Fall Fishing – November 2009

The summer and fall runs of all five species of Pacific salmon have now departed up the river to complete their annual migrations. It’s now time to fish winter Chinook salmon. This is one of our favorite times of the year to fish. Our company has been one of the very few companies to target this fishery. For the past 30 years we have exposed the fact that from early November till mid April winter Chinook salmon fishing in the Vancouver area is one of the best producing fisheries of the whole year. These are feeder Chinook salmon, which are growing at a very fast rate and are some of the most aggressive feeding fish of the year. They are feeding on the baitfish; herring, anchovy and needlefish. These schools of baitfish have been very prevalent in our local waters this November.

The 2009 winter fishery has started very well. Most of our charters have been hooking up to 15-25 fish per trip. The salmon have to be 24.5inches/62cms in length to retain. Most of the winter Chinook have been under this size limit. We have been out chartering on nearly a daily basis and this has allowed us to establish their winter pattern. This pattern tends to vary from year-to-year. We are now seeing some keeper size fish and this trend will continue to build. The guides have been targeting and have been concentrating on depths of 80 feet to the bottom (135 feet). We use mostly spoons behind flashers. Some of spoons being used are, four-inch green/glow Coyotes spoons and 2.5/3 inch silver spoons.

Crabbing season has started and this is a favorite activity for our guests.  The commercial season doesn't stop until December 1st. Dungeness crabs right now are small to medium size. We set traps with every charter.

Our company has bigger boats that are covered and heated. This makes for a more comfortable trip. Give us a call for further information. This February is Canada's winter Olympics in Vancouver and we've had more response than normal for the January/February time period. We are a large company and can accommodate you but booking early may be advisable.

Tight Lines: Kevin Addie

Fall Fishing – October 2009

The fishing for the big Chinook salmon is starting to slow down as we are now in mid October. The peak of this run seemed to be in late August-September.  The run for 2009 was stellar. We had one of our best runs in many years. Our guides were able to produce fish on a consistent basis.  Many of these salmon were in the trophy size range. This includes Chinook into the mid 40lbs range and Coho in the 16-17lbs range.

It's time to target one of our favorite fisheries, the winter Chinook salmon. Look for the early November update

.Tight Lines: Kevin Addie

Fall Fishing – September 2009

Big Big Fish!
We've hah five fish over 40 pounds landed this fall with many high 30-40lbs fish lost. Terry and Andrew, two of our guides, both caught salmon in the 43-44 lbs range. The average size Chinook has between 23-35 lbs. There has been lots of Jack Springs this fall with quite a few trips hitting over a dozen fish per trip. We are still using bait in the Capilano River area. We are still catching the odd pink salmon and the Chum salmon are here.

Tight Lines: Kevin Addie

Summer Fishing – June/July 2009

It's still time to go fishing. The Spring fishery throughout June has been hot. The Spring run which lasted from April through early June has been exceptional, with Chinook salmon up into the 30lbs range. We have been fishing mostly the mouth of the Frasier River, the south side of Bowen Island and the Gulf Islands. We are using bait, mostly, Anchovy, between 60-110 feet of depth and it has been producing well. We have also been bottom fishing in the Gulf Islands and the Ling cod and Rock cod fishing has been excellent.

Mid-June has seen us move into the West Vancouver area for the Coho salmon run. These fish are from 2-9 lbs in range. It is not uncommon to hit a dozen or more fish on a five-hour charter.
The crab season is now at its peak and catches are excellent. We drop traps on every trip and season with last until the beginning of July then the commercial season will take over. The 1st two weeks in July have seen a steady Coho fishery with quite a few Chinook being caught by our guides. If the summer catches are any indication of the rest of the year, this is going to be a stellar year.
    

Its mid July and have seen a steady stream of 15 - 25 lbs Chinook salmon being cleaned by our guides on the fish table on Granville Island. We are starting to catch the odd Pink salmon, there should be 12-14 million Pinks come through to spawn in the next two months.

Tight Lines: Kevin Addie

Spring Fishing – April/May 2009

It's time to go fishing! We have had high numbers of Chinook salmon present in our local waters. The Vancouver area has been blessed with some of the best salmon fishing on the West Coast this Spring. This fishery started to produce some nice keeper size fish at the end of March and the schools have grown as we approach May. The size of these winter spring salmon have been surprising, with most keeper fish been in the 14lbs to 17lbs range.

Some of the bigger salmon have been into the low 20lb. pound range. April 30th produced the biggest fish of the year so far for the Vancouver area, as two of our guides Terry and Gary boated a 33lb. King salmon! As we head into the month of May, we'll see the first of our spring spawning salmon arrive. This group of fish should produce very well and average between 12lbs. and 25lbs.

We are fishing mostly off the south end of Bowen Island. Most of our guides have had luck with four inch Coyote spoons; especially green/glow, and black/white and Army Truck. Our guides have also been running "anchovy" bait and some hootchies like Purple Haze and Army Truck. We have been fishing depths of between 60ft and 120ft.The middle of English Bay is still producing nice fish with the last week being very productive. Soon we will be fishing Bell Buoy and the Q-A marker area as well as the south end of Bowen Island. Dropping a crab pot adds some fun to each trip as we have been bringing home some nice keepers for dinner.Enjoy the charter salmon pictures that we snapped in March/April 2009 and I'll update you later in May as the fishery changes.

Tight Lines: Kevin Addie

Spring Fishing – February/March 2009

February 12, 2009 English Bay, Vancouver.

We had a fabulous summer/fall season as the fishing and the weather were excellent! The last 2 years are ones to remember with record runs of Chinook and incredibly consistent salmon fishing. The weather continues to cooperate with mild winter temperatures. Salmon fishing has been steady these past weeks – we’ve experienced some beautiful sunny days on quiet ocean waters which is a favorite time to be out for some locals and visitors. Our boats are covered and heated so that makes angling very pleasant at this time of the year. Currently, anglers are catching lots of winter springs in the 8 to 14 lb range with a 22 lb. King caught off the Cap this week! However, we are releasing lots of “shakers” on each charter. We are fishing deeper at 80 to150 feet of water with a variety of gear attracting fish – spoons and hootchies are the most successful; we are not running bait in Feb. We prefer the glow army truck, glow pickle green and glow blood/bones hootchies with 4” Coyote glow white/green or black/white also attracting catch. These feeder kings will continue to increase in size throughout the upcoming months. Our winter fishery is usually very consistent with action and multiple fish caught on charters. The two best locales for chasing winter chinook are relatively close to the docks, in English Bay or along the south and west side of Bowen Island. Some people fish with no flashers due to the incredible water clarity at this time of year. Tide changes are not as critical in the winter months, which is a good thing as there are fewer choices of departure times with these short days. The largest fish caught for the 2007 season was landed by a guest from Vancouver and her salmon weighed in at 45 lbs. The 2008 season brought us multiple trophies of 42-45 lbs. We mainly target Chinook (kings), coho (silvers), and sockeye depending on the season with the odd pink and chum runs enjoyed when they materialize in sufficient numbers. Crabbing season in the local area remains a favorite activity for charter guests, and we are seeing great productivity in our crab pots lately, although the keeper crabs are of small to medium size this time of year.  

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