NOVEMBER 9th REPORT
Well after a very solid mature chinook salmon fishery off the Mouth of the Capilano it is now time to switch gears and start targetting the first winter chinook of the year!
Winter chinook are typically 2 or 3 year old salmon that are drawn into Vancouver Harbour and Howe Sound by the overwintering schools of baitfish. These fish are not the largest of the year, but they are eager to bite and quite scrappy for their size. The key to finding consistent numbers of winter chinook is typically a little bit of structure and the presence of bait. Areas that are good bets for winter chinook include the West Side of Bowen Island, Jericho, the freighter anchorages in Vancouver Harbour, and the West Vancouver shoreline. Winter chinook hug the bottom so be sure to be your gear within 10-20 feet of bottom for the best success. In the winter months spoons and hootchies are the way to go. Coyote spoons and Gibbs Gypsy spoons are what we have our best success on!
In November and December there can be quite a few shakers or small chinook salmon in the middle part of Vancouver Harbour. These little guys are typically between 8 to 14 inches. If you are hooking quite a few of them it is a good idea to move or run larger lures in order to minimize any mortality. There are areas that have very few shakers and better quality legal fish. Howe Sound and the West Vancouver shoreline being good examples of better producers of larger winter fish.
Crabbing will start to get quite good by the end of this month now that the commercial crabbing season is over. Spanish Banks, the inner freighters, and the West Vancouver shoreline are all good bets for dungeness crabs!!! Salmon heads and chicken backs work great in 40-80 feet. Prawning has been excellent in Howe Sound as well in 250-325 feet of water. Cat food and prawn pellets have been the ticket as per usual!!!
We are open throughout the winter!! Give us a call to get out and experience some great winter salmon fishing! Our boats are ready to go during the Christmas holidays as well…grab a few a few friends or family and come experience some good salmon fishing and crabbing minutes from downtown Vancouver!
We will be sending out frequent fishing newsletters from now on. Please go to our websiste at www.bonchovy.com to add your email to the list if you would like to receive them.
Tight Lines
Jeff and Jason
OCTOBER 1 REPORT
Now is the time to fish for big chinook salmon in Vancouver!!!!! The West Vancouver shoreline has been producing very good numbers of chinook salmon and the odd coho salmon!
The fish we have been targetting are heading up the Capilano River. This year the fishery really started on the 17th of September and has been very consistent. There has been the odd slow tide..but overall it has been very good!! On average we have been hooking 4 to 7 good fish a tide, landing 2 to 5 keepers! In the mix there has been the odd nice hatchery coho and quite a few jack chinook. As we progress into October there should be some nice chums passing by West Vancouver as well. Chums are not the greatest biters but there is always a few picked up while targetting chinook salmon.
Bait has been the ticket recently. Having said that there has been some fish picked up on white and glow hootchies as well.
Give us a call if you want fish for the big October Chinook Salmon that are 5 minutes from downtown Vancouver!!!!
Tight Lines
Jason and Jeff
www.bonchovy.com
604.763.5460
BON CHOVY REPORT....AUGUST 30/2010
Well this has been an incredible stretch of fishing over the last few weeks. The Fraser River Sockeye run has been way betterthan expected!! 30 million fish are expecteded to hit the river in August and September. We have definately seen some incredible catches over the last couple weeks with lots of charters limiting out in very short order! There has been the odd slower tide where we have had to work for our fish, but that is to be expected in fishing! It looks like the sockeye should continue to provide some great action for us for the next week or two!
Once sockeye slow down the good fishing will continue with our big chinook salmon fishery off West Vancouver in September and October. This is one of our favourite fisheries as it is typically very consistent for big chinook salmon in the 15-40 pound range and it is only 10 minutes from our dock location at the Westin Bayshore. We are expecting a great fishery this year as we will see the first returns of mature chinook salmon from our net pen project that our local guides association has been involved with!!
Give us a call to get out and experience the bumper sockeye run or to lock down a date in our trophy chinook fishery! It is definately a good time to get out there and enjoy some great fishing and the last month of summer!!!
Tight Lines
Jeff/Jason www.bonchovy.com 604.763.5460
JUNE 30 FISHING REPORT
June saw some great action! Gabriola Island was a great producer for chinooks up to 30 pounds! We had a quite few trips during the middle of the month where we hooked between 10 and 15 chinooks....fantastic action! It has slowed down over the last week, but it likely won't be long before another solid wave of chinook salmon roll in. Best depths have been between 100-200 feet. Look for bait and the salmon will likely be around it. Thrasher, the Grande, and Whalebone are all good bets. Splatterback hootchies, coyote spoons, and anchovies have all been working.
Locally there has been a few really good waves of coho salmon off West Vancouver. As we progress into July the coho will continue to build in numbers while staging to go up the Capilano River. The coho that we have been landing have been stuffed with crab larvae. We have had our best success on coho salmon running hootchies and bait..trolling quite fast! There has also been the odd decent chinook of West Van as well.
Hole in the Wall, the South Side of Bowen, and the Bell Buoy have all been kicking out chinook salmon as well. The numbers of chinook heading up the Fraser River are increasing daily so we should see some good action coming up!
Give us a call to book a charter! There should be some solid chinook and coho fishing in July!
Tight Lines!
Jeff / Jason
www.bonchovy.com
info@bonchovy.com
604.763.5460
BON CHOVY FISHING REPORT, MAY 31
We have had some solid fishing over the last couple weeks. Our best results fishing the Eastern shoreline of Gabriola Island! Thrasher Rock and the Grande have been kicking out good numbers of chinook salmon in the 10-25 pound range. There was even a 37 pound chinook and a few halibut caught over the last couple weeks! Thrasher Rock has produced well on the ebb tide and the Grande has produced well on the flood tide. There has also been some good action in the deep water off the Flat Tops as well. Hootchies and coyote spoons have definately been the ticket over there. We have been getting our bites from 100-190 feet on the riggers.
