The crowds have definitely thinned out this past week, which is pretty normal as a lot of anglers are putting their boats away for the season. If you are like us, and you keep your boats in the water and saltwater fish 12 months a year, I will be covering some winter maintenance tips in future reports. In the meantime, let’s take a look at what is going on locally for salmon.
The action down at the South Arm has been hit or miss. There have been some pretty dry days, but there were also a few days this week where some good waves of coho showed up and anglers did well for hatchery coho. Keep in mind these fish are not pausing. They are going to find that Fraser flow and head up on that flood tide, so the fishing changes extremely fast. You can be skunked one day and be into a lot of fish the next day or even the next tide on that same day. If you want to target coho, try hootchies in white, UV white, or mother of pearl on white. Flash is a good thing for these fish so a mylar insert is worth the extra effort. Spoons will work too, but I like hootchies as you can troll fast to cover water and they still have a good action. I like to rig them with two hooks, which helps put more coho in the box on most days, because if you have fished for coho, you know they love to twist and roll, and you lose a lot. I usually use a 28 to 32 inch leader of 40 or 50 pound Maxima and twin 5/0 hooks. For flashers, I like UV Green or UV purple flashers like Gibbs or Oki Green or Purple Onion or Green or Purple Haze.
Some productive flashers and hootchies for South Arm coho
Don’t be surprised if you get a chinook while targeting coho. There are still a few around but numbers in the test sets have dropped off since Oct 1. Chum numbers have really cranked up the past few days so you might tag into one of these as well. Coho numbers look pretty steady.
Eddie’s guest with a chinook from the South Arm on a trip from last Sunday
The “Cap” has been pretty slow this past week, producing the odd fish, including a few bigger ones, which if you follow our guide page on Instagram (@pacificanglersportfishing) you will have seen the pictures. One would think the rain this weekend will get any fish around to stack up off the mouth and if the river comes up, I am sure they will take off upriver, but you might get a good day before they do. It is worth a try, as we have had some good fishing in similar setups over the years. The fishing pressure has certainly subsided, so at least there is that going for this location.
See you in the shop or on the water,
Jason Tonelli