The fish we have caught in the Collinson area have been within an hour of slack current and close to the bottom. A lot of boats fish close to Collinson but the ones we have caught have been 2/3 of the way from Collinson to Philmore Point. No idea why. We have never fished Beaver Point but would be interested in hearing how you do if you go there. Good luck!
2024 Gulf Island Reports
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Marley
Well-Known Member
Ok thanks. Will try both spots and report back.
A-a-Ron
Well-Known Member
Pretty sure the area around Beaver Point is non retention, unless you hug the north side in 18-3. Unless I’m reading this map wrong. The NE side of Moresby in 18-4 looks open tho, and that’s a good spot to try.
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Marley
Well-Known Member
Will double check the regs. Thanks.
Got out a few times over the weekend. Fri evening put the lines down at Tumbo for about an hour. One spring close to keeper size, but went back. Sat lunch time fish at Porlier. Got a bunch of wilds, one hatch coho and on our tack through the pass into 17-3 got our keeper spring on a double header with a great wild coho. Sunday evening fished SE of the Active Pass RCA out front of boat passage over the outer rise. Got into the coho there - all we saw were wild though. Seemed to be light coloured hoochies outworking spoons all weekend until Sunday when the small green AP spoon worked best. Didn't really dial in a depth. Found coho all over the place. Springs were closer to the bottom. Saw a bunch of bait at 200+ft off Porlier, so went down there with an army truck hoochie and hooked up with a fish I only lost line to for a few mins before losing it. The few we kept were full of small anchovy. Fun weekend. The wilds were getting to be decent size. Tons of fun watching the kids try to get them in.
A-a-Ron
Well-Known Member
One Pass off Mayne in active pass. No bites. but the orcas showed up. Made for a great Gulf Island evening
Marley
Well-Known Member
Just back from 10 days on Salt Spring. Fished collision point on Monday for about 4 hrs around slack in the afternoon. Tried a ton of different flasher and spoon combos but no luck. Not a lot of bait on the fish finder.
Went south on Thursday towards Beaver Point but not quite that far. Picked up some bottom fish and saw lots of bait but no salmon around. All the bites came on teaser heads with anchovies. Lots of bait around.
I set prawn traps on the east side of Salt Spring where we normally have success. Came back after overnight and 2 sets of 2 traps were gone. I searched the area to see if the traps had moved with the tide but no luck. Thought maybe the buoys got pulled under by the current. Came back at slack tide twice but no luck. Seems that someone helped themselves to the traps.
Did some crabbing outside Ganges harbour and got a bunch of red rock but no dunganess.
Saw a bunch of boats at collision today going by on the ferry. Watching the boats through the binos. Didn’t see any nets out.
Overall a great trip. I am a bit jealous of the protection the islands offer. Even when the wind was blowing waves were small and easy to get around. Much nicer than the mainland side of the straight.
Went south on Thursday towards Beaver Point but not quite that far. Picked up some