In the local waters around Vancouver there has been some decent fishing off the Bell Buoy, QA marker, and the south side of Bowen Island. Bait and coyote spoons have been the best producers from 60-130 feet.
As we progress into June we are anticipating a good coho fishery off of West Vancouver. Last year the West Vancouver shoreline really caught fire in the second week of June. The Gulf Islands should continue to have some great chinook action as well.
Crabbing has been very good off Stanley Park and Spanish Banks. We are dropping crab traps on every charter!!
Call us to book a charter! Now is the time to fish the Gulf Islands!!!
Tight Lines!
Jeff / Jason
www.bonchovy.com
info@bonchovy.com
604.763.5460
APRIL 27 FISHING REPORT
The spring chinook fishery has taken off in the last few days. We have had the best fishing of the year so far with some great action off the South End of Bowen Island. As long as the wind has stayed down fishing has been excellent. On our last few charters we had up to 15 hook ups. On average we are hooking 6-10 chinook a trip. We have even had a few early coho in the last few days...a great sign!
Hootchies and anchovies have been the ticket for us! The legal fish have been averaging between 8-21 pounds. Productive depths have been between 40-140 feet.
NOW is the time to get out there to experience some of the best chinook fishing of the year in the Vancouver area!
Crabbing has been great in the harbour as usual and traps are being set on every trip!
Tight Lines!
Jeff / Jason
www.bonchovy.com
info@bonchovy.com
604.763.5460
Vancouver Fishing Report...April 20
Fishing has finally perked up in the Vancouver area over the last week. We have had some nice chinooks back to the dock this week! We have had the bulk of our success off the Southern Tip of Bowen Island and the outer reaches of Vancouver Harbour. On Sunday, April 18th the chinook salmon fishing was quite active with a lot of boats hooking between 4-8 salmon up to 20 pounds..Now is the time when the South End of Bowen Island really picks up. There is no precision to this fishery..just set your gear between 60-150 feet and start trolling anywher from 1-8 miles off the Bowen Island shoreline. Anchovies, coyote spoons, hootchies, gibbs gypsy spoons are all good bets in the spring time.
There have been some reports of some nice fish starting to show off the Gulf Islands and further north up past Nanaimo..Last year starting right around now there was some incredible fishing on the far side of the strait. We will run over to the Gulf Islands on our longer 8 and 10 hour trips...Can be quite a day trip with some amazing scenery.
Crabbing has been really good in the harbour. We are dropping traps on every charter through the spring and early summer!
Call us to book a charter!
Jeff and Jason
www.bonchovy.com
info@bonchovy.com
604.763.5460
Bon Chovy Fishing Charters Report, March 03
Spring is just around the corner! Having said that the recent weather has made it feel like spring anyway. There has been some nice fish up to 15 pounds around over the last few weeks! The problem is that on some days it takes a lot of searching to find the fish. We have been averaging 2-4 hook ups a trip on both legal and undersize chinook salmon.
?We have been focusing our efforts primarily in Vancouver Harbour recently. The West Vancouver shoreline, the freighters, and Jericho have all been producing fish. Howe Sound and the Gulf Islands are also seeing some fish as well. We are still running spoons exclusively, but we will soon start running anchovies as per usual in the spring time. The fish are still fairly close to bottom, but it is now that time of year when the chinook salmon start to suspend more in the water column. Not a bad idea to run a line in the 60-80 foot range.
Our spring chinook fishery is just around the corner. April is often the BEST month to fish for chinook salmon in Vancouver. The fish are not the biggest of the year, but there are days out off the south side of Bowen Island where the action is very consistent. Last April was amazing! We are hoping and expecting a repeat performance this year.
Crabbing has been good in Vancouver Harbour! The crabbing will just get better and better as we progress into the spring! Traps are dropped on every charter.
Check out our blog for frequent reports and specials. www.bonchovy.com/blog
Tight lines
Jeff and Jason
www.bonchovy.com
info@bonchovy.com
604.763.5460
VANCOUVER FISHING REPORT..JANUARY 15
Well, it is mid-January but the temperatures over the last couple days have made it feel like April!! With temperatures in the low teens or upper 50's, it sure doesn't feel like winter chinook fishing. Oh well, good for the fisherman, not so good for the skiers on the mountains.
Fishing over the last couple weeks has been consistent for chinook salmon up to 15 pounds in Vancouver harbour. We have had the bulk of our success in the inner harbour on both the flood and the ebb tides. On average, we have been hooking 3-7 fish per outing (a mixture of legal and undersize fish). We have had 2 days in the last couple weeks where we have hooked 10 salmon in a trip, so if you get into them, you can get some great action. As we move later into January and February, the ratio of legal to undersize will increase.
We have had our success running coyote spoons and hootchies right off the bottom in 90-130 feet of water. The fish are very aggresive in the winter time and bait is not necessary, but is never a bad idea.
We have been dropping traps for dungeness crabs on every trip and having been doing quite well. Chicken backs or salmon heads are always good choices for crab bait.
The vancouver 2010 Olympic Games are right around the corner. Give us a call if you want to head out on the water to do some fishing or sightseeing. Winter chinook fishing is at its best in January, February, and March!!!!
Tight lines
Jeff and Jason
www.bonchovy.com
info@bonchovy.com
604.763.5460
