[vanislealoha]

Nile creek - Don't bother! Was there wed night and on my way home tonight. Not a hint of any fish except for one jump way off in the distance. Lots of boats out in front of Big Qualicum river trying for Chinooks staging in the area. some cutties around though.

Camped at Oyster river and got up at the crack of dawn. A few groups of fish about and only two other guys. Tide was going out. Caught one ,my first beach salmon, on a very sparse blue polar bear hair fly (don't have a name for it). Fish was released.

As the tide receeded the fish disappeared so I left and went to the Campbell River. Managed 6 all of which were released. i believe retention is allowed after today but check the regs. All these fish were caught on blue or green. Colour may not matter just get down to them.

Crossed over a bridge where I was fishing and looked into the water and was surprised to see three huge Chinook. They looked like submarines next to the smaller pinks. Really thick! Must have been over 40lbs. Don't know what I would have done if I hooked into one of those beasts.

If you go there try near the pumphouse.

 

[PumpingIron]

How busy was it? Plan on going up there next week Thursday and Friday.

 

[bronjuan]

heading up to oyster on tuesday. not sure what to gear up with. I need to tie some stuff up....any photos of productive patterns?
I guess if it's slow I'll just go for cutties...

 

[11th Warrior]

heading up to oyster on tuesday. not sure what to gear up with. I need to tie some stuff up....any photos of productive patterns?
I guess if it's slow I'll just go for cutties...

I think something like this might do the trick. I've also seen it tied up in various shades of green/olive in sizes from 3/0 to 8.

NOTE: This was tied on a double hook. I'm not sure they're legal in BC so check the regs.

 

[bronjuan]

cool I'll try to whip some of those up....minus the intense double hook!

 

[11th Warrior]

Hook - TMC size 3/0 to 8
Thread - black
Wing - white calf tail or Bucktail with some blue hackle fibers
Body - rear blue floss & front silver mylar
hackle - blue hackle
Tail - yellow floss short
Tag - silver mylar

It's a pretty lookin' fly :thumbup:

 

[vanislealoha]

How busy was it? Plan on going up there next week Thursday and Friday.

Pumping Iron, Nile Creek had very little people as there were no or few fish.

Oyster had only three at first light with a mid tide going out. Around 10 guys at low tide which was around 10:00am. This was a weekday as well.

The Campbell River had anywhere from 3 to 8 guys in any one spot but spread out nicely.

 

[vanislealoha]

heading up to oyster on tuesday. not sure what to gear up with. I need to tie some stuff up....any photos of productive patterns?
I guess if it's slow I'll just go for cutties...

There will be Pinks around the Oyster. I caught mine on a hook with three strands of green polar bear hair. No Joke! It was in probably two feet of water not more than 10ft in front of me. Others caught theirs on pink coloured flies. you could tie some Pink Eves - silver mylar body with pink bucktail/polar bear wing. Sorry no pictures yet.

If its slow go to the Campbell River. Its only 20min away or so and guaranteed fish.

I should add for the Oyster that during the outgoing tide the schools of fish were spread out up and down the beach North of the River mouth. Move around and look for the jumpers. At low tide the fish were concetrated right near the river mouth.

 

[11th Warrior]

All this talk about fishing pinks has got me intrigued so I'm headed up to the Quinsam/Campbell area next weekend. In doing some research I came across this link. It's, what I consider, a good intro to pink fishing, and it's also got 4 more fly patterns which look promising. I'm going to tie them up this week and see how they do. I've got a feeling the pink shrimp pattern is going to do quite well.

Sportfishingbc

One other question I couldn't find the answer to; what's a good setup for pinks? Is a 6wt, 9 1/2' rod good enough or would you go to an 8wt 10ft rig?

 

[HOOK]

6wt should be perfect for pinks. I use a 5wt myself

 

[bronjuan]

I was talkin to a guy the other day and he said to pack the 8 weight in case it gets windy...then you'll need it just to get your line out there

 

[11th Warrior]

I was talkin to a guy the other day and he said to pack the 8 weight in case it gets windy...then you'll need it just to get your line out there

I was going to wade the Quinsam with my #6, but I just got a phone call that said I'm going to Yellowknife for a week instead. That's my excuse to buy a 10wt rig and go after some monster lakers :thumbup:

I'm off to go shopping and spend a bit of

 

[PumpingIron]

Well if your fishing the beach use the 6wt but fishing the Campbell I suggest a 7 or 8wt as you have the current to deal with when playing the fish. I just got word that the Quinsam is void of fish as the water levels are very low.

 

[11th Warrior]

I thought I'd take a drive up there tonight after I picked up the wife from work. There was nobody fishing the Oyster, however there were about 100 people swimming in it which might explain why nobody was fishing it. From there we drove up to the Campbell. There were 3 people on the upstream side of the logging bridge and about 10 people on the downstream side. Out of all of them, only 1 guy was chucking flies. I didn't see anything landed in the 10 minutes we were there, but there were some nice 3-4 pounders sitting on the shore. They were still very chrome and no humps. I also found 3 decapitated heads from pinks recently caught...no sign of the fish. On the downstream side of the logging bridge the fish were jumping like crazy. Probably one fish/second went airborne. The river is loaded.

One thing I did find strange...on the opposite bank there were 2 people dressed in wetsuits with masks (no tanks, etc). They were throwing approx an 8ft length of mono with a pink worm on the end. When the worm hit the water, they would stick their head under the water to watch it. I'm not sure if that's legal or not so I didn't say anything, but thought it was a weird way to fish.

We took a bit of a tour through Elk Falls park and I checked the Quinsam. You're right...there's no water in it. I think it might be 8" deep at the most. I think I'll be heading up to CR again tomorrow to test my luck.

 

[vanislealoha]

I thought I'd take a drive up there tonight after I picked up the wife from work. There was nobody fishing the Oyster, however there were about 100 people swimming in it which might explain why nobody was fishing it.

Did you look on the beach to the North of the river mouth? That is typically where people fish. Depending on the tide, it may be hard to see people fishing and you have to walk up the beach towards the point. I have yet to see anyone fish in the river but I'm sure you can just not in the swimming hole.

Also in the campbell they run lots of tours for snorkelling down the river. Looks like fun and I was told you can get right in amongst the big chinooks when they are there. Never saw anyone fish while snorkelling yet!

 

[11th Warrior]

We parked on the south side of the Oyster bridge and I walked the river all the way down to the mouth and didn't see anyone fishing on the beach either. It was about 5pm and looked pretty close to high tide.

As for the Campbell, my trip today is going to have to wait. I've got "housekeeping" duties to take care of, lol.

 

[vanislealoha]

As for the Campbell, my trip today is going to have to wait. I've got "housekeeping" duties to take care of, lol.

Yeah. I got an invite from my dad to go back up there but I had to do some work. Boooo!