Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  Locally things have picked up this past week.  There has been some decent fishing for coho from Point Atkinson all the way down to the Cap Mouth.  It hasn’t been red hot, but most mornings we are getting our shots at hatchery coho and a few pinks are also showing up.    A little further afield, off South Bowen up to Gower, the fishing for pinks has been very productive.  Best depths have been 50-80 on the downriggers.  There are also some coho getting caught, a mix of wild and hatchery fish.  A reminder you can only keep hatchery coho with no adipose fin and there is still no fishing for chinook.    If you want to focus on chinook, you can try W of Gower Point…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  Locally we really haven’t heard too many coho reports.  There have been a few coho taken off the Cap Mouth, Ambleside, and South Bowen, but nothing consistent so far.  This can change in a hurry, so hopefully this is the week that happens.    If you are focusing on coho, think shallow.  Usually, the best depths are 25-65 feet on the riggers.  For flashers try the Betsy, Herring Aid Betsy, Twisted Sista, Green Onion, or Purple Onion.  You can’t go wrong with a white or UV white hootchy and a shorter leader, around 28 inches.  Skinny G spoons are also an excellent choice in the nickel finishes with a 4 to 5 foot leader to the flasher.  Recently we have been suggesting…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  In this week’s report we are going to focus on coho.  Hatchery coho, with a missing adipose fin, are open for retention in most sub-areas of area 28 and 29.  Consult the area 28 and 29 regulations and area maps for more details.    Area 28 Fishing Regulations  Area 29 Fishing Regulations  Remember coho retention is for hatchery only, 30 cm or greater, and coho have white gums and only a few spots on their tail, usually on the upper part of it, if any at all.  Chinook have black gums and their tails generally have quite a few more spots.  Here are some good pictures from our friends to the north.  Pacific Salmon Marine Phase Identification  There have been a few coho caught…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  As many of you know by now, the SFAB proposals for the Vancouver area were not accepted.  Despite these proposals being specifically designed to minimize impact on stocks of concern and focus on hatchery fish, the Minister and her team said no.  Once again, they took a hardline and did not accept well thought out, science-based proposals that offered them a chance to have balance when it comes to social and economic benefits vs protecting stocks of concern and maintaining FN constitutional rights.    So why the denial of balance?  I will be drilling into the details in the coming weeks, but preliminary reports indicate it was primarily a decision based on politics and pressures from ENGO and FN.  All this…

We had hoped we would have a more positive update on regulations but unfortunately DFO has yet again chosen to ignore science and data.  After an inexcusably long wait DFO has finally provided the subsequent Fisheries Notice (see below for the full notice) to the interim regulations put out in April.     We couldn’t say it better than the SFI did, so have shared an excerpt from their mailout here which provided a brief overview of today’s notice. “The wait was not only inexplicably long, today’s notice is disappointing and failed to deliver a balanced and conservation-minded approach the sport fishing community has been seeking for over a year. While there were some times and areas added to current retention opportunities, rather than adopting an approach…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  May 7th, chinook all around, no opportunity for hatchery retention in Vancouver.  Absolutely criminal.  To make matters more offensive, on recent trips I have been catching a lot of hatchery chinook.  To me it feels like more than previous years, which would make sense as WA did have increased hatchery production these last few years and I think we are seeing the effects of that.  As Chair of the Lower Fraser Valley Sport Fish Advisory Committee to DFO, I have been in almost daily contact with decision makers.  They are working on it.  I was hoping for an announcement this week yet was told last night there are delays, from unrelated issues, and we won’t see anything till next Wed at the…

Vancouver Saltwater Fishing Report  Well, right on cue, mid-April, the chinook fishing picked up dramatically in our local waters.  We have been out in the few locations where you can fish for chinook, non-retention, like further up Howe Sound and over around Gabriola and up to Nanaimo.     Unfortunately, we have not heard from the Fisheries Minister, which is extremely frustrating, as this time of year we always have excellent local chinook fishing and a good number of hatchery fish.  Will we get an announcement this afternoon?  Nobody really knows, but DFO does like to make announcements late on Friday afternoon and then run for cover.  If they don’t open it they will be ducking for cover from the public fishery and marine sector.  If they do…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  Not a whole lot to report on the fishing front these days with the April 1st announcement closing the best of our local April chinook spots with a “no fishing for chinook regulation.”  Some areas are open for “non-retention of chinook” but not much close to Vancouver proper.  If you didn’t see our special chinook update last week, which includes a map of the regulations to make it easier, I would recommend you check it out.  Chinook Update 2021  I have been in recent meetings with DFO, as recent as yesterday, with my role as Chair of the Sport Fish Advisory Committee to DFO for the Vancouver area, Management Areas 28/29.  In these meetings, I have stressed the very low impact the Sport Fish Advisory Board chinook…

Vancouver Saltwater Fishing Report Well, the question on everyone’s mind these days is what is going to happen April 1st?   The truth is I don’t think anyone really knows.  What I can tell you is that there has been considerable effort to get some sort of chinook opening for April 1st in many areas along our coast, Vancouver included.   Here is a great summary from the Sport Fishing Institute in a recent update.  MSF & Data Supported Fisheries  The SFI and the Public Fisheries Alliance (PFA) have both been extremely active in pushing for the Sport Fish Advisory Board proposals to be accepted by DFO.  It certainly has gotten political, with 25 MP recently signing a letter in favor of the science-based proposals put forward…