Vancouver Salmon Fishing & Bottom Fishing Report

The first week of May is in the books and there is lots of great fishing to be had in our local saltwater. The bottom fishing has been very good. On the trips where we have been over to the Gulf Islands we have had easy limits of lingcod and rockfish. There is also some world class catch and release chinook fishing to be had. It’s a great way to end of a morning of bottom fishing. Crabbing and prawning have also been good.

At the end of the day imagine coming back with lingcod, rockfish, crabs and prawns, plus sore arms from fighting chinook salmon and some great fish photos. It’s a magical time of year, so give us a call at 778-788-8582 to get a day on the water.

 

So far so good! Early in the season like this the fishing for lingcod and rockfish is very productive.

Locally we have been fishing for chinook catch and release while DNA sampling. There has been some absolutely red-hot fishing out there, except for one day when the orcas came through and scattered the fish. If you don’t want to retain chinook, this is a great opportunity to experience how many chinook are currently in local waters. You must see it to believe it. Hopefully this fishery will open in coming years with the DNA data we are collecting showing stocks of concerns are not present in large numbers.

Note that if you don’t have a DNA permit the regulations are no fishing for chinook salmon, so you can fish, but you can’t target chinook. You would need to be in area 28 where coho is open to go fishing, not in area 29-3 off South Bowen where coho is closed and there is no fishing for chinook. Coho will open in area 29-3 on June 1and there are already quite a few showing up, so that is a great sign.

A note on prawning. The commercial fleet will open for prawning on May 15th. We are open year around and the commercial fleet has a few weeks to get their quota, so once they open, we keep our traps out of the water. They set a lot of gear in pretty much all the decent spots, so I would suggest keeping your pots out of the water after May 15th. If you don’t you are likely to have a low success rate and your gear might even go missing. We don’t prawn after the commercial opening as it takes most of the spring and summer for the numbers to recover and we focus on the productive Dungeness crab waters instead.

Jason Tonelli