Saltwater Report: October 18th, 2013
It’s been a bit of a dry spell for chinook after the wet spell we had in late September that flushed up the main run up the rivers, particularly at the Capilano River. A few coho have still been caught. With that said we have also enjoyed a dry spell of warmer weather and sunny skies that have made for nice days to be out on a boat. I’d been hoping more fish would make it back into the area and it seems that lately the dry spell is turning things around at the Capilano. We’ve gone from nobody catching chinook to someone catching a chinook or two over the last week. A 15lb fish caught on Wednesday was bright silver which is a good indicator the fish had just arrived. Whole herring no flasher got him as well as another also caught yesterday but anchovies have also hit fish.
I recently had a chance to do an 8hr charter trip for my friend Mas on his boat the “M&M”, so I burned some fuel and headed to the South Arm of the Fraser river. JT was out on the Salty Dawg at Sandheads fishing with us as well. Just as I had finished instructing one of the guests on how to fight a fish one of the rods started bouncing! After a great job by the brand new salmon angler we boated a nice chum salmon. The bite went off and a few boats left but we patiently waited and stuck around. After an hour or so the bite came back on fast and furious. After a few hours of great action we had fought the chum, lost a spring and hooked 14 coho in the 8-12lb range.
Some may have been bigger but they got away or were stolen by a seal we fed twice. At first the coho we hit were hatcheries but then the bulk were wild which had to be released. This kept the creel count low but provided spectacular fights. Initially the fish were hitting deeper at 97′, to 77” on anchovies but closer to the high slack at 77′ to 47′ on white hoochies with the Casper hoochie working best. I like using 7’s and 77′ was the most productive depth overall. During and after the slack they went back to the deeper depths and on anchovies again.
I used primarily chartreuse glo flashers but the Highliner flasher I used to replace the ones the seal got also worked. Although the bite slowed down we were still hooking the odd fish up right up until we had to start our trip home. A couple of boats further out to the Coal Ports also reported similar action.
Probably the best part of the trip was that during the peak of the bite the wind completely died and we were wearing t-shirts and sunglasses, in October! It was like a flashback from fishing in July.
Tight lines
Eddie