What a day to be on a Vancouver salmon fishing charter! The winds are light and we are finally getting some sun! Eddie is out on a 5 hour charter this afternoon and I will be working in the shop.
Eddie will be working the flood tide and high slack this evening for Capilano coho and maybe a chinook or two that has pushed in with the flood tide. There have been excellent numbers of coho entering the Capilano River for over a month now and the river fisherman are having some good success. We have yet to hear of any red hot reports from saltwater anglers fishing the Capilano Mouth or West Van but we usually start to have some good fishing right about now. One of the reasons for the lack of reports is that most boats, including ours, have been running over to Gabriola for the chinook. The other reason is we are having a wet and cold June and still have a large snow pack. This keeps the river levels of the Capilano fairly high and the coho tend to go up the river without pausing along the West Van shoreline. Regardless, I am confident we will start to get some good reports as more anglers fish this area in the remainder of June and into July.
If you are heading out this weekend the winds don’t look so good. The forecast is for SE winds up to 15-20 knots by Saturday afternoon and NW 10-20 knots for Sunday. So making the crossing to Gabriola won’t be an option unless the forecast changes this evening or the winds don’t show up. This can definitely happen so make sure to check the forecast tonight and tomorrow morning.
Locally your best option is going to be W. Van for coho or the Bell Buoy for chinook. There is usually some chinook up Howe Sound by now as well but so far we haven’t heard of any good reports from that area.
For the coho the UV White hootchy or UV White Double Skirt with a 28 inch leader behind your favorite flasher is a good choice this time of year. The coho are usually in the top part of the water column in June, so from the surface down to around 60 feet. Other good choices are the Glow/Green spoon and Wonder Bread spoon in 3.0 or 3.5. The chinook getting taken at the Bell Buoy this time of year are usually around 45 to 85 feet on the riggers and anchovies in your favorite glow teaser head or a Glow/Green spoon are both good choices.
UV White Hootchy (OAL12R) and UV White Double Skirt (DA12)
I will be out both Saturday and Sunday on full day charters so will likely split my time each day between W. Van and the Bell Buoy unless the winds don’t show up, then I will run across to Thrahser Rock on Gabriola. For detailed information on what has been going on over there, visit the blog post from Tuesday, June 12th, titled “Tyee Time”.
See you in the shop or on the water,
Jason Tonelli