Vancouver BC Fishing Charters

This summer weather has made for some amazing days on the water!! Just have to make sure that you pack some sunscreen as the rays our pretty intense. This warm weather has expectedly put the Fraser River in full freshet. This has put a damper on the fishing in local waters over the last 10 days. Bites were at times tough to come by. HOWEVER,the Gulf Islands like usual from May to July have continued to fish very well. Yesterday, May 31, there was a great bite off the east side of Gabriola Island. The boats that were there all hooked a good number of fish in a short period of time. The fish that have been getting picked up in the Gulf Islands have been nice ones in the 12-25 pound range. The key to success over on the far side is to have reasonably light winds. So far this May we been successful bringing Chinook salmon back to the dock on every Gulf Island trip. The Gulf Islands will our number one choice for the next couple weeks. More options open up locally with the arrival of the big Squamish chinooks and the West Vancouver coho and chinook in coming weeks..
Areas that have been producing on the east side of Gabriola Island have been the Grande, Thrasher Rock, the Flat Tops, and further north towards Entrance Island. A lot of the fish have been offshore a little more than normal. However, yesterday there were indications that the fish may have moved into the beach where they usually are. The fish we have picked up have been quite deep down 90-190 feet on the riggers. Anchovies have been the best for us, but some guys are doing well on spoons and hootchies
Locally fishing has been a little tougher with the odd fish taken off the Bell Buoy, Hole in the Wall, Tunstall/3rd marker and Grace Islands.
Soon our summer season will be upon us and early indications look like it should be a good one. The pre season forecasts look good for sockeye (12 million returning to the local waters), pinks(15 million returning to local waters) , coho, and summer and fall Chinook.
We have done some re shuffling down on the docks down at the Westin Bayshore. We now have 3 Grady Whites from 23-27 feet and a 38 Uniflite moored and ready for charter at our dock location at the Ocean Adventure Center. Jason Tonelli , the owner of Pacific Angler has joined us at the Westin with his 27 foot Grady White Sailfish and his years of fresh and saltwater fishing experience. A great addition to the dock!!!
We also welcome our new neighbours , Prince of Whales .They will be offering high speed eco tours out of the Westin Bayshore on their speedy 12 person zodiacs. Sounds like a great way to spend a couple hours. www.princeofwhales.com
Please call or email us to book a Vancouver fishing charter. The Gulf Islands are at their best right now! We have 4 boats ready to go at our docks now that are perfect for larger corporate groups and derbies. We will also be offering our boats for charter during the Symphony of Fire in late July and early August.

TIGHT LINES JEFF AND JASON
www.bonchovy.com info@bonchovy.com 604.763.5460

A decent day on the water today!! Managed to get over to the Gulf Islands today after a few blustery days this week. Got a late start and got the gear in the water around 10am. We had 4 chinook hit the gear while we were out and managed to land a couple nice fish. We hit our fish a couple miles off Gabriola Island running the riggers between 90 to 160 feet.

The last few days have been a bit challenging due to windy conditions! The long term forecast is looking good with the winds knocking off by this Sunday. The temperatures are going to warm up as well so it should be a solid stretch of angling coming up. We fished the south side of Bowen on Tuesday and deep inside Vancouver Harbour today. Weather conditions made for challenging fishing on both days but we did end up hooking a couple chinooks on each trip. The reports from the Gabriola and Nanaimo are still REALLY GOOD with lots of chinook up to 30 pounds being caught. This is the time to do those longer runs over to Gabriola. Locally the south side of Bowen, Vancouver Harbour, and Howe Sound will continue to kick out some chinook salmon. Crabbing has been amazing in the harbour. We picked up one trap today that had 27 legal dungeness crabs in it.

This weekend had to be one of the calmest weekends we have seen on the local saltchuck for months. We had some decent results off the south end of Bowen Island on our local trip we had out yesterday. Van Herring had a nice relaxing day with enough bites to keep things interesting. The day started off with a bang with a nice 20 pound chinook salmon in the first hour. After that there was a few more bites, but they ended up being undersize chinook in the 20-24 inch. Its seems like the fishing off Bowen has slowed down a little bit comapared to the great action early in the week. Bon Chovy had a 2 day package charter over to Gabriola with really good results. Fishing was excellent on east side of the strait with lots of nice fish in the 13-20 pound range. The fish were offshore a bit. Long tacks from Thrasher to the Grande were the ticket. There were lots of boats over there and it seemed like everybody got fish. It seems like there is a whack of fish in the strait right now so we should be in for some solid angling for the next couple months, especially over on the Gulf Islands. The Gulf Islands are definately worth going to right now if you have the time and good weather!!!!

The wind spoiled our plans to fish the south side of Bowen Island this morning. Fortunately we got a good report from Pete on Hi Five that there was some decent action in the harbour a couple days ago. We trolled our way out from the QB marker out to the outer reaches of Vancouver Harbour. We worked the area for a few hours and marked some good bait on the southern shoreline. Hi Five had a crack at a few fish and we had a crack at a couple SOLID fish as well. We lost the first we hooked, but the second one stuck. The second fish we hooked took a serious run before getting tanked by a harbour seal. Luckily after a spirited battle with the chinook salmon and the seal we won the battle. The fish came in the boat and weighed in at 24 pounds!! An amazing fish for this time of year. The size of the chinook salmon so far this spring have been suprisingly large. On average the fish seemed to be 3-5 pounds larger than normal. Great to see. Reports from the south side of Bowen Island have been good over the last week when the wind is down. Nice to see to there is some fish in the harbour as well!

The good fishing continued on Saturday off the South side of Bowen Island. The bite was not as good as Friday but there were reports of fish coming from almost all the boats out thre. The fishing conditions were a little tough with a stiff NW breeze making things a little uncormfotable We had both both boats out and each boat got into some fish. Bon Chovy brought a nice 21 pound chinook back to the dock and Van Herring had a solid 15 pound chinook. A few fish were lost and couple undersize were boated as well. Pics to follow

Well after a tough week of rain and persistent winds today was the day that we were waiting for. Light winds and calm water made for ideal fishing conditions off the south end of Bowen Island. We had a family of 5 take both of our boats out this morning. It definately paid off with 7 chinook landed between 13-18.5 pounds. The day was highlighted by a triple header and a double header. Fishing was most active between 8:30am and 11am this morning. There was also some very good reports over towards the Gulf Islands as well this morning. The Gulf Islands usually start really fishing well from now until July. Should be some solid fishing coming up locally and over on the Gulf Islands. Crabbing was solid as per usual in the harbour.

Headed out off the south side of Bowen Island again this morning. The water and the fishing was good til about 10am when the wind really kicked up. We had 5 fish hit the gear in the first couple hours. Unfortunately, only one nice fish made it in the boat. It is too bad that the weather chased us home because it had the making of a really good day. Tomorrow the wind is supposed to knock off a bit so we should be able to give the area a more substantial try. Fishing was solid on the weekend with a couple fish over 30 pounds caught. Amazing fish for this time of year. The weather looks like it is going to get much better later in the week so it should be a solid stretch of fishing coming up.

Now that the Northwesterly winds have finally backed off we have had some good success on chinook salmon off the south end of Bowen Island. Fish in the 10-25 pound range have been landed over the last few days by the majority of the boats that have been fishing. We have hooked multiple fish on all of our trips over the last few days. The smaller tides and the light winds has made fishing easy over the last few days. We have been having our success primarily on anchovies 65-130 feet. Crabbing has continued to be excellent.