Well it is that time of year, the Holidays are over, the retail rush has subsided, and we start to head out on the local salt scene in search of some winter chinook.  We had a charter on Monday, Jan 2nd, our first of 2012 and despite the forecast for rain and gale force winds, the morning was stunning.

A beautiful winter sunrise looking out from our dock in Coal Harbour

We were the only boat out this morning as we left the dock at 8 am to fish the flood tide and the high slack at around noon.  We started off in the W. Van area from the mouth of the Capilano up to the Pink Apartments.  We marked a good amount of bait close to the bottom and as the tide backed off towards noon the bite turned on.  We hooked two decent chinook and unfortunately both got taken by seals before we got them close to the boat.  We were fishing right off the bottom with flashers and spoons.  On one side we were running an Oki Big Shooter Kinetic, Jelly Fish, UV Green flasher with a 6 foot leader and a 3.5 Glow Green spoon.  On the other side we were running a Hot Spot Purple flasher with glow tape on one side, silver on the other, with a 6 foot leader and a 3.5 Night Rider Spoon (black and glow).  We released 3 undersize chinook as well as the two that got eaten by seals, so there was a pretty good bite on the last two hours of the flood.

The 3.5 Night Rider spoon is a great imitation for the bait this time of year.

One of the chinook we released had this small herring in its mouth.  You can see why 3.5 and 4.0 spoons like the 3.5 Night Rider in the picture above work this time of year.  They imitate juvenile herring very well.

As the tide turned to the ebb, the bait seemed to disperse and the bite died off.  We pulled our crab traps and did well with limits of Dungeness crab.

Expect the fishing to pick up this month and some larger fish to show up as the season progresses.

If you are interested in booking a charter, please call Dave at Pacific Angler, 604-872-2204.

If you have a boat and want to learn from the pros, you can sign up for our Local Saltwater Salmon Course where we teach you how to hook salmon in the local waters 12 months a year, with a theory session at Pacific Angler and full day on the water as well.  Here is our 2012 Course Schedule for a list of all our courses and dates.

I am looking forward to some more winter chinook charters and some personal fishing as well.

See you on the water or in the shop,

Jason Tonelli

We had a few charters in the very end of October and we hit some Capilano chinook into the mid 20′s right up until the end of the month, but that is all a distant memory now.  The rains have come and the last of the chinook have headed up the river.  So this time of year we start to think about the feeder springs, aka winter chinook.  These fish frequent our local waters feeding on herring and pack on the pounds week by week.  A few boats were out over the weekend with the sunny weather and calm seas and there are some fish around already.  Most of the fish are still under size with the odd barely legal fish being taken, but the numbers of fish seem to be strong.  This is a good sign of things to come.  The fish get bigger and the fishing picks up as November comes to a close and we get into December.  We had some great fishing last winter in the local Vancouver waters, up Howe Sound, and over at Thrasher.  We will keep you updated as the winter chinook fishery progresses.

Robyn with a nice winter spring from last year.

Hey there folks! It’s time for a Mid-Month update!

Since our last report we haven’t been on the water much, however, there is something to  report. On Saturday October 15  the usual 25 boats were plying the West Van Shoreline-Cap River Mouth. We left the dock at the crack of 8 am and headed out and dropped the lines for HIGH SLACK TIDE. It was definitely chilly but the warm sun made things quite nice as it climbed higher in the sky. I hadn’t been on the water in a while myself personally so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but it wasn’t long until we were into a TRIPLE HEADER. The first fish hit right off the bottom at 92 feet. Within a few seconds, the second fish hit at 78 feet and as I was clearing gear, a THIRD fish hit at 89 feet. We landed 2 of the 3 fish and I wish I had seen the third fish as it gave some massive headshakes, didn’t budge when I set the hooks and took off corking the 10’6″ Mooching Rod. Unfortunately it came unbuttoned at the end of it’s first run. Oh Well,  a nice CHROME Red Chinook in the 20 pound range and a CHROME Chum in the teens is nothing to be disappointed about.

Chrome Chinook and Chum Anyone?

 We hit a 4th fish in similar fashion after we got all the gear back down but it didn’t “stick”.

