Van Isle coho report

Just got back from our annual coho trip to the Island. Spent 5 days in the Campbell River area. River conditions were good even a little low considering all the rain in early October.
Black creek was disappointing due to changes in the river. The first pool above "tide" has filled in, and no longer has the depth to hold fish between tides. A good rain storm may flush the sand and gravel out and hopefully return it to the old state. There's really only a couple spots that hold fish between the weir and ocean, so when 1 disappears, it really cuts down on your options.
The Oyster looked a little low but in decent shape. This is a beautiful river that's suffered for years from environmental damage but looks to be coming back strong. This is a river with a lot of potential for someone with the time to explore it. The lower reaches of the river has pretty good access with a nice trail along side the river. (This may have changed, so some exploring via google would be a good idea).
Spent 2 days fishing the Quinsam, and if you could find them the coho's were in good numbers and about 80% of the fish were bright to very bright. We only fished it for about 12 hours over the 2 days but hooked approx 25 cohos between the 2 of us. Bad luck was with us though and we only landed a couple fish.
If you fish the Quinsam (or Campbell), I would highly recommend felt soles or metal studs on your waders as the rocks are "greasy".
I made the mistake of using my cheap rubber soled hip waders as the Quinsam in low water can be easily waded.( in terms of depth) Long story short, took a fall on the previously mentioned "greasy" rocks, Friday afternoon, and ended up going for x-ray's in the very fine Campbell River Regional Hospital. Appeared to be just a sore arm and badly sprained wrist, and badly bruised ego. That ended my fishing and curtailed driving for a couple days til we had to leave Monday.

Lures that we mostly used - spinners. I make my own to keep the costs down and to get the "exact" spinner I want. It's kind of funny but I've found that wire diameter, blade thickness, subtle changes in blade color, body weight , even bead color really affects your catch. I tried out a new body style that was slightly heavier than the "tried and true" style and our hook ups doubled, and changing body and blade colors, and over all size as the light and water conditions changed really made a difference.

Here's the punch line to this story - got a phone message on Wed. - "Radiologist says arm and wrist are broken" - after driving all the way down from C.R.(with standard transmission) Whahh!!

Quin

Thanks for the report on a river that I once called, home sorry to hear about your wipe out that must of hurt ! I'm heading back in mid December for some Island steelheading sort of a 3 rivers 4 days type thing thinking about hitting up the Quatse,Quinsam,Oyster . Will post any results...or lak of ! Heal up .

Stave is loaded with coho right now an a few clean chum still was out there on Saturday and caught a ton of coho and chum was a fun day