Mid August Fishing Update
It has definitely been a bit of a different summer so far! We have had some unseasonably hit or miss local fishing and some productive days on our full day trips to the far side of Georgia Strait. This coming week is typically when the first big push of Fraser River Red chinook hit local waters! We are ready, waiting and hoping as it has been a struggle on quite a few of our half day charters.
Our local fishery in Vancouver Harbour that we typically rely on in July and August has been pretty frustrating. We have had the odd good day, but we have also had our fair share of frustrating ones. There has been a few waves of coho salmon that have rolled in over the last couple weeks, but they have not stuck around all that long. We will have a couple good days, then a stretch of slow ones. They likely got encouraged to move into the river with the few rain events that have occurred. We are hoping for another wave of coho salmonto show, but it is likely that our next fishery to start heating up will be for chinook salmon bound for the Fraser River. Historically they usually show around the 15th in good numbers, so ideally it will be any day or tide now.
On a brighter note, we have had quite a bit of success fishing the eastern shoreline of Gabriola Island on our full day trips over the last couple weeks. There has been decent numbers of fish in the 10 to 30 pound range. We have been getting them pretty deep down 160 to 240 feet. On a few charters we have connected with as many as a dozen good chinook salmon! We are hoping that some of these fish will move towards the Fraser River Mouth soon so we do not have to run so far!
Mid August is typically a solid time of year in local waters. The approach areas to the Fraser River are typically where the majority of the action will be. Areas like the Bell Buoy, Mile Markers, QA, T 10, North Arm, Sandheads and the Coal Ports will all start to see waves of returning chinook salmon.
Gear wise we have been using a lot of Yamashita Glow Hootchies while fishing deep in the Gulf Islands. Good colour combos have been the chartreuse spackleback, green spackleback, and straight glow. The Hootchies have been paired up with Gibbs Delta Guide Series Flashers. (STS, Madi, Bon Chovy, Lemon Lime) In local waters we have been mixing things up with G Force Spoons, Skinny G's, anchovies and Glow Hootchies all behind our favourite Guide Series Flashers.
Sturgeon fishing has been good in the Fraser River and all of our trips have been successful over the last few weeks. This fishery will be a good bet well into the fall. Most fish are between 3 and 6 feet, but there has been the odd 8 footer caught as well! You never know on the Fraser, there are some giants!
We are quite booked up over the next week, so please get in touch with us sooner than later if you would like weekend dates in August and September. We still have some good dates and tides later in August and September.
Tight lines!
