2017 Gulf Island Reports

Had time for a really quick fish off eastern shoreline of Galiano this afternoon, near power lines. Lines wet maybe 1 hour. Skipping on bottom in 140 ft, got one barely legal, skinny and long fish. Glow flasher with 3.5 glow spoon. It was a mill pond today.
 
Out on the weekend prawning and wasn't bad until we pulled some traps this morning and found someone else had already pulled at least two sets of our traps and put them back down without our line weights on . The trap purse strings also done up different.I guess there will always be some ignorant butt..... out there
 
The year before last we caught a couple skid balls just reaching for our scotchman to pull up one of our strings. Two guys, both with dark hair in their 50's in a two tone light tan and white 15' run about. Not sure what make but it's older like late 70's/early 80's with a (probably stolen) spray painted grey older outboard on it. No make or model name visible-all hand spray painted grey.
We were around a corner of an island and purposely came around slowly with binoculars to look at our floats first because someone had been pulling guys traps in that area. When we saw them going right for our scotchman with a grab pole we raced over. My floats are very clearly marked with huge black writing. It was no mistake of theirs. Felt like jumping on their boat and so did my buddy. Hate scum bag thieves. They said they mistook mine for theirs yet when he did go and retrieve their own they were about 300 yards away and were much smaller duller colored scotchmans with tiny writing on them. Looked nothing like mine. So once I saw that I motored over to them again and told them we could clearly tell they were bullshiting us and were purposely about to pull our traps.
I zap strap my traps and put something else on the straps that thieves wouldn't have on them so I can tell now for certain when they've been lifted by scum bags.
Very sad that we can't leave traps alone and go salmon fishing for a few hours without worrying about lazy, good for nothing thieves.
 
I'm sure I saw that boat today in the Saanich inlet. Funny because we saw him ( one guy) by our float and when we went to pull our line was it was all messed up. Sinking top shot underwater but the nylon laying on the surface, slowly being dragged down, and one trap gone. Perfect description of the boat and grey spray painted engine .
 
Running the boat across to the north end of Salt Spring for the weekend ... curious - has anyone had any reports out to either Porlier or Tent this week (or, for a slight detour on the crossing, Thrasher)?
 
Gearing up for the first outing to Thrasher or Porlier last week of April. I've picked up 15 lb cannon balls after reading most people prefer the 15's over 10's and now that I have the Scotty 1106's ... all good. Grabbed a few Guide series flashers including the famed BonChovy .......... hope it lives up to the success Jason seems to get with it on his charters.

Question for those more experienced than me ........... what size of spoons do you prefer for Thrasher or Porlier fishery?

I currently have the Coyote spoons that are about 3.5" but I'm wondering if going to the larger 5.0 or 6.0 is better for action through the May -August season?

Thx in advance for any input.
 
I fished Porlier today, we got about 17 hits, 5(10) of which were double headers. We kept 3, released another 3 legal, released 5 between 20-24" three 18" lost a few. Anchovies on the bottom were killing it in the morning, as well as a Gibbs-Delta "Skinny G," fished behind green flashers. The spoon was 4". All our hits were between 10-1pm, then stone cold until we left at 4.
 
Great report. I knew we should have dropped the lines on the was thru Porlier Pass late this a.m. ... decided to resist the temptation and run over to Tent/North Reef to drop the prawn traps. 5 hours and 40 prawns later suggested that wasn't such a good decision. Traps are spending the night off Idol Island ... will see what that brings. Will either try Porlier or the hump off Bowen on the way back on Sunday.
 
FullSizeRender.jpg Dropped the lines yesterday afternoon for a couple hours at Porlier on the way back to Vancouver. Picked up 3 between 10 and 13 lbs and had a couple other good fish on. Much better half happily outfished me 2 to 1. All caught just off bottom and one each on an anchovy, skinny g and a pesca spoon. All three fish had been feeding on anchovies.
 
