Hi there folks! 🙂 It’s November and Winter Spring fishing is now the focus of our Saltwater efforts. It was a nice sunny day out there with no wind and overall a pretty pleasant experience! After giving the boat a nice scrub I decided I’d head out and wet some lines not too far from home. I focussed most of my efforts in the outer portion of English Bay (Vancouver Harbour), and along the West Vancouver shoreline following depth contours and keep my lines in close proximity to the bottom in 100-140 feet of water. After fishing for 3 hours I released two 17″ to 18″ undersize Chinook and couple of other little ones. Fishing for Winter Chinook is a technical sport and requires skill, dedication, area knowledge and persistence. In the Vancouver area, for Chinook to be retained, they must be 24.5″ inches (62 cm) in length. As we get further into winter, the abunance of winter springs increases as baitfish concentrations increase in the Vancouver area. The reason for this is simple—as the tide swings are somewhat small, the baitfish find rich sources of food on which to feed and stay relatively close to and thus it follows that salmon would follow suit.
In general, with the colder temperatures in winter, the water temperatures drop, and the clarity of the water becomes very clear and winter Chinook or “feeders” as we call them are generally found deep in the water column, oftentimes within the bottom 1/3 portion. The reasons for this are simple: the current and tide action is less, visibility from predators is greatly reduced, and abundant schools of baitfish are usually found there. Think of it this way…you wouldn’t eat a slice of pizza and swim against a raging river at the same time would you? The same logic applies to our winter fishing tactics—and no, we don’t dive down to the bottom, ring a dinner bell and serve pizza….er…well…sort of. At Pacific Angler, when targetting Winter Chinook, we adjust our tactics to fishing bottom structure and with and without flashers present on our lines. Our primary lures include small spoons such as Silver Horde Kingfishers, Luhr Jensen Coyotes and Gibbs Gypsies in Army Truck, Silver/Purple Haze, Cop Car, Glow Cop Car and Green Glow Spoons . Usually we fish these on a 6 foot leader. Depending on the circumstances, we may put down hoochies with combinations of Green/Glow and other variations designed to replicate the baitfish present at the time. Thus, we’ll spend a lot of time being VERY consistent trolling and covering area— seeking out bait schools and fishing around the bait schools in hopes of locating scrappy and aggressive feeder springs. For those locals monitoring the thread, come on down to our shop on West Broadway and pick up everything you need to be successful. Our Saltwater section has everything you need to get going.
For those of you ready to get out fishing and visiting town and looking for a Vancouver Salmon fishing experience with friends, family, business associates and partners, let us do it all for you and consider our ALL inclusive charters…..sit back and relax and let us do the work! Our Grady Whites and 38 Foot Uniflite with its large heated cabin (for larger groups or corporate charters) will offer you the BEST winter fishing experience!
There are abundant fishing opportunities and locations around the Vancouver area. Our expert guides have many seasons of winter spring fishing knowledge and know all the hot spots to fish be it the Freighters, the Trench in the Shipping Lanes, the deep and mid depth flats at Ambleside and Caulfield, the Mile Markers from Jericho to Point Grey, Cowan Point to Roger Curtis, Tunstall Bay, Hutt Island, 2nd and 3rd Marker, the Waterfall–the opportunities are abundant..you just have to seek them out!
If you’d like to find out more about our Salmon Fishing Opportunities, please give us a call at the shop!
Captain Andrew.