Can’t go wrong with day’s like this over at Gabriola!
Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report
The good fishing continued this past week in our local waters as well as over in Nanaimo to the Gulf Islands.
Lets take a closer look at what is going on locally. There is definitely a good number of chinook in our local waters. As usual for this time of year there is a mix of red and white springs with most of the bigger fishing being the whites. This past week there were good numbers of fish caught from the Bell out to the QA, out past the QA, and on the Hump as well. Some of the days the wind kept us closer to the Bell and we still had good catches. If the winds allow you to head further offshore, for the most part the better catches have been a little further out to the QA or out on the Hump. The water is a little dirty from algae blooms so the fish have been shallow. The most productive zone on the riggers has been from 90-120 but there have been days where fish were hit as shallow as 60 and as deep as 150. On the darker days or early in the morning you can try some gear shallower and on the brighter days you can try a little deeper early afternoon.
All smiles for the GLC Whistler Crew!
These fish aren’t shy, they are aggressively feeding fish in dirty water, so bright gear is the way to go. You should be thinking UV green or UV chartreuse blade flashers with glow on one side and the same thing for your spoons. Make sure the spoons have some green or chartreuse in them and some glow. You can also run bait in glow chartreuse or glow green teaser heads, and you guessed it, hootchies in the same colours will also work. This fishery is more about finding the fish and getting the depth right than a super specific gear choice. They are feeders, so if you can find them and they can see it, you are going to get them. The real challenge is that you are fishing offshore in open water and just getting on them can be tricky, so as usual, we prefer to fish artificials and troll on the faster side of things with 18 pound cannonballs and cover as much water as possible.
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Captain Eddie’s guest with the first of the day at Thrasher yesterday!
We have had some very good fishing over on the other side this past week. There are a lot of fish from Courtenay/Comox all the way down to Galliano. Some of those spots are obviously too far for us to get to on our trips so we have been fishing the Nanaimo and Gabriola area. The offshore fishery is in full swing and the fish are out on the “Highway” in 350-1000 feet of water. Productive depths on the riggers have been 90-130 in the morning and then as the sun gets higher around noon the better action seems to be in the 130-160 range. The water has been a lot cleaner on this side, which is normal, hence the deeper depths when the sun is up. I could see my flasher down to about 45-55 feet the other day. Productive gear can really vary between 90 and 160 feet. When you are fishing shallower try your UV flashers that have a bit less glow, like a Green Onion Glow or Purple Onion Glow. As you go deeper go to a flasher that has full glow on one side. As far as spoons, the Pink Sink is hot in this clear water. Other productive spoons have been Irish Cream, Homeland, Kitchen Sink, Bob Marley, and Maverick or any spoons that have similar colour patterns in the G-Force and Kingfisher series in the 3.5 to 4.0 sizes. Don’t forget your hootchies. Hootchies always work well over here, if not the best. The green splatter back hootchy was killer the other day with the STS green glow flasher at 157 on the rigger. A white UV hootchy is also productive a little higher up.
So as you can see, the springtime chinook fishery is in full swing with a nice strong start, just like last year. Crabbing continues to be decent as does prawning
See you on the water or in the shop,
Jason Tonelli