Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report, January 27, 2023    Not a lot of new information to report on the saltwater front except that fishing continues to be good.  We have been out each week on guided trips and personal trips and there is no shortage of legal-size winter chinook around.    This time of year, there are chinook in the harbour around the Cap Mouth, QB Marker, the Freighters and the Bell Buoy.  There have also been a good number of chinook in Howe Sound.  We haven’t made it over to the Gulf Islands, no need to with the local fishing being consistent, but I would say it’s safe to assume the fishing is good there as well.  Prawning seems to be good.  In fact, it is…

Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report: January 13, 2023    I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year.  I was away for a few weeks on holiday, but back in rainy Vancouver now.  While I was away, Eddie and Tom were out on a few trips.  Fishing was good, as it has been for the most part since we started fishing for winter chinook in November.  The last few weeks we have done trips in the Gulf Islands as well as lower Howe Sound and fishing has been great in both locations.  Prawning has been decent as well.  Remember there are some not so common closures in Howe Sound this year for prawns.  28-1, 28-2 where people usually do most of their prawning is…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  If you are heading out this weekend, Sunday looks to be the much better of the two days.  Saturday has some significant SE 20-30 knot winds and rain, no thank you.  Luckily, on Sunday the winds back off, the high-pressure ridge settles in, and the sun is going to come out.  We have been out locally and are finding fish in the harbour, around the freighters on the ebb or the flood and around the Cap Mouth on the flood.  The harbour always seems to pick up in December and remains a good option right through March.   There has also been some good fishing around South Bowen and lower Howe Sound.  We haven’t taken the run farther up Howe Sound…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  The weather looks great this weekend for some winter chinook fishing.  Particularly on Saturday with very little wind in the forecast and some sun as a bonus.  On the fishing front we don’t have a lot of new information to report from last week.  Fishing has been decent if you are willing to put in the time around South Bowen and up Howe Sound.    One interesting thing to note are the whales.  For the past 2-3 weeks now there have been quite a few of them off South Bowen.  There have been almost daily reports of them and they have been putting on quite a show.  Although Humpback and Grey whales are fairly common sightings in the Strait of Georgia,…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  It looks like there is going to be quite a bit of wind and rain this weekend.  So much for the 20 plus degree days we had only a few weeks ago.  They are a distant memory now.  We have officially entered that time of year where you must pick your days.  It’s time to start looking for the calm ones in between storms coming through the Strait of Georgia and outflow and inflow winds in Howe Sound.  Luckily, we have had a few good weather days recently and managed to get some trips done.  We haven’t been heading across to Gulf Island with some decent to good fishing right here in Howe Sound.  A few more hours of rod…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  It’s late October and the vast majority of migratory chinook and coho are heading up the rivers.  Any late comers will certainly be triggered to move into the Fraser with this low-pressure system and the rains.  We still need quite a bit of rain to raise the local and VI rivers, so I hope we get it, as the fish desperately need it.  Local ocean effort has switched over to “winter chinook” aka “feeder chinook.”  These are fish that are going to spawn next year and are aggressively feeding in local waters.  Size will range from undersize (min size limit is 62 cm) to fish as big as 15 pounds or the high teens.  The vast majority tend to be…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  We are heading into the second week of October now and fishing for migratory fish is starting to slow down. Not much to complain about though, as the lack of rain in September and October kept the chinook and coho around for about as long as possible, resulting in some great fishing during the past 5 weeks.  There are still some mature chinook and coho around, but the big pushes are heading up the Fraser. The same can’t be said for the Cap fish, as the river is extremely low. There are still decent numbers of chinook and coho stacked up off the river mouth. They are getting a little harder to catch, as some of them have been there…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  So far, September has been a great month for saltwater fishing.  The T-10 and South Arm were hot the first two weeks of September, then the Cap Mouth picked up right on schedule mid-September and there have been good coho numbers in all 3 locations.    The sockeye fishery was definitely a “too little, too late” opening, and I have already let DFO know that.  I am sure there will be some meetings about it this winter.  I will keep you posted on how those go and what the final counts are.  I think you will find we didn’t harvest even close to our total allowable catch and DFO bungled our opportunity.  Can’t say that I am surprised.  So where…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  If you are wondering about sockeye, you can read my report in the Fraser River Sockeye Openings & Opinions piece, but in this report, I am going to focus on chinook and coho.  Opening day and the 72 hours after it were fantastic for chinook at the Bell Buoy, Iona Jetty, T-10, and South Arm.  There were a lot of fish around and the catches were great.  In last week’s report I covered in detail hot depths and tactics and those held true this past week.  In short, if you were fishing flashers, teaser heads, and herring or anchovy in the top 70 feet of the water column you would have done well.    The orcas did come through on Sunday…