It’s early June and usually the chinook fishing at Thrasher is great this time of year, but if you were out this last week you would have experienced the much slower than normal fishing in this area. The weekend was particularly slow fishing and lots of good boats got one or none. After the great fishing we had this winter and on the Hump in April and May, the fishing this last week is admittedly disappointing for the first week of June. We have a full moon that just passed this Tuesday and a high-pressure ridge with NW winds so this could be the formula for some good fishing in the coming week. Often once the full moon passes the fishing turns on and the NW wind seems to favour the fishing in this area as well. The trick will be getting there. As I write this report late Thursday evening the forecast does not look good for a crossing, especially later in the weekend or on Monday with a forecast of NW winds up to 20-30 knots. Hopefully the winds aren’t as strong as predicted and we can get over there to see what the fish have in store. We are likely going to sneak across this morning (Friday) with some clients, very early in the morning, to catch the high slack, then comeback early before the NW picks up. If you do make it across to Thrasher the fish continue to be caught rather deep in the clear water. Try 150-225 on the downriggers. We mentioned what flashers and lures to use in detail on past posts, so at the risk of being repetitive I will skip that in today’s report. To read past reports where flashers and lures are mentioned, go to our blog on our website and read past late May reports for 2015.
Also as we mentioned in previous reports, don’t discount the “Hump” off S. Bowen. There have been chinook caught there all week and some days a lot more than at Thrasher. There have also been some coho caught as well, perhaps some of these are Capilano coho, but as of yet we have not caught any hatchery coho off the Hump. Productive depths off the Hump have been 90-130. Usually a little deeper if it is really sunny and a little shallower on darker days.
Dimitri’s guest all smiles with one of the rare Thrasher Rock fish from this past week.
We have been asked a few times about coho off W. Van by anglers coming into the shop, but we haven’t heard of much or seen much yet. In years past there have been fishable numbers around by mid June, so it is worth checking out. We are usually fishing Thrasher a lot this time of year so we don’t put much effort into the coho fishery until Thrasher slows down in late June. If you are looking for a local trip or a quick morning fish, give the W. Van shoreline a try and you might get into some of the first coho of the year. Early in the year the fish tend to be aggressive and shallow. Troll fast with an Oki’ Tackle Purple Onion flasher to a white or UV white hootchy with a short, 28 inch leader. For depths keep your gear from just under the surface down to 60 feet, but usually the 15-35 foot range is productive, especially in the morning.
See you on the water or in the shop,
Jason Tonelli