to fish the run to Brotchie Ledge on Christmas Day, a run I once knew by heart.

The tide and current tables were thus: reversal of ebb for the Race Rocks Current Tables at 11 am; and, low tide at 1 pm for the Victoria waterfront. In other words, good fishing from 11 am to 2:30 pm, the bite occurring after the low tide/current reversal. 

The gear was put out, on the port side, medium anchovy in a pearl teaser, with a glow green flasher, and a Coho Killer Splatterback, Purple Onion flasher on the starboard side. The port rod, most easily seen and adjusted from the captain’s seat, was put to 110 feet, and the other at 100. This way, only one downrigger ball hits bottom at a time, granting time to deal with it, but not two at the same time.

I typically fish this run on the 110 foot contour, erring a bit deeper, meaning aiming for 110 at the shallowest and 120 on the deepest. With braided line, the balls are much closer to counter depth than with thicker stainless cable. The gear was fishing properly at 10:45 am just off Clover Point, giving time to motor to Brotchie, turn and fish with the tide on the change.

Well, the flood had started earlier than expected, and a half hour into good fishing, the boat was still barely making ground on Clover, and wasting time, fishing into the tide. So, the gear was brought in, the boat moved to the breakwater side of Brotchie, and the gear once again put down.

The Brotchie Ledge reef is long and comes out at an angle to the eastward side of perpendicular with the shore. That means going over it shallow and dropping to water of 150 feet before angling in to shore. Before the next bit of structure, Holland Point, a narrow, canyon trough, the port rod popped from the downrigger, on the ebb side of Brotchie. The fish didn’t seem large until the surface, where it turned into a winter beauty of 14 lbs. While I considered filleting and farming out portions to various relatives, friends and hangers-on, the fish slowly came to net.

Head just entering the net, the next-second groaner was the treble getting caught in the web. And for several long, helpless seconds I watched, until the single ripped free, and the fish swam slowly away from my plans. The line was rebaited and put down, while the boat circled to Brotchie, then turned east toward Clover.

A small fish jiggled the port rod and, when retrieved, proved just short of a meal for two, and was jiggled from the hook, also to swim away from human plans. The boat turned and a White Lightning Coho Killer replaced the starboard spoon, its glow white looking very sexy. Then my pearl head decided the wire was too loosely rigged and refused to work, because a bit of tooth pick had become stuck in the front leader hole, until taken home and refashioned.

The bait replacement was a glow green teaser with anchovy, with flasher changed to Purple Onion. Seriously deep for my contour plan, a third fish popped the port rod, and on careful retrieval to the boat proved to be a ‘chunky’ 3- to 4-pound winter. Without using the net, I lifted the leader and fish into the boat, which I do commonly for fish of 8 pounds or less, only to find it slipped the hook, plopped into the water and etc.

The White Lightning spoon was replaced by a four foot leader to a glow-green and yellow teaser and bait. Then the long slide across the Flagpole ‘reef. This is a wide apron of mud, and so a downrigger sliding across it causes no damage, as long as the tackle is 8’ above the ball clip, to account for flasher revolution.

Surprisingly, the starboard rod came free of the release clip on the flood side of Clover, just before the bump for the Outfall. Halfway to the boat, the fish, the fourth bite, also came free, and a lot of expletives got released from my back deck where bait was reassigned and put back to 100 feet.

Several hundred yards to the east of Clover, a bump I had forgotten over the years, read on the depthsounder/GPS and then it was clear trolling across to Trial, where the GPS revealed a good wall a half mile out and perpendicular to the middle of the island. This was the end of the trip, short of the good rock a couple hundred yards to the west of Trial that often gives up a fish, and the boat roared back to the dock its captain empty handed and cheesed.

And of course it was of great amusement to my buddies at the gym the next day that of four bites, all four had been lost, on a day that the gods persecuted the fisher with a little too much bad luck. The good luck was four bites, meaning the gear and fishing strategy had been correct, and on a day when karma swings toward the human, a winter chinook or two may be coming home with him, meaning me.

I also had a chance to fish a couple of the slim spoons that can be so good these days. They are very light and it is not a good idea to lift a fish with the spoon as that bends the spoon and may destroy its fish-catching magic. Also, the hooks are diamond shaped, presumably to grant purchase on a jaw on a hook without a Kirb. On the other hand, these hooks rust, and have to be replaced, the issue being whether a Siwash or Octopus-style hook will leave the spoon unbalanced or not. But that’s a good reason to go out another time and, reacquainted with the run, do it again.