Today, Monday October 17, I was speaking with some close associates of ours and between these 3 boats, they had 6 bites of which 3 of the 6 materialized into fish on and 2 of them were boated. They were NICE chrome Chinook!

Gear to use:

Brined Anchovies on 6 foot leaders behind flashers in the bottom 1/3 of the water column.

Outlook for the next 2 weeks:

As I said in my last report, late October STILL offers some  good Chinook, Coho and Chum Fishing in the saltwater around Vancouver. The “bite” times will be short and we continue to recommend the flood tide for peak fishing success. We haven’t seen any of the late October Cohos off the mouth of the Cap yet and we haven’t targetted the schools of Chum which are staging in marine waters aroundVancouver. If the weather remains dryish and we continue to have limited precipitation, I expect the Capilano fishery to continue as it has been over the last week. Just a reminder to positively identify your catch as we are only allowed HATCHERY COHO at this time in Area 28 and 29.

If you are so inclined and looking for some more action, SCHOOLS of CHUM are around. Fish for these in a similar fashion as you would for Sockeye but use Purple/Pink mini hoochies. Anchovies will also work.  TROLL SLOW. Chums can be finicky biters but are fantastic sport and they are very aggressive. They’ll fool you with their long runs and aggressive strikes…and you’ll think you have a Chinook on. Where? The QB to the Coal Ports at depths of 40 to 80 feet. Imagine hooking a dozen Chum on a fall day? It can be done.

Well there you have it…it’s that time of year when the “Tail End” of the season is upon us and the days are quickly shortening and the temperatures are in the single digits…and there’s no mistaking it for anything else but the FALL season.

For those looking for charters, we have a fairly open schedule and are usually available on short notice. We also have variety of boats available for charter and are able to accommodate all group sizes.

Stay tuned for our next update and coming blogs about the EXCELLENT WINTER  CHINOOK FISHING Opportunities the Vancouver Area has to offer!

Tight lines and Sharp Hooks!

Andrew for the Pacific Angler Guide Team.

Hey there folks! It’s time for the “after the long weekend” fishing report. Over the last 4 days, we’ve been fishing the local area hard and doing our best to  hook fish at the best bet in town, the mouth of the Capilano River.  Since our last Guide Journal entry, things have changed significantly. Significant rainfalls have raised the Capilano River and the fish have followed the cue and headed into the River. Friday and Saturday were very quiet and we did not put a fish on the cleaning table. On Saturday, I did everything except for stand on my head to catch a Chinook, and I doubt that would have made a difference as to my knowledge, there were no Chinook taken after 12 noon. There were a handful of incidental Cohos landed, but no Chinook. On Sunday afternoon I was right back at it and somewhat pessimistic that we would be in for the action we had experienced just a few short days ago. Again, it was tough fishing and there were not many springs hooked by the 2 dozen or so boats out there. However, the Salty Dawg and her guests under my direction managed to land 2 nice Chinook in the high teens on 4 bites. Not bad given the slow fishing. Today, Monday October 10, we were again back at it for the afternoon flood tide. We fished from 1:30pm to 6:30pm in Vancouver’s infamous liquid sunshine  and had only one Chinook bite. We “made it count” and landed a chrome Chinook in the high teens.

Anglers, it’s that time of the year and our days are numbered for the West Vancouver Saltwater Capilano fishery.  The forecast calls for plenty of wet weather over the coming days and while there will be more fish arriving off the mouth, they won’t be sticking around for long. I could see that the Capilano was putting out plenty of coloured fresh water. 

So, for the immediate future, I anticipate that the saltchuck fishing off West Vancouver will be “hit and miss”. There will be the odd Coho (make sure the ones you keep are adipose fin clipped), the incidental Chum, and the odd Chinook around which will bite your bait. We’ll keep you updated the moment anything changes in this fishery.

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving,

Captain Andrew for the Pacific Angler Saltwater Guide Team.

