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Feb 26th 2011: Winter Wonderland Springs

The snow didn’t keep us off the water today…  We headed out to fish the high slack and were rewarded with some good chinook fishing!  The first fish of the day had some weight to it, had big powerful head shakes and was peeling some good line off the Islanders.  Unfortunately during a bought of deep head shakes it spit the hook.   It’s always hard to say how big a fish is, but this one felt like it was one of those larger fish that showed up late last week and throughout this week.  These fish are in the high teens, including an 18lb fish taken off W. Van and some fish of the same size and slightly bigger over at Hut and Tunstal.  Even though it fell off, it was nice to see that deep bend in the rod, big head shakes, and a screaming reel.  This fish took a Green/Glow 4.0 Silver Horde Spoon with some herring scent on it.  We were in about about a 100 feet of water off W. Van, close to bottom, but this fish hit the top rod, so that release clip was about 25 feet above the cannonball.  Usually we get the fish on the bottom rod, right above the cannonball, but this fish was higher in the water column.

We missed a few bites as the flood tide progressed and eventually had another hook up.  The fish hit a Coyote 4.0 Night Rider (black and glow) spoon with the same scent on it.  Again we were in the 100 foot range and the fish was on the bottom rod, so pretty close to the bottom.  We had the much too common seal attack and lost the fish shortly after hooking it.  We did manage to reel in the head of the fish and from that I guess the fish was around 8lbs to 10lbs, probably just legal by an inch or so.  Too bad the seal had lunch and took our dinner!

We kept at it, missed another bite, and eventually were rewarded with another good hook up.  The fish came right to the boat and then woke up and peeled some good line once it got a good look at the boat.  Kudos to Robyn for being quick on the rod and letting the fish go.  Too often people clamp down once they see a nice spring at the boat and then pop!  They break it off when the fish makes it’s final run.  We managed to get it back to the boat, in the net, and in the fish box.  This fish was also just off the bottom and took an anchovy in a glow teaser head with some red on the nose.

Robyn with a nice winter spring on a snowy February day!

As the tide switched to ebb it died off, and with a few fish on, a few bites, and one in the box, we decided to call it a day.  All in all a good day on the water and some nice fish around.

To book a charter or for some advice on the local salmon fishing,  give me a call at Pacific Angler 604-872-2204.

Tight Lines,

Captain Jason Tonelli