Fishing this past week has remained steady with some great opportunities for the first ever BC Family Day long weekend, which we have renamed BC Fishing Day. Because you can bet we are all going to take advantage of having the store closed on monday. The question will be where?
It looks like we are going to get a break from the rain this weekend as the NW winds move in and push the clouds out. The Vancouver weather forecast is calling for a mixture of sun and cloud on Friday, cloudy conditions on Saturaday and Monday, and sunny conditions on Sunday. You can expect the daily high temperatures range from 6 to 8 degrees Celsius and daily low temperatures to range from 0 to 3 degrees Celsius.
Those same NW winds that bring in the sun also bring the wind right into Vancouver Harbour. This can make things a bit rough, especially when the ebb tide is pushing hard into the NW wind. Thankfully the marine forecast for the Straight of Georgia is calling for 10 knots on Saturday and then light winds on Sunday and Monday. If you are planning on doing some saltwater fishing this weekend make sure to check the most up-to-date marine forecast as predicted forecasts can change rapidly.
The saltwater fishing in Vancouver Harbour and up Howe Sound has been pretty tough for about a week now. No shortage of bait, just a shortage of fish! When the winds have allowed, anglers heading over to the “other side” have had much better success from Nanaimo down to Point Roberts. Hopefully those fish move up the Strait and into the Harbor!
Pacifc Angler saltwater guides have both written reports based on their fishing this past week. They also look into what we can expect over the next week.
Jason Tonelli:
This week the local saltwater fishing has been in a word, challenging. There is no shortage of bait as anglers have seen bait balls off W. Van, QB, the freighters, and Bell Buoy. There have been a few fish caught but for the amount of anglers out it has been very slow. We have heard basically the same from Howe Sound, lots of bait, not too many fish.
We do expect this to change as there have been lots of fish encountered further south and over on the Island. It should only be a matter of time before this fish show up in Vancouver Harbour and off the Bell Buoy, QA and South Bowen. The fish that have been taken locally have been on small spoons like the Irish Cream 3.0 inch and Flaming Hans 2-3/4 inch. Try a 6 foot leader of 20-25lb test behind a flasher. The Purple Onion flasher and the Kinetic UV Jelly Fish Yellow Green Mist have been working well. Jason is heading out on Friday and Eddie is heading out on Saturday so keep an eye out for the Salty Dawg on the water this weekend.
Eddie Matthei:
I don’t have much to report and I haven’t heard much on the radio either. Although we came home empty handed the last time out, the weather could not have been nicer. Seemed like we were fishing in early spring or late summer.
Sunset trolling!
Out of the 5 boats fishing that day only one reported a single undersized fish. The fishing was extremely challenging. On a positive note I should add that I trolled towards some active Herring Gulls and the sounder lit-up with bait balls. That was supported by lots of small herring breaking the surface all around the boat. It is possible that the winter chinook salmon are simply full on natural feed and therefore it is harder to fool them. I have noticed, from past fish I hit and also reports from fellow fishermen, that the fish have been hitting when there’s little to no bait around. On a previous trip I was just about to leave and area that showed nothing on the sounder only to hit 2 decent fish and one really nice fish.
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