A report filed on May 30 by a local charter firm.
Fishing has been off and on for the past couple of weeks but the size is definitley getting larger. Our main focus has been the South end of Bowen Island, the QA and Bell Bouy area. The Qa and Bell have produced some nice fish mostly around the 10 to 14 pound range. Saturday saw one boat with a 36 pounder and another boat with a 20 pounder all at the Bell. Hutt Island has been very good but we have not spent any time there as it is outside our regular 5 hour travel area. Fish close to the bottom at Hutt and bait seems to be the ticket. The South side of Thrasher Rock on the ebb tide has produced nice catches with one of our boats coming back on Saturday with 2 in the mid teens. Our depths are between 40 and 120 feet and deeper across the Strait. Most of our action has been on anchovy with small spoons also producing. Our biggest problem locally has been the seals, with 2 to 3 attacks per trip. Not much you can do other than take pictures of the furry critters !
There have been a few Coho arrive at the Cap hatchery so we can expect this fishery to start in about 2 to 3 weeks.
AND ANOTHER REPORT FILED BY ANOTHER LOCAL OPERATOR>>>>>>>
Hello Fellow Anglers
Summer is definitely here (at least this past week). Talk about some awesome days to get out on the water - very warm and calm conditions. In fact, its been warm enough that you kind of need to get out on the water in order to keep a bit cool.
In addition to the great weather, the fishing has been pretty good as well. Seems that good numbers of large maturing "red" Chinook (likely destined for the Fraser River) have arrived in our waters, so we now have additional options to searching Howe Sound for the Squamish fish. Most of these "reds" are ranging from 12 to 25 lbs, but I did receive an "unverified" report of a 36 lb "dressed weight" fish boated between the Bell Buoy and the QA marker on Saturday May 28th. This fish was described as a "red peahead", so was almost definitely headed for the Fraser River. Fishing from the Bell Buoy out, and South across the mouth of the Fraser River should put you nicely in line to intercept these fish, but you may have to contend with LOTS of seals. I haven't heard much about the mouth of the Fraser areas (like T-10), but the Bell buoy has been particularly bad lately. Getting further out "offshore" should reduce the number of these pests.
Other areas where we have been intercepting these prime Chinook are: the West side of Bowen Island (Hutt Island to Tunstall Bay), and the Gower Pt. to Camp Byng area. The nice thing about these locations is that there seems to be fewer "problem seals", and there are far less small Chinook shakers (there's tons off Pt. Grey) - I've never been one who likes to fish among lots of small salmon, as we do inadvertently kill a significant number of them.......especially with the seals grabbing 90% of those you hook.
The Gulf Islands have also been quite productive over the past couple weeks. Initially the Grande area was producing decent numbers of 10 to 15 lb fish, and a few ranging up into the 20's (though expect to lose 50%+ to seals), then last weekend during the North Shore Fish and Game Club's derby we saw Thrasher Rock turn on (Monday after the nasty Sunday storm). The top four fish ranged from 17 to 23 lbs, and it seemed most fish in the area were "in the teens". Spoons (Gypsy, 3.5" Coyote, or Krippled-K) and bait (herring or anchovy) trolled between 120 and 160 feet was most productive. A significant bonus about the fish showing up off Thrasher is that the seals didn't seem to be much of a problem in the area.
Upper Howe Sound should also be producing well at this time, but there seems to be a bit of a problem locating where they are holding this year. At times we've seen numbers of fish at Porteau Cove and Defence Islands, but there doesn't seem to be much consistency. I may have stumbled upon the reason a couple weeks ago when trolling up the "wall" South of Porteau. A large charge of dynamite exploded above our heads (scaring the crap out of us!!!!).......voila!!!!.....the road construction at Porteau!!! I don't think I'd want to hang out around all that blasting, drilling, and other noise if I was a Chinook either. So the question is: where are they holding??? It will take some searching........
For those that are interested, there are a couple derbies coming up during June. The Gibsons Ladies Derby is set for June 11th (the nurses are organizing the event this year, but tickets may also be available from the Sunshine Coast Credit Union as well), and the Bill Thompson Memorial Derby (out of Horseshoe Bay) is scheduled for June 26th (tickets available from any of the Horseshoe Bay guides and possibly Sewells Marina).
The charter business has been slow to get going so far this spring, and no one really knows why. The fishing has been decent (and really quite good at times), as has the weather, so there is no obvious reason why business has been so slow. Just one of those funny things.... Of course this means that I'm still fairly open for much of the month of June (especially weekdays). Weekends are quite booked though, and I've only got the following weekend openings still available at this time: Sunday June 5th (possible am), Saturday June 11th (pm), Sunday June 12th (am, pm), Saturday June 25th (possible pm), Sunday June 26th (pm).
As always, feel free to pass this information along to any associates whom may appreciate the report.
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Topic: Latest Vancouver Saltwater Reports, June 1,2,3. (Read 1559 times)