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Tyee Time

We were over on the other side this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday fishing from mid Gabriola up to Entrance and Five Fingers.  Overall there has been some good fishing with the fish anywhere from Thrasher all the way up to Five Fingers.  There have been fish inshore in 120-300 feet and there have been fish offshore as well in 600 to 1000 feet.  Most anglers are getting anywhere from 2 to 10 fish a day and it really depends on a little bit of luck.  From the report above you can see the fish are all over the place.  Some days luck is on your side  and you end up finding them early and you can hit some good numbers.  Other days you are struggling to find them and you have to grind out 2 or 3 fish.

Friday was one of those days where we got on top of some good numbers of fish and managed 8 hook ups and 5 in the box.

Saturday was one of those scratchy days where most of the fleet was grinding away for a fish or two.  We went right back to where we hooked the 8 fish on Friday but it seemed the fish either moved or were off the bite after some strong NW winds that morning.  It finally laid down a bit in the afternoon and some fish were hooked.   We ended up hooking  3 and landing 2.  One was a 12lber and one was big!  I put the length and girth through the formula and it came out at 29.86 lbs.  After bleeding it and having it sit in the fish box most of the afternoon we weighed it back at the dock and it came out at 29 1/2 lbs so wet weight it would have been a 30lb fish, so the Tyee mark was hit!

Isaac and 30lb chinook back at the dock

Sunday Eddie was out and hooked a few fish and put a nice mid 20’s fish in the box but it was a fairly slow day.  Most boats were grinding away for a fish or two, similar to Saturday.

Monday it picked up.  We weren’t out on the water but I did talk to multiple boats via cellphone and all were having excellent fishing.  By that I mean they hooked 7 to 10 fish!  The best reports were from mid Garbriola (Grande) down to Thrasher and it sounded like some fish moved up onto Thrasher Reef as some of the fish were hit around 200-300 feet of water.  This is not unusual as about this time of year we often start to hit some fish closer to shore.

I don’t think many boats will be out in the next 48 hours due to the strong wind warning but it looks like the winds are going to die down by the weekend.  We will be out this weekend on charters and I am hoping the winds are down as the last 3 trips it was a punishing crossing in the morning.

Crabbing continues to be excellent but it will be ending soon as the commercial fleet will be out shortly so get your fill now while you can!

Last week I had a rare day off so I went fishing.  What do you expect…  I went out with Brian on his new boat Sir Reel, a beautiful Eagle Craft.  We had fun fishing the 4 riggers and putting the boat to the test.  It fished incredibly well and I am looking forward to getting out again with Brian on this boat and fighting some more springs.

Jason fighting a nice spring on Sir Reel

Most of our fish lately have been on hootchies.  I have been running spoons as well, even trying some anchovies and herring, but the hootchies hooked almost all of the fish the last two weeks.  The spatter back hootchies and double skirts have both been excellent.  We have been using 40lb Maxima for the leader material and the length is usually around 32 inches.

Spatter Back and Double Skirt hootchies

That being said, on Monday all the boats were reporting that all the fish were getting hit on spoons.  This could be due to the fact that the fish were up on the reef and ledges along Gabriola on Monday and feeding on some bait that was stacked up there.  In these situations it is not uncommon for the spoons to out produce.  3.5 to 4.0 Cop Car, Night Rider, Cookies n’ Cream, and Kitchen Sink were the top producers.  Leader length was 6 feet of 25lb test Maxima.

Cookies n Cream, Night Rider, Kitchen Sink, Cop Car

We have some prime time dates available so if you want to book a trip please give me a call at the shop.  604-872-2204.  If you need the gear you see in the pictures come by the shop at Quebec and E Broadway.

See you out there this weekend.

Salty Dawg off Entrance on Saturday, June 9th