Winter Chinook Fishing from Shore

This quick trip was best summed up in the classic cliche "short but sweet". It was lunchtime, and I looked outside and the wind was dead, the ocean looked calm! I then decided to peak at my Tides app as I figured we'd be close to a good tide, and sure enough it was approaching high tide.

I haven't fished from shore in probably 6 weeks, so I figured the conditions are perfect, why no go down to Rocky Point which is a popular shore fishing location in north Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, and toss a line for 30 minutes over my lunch break. Here's how it went down.

I get there and there is only one guy fishing so I've got all the room in the world. It is gorgeous late November day! The ocean is calm and the background is picturesque. I put on my Lil Nib "Irish Mint" jig on my long spinning shore casting setup. Second cast my jig stops dropping and I feel some quick head shakes.

I'm pumped on... I'm on! In the first few seconds I figured it was a smaller Winter Chinook as I couldn't get a sense of the weight immediately. But that didn't last long as when I starting putting on pressure, the fish took it's first run. I knew instantly this was a keeper and was big.

The other guy saw me fighting the fish, and when I saw him watching I yelled "it's a big one!". He asked if I needed help landing it, and I absolutely accepted that offer. He was coming over anyway!

I slowly made my way down some of the slippery rocks closer to the water. This can be super sketchy, but thankfully the waves weren't that big this day. I grabbed my long net, and handed it to the guy as he crept closer to me. The Chinook made 3 or 4 massive runs, one was parallel to the shore which got me pretty worried as there are some big rocks in that direction. He also dove deep when I got him closer to the shore which also got me nervous as I know there is a shelf and didn't want to fray or break my line on that.

Long story short, after the Chinook had enough, I was able to guide him into the net that my new fishing friend was holding. As I knew early in the fight, this was keeper. In my area on Central Vancouver Island our Chinook need to be a minimum of 62cm (24.5"), once I brought this guy up we put him on the tape and he was 81cm (32"). He was the classic silver bullet Winter Chinook coloring with that blue steel shimmer on top. Just an absolute specimen.

I was over the moon, and my adrenal was absolutely spiking! I decided to text my fishing buddies and I couldn't type I was shaking so hard. What a moment.

Here was the tide and moon phase for this shore catch. It was hooked around 12:15pm.

Marble Flesh Winter Chinook

Well I certainly didn't have a marble fleshed Chinook on my Bingo card. I cut a piece out for my family to enjoy that evening and I can say it was nothing short of incredible. I also had the collars which were buttery and top notch. Perhaps one of the best Salmon on cedar plank meals I've ever had.