Fishing continues to be excellent, so lets look at your options this weekend. The first thing to do is look at the winds, and for the most part they look great. Once we get past this bit or rain today, it looks like the sun is going to be out for the better part of the weekend. So the winds are good, it’s going to be sunny, and there are lots of fish around, so get out there!
For chinook it has been another great week around South Bowen with fish from Cowan up to Roger Curtis and lots of fish out on the Hump as well. Productive depths have been from 60-140 on the riggers. Bait, spoons and hootchies have all been productive and here is a picture of some of the chinook gear we have been using.
There have been some reports of coho off South Bowen in around 600 feet of water and out on the Hump. Productive depths on the riggers are from 25 feet down to about 65 feet. It wasn’t on fire for coho this past week but that can change very quickly. We are hearing about big schools of coho off Nanaimo and also some decent coho action off Thrasher.
If you are planning on making the crossing, fishing has been excellent over there as well. The same gear pictured above will work over there for chinook and coho, and depths are similar, especially for the coho. Sometimes the water is a bit cleaner over there and you will find chinook deeper, even down around 200 on the riggers on a sunny day. Bottom fishing has been decent as well.
A quick reminder you can retain 2 hatchery coho a day and there is non-retention of chinook until July 15 and Aug 1 (depends on the area). Crabbing has been very good lately and should stay that way until the commercial fleet opens up in a couple of weeks.
See you in the shop or on the water,
Jason Tonelli