We were out on the water on the 23rd and 24th in search of some Vancouver chinook salmon!
On Wednesday the 23rd it was flat calm almost all day with crazy weather that alternated from hot to cold to sun to rain and on and on. The rain gear was on and off at least 3 times! The fishing was a lot like the weather, on and off… We started at the Hump as we had some good fishing there early in the week. After an hour at the Hump and no bites we decided to make the run across to Thrasher as a friend had just gotten into a double header. No sooner did we get there and put the lines down and we were into a good fish that was screaming line. Unfortunately the fish won this one and spit the hook during a second run. We ended up missing a few bites and losing another fish but then the bite died and it was a quiet afternoon after that brief flurry of activity. The action we had was offshore in 800-1200 feet of water off Garbriola from 80 to 175 feet deep on Glow/Green and Night Rider spoons. At the end of the day I tucked tight into the Grande to make a close tack and look for some bait. The bait was there in about 180 feet of water and we landed a nice chinook on the first pass through but couldn’t find anymore after that. It was already late in the day so we headed home and picked up the traps and did very well on the crabs.
On the 24th we headed straight across to Thrasher and bypassed the Hump all together. Right on the morning high slack we quickly put two chinook in the box, one 10lber and a beautiful 20lb fish. The water was pretty dirty so we had some shallow lines fishing, it paid off, as these fish came at 97 and 67 feet. Both fish came on 3.5 Night Rider spoon.
From there it slowed down for a bit for us but I did hear of a few fish in tight to Thrasher rock and a few fish offshore as well. As they day progressed we ended up hooking 3 more chinook, 2 of which we kept and the 3rd we released. Our fish were all offshore from 800-1200 feet of water and most of the activity was from 90-110 though fish have been getting caught as shallow as 60 and as deep as 180. Spoons have been excellent lately as a lot of the fish have 3-4 inch herring in their stomach. The 3.0-4.0 spoons in Night Rider, Glow/Green, Cookies n Cream, and Irish Cream, have all been top producers.
It turned out to be a great day as the winds never really showed up so we enjoyed relatively flat seas, sunny weather, a limit of chinook, and a limit of crab. 3 of the 4 fish were marbled springs and the smallest of the 4 was a hatchery chinook that was bright red.
Eddie is out today and will be fishing the Hump and if the winds aren’t too bad he will run across to Thrasher. I will be out guiding this Saturday and Sunday and hope to go to Thrasher, we will see what the winds do.
See you in the shop or on the water,
Jason Tonelli