Vancouver BC Fishing Charters

After hooking a handful of above average winter chinook salmon on Thursday morning, we were hoping for a repeat performance. We left the dock at the Westin Bayshore at 8am and were treated to a beautiful sunrise. The wind was down and the water looked perfect when we dropped the gear. Things started off fairly well with 3 decent hits in the first 90 mins. Unfortunately, we were only able to landed 1 out of the first 3 hits. The fish was a keeper that was just legal. After the tide started ripping the bait dispersed and we went searching the harbour for some activity. We did not find too much out there besides little guys. We hooked a better fish briefly on the way back to the inner harbour on the QB/siwash tack. Around 1:30 we hooked a fish and played him to the back of the boat. Unfortunately, the fish got off right by the net. It looked like a fish that could have been a borderline keeper. We wrapped things up around 2 pm to go grab the crab traps. There was LOTS of crabs! All in all not a bad day out there. Would have been nice to find those 13-15 pound chinook salmon we were hooking on Thursday.

Had another real solid day on the water today. We got an early start at daybreak to catch the early morning tide in the inner Vancouver Harbour. We dropped the lines just as the flood was petering out. We hit our first fish on the slack tide, a beautiful 13 pound chinook. The hits kept on coming for the first couple hours of the ebb tide. We hit 4 more fish, landing another solid winter chinook of 14 pounds (which we released to swim another day) , a 22 inch chinook, and lost 2 more nice chinook in the 10-15 pound range. We did a few laps around the QB and found a bunch of little guys. We trolled back a little tighter into the harbour to get out of the nursery and picked up a nice 10 pound chinook before wrapping it up for the day. Overall a real good day with 3 legal chinook to the boat in the 10-14 pound range, a couple good fish that got off, and a few underize. Nice to see some good quality in local waters. There was a lot more bait around today than earlier in the week. Should be good for the next while if the bait sticks around.

14 pounder Todd released to swim another day!!

Headed out for a few hour this afternoon with my good friend Jason Tonelli, owner of Pacific Angler, a local tackle shop in Vancouver. We set up off West Vancouver shortly after 2 pm. We hooked and landed a real nice 10-12 pound chinook on our first pass . The next bite we had was an hour later and to our amazement a 2 pound hatchery coho came to the boat…. amazingly early!!!!! I have never personally seen a legal coho this early in the year.. Hopefully a sign of things to come this year. J. Tonelli mentioned he landed a couple small coho in December as well. Maybe there is an outside chance of seeing some blueback coho in Georgia Strait this year!! We landed an undersize chinook just before we picked the lines up at 4:45 closer to the freighters.

Another beauty day in Vancouver Harbour today. A perfect mid winter bluebird day. We even got sunburnt! Fishing was a little more challenging today than the last few times out. We dropped in around the QB marker around 9am and began trolling through some reasonably consistent bait balls. We got a few bites but they were all shaker sized salmon. Good practice for the young guys on board. We then started getting flanked by seals so we picked up and ran to the West Van shoreline. We hooked an undersized that was immediately tanked by a seal before the low slack. During the low slack we hooked a real nice fish that came off shortly after the hook set. Popped the clip and started taking off right away so would have been nice to see it. That hookup was shortly after we arrived so things were looking good …until…… an extremely persistent seal decided to spend his and our entire day following us. We picked the gear up a handful of times to relocate but somehow he managed to find us each time. We hooked a keeper halfway through the flood that also got off and that was pretty well it for the day. Little bit of a frustrating day. We got a whack of dungeness crabs in the trap to finish up the charter. One of our local guides picked up a 27 pound chinook yesterday morning in Howe Sound. Quite often there is a shot of big fish between now and mid February.

Nice water over the last couple days have made for relaxing fishing. It looks like the 19 day fog bank has finally burned off as well.

Fishing has remained productive over the last couple days. Yesterday, the 23rd we fished the inner harbour with some decent action. We landed one legal chinook, released an undersized and got unlucky on 5 more decent bites. Crabbing was awesome with 16 keepers for 4 guests. Today was a little slower but we still managed to get a few hook ups. We landed a legal chinook, a couple undersize chinook, lost a decent fish and missed a couple light bites. We dropped the gear at 9:45am and pulled the pin at 2:30 today. Crabbing was solid again. We have been getting our bites on coyotes and anchovies. There was less bait kicking around over the last couple days. Nice to see some consistent fishing after the tough months in November and December. We have brought keepers back to dock on the last 4 trips.

A winter chinook and a trap full of dungeness crabs from yesterday

FISHING CONTINUES TO IMPROVE IN VANCOUVER. WE HAD A GOOD DAY IN THE INNER HARBOUR TODAY. DROPPED THE GEAR AND STARTED TROLLING JUST BEFORE THE HIGH SLACK TIDE THIS MORNING. WE WERE INTO FISH RIGHT AWAY. BETWEEN 9:15AM AND 10:45AM WE HOOKED 4 CHINOOK SALMON. ONE DECENT KEEPER, 2 THAT WERE JUST UNDER THE LEGAL SIZE LIMIT, AND LOST ONE. FISHING SLOWED DOWN AFTER THE TIDE CHANGE. WE HOOKED A REAL BEAUTY OFF THE QB MARKER IN THE EARLY AFTERNOON THAT SPAT THE HOOK BACKS AT US. THAT WAS IT FOR THE DAY. WE PULLED THE PIN AT 2 PM AND HEADED BACK TO THE WESTIN BAYSHORE. STOP TO PICK UP THE CRAB TRAPS ON THE WAY AND WERE PLEASED TO FIND A DOZEN KEEPERS WAITING INSIDE.

A NICE CHINOOK FROM THIS MORNING

Made it back out on the water for a few hours on Sunday. We dropped the gear on the low slack tide and fished a couple hours into the flood. The water was beautiful with no more than a few knots of wind. In a few hours of fishing we managed to pick up a nice winter spring around 9 or 10 pounds and lose another. The fish both came on coyote spoons, one at 80 feet and the other at 100 feet. Upon cleaning the fish I found 3, 2 inch sticklebacks in its stomach, nothing else. This is the first time I can remember cleaning a winter chinook from the harbour with sticklebacks in its stomach.

The tides look real good towards the end of the week with a good early morning high slack tide!!

Craig with the first keeper chinook salmon of 2009

VANCOUVER HARBOUR REPORT   JAN 9/09
Yesterday, January 9 I decided to take advantage of the good weather and favourable mid day tide to fish the West Vancouver shoreline.  It had been a little while since the boat had a good run and the lines were wet so I went out by myself.   I heard of a  couple decent fish coming from the Harbour  over the last week.
I started at 10:30 on the low slack and fished through  the first few hours of the flood.   4 fish hit the gear in the 3.5 hours I was out.  The two fish I landed were a little shy of the legal limit but decent winter fish.  The other two hits did not connect but looked like they could have been reasonable fish.  I was running a couple rods off the bottom with a coyote spoon on one rod and a purple haze hootchie on the other.  Another local regular picked up a nice 12 pounder right beside me as well.  Most of the bait in the area was found was on the ledge off the flats .   We are planning on getting out on Sunday the 11th so there should be an updated report on the blog.

Jason