Home / Uncategorised / Vancouver Salmon Fishing Report: Friday Nov 4, 2016

Vancouver Salmon Fishing Report: Friday Nov 4, 2016

SALTWATER FISHING REPORTS

Vancouver Saltwater Fishing Report 
We have been out on the water on a few charters this past week and have been catching a few winter chinook. As usual for these fish, they have been on the bottom, right where the herring are. We are often fishing in 150-250 feet of water so that means one rod per downrigger and 18 pound white glow cannonballs. These cannonballs keep your gear down deep during a fast troll and big tides. Productive flashers have been the Salty Dawg and Kinetic Series with a glow stripe. Good old green or chartreuse blades with silver tape on one side and glow on the other are good choices as well. We usually keep the bait in the freezer for winter chinook, as we prefer to fish spoons instead. We use a 5 to 6 foot leader from our flasher to a spoon that is 3.0 to 3.5 in size. Spoons are a good choice as they glow and that makes a big difference when you are fishing deep. You can also troll fast with spoons and that means covering lots of water, which is important in this fishery as you have to search for the fish. Some of the better glow spoons on the market are the Oki Titan series, the Pesca RSG series, the Gibbs G-Force series and the Silver Horde Kingfisher series. Choose one of these and if it has some glow paint and some green or blue on it, you are fishing the right ones. There seems to be good amounts of bait around, so that should keep the fish around for now and it looks promising for this upcoming winter season. We are already catching some nice fish and it is only November. If you haven’t tried winter chinook fishing, give us a call to book a trip. It is a lot of fun and a great way to enjoy the outdoors this time of year.

Here are some productive winter chinook spoons from Pesca.

Here are some productive winter chinook spoons from Pesca.

This week’s tip is downrigger readiness for winter chinook. A lot of anglers will have just finished off fishing shallow off the Fraser mouth for chinook in August and September. We typically fish 30-70 feet in this fishery and don’t think too much about our downriggers. When fishing for winter chinook we are deep and on the bottom. It is not uncommon to bounce your cannonball along the bottom from time to time using an 18-pound cannonball and 225 feet of cable. If you have any issues at all with your downrigger or cable, you will find out in a hurry and you can usually kiss a costly 18-pound white glow cannonball goodbye! So on your first trip this winter slowly payout almost all your cable while trolling out in the open deep water. Look for any nicks or kinks or damage that may cause it to fail. Keep an eye on the spool and stop when you get down to the last half dozen wraps, make note of what your counter says so you know how deep you can fish, then bring the cable back up and stack it evenly and tightly. If there are multiple people running the boat, say your fishing buddy who you share the boat with, make sure you do this as sometimes your good old pal breaks the cable mid season, puts another cannonball on, and calls it a day. You make think there is 250 feet on the spool only to find out there is 175 and you are on your way down to 200 feet to bounce bottom. Not only are you not going to catch any fish if you can’t get to the bottom but you might not notice how low the spool is and you lose everything! That has caused a few heated moments on many a dock over the years. So do some maintenance on your riggers this winter and then we will see you out there!

See you in the shop or on the water,

Jason Tonelli