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Vancouver Salmon Fishing Report: May 16th

What a week it has been!  We seem to be having one of the best May chinook seasons in recent memory.  The Hump off S. Bowen has been a consistent producer for our customers on 6 hour charters but the hot days and big numbers have been on our full day charters over at Gabriola and a little N up to Nanaimo.

We can’t always make the trip over to Gabriola, so it is nice that we have been hooking fish on all the trips to the Hump.  It’s only about 20 minutes from our dock so it makes for a good half day trip.  Best depths seem to be 70-110 as the water has been fairly dirty with the Fraser River starting to freshet and the usual spring algae.  Eddie has been doing well with glow flashers and glow spoons this week.  In particular the Pesca 3.5 in Leprechaun, Gut Bomb and Italian Stallion.  We have also been catching fish on anchovies in glow green teaser heads.  The best tide seems to be the ebb tide but we have also heard of some fish on the flood.  This is a big area, so you just have to put your time in and cover water and the fish will come.

When we have been making it over to Gabriola we  have had good to red hot fishing for some nice size chinook.  We were into over 16 big chinook one day recently as well as 6 smaller ones and a handful of coho.  That makes for an action packed day!  This time of year if you are thinking about booking a charter we do strongly recommend trying to make it over to Gabriola, as it often provides some of the best chinook fishing of the whole year.  The best fishing is likely yet to come as it usually gets red hot late May and early June.

Our phone has been ringing steadily, so if you want to take advantage of this awesome chinook fishing, please give us a call as soon as possible as open dates are becoming limited.

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One of many fish in the 15-22 LB range taken on a full day charter over at Gabriola

We have been hitting our fish from 75 down to 135 on the riggers on a mixture of spoons and hootchies.  The splatter back hootchies featured in our previous post have been producing well and so have all the Pesca spoons mentioned above.  Productive flashers have had some glow on them as the water has been pretty dirty.  Fish have been hit anywhere from 200 feet of water all the way out to 1000 feet or more.  So the fish are spread out and you need to cover water, find a school of fish, and then try and stay on them as long as possible.

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A big, chrome, hard fighting chinook and flat calm seas. Doesn’t get any better!

To book your trip give Jason a call at 778-788-8582.  If you are heading out in your own boat, stop by the shop for the latest up to the day report and info on the hot flashers and spoons.

See you in the shop or on the water,

Jason Tonelli