Vancouver Saltwater Fishing Report: June 7, 2024 The first week of June is in the books and it’s been a busy one out on the salt. Our boats have been out daily, and the guides have had their work cut out for them DNA sampling the record numbers of chinook swimming around our local waters.   The highly anticipated hatchery coho opening has arrived which has brought a bit more traffic to the popular spots, but still, plenty of room to try various methods for targeting these exciting salmon. So far there hasn’t been overwhelming reports of coho being caught, but they are definitely around, and it seems to be improving by the day. Our guide boats have been running into pockets of coho off South…

Vancouver Saltwater Coho & Chinook Salmon Fishing Report It’s June 1st this weekend and that means coho will be open in area 29-3 as well as most parts of 28 for 2 hatchery coho a day, size limit of 30cm or greater.   This means we can fish the productive waters off South Bowen for coho and out on the Hump as well.    When fishing for coho, concentrate on the top 60 feet of the water column and don’t be surprised if you hit fish right on the surface when letting out the gear.  It is still early in the season for coho, but we have already been into some wild and hatchery coho while DNA sampling for chinook salmon in local waters.  We expect the…

Vancouver Salmon and Bottom Fishing Report The weather has been outstanding, and the fishing has been matching it. Our boats have been making their way across the strait over to the Gulf Islands where we’ve continued to have consistent bottom fishing with limits of lingcod and rockfish. On the salmon front, our local waters have been producing some solid numbers of chinook during our catch & release trips. We are doing DNA sampling so we can better understand the strains of chinook in our waters. With this data, we hope to see future openings where there are no stocks of concern present.    The warm weather brought some wind along with it, but the forecast is looking to be smoothing out for the foreseeable weeks ahead….

Vancouver Salmon Fishing & Bottom Fishing Report The first week of May is in the books and there is lots of great fishing to be had in our local saltwater. The bottom fishing has been very good. On the trips where we have been over to the Gulf Islands we have had easy limits of lingcod and rockfish. There is also some world class catch and release chinook fishing to be had. It’s a great way to end of a morning of bottom fishing. Crabbing and prawning have also been good. At the end of the day imagine coming back with lingcod, rockfish, crabs and prawns, plus sore arms from fighting chinook salmon and some great fish photos. It’s a magical time of year, so…

It’s May and that means we are now open for rockfish and lingcod on the other side of the Georgia Strait, Gulf Islands, or further up the Sunshine Coast.  Primarily we are fishing in 17-10 and 29-5 when we depart from Vancouver.  If you want to run a bit further NW on our side of the coast, Area 16 is also open.  Always consult your regulations to see which areas are open. If you are heading out, come by for some expert advice.  We will show you how to catch “bottom fish” with swim baits in some relatively shallow water early in the season, which is a blast. This is a great time to do a charter as we are dropping crab traps, prawn traps,…

Bottom Fishing Report  It Is almost bottom fishing time! Bottom fishing opens May 1 in select areas.    With the month of May on its way, many anglers will start thinking of dusting off their bottom fishing gear getting ready for the upcoming season.    With rockfish and ling cod about to open, anglers will want to make sure they have a good selection of snaps, swivels, lures, and leader material.  Along with those, be sure to have extra beads, hooks, and a file to keep your hooks sticky sharp.  I actually like to build out my own bottom terminal kit to make sure I don’t borrow from my salmon gear.  Short, stout rods, paired with matching level-wind or lever-drag reels are standard leaving lots of options…

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report:  Chinook Regulations Explained  It’s that time of year where the overly complicated chinook regulations take effect.    I will start by saying these closures are not warranted based on the abundance of chinook in our local waters that are not stocks of concern.  Your chance of hooking a chinook stock of concern (Upper Fraser River) is less than 1% right now.    The science is in, and it is clear it should be open for chinook right now, but because of political pressure from NGOs and First Nations on DFO to keep it closed, you won’t be out there selectively harvesting even a hatchery chinook.  We are still working hard to change that, but for now, let’s take a look at the…

Vancouver Winter Chinook Fishing Report, Regulation Update, Coho Outlook  Well, this is it, the last weekend before chinook in our local water closes to “no fishing for chinook” regulations effective April 1st.  More on that later; let’s focus on the positive for this weekend, which is the great fishing, crabbing and prawning.   The fishing has been good this past week.  There are definitely some nice schools of chinook around, the trick is finding them.  We have been out all week and have had success at a variety of locations.    Our typical strategy has been to fish South Bowen from Cowan Point up to Roger Curtis.  Most days this has produced some nice chinook and we have been getting them 80-130 on the riggers in 150-350…

Vancouver Salmon Fishing Report, March 15, 2024    Things are changing rapidly in our local waters so let’s get right to it as we only have 2 weeks left of chinook retention!  First off, the 4 months of excellent chinook fishing in Howe Sound has come to a standstill. Thing really shut down this past week.  We went from multiple keepers to working hard for a bite in a matter of days.  It was quite shocking really, but also not completely unexpected as we have seen this happen in the second week of March before, but it doesn’t always seem to happen.  It’s a bit of a mystery, as the fish seem to literally disappear and then the algae bloom seems to turn off any…

Vancouver Winter Chinook Fishing Report    Well, we have a few more weeks left of Vancouver winter chinook fishing.  This season has sure flown by, probably because the fishing has been pretty awesome overall.  If you haven’t made it out yet, don’t worry there are still 3 weeks left! To check out some of the action we have had this winter, watch this video of Jason and the BC Fly Guys, chasing down some winter chinook in Howe Sound.  It was a true winter chinook day, windy with a good dose of rain and cooler temps, but the fish sure didn’t seem to mind! Looking ahead, there will be plenty of chinook around the next few weeks in local waters and the Gulf Islands.  Howe…