More Pinks

I went out yesterday as the low tide in Victoria was 11.30 AM and I wanted to fish from Constance Bank as it pushed across Royal Roads to the east. Pink fishing is often better on the flood. I had some new gear in from Gibbs to try out. Their Madi and Lemon Lime flashers have been hot in the Victoria area – Cadboro Point to Sheringham Point – for several months this spring and summer.

My intention was to run through some of their Coho Killer spoon colours along with the Yamashita N224R squirt with a silver mylar insert and clear bead I put in. This squirt has a predominant pink stripe set in a pattern of clear, glow frons (the hue of Purple Haze fronds).

Four miles south of Trial, I assigned the gear to 61 to 71 feet for ball depth, with clips five feet up, in the only tideline for miles. The line petered out and I pushed my rpm up to 800 to cover, with the ebb, the distance to Constance Bank. While I did get a double header at one point, it was clear that the featureless water, meaning without tide lines, held few fish in highly localized, easily seen spots. By speeding up, I was rocketing along as high as 5.8 knots over ground.

As pointed out last week, it is speed over water that is the important consideration – and GPSs don’t measure that speed – engine rpm becomes a proxy for how fast you are moving. Leader length on the squirt was 34 inches; on the silver Coho Killer, 36.

Tidal action became clear on the west edge of Constance where it drops from about 70 feet to as deep as 348 feet. Within the currents caused by several hundred feet of water column compressed to only 70 feet, water must speed up, and change direction. The upwelling causes surface currents, along with a vertical eddy on the west side of the bank. Note that that eddy is more important to fishing chinook on the 140 foot ledge and halibut. Fish unrelated to bottom structure, but only to surface structure, i.e. tide lines, are unlikely to be in the vertical eddy; this means coho, pinks, sockeye and chum.

From thence forth, it was constant action in the tide lines at the tide change. When one fish was played and released, and rod put back out, then a fish was on the other rod. One unlucky fish got to come home with me for dinner because it came in completely wrapped in leader, with both singles embedded in the fish, and a big tangle. I would likely be wearing those hooks in my fingers, and opted to bonk the unlucky fish.

I released fifteen pinks, with, surprisingly, nine on the silver Coho Killer, and six on the N224R squirt. One would expect more fish on the pink lure, rather than straight silver spoon. Also, my speed over ground, showed clearly that the tide was still ebbing to the west. I assumed that the Race Rocks current reached low later than the Victoria tide, and the table, once home, confirmed that the current change was 1:08 PM. So a major bite, even before the flood started pushing the fish east. Good to know on another trip.

I should add that I opted to stop fishing to avoid harassing them any longer. In other words, the bite would likely have extended for many hours after I quit. Another unlucky fish came in with big chunks of flesh ripped out of its side. The size of the mouth suggested a harbour seal. I was surprised that a fish with such a serious wound would still be willing to bite at something, and interested in feeding.

All three flashers have a bluey, pinky hue that changes as you turn the flasher. This is the same as a Roadrunner spoon that I use in more remote spots, and I am betting it is a good reason why they are hot. Gibbs calls it Moonjelly and the Madi shows it off well. The third was Purple Onion.

It should be added, that like any quality flasher, each comes with a sound ball bearing swivel on both ends, something that is very important in a bait set up. When you add a large quality ball bearing swivel to the mainline and the top end of the bait leader, that makes four such swivels in the tackle; four being the best insurance for a consistent, fishy spiral on the bait. In addition, once gear has been used in saltwater and salt gets into the inner workings, it is better practice to err on the side of more rather than fewer ball bearing swivels.

On hootchies, on the other hand, it is flasher snap transmitted to the plastic bait that gives it a yanked figure eight pattern that stimulates fish to chase. In other words, a quick changer, or a figure eight knot is all that is required. Note that you should be using split ring pliers to open the quick changer, so that leader knot is slipped on without being frayed. The point being: you want your killer hootchies to last as long as possible, before they break off. As mentioned last week, you do not change a killer plastic bait’s leader because that normally eliminates the chemistry that makes the one a killer in a tackle box of ho hum producers.

If the stars align, I will be on my annual fly fishing camping trip to the North Isle for pinks for the next two weeks, and hence, no columns. On my return, I will try out more of those Coho Killer spoons. I am told the green splatterback has been good on the Oak Bay Flats for chinook – where there are needlefish rather than herring.