Home / Uncategorised / Vancouver Salmon Fishing Report: Friday May 5, 2017

Vancouver Salmon Fishing Report: Friday May 5, 2017

Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report

The good fishing continued this past week. When the winds allowed we were running over to Thrasher and there are still lots of fish over there and I don’t anticipate this changing anytime soon. Hot depths have been 90-150 on the riggers. Locally we are doing well from the Bell Buoy, out to the QA, and then out to the SE or SW corner of the Hump. The fish have been a little shallower on this side because the water is dirtier from the North Arm Fraser River flows and algae blooms. 70-110 has been good on the riggers. Crabbing has also been good.

It was all thumbs up with Captain Eddie + his guests this week!

We have a special treat for you this week. Most of you who are regulars at the shop know that Andre Stepanian is a hardcore fly fisherman who specializes in beach fishing, cutthroat fishing and chironomid fishing. Perhaps you have taken one of the many courses he teaches at the shop. What you may not know is that he is also very passionate about fishing plugs for salmon. He loves the big hits and fighting the fish with no flasher. Plugs are certainly fun to fish, and productive as well. When you fish plugs you troll fast and cover lots of water. This makes them a great choice for finding schools of fish in open water, like when fishing offshore Thrasher. Combine that with the fact that the bait in the area has been 6-8 inches and you have the perfect scenario to fish plugs. Andre did just that the other day and here is his report.

I went out last weekend to Thrasher to fish Tomic plugs for chinook. This is my favourite way to fish, especially when the fishing is so hot and the fish are feeding aggresively. The tides were not the best last weekend but we still managed to hit 9 fish and land 4, fishing a short period of the day. We got there at 10:00 am and after putting the Tomic down to 130 feet, a fish was on it in less than 5 minutes. I fished a 5-6 inch Tomic #546 and switched to a #900 (see pics) as the skies opened and sun started shining down.

One important trick I will let you know is to have the knot super tight on top of the ring for better action. Another good tip is to troll fast. Your speed should be faster than you would usually fish a flasher with bait. There are a number of theories on how far back you should set the plug off the release clip, but I prefer to keep it very short, only 6 feet off the clip. I find the shorter distance gives the plug a faster action that these chinook seem to like. If you haven’t tried fishing Tomics, now is the time to do it as these fish are really aggressive and the takes are vicious. Try it and don’t loose hope too quickly, keep the plug on all day and have confidence in it. You just might get hooked on fishing plugs! If you would like to find out more tips and tricks on fishing Tomic plugs come to the store for more of an in depth conversation and check out our selection.

Andre.