Local Saltwater
Sockeye Fest 2014 is on! Other than the occasional slow down attributed to the visits from the J pod Orca family, the fishing has been p 32″ behind the flasher. The shorter leader length is the standard but I prefer mine a little longer. For the flasher I prefer any flashers with the chrome mylar but the sockeye don’t seem too fussy over the color. One of my best producers has been the standard green flasher with silver mylar tape. You should also run a set of dummy flashers below your gear to keep the school following the boat as you land fish. Always try to keep one set of gear down while resetting the gear on the other side. I run my dummy flashers 48″ from the cable and keep my fishing gear close to the cable as well. The bests depths so far have been around the 50′ to 70′ range but the other day during a slow period I dropped my gear to the 70′-to 90′ range and found them there.
The fish can be found almost anywhere at the moment but the best concentrations are between the North Arm to the South Arm of the Fraser river. It’s a lot of water to cover but look for jumpers and signals on you sounder and you’ll find them. Don’t be surprised if you also find a chinook while fishing for sockeye as they will hit the pink hoochies as well.
On the local front the fishing has been a little spotty along the West Vancouver shoreline and the Bell Buoy for cohos and chinook but those putting in the time are sometimes being rewarded. The mouth of the Capilano and Fisheries gave up a few nice chinook and the Flats, West Bay, John Lawson creek and Ambleside are good places to hunt for coho. Anchovies are your best choice, but I always run a Pesca 2.5″ Leprechaun spoon that has been very good to me and has out fished the bait on a couple of occasions. Go out and enjoy this once every 4 year bounty of Sockeye and then invite a few friends over for the big BBQ!
Eddie Matthei
Give us a call on our charter phone at 778-788-8582 to book a charter or come by the shop for all the right gear and some friendly advice. The shop number is 604-872-2204.
See you on the water,
The P.A. Saltwater Guide Team: Jason, Eddie, Dimitri, Todd, Mike