Dropped the crab and prawn traps today off of Chemainus, caught our 8 crab for the 2 of us and caught 86 prawns. Just wondering what others normally get out of their prawn traps, just trying to figure out what we're doing wrong or is that just what the prawning is like out here? we have had a few days where we catch our limit (400 between the 2 of us) and then days where we catch less then 100 in the same area with the same bait and everything?
 
Teja said:
View attachment 32496 Dropped the lines yesterday afternoon for a couple hours at Porlier on the way back to Vancouver. Picked up 3 between 10 and 13 lbs and had a couple other good fish on. Much better half happily outfished me 2 to 1. All caught just off bottom and one each on an anchovy, skinny g and a pesca spoon. All three fish had been feeding on anchovies.
Click to expand...

Teja, great catch man. When you say "just off bottom" can you put numbers to that ............ depth to bottom and downrigger reading. Being in the "still learning" phase, I'm always paranoid of getting within fifty feet of bottom in fear of getting snagged on something if the contour takes a sudden rise. I get the bottom bouncing strategy, is that simply a risk you must be willing to take being right near bottom because that is where the fish hang?
 
Benham99 said:
Teja, great catch man. When you say "just off bottom" can you put numbers to that ............ depth to bottom and downrigger reading. Being in the "still learning" phase, I'm always paranoid of getting within fifty feet of bottom in fear of getting snagged on something if the contour takes a sudden rise. I get the bottom bouncing strategy, is that simply a risk you must be willing to take being right near bottom because that is where the fish hang?
Click to expand...
Fishing on the outside of Porlier Pass (i.e. the Vancouver side) and running down Galiano, the depths are pretty stable and the bottom is generally very forgiving (different matter if you run the other way up along Valdes ... I have lost gear up there). Personally, over the years, I have liked to fish in the contours between 165 to 185 feet deep but you will see others (probably smarter than me) fishing in the +/- 200 foot contours. Winter time and early spring, I like to keep to downrigger ball in the bottom 5 feet when fishing out there. The 3 fish we kept kept yesterday were all in +/- 170 feet of water and I expect were within 2 to 3 feet of bottom.
 
Oh boy, I've put a lot of gas throught my tanks the last week or so, can't recall the last day I didn't fish. I've put in 4 days at porlier, and 2 at salamanca. Always limits or very close right down on the bottom. I started fishing 14 lb balls and they work well. 6 keeper chinook yesterday, and the fishing was pretty slow.
 
Got out to Porlier this morning 8:30 - 12:00. First day fishing for me this year. Bite came on for us around 10. A couple doubles too. Managed 3 keepers, with the biggest at 9lbs. Most of the bites were on an irish cream spoon, some on anchovies. Caught a couple of sole too. (Note to self: check lines often). Only bait we marked was on the bottom at 300'. Algae has showed up - that stuff sure gums up the lines. Good luck out there, hopefully some larger fish roll in.
 
Was at Porlier Sat April 22. Could not keep fish off the line. Actually switched to plugs (5" to 7") on a single line (trying to enjoy a drink) and still kept busy. Couldn't even get the rigger stacked before a fish on. The water was light brown and low vis with loads of algae. Ran spoons, anchovy, plugs - anything with a hook worked.

20ish Strikes at 50' 130' 180' and 200'. Feeders from 6-11lbs. Only a few undersized. Seals were there, but not a problem. All fish caught w/o bait or fish arcs showing on sounder.

All fish had herring in the gut, bigger fish had bigger herring. 5" coyote in cop car did too well, had to switch it out ;-)
 
Planning on heading out to polier on Saturday, was out last Saturday and managed 2, lost a couple and released some shakers. Does anyone have any recent reports? My success was in about 200feet of water and about 100feet on the rigger. And are most guys still trolling short leaders on their spoons or are most starting to make them long again? Thanks
 
Was out this afternoon spoons and hoochies deep and shallow and not a bite. Huge tides rite now. Algae is very thick, no bait marked although an incredible amount of bird activity.
 
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