Well sorry for the late report today.  I didn’t want to send out the report until I knew what the regulation changes were going to be come July 15th.  I had it on good authority that DFO was not going to honour their opening on the 15th to 1 chinook per day and to expect an announcement on Friday afternoon.  We didn’t know if it was going to be a continuation of the no chinook retention regulations, a hatchery only regulation, or a size restriction.  The email finally came out at 4:30 and the regulation is a size restriction.  In all the areas that were slated to open up on July 15th, they will indeed do so, but the chinook must be larger than 62cm…

We are counting the down the days to chinook being opened in Area 17 and 28 on July 15th, and then again for Area 29 on August 1st.  In the meantime, it has been pretty amazing fishing for the most part.  There were a few trips this past week where the coho did a disappearing act, but they seem to be back in the usual spots off South Bowen, Point Atkinson, and the West Van shoreline.  The number of chinook around is also staggering.  The local mixed stocks of feeder chinook, or residents, seem to still be here and we are seeing a few larger chinook likely headed to the Squamish or Cheakamus.  In short, fishing is very good. For coho, the key has been…

This week we are going to focus on coho.  If you have been reading past reports, you know we have had an epic chinook season so far and we were talking about the coho showing up about this week, and sure enough they did.  Test sets for juvenile coho in the Southern Strait of Georgia this winter were at or near record levels and the coho seem to be spending their time in our local waters instead of going off the West Coast.  This means we should have an excellent coho season this summer, and if the schools of coho we saw this past week are any indication of what is to come, things are looking good.   Remember that last year the Cap had one…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report Let’s start with a look at the past 7 days and then take a look at opportunities for this weekend.   Fishing last weekend and early in the week was good, despite some big tides from the full moon.  There were decent catches of chinook from South Bowen up to Gower Point and Lower Howe Sound.  Offshore off South Bowen and out on the Hump, there were some good numbers of coho being caught as well.  A quick reminder all chinook are catch and release at this time and you can retain 2 hatchery coho a day.  Unfortunately, mid-week the big NW winds showed up and that put a damper on the fishing and we even had to cancel a few…

Well you knew it couldn’t last forever…  The red-hot fishing we have had for the past 60 days significantly slowed down this week.  We don’t have much to complain about though, from April 15 to this week will easily go down as some of the best, if not the best local chinook fishing in 30 plus years.  There were lots of fish, and lots of big fish.  There were also a lot of hatchery fish, which we should have been able to harvest.  It was nothing short of a catastrophe for the marine community due to the non-retention of chinook announced by DFO in an effort to keep First Nations nets out of the Fraser River.  This will also go down as one of the…

Fishing continues to be excellent, so lets look at your options this weekend.  The first thing to do is look at the winds, and for the most part they look great.  Once we get past this bit or rain today, it looks like the sun is going to be out for the better part of the weekend.  So the winds are good, it’s going to be sunny, and there are lots of fish around, so get out there! For chinook it has been another great week around South Bowen with fish from Cowan up to Roger Curtis and lots of fish out on the Hump as well.  Productive depths have been from 60-140 on the riggers.  Bait, spoons and hootchies have all been productive and…

Well I thought it couldn’t get any better and I was wrong.  Yesterday was absolutely ballistic off South Bowen and over at Thrasher and fishing earlier in the week in both these areas and Howe Sound was very good.   The fish keep getting bigger as well, and yesterday Derek released a hatchery chinook in the mid 20-pound range.  To keep updated mid-week and see cool pics, videos, and stories, make sure you follow our new Instagram Page and Facebook Page.  Just search Pacific Angler Sport Fishing. In terms of tackle choice, nothing has changed.  We are doing well in the 90-130 zone on the riggers.  There is algae in the water so the brighter colored chartreuse gear is working when it comes to flashers, spoons,…

Once again we saw some great fishing this past week.  When winds allowed we were fishing off South Bowen from Cowan to Roger Curtis and the fish did not disappoint.  If you have been following us on Instagram and Facebook, you have seen some of the action and that some nice size fish are showing up.  Best depths were from 80-130 and we hooked fish on bait, spoons, and hootchies.  The brighter colour gear, aka green and chartreuse, is working well as the water does have some colour to it from the algae.  In past reports I have gone into detail on colours for flashers and lures, so please check out our past reports for more detail or drop by the shop for expert advice…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report The salmon fishing has been pretty awesome these past few days.  It did slow down a bit around the new moon, but 2 days after that, it was very good fishing and has been good right up too and including today.  We have been fishing a lot around Cowan Point and in the lee of the NW winds, which have were relentless most of the week.  Luckily most days have been very good off Cowan and hot depths have been 90-130 on the riggers in 200-450 feet of water.  The winds finally did die down today and we have boats over at Thrasher, its flat calm, and they are hammering fish.  I am not surprised, mid May is always very…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report  Fishing right up until last weekend can only be described as excellent.  Then we had the big windstorm on Saturday when it blew 40 plus knots NW.  The winds died down on Sunday but it seemed the fish either took off or went deep because it was very slow on Sunday and Monday. We still got fish on those days but it was a fraction of the action we enjoyed up until Friday afternoon.  We could distinctly see the fish on the Raymarine Axiom with the high CHIRP sonar, but they were either off the bite or way too deep. What a difference a few days make.  The fishing was pretty good on Tuesday and picked up more on Wednesday and it was good yesterday.  Seems…