This is the second summer now that the number of coho that showed up in the Strait of Georgia is the best we have seen since the 80’s. With all the herring and anchovies in our local waters, the coho are maturing locally instead of heading out to the west coast of Vancouver Island. The result is some world class coho fishing in local waters and this past week was just that. We had excellent coho fishing and crabbing has been good as well.
As you can see the fishing for coho in local waters has been outstanding this past week!
Right now the coho are very shallow, up in that top 50 feet of the water column. We have been getting them as shallow as 12 feet on the downrigger on overcast days. Our go to setups consists of flashers that work well up high in the water column because they have lots of reflective tape and the coho love that. The Gibbs Twisted Sista and the Oki Betsy are the two go to flashers as well as Purple Haze, Green Haze and Purple Onion or Green Onion. UV white hootchies with a mylar tinsel inserts are always a top producer and use a shorter leader around 24-28 inches to give the hootchy lots of action.
The Gibbs Twisted Sista flasher and some UV White Hootchies ready for some coho action!
Another great way to fish coho is with a dummy flasher to get the coho close to the boat, then just fish a spoon, plug, or similar lure such as a Brad’s Super Bait Cutplug or the new Luhr Jensen Anchovy Roll off the release clip, about 5 feet back from your dummy flasher. We have all the gear you need at the shop to setup a dummy flasher rig as well a good selection of spoons, Brad’s Baits and Anchovy Rolls that all work well with this technique.
Looking ahead to chinook, the next opening will be July 15th. I am assuming the opening will be on this date, as it has been the past 4 years, and I don’t have any information that it will be otherwise. You will be able to fish for chinook and retain one between 62-80 cm just west of Gower Point. The chinook fishing there is usually not that great but the coho fishing can be good and chinook encounters are not uncommon.
For more consistent chinook fishing, we cross the Strait of Georgia and fish Gabriola Island from Thrasher Rock up to Entrance Island. The fishing the past few years has been nothing short of remarkable, with double digit days the norm, not the exception.
Double headers are not uncommon in our July and August chinook fishery!
With the amount of chinook around this year, which in my opinion is the most we have ever seen, I think the July and August fishery off Gabriola this year is going to be exceptional. Stay tuned for more on that in future reports.
See you in the shop or on the water,
Jason Tonelli