Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report
Well, that was some true winter weather these past few weeks and for the most part it did keep many of us off the water. It’s hard to head out when the boats and docks are frozen solid, and the water is shut off. Luckily things have thawed out and heated up a bit, including the fishing.
We have been out a few times this week and the fishing has been very good. There just seems to be good numbers of fish around in general. I am hearing a lot of good reports from further up the mainland coast as well as from mid Island down into the Gulf Islands. It has been good for about 3 and a half months, so the jury is in. This is one of the better winter chinook seasons in recent memory.
PA Guides Derek and Mike had a good day recently, putting 4 nice chinook in the boat!
It will be interesting to see where these fish are from once, we get the DNA data back, but there certainly seems to be a good amount of hatchery fish around. Most of these will be from WA.
There are also a lot of seals around. We are getting sealed on a regular basis in pretty much every spot we fish. Not good, but luckily there are enough hook ups that we are also putting some nice fish in the boat. With the seals around, it is not necessarily a bad thing if you are fishing a spot with other boats. More boats equal more targets for the seal, so you have a better chance of landing your fish. If you are the only boat in a spot that has seal, expect to lose that fish when you hook up. Frustrating to say the least.
For gear, the usual go to items have been working. The brighter gear has been productive lately. Chartreuse flashers with glow like the Lemon Lime and Salty Dawg have been doing well paired up with chartreuse splatter back hootchies or spoons like the Irish Cream and Trailhead in a Skinny G or 3.5 G-Force. The fish have been close to the bottom as usual, although we have seen a little bit more suspended bait than normal for this time of year.
Prawning has been decent in the popular spots, but I suspect that will change once more people get out winter fishing in February and March when it warms up.
In the meantime, we are experiencing some great chinook fishing and solid prawning, so if you have cabin fever after this last cold spell, give Lee a call at 778-788-8582 to book a trip.
See you in the shop or on the water.
Jason Tonelli