Well the solid fishing continues…  The word is out that the big springs are in and the mouth of the Cap was packed on the weekend with the nice weather.  Despite the crowds our boats did extremely well and hooked multiple chinook and clients had big smiles and soar arms!  Guides Eddie and Andrew have had great catches for multiple trips in a row now, so I was excited to get out with one of my regular clients, Gus.  A short 5 minute run from the dock and fish on!

Gus with a chrome chinook for the BBQ

We only kept the one fish today and chose to release many others as we both have all the fish we need for the winter.

This big buck was released after a quick photo

The hot setup today was a new flasher, well new to me anyway, called the Purple Onion.  It has some great properties to it, like a purple UV finish, purple stripe on one side, and some pretty amazing reflective tape on the other that changes colors at different angles.  Attached to that was a 7 foot leader of 30lb test Suffix Fluorocarbon and an anchovy teaser head in glow with a little red on the nose (aka Bloody Nose). We were using 5.25 to 5.5 inch anchovies.

Purple Onion flashers, notice the purple UV hue of the plastic.

The reflective tape on the Purple Onion really lights up, even on a dark day.

We had some herring down as well, with the old standby glow flasher and glow herring teaser head, but this “Purple Onion Rig” was on fire so we put this down on both sides of the boat and then things really got going.

Another chinook that was released after a great battle.

Gus was nice enough to let me play a few fish today, a rare occurrence for a guide.  This arm burner above gave me some renewed respect for the power of these chinook salmon.

A smaller chinook that came flying out of the water two times

It’s only October 4th and last year we had good fishing until late in the 3rd week of October.

If you haven’t got out yet, you still have time for some of the best chinook fishing of the year.

Give Dave a call at Pacific Angler 604-872-2204 to book your trip or come by for some Purple Onions!

See you on the water,

Jason Tonelli

Wow…it is Tuesday September 26.  The month of September has rolled by and we are just a few days away from October.  It is simply amazing that we are still blogging about the spectacular saltwater salmon fishing or more particularly, the amazing spring/chinook fishing.  Seasoned Vancouver veterans are calling the fall of 2011 “the best ever”.

The boys are catching good numbers of springs and most of them have been hot-to-trot fresh chromers.  Yesterday with winds topping the charts at 50 knots guide, Jason, was not expecting to make it out on the water.  However, the winds tapered down mid-day  and Jason had his best day ever at West Vancouver.  The group hooked 16 springs on a 5 hr charter.  Simply amazing!!!

Some of the huge chinook that hit the dock Monday night after two of our boats were out and got into well over 25 springs between the two of them.

So here we are with three more weeks left and it looks like we’ve saved the best for last.  So if you have been thinking about going out on a charter, give us a call today at our full service fishing and tackle store “Pacific Angler“, 604-872-2204.

There are still a couple of prime slots available!!!  This is a great experience for the out of towner or the local looking to enjoy a beautiful fall day.

Here are a couple of more pics from recent trips…enjoy!!!

A happy fisherman with a nice spring!

A couple beauties!!!

Some for the BBQ!!!

Fishing Specifics

Gear:  Standard 5.5 to 6 inch Anchovies with teaser heads (Green & glow, etc) and flashers (Blue and Green)

Depth: The zone seems to be anywhere in between 80 to 90 feet

If you have been following our blog, were on a charter with us, or came by Pacific Angler last week, you know about the hot chinook fishing we had late last week and into the weekend.  Then it seemed to die down over the last 48 hours, with yesterday being extremely slow on the flood tide.  What a difference a day makes! 

The second wave of chinook came in hard today and the hook ups were non stop!

Captain Craig Mumby holds up a chrome chinook with a big thumbs up from a happy guest

The herring and anchovies were getting hammered hard by eager springs stacking up off the W. Van shoreline waiting to go up the Capilano River.

One of multiple hook ups today that were released to fight another day.

It was apparent a big wave of fish showed up today, that is for sure, as Captain Craig Mumby reported to me he had a hard time getting the lines in the water for any amount of time without a big chinook climbing on.  Always a good problem to have…

Chrome Chinook with Lions Gate Bridge in background.

