Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report
Happy opening day off the mouth of the Fraser! In fact, pretty much the vast majority of the Strait of Georgia, including the Fraser mouth area, is back to a 2 chinook per day limit, 62cm or greater, no max size, the fish can be hatchery or wild.
These Fraser fish are shallow, not generally feeding, and respond best to bait fished in a teaser head with a 6-foot leader and a flasher. For depths try 25 to 75 on the downriggers with that 35 to 55 zone usually being the best. Sometimes they will be a bit shallower or deeper depending on time of day and light conditions.
A larger Fraser River chinook caught off the Bell Buoy this morning on one of our trips!
On your shallowest rod try an Oki Betsy flasher. This chrome flasher works great with a similar chrome Rhys Davis anchovy teaser head. On your mid to deeper rods try a Gibbs Green Onion Glow or Chartreuse Lemon Lime flasher with similar glow green or glow green/chartreuse teaser head. We have been using 5.5 to 6.0 inch anchovies and also doing very well using the “green” size herring. These are a med/small herring that fit well in the Rhys Davis anchovy classic teaser head and the two together give you a great roll for chinook.
Some productive teaser heads
From the fishing reports this morning and the test sets on the Fraser, it does appear some of the chinook pushed up the river with that rain and low-pressure system we just had. Regardless, fishing has been decent this morning and there will definitely be some great days going forward.
The even better news is there are still hundreds of thousands of chinook on the way. The Harrison River chinook run is estimated at 110,000 chinook this year and they are just starting to show up. That number doesn’t include the Vedder/Chilliwack return and in recent years the hatchery released 2,000,000 chinook smolts and the survival rate has been good for these fish. At 5% that’s another 100,000 fish on the way. So, the rain the past few days and today’s wind didn’t do us any favours, but there are some big pushes of chinook inbound and they are the largest of the year as well.
A couple of mid 30’s Tyees from last week that were caught off Gabriola. Very likely Harrison or Vedder “white springs” on their way to the Fraser mouth
Also take note of this. We are still having amazing days in the Gulf Island! Check out this catch from just a few days ago. There are LOTS of chinook still in the Gulf Islands and Nanaimo area, so we always have the option of going there on our longer trips. We have great fishing there all of September. Lingcod and rockfish are also open there until the end of this month. So, I highly recommend booking a longer trip so we can assess where the best fishing is and hit the Fraser Mouth or the Gulf Islands. With those 2 options in the playbook, you are going to have a productive day.
Chinook, coho, pinks, lingcod and rockfish from a full day Gulf Island trip last week
See you in the shop or on the water,
Jason Tonelli