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[Mkulak]

Hello,

I'm quite new to BC (Used to live about 1 hour north of Toronto and spent a lot of time trolling Lake Ontario with my Dad) and I'm looking for a few places to take my boat before the Salmon fisheries get productive in the Ambleside area.

As I started to buy my own gear this year my wife decided that she wanted a crab trap and picked one up today.  I've read the regulations (male only) and just need to pickup a measuring tool and then I will have all the gear for crabbing.  We live in the Port Coquitlam area so I was thinking about launching the boat at Rocky Point in Port Moody and heading up the Indian Arm to the Belcarra area to try our luck dropping our trap from the boat (16ft Inflatable with 25hp Yamaha) vs from that busy pier.

While crabbing I'd like to do a little fishing from the boat and was wondering what fish I should/could be targeting?  Sounds like Flounder/Sole is one of the options available but I'm not too certain how to catch them as I understand they don't move around much.  Any advice that you could recommend to a newbie to the area?  I'm assuming a carolina rig would make the most sense but I'm not certain.  Your advice would be most welcomed

Any other fish I can catch in that area?

PS - I'm aware of the Rockfish conservation areas around the area and will certainly avoid them.

[redtide]

hi. you can try doing a search on indian arm or belcarra in the search button at the top for previous discussions on this. I know your new at this so go see a tackle shop nearby on where the productive spots are for crabbing in the inlet. Local knowledge is best. Just be aware indian arm is heavily fished. Good luck.

[Mkulak]

Thanks Redtide...

I think I'm good on the crabbing piece   my question are really directed at the fishing piece while I'm waiting for the crab traps. 
Would be great to drop a line and catch some flounder while I wait but I'm not certain the extra style or tactics needed in this area - I've done a few searches which keep coming up mentioning Flounder but when I do a goodle search it then tells me that they are a lazy fish and they traditionally don't swin to a bait and that the bait needs to come in front of them.

I saw mention of a carolina rig and trolling with it ...    seemed a bit different to me and would love to know more if anyone can help.

Thanks, Marc

[Rodney]

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/blog/2014/01/31/exploring-alternative-saltwater-fisheries-in-vancouver/

Flatfish species are benthic, but they do move around quite a bit, especially when there is a scent trail from the bait on your hook. As long as you have your bait on or near the bottom, you should not have trouble finding some bites. Starry flounder, English sole and Pacific sanddab are the three more common species you'll find. A boat lets you access deeper water and away from the crowd so you should also have no problem finding bigger fish. Krill, squid tentacle, prawn, herring, worm all work well.

[TimL]

When we had a boat, we used to fish out in the inlet after dumping our crab traps out to soak for a few hours. Fish I have caught in the Belcarra area from boat include: flounder and sole (starry flounder, English sole, Rock sole, Sand sole, Flathead sole, speckled sanddab), whitespotted greenling, staghorn sculpin and perch. As for baits, we used sand/piling worms gathered from shore at low tide or shrimp which are fished near the bottom and slowly jigged (either when the boat was anchored or adrift). The fish there are mostly on the small side- 10-12" is average for flatfish down there (except for the sanddabs which don't get much bigger than 6") although I have recently caught starry flounder from shore up to 19" and weighing close to 3 lbs. In the summer during an incoming tide, the shallow areas just south of the fishing/crabbing pier seemed to be most productive for both greenling and flatfish as there is an eelgrass bed located just off the beach. Unfortunately you will also have to contend with plenty of sculpin as well.