The fish are co-operating by showing up but the weather, not so much.  With all this rain it will be interesting to see how many fish shoot right up the river and how many stick around.  We typically get good pushes of the big springs pictured above well into October so I think we are still going to see some excellent fishing over the next few weeks.  Give us a call to book a charter while we still have a few spots left or come by the shop for the best teaser heads, flashers, and baits that our guides are using to put fish like this in you own boat.

See you on the water,

Jason Tonelli

Fall is here and that brings in the big push of fall chinook and coho to our local waters, most notably West Vancouver and specifically the mouth of the Capilano River.  This fishery is literally only 5 minutes from our dock so it is a favorite for the locals and guides as the fishing grounds are close to home, almost always flat calm water, and you can hook up some big chinook and some nice coho.  We headed out earlier this week to take advantage of the early morning flood tide which usually brings these fish in off the mouth of the “Cap”.  Right off the hop Dimitri landed a beauty that he hooked at 20 feet just getting the first rod of the day out.  Immediately after Jason landed a smaller buck.

The action was fast and furious most of the morning until the ebb tide kicked in later that day.  The final count was 9 springs hooked up, 4 jacks (small immature springs), and 3 coho.

In a typical year we will see waves of chinook and coho hitting the W. Vancouver shoreline on the flood tides through the back end of September and the first two weeks of October.  These fish respond well to a trolled bait so most anglers prefer to troll a herring or anchovy in a teaser head with a 6 foot leader behind a flasher.  Although this particular day we hooked fish at 20 feet, 55 feet, 75 feet, and on the bottom (80-95 feet), the most consistent fishing is usually had by fishing fairly close to the bottom as these fish stack up at the river mouth waiting for the fall rains.

We typically book our clients on a flood tide for this fishery so give Dave Fauquier a call at 604-872-2204 to book a trip and he will set you up on the best tides.

If you are heading out on your own boat stop by the shop for the latest report.  We also have good stock on anchovies and herring, including a variety of sizes.

See you on the water, on a charter, or at the shop.

Jason Tonelli

Here at Pacific Angler we live, breathe and dream of fishing 365 days of the year.  Some call us crazy, but to us it is just part of living the dream.  So what do the boys at Pacific Angler do on their one day off work…well of course fish.

Let me introduce myself to you.  My name is Dave Fauquier and I’m the booking manager for Pacific Angler.  I am that guy who answers the phone 24/7 looking to put you on the fishing charter of a lifetime.  I don’t get out as much as the guides but when I do, I definitely take advantage of it.  Sunday afternoon Pacific Angler guides Jason Tonelli and Andrew Szabo and myself launched the boat from Coal Harbour with a cooler full of ice-soaked refreshments and food with high hopes of hooking into some 20lb plus springs.

Just a hop, skip and a jump...

With steady reports of large springs being caught off the mouth of the Capilano River we were itching to get out on that flood tide.  This fishery is a favorite among the locals.  Because it is a short 8 minute run from our dock you can maximize your time on the water.  As well, you can witness unreal sunsets and sunrises at this time of year.  A big glowing sunset with the city of Vancouver and the coastal mountains as a backdrop is something to witness!!! But the best part of it all is the chance to hook into some big, big fish.

...and we are fishing!!!

Anchovy or herring have been shown to be the ticket for this fishery.  So we start the day with 4 anchovies in the water with a 20 foot spread at depths from 50 to 90 feet.  Jason Tonelli always has a couple of tricks up his sleeve and has been experimenting with scenting the teaser heads with UV Smelly Jelly.  This tactic proved successful the previous night where Jason was late to the dance “the bite” but lit it up with 5 spring hookups and two springs to the boat in a very short period of time.

6 inch anchovie battered with UV Smelly Jelly

So we set our lines and gave a sacrificial drink to the fishing gods.  While fish were caught throughout the afternoon there was definitely a bite with the tide turning and starting to ebb.  Well into the flood tide we were quickly into a bright hatchery coho of about 8 lbs.  They don’t get much cleaner than this baby…

Beautiful chrome coho salmon

The coho was taken at 47 feet with a Hotspot blue flasher/silver back, Rhys Davis teaser head, 6 inch anchovy and of course UV Smelly Jelly.

While we were targeting the larger springs they did not seem to be active.  The boats that were getting them were taking them right off the bottom anywhere from 75 to 90ft.  After making a few passes we got word that a good friend was going to join us so we reeled in our lines, made the short run back to the dock (8 minutes) and picked up our good friend, Preston, to fish with us for the remainder of the night.  It is not too often that all of the boys are on the boat together, with a busy summer of booking trips for guests and offering them the best service possible.  So we were excited to share some laughs, talk about the summer and hook into some fish.

It wasn’t long until the bite was on…ten minutes after setting our lines we had a double header.  Just as the lines popped out of the clips my cell phone rang.  It was a customer looking to do a charter the very next day.  So without missing a beat I proceed to book the guests while the boys bring the fish to the boat.  It must have sounded pretty hectic over the phone as the guys were doing fist pumps and celebrating.

Some chrome salmon...

As the sun set over the ocean we fished throughout the bite and although there were no big springs hooked in our boat we had a nice pair of cohos in the box and a saw some nice springs get taken by our other guides.  While we are in the middle of September it certainly felt like “the dog days of summer”.

A great way to end the day!

This is truly a magical place with great fishing literally minutes from downtown Vancouver.  If you would like to book the fishing experience of a lifetime please call me at Pacific Angler (store: 604-872-2204) or on my personal cell after hours (778-846-7456).

Right now Pacific Angler is offering a special Fall Salmon Package: 5 hr charter for 4 persons at $500.00 (before taxes) or an 8 hr charter for 4 persons at $750.00 (before taxes).

Remember we are Vancouver’s full service fishing and tackle Store, “a store for the fishing enthusiast”.  Make sure to visit us to get the scoop on the local scene.

Hi there folks….as you no doubt have noticed….we haven’t been filing reports…that simply because…we’ve been WAY TOO BUSY to file reports..because we’re busy fishing, netting, cleaning and bagging our guest’s catch. Guide Eddie has been netting Sockeye and Pinks like a bandit jumps trains, Jason T. has been pointing fingers and yelling “Fish On!” like an auctioneer and resetting lines and Guide Andrew has been too busy to even have a drink of water while on the water because he has been busy “filling da tub”. Over the last few weeks we’ve been targeting Pinks and Sockeye exclusively while catching a few springs as “bycatch” on the Sockeye gear. If you’ve been on the water haven’t been hooking more than “a few”, then we strongly suggest you get yourself a seat in our local saltwater salmon course series or book a charter to learn from us. We’ve been hooking Pinks and Sockeye and making the most of this fishery. Our gear has been unwavering although we have been rolling some anchovies and whole herring for a change of pace in an effort to find a nice big fat Chinook. We’ve been fishing sockeye hoochies behind flashers almost exclusively since our last report. Over the last 5 days, we have found the BEST AREA TO FISH is right in front of English Bay from just EAST of the Bell Buoy to the middle of the harbour in amongst the freighters. The best depths have been from 35 to 70 feet.

IMPORTANT NOTE: EFFECTIVE TODAY-SEPTEMBER 6….SOCKEYE ARE CLOSED IN MARINE WATERS EXCEPT FOR AREA 28. AREA 28 IS EAST OF A LINE DRAWN BETWEEN THE POINT GREY BELLBUOY AND POINT ATKINSON. AREA 28 REMAINS OPEN UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Outlook: Pinks and Sockeye should abound for at least another week as long as we remain open for Sockeye in Area 28.

Chinook: The Capilano is now a good option for anglers wishing to try their hand at landing medium to large sized white Chinooks. This fishery will continue to build into early October. Otherwise, fish from the mile markers to the Coal Ports with depths of 30 to 75 feet. BAIT will be the best producer if you are targetting springs.

Cohos: Still open along the West Vancouver shoreline. Anchovies behind flashers will be your best bet.

We’ll end this brief report with a picture from our charter on Sunday September 4. Guide Andrew fished his 6 guests for 7 hours in the Vancouver harbour and this picture says it all.  Anglers—it’s time to go fishing. If you haven’t been, you’re missing out.  

Pacific Angler Guide Andrew's September 4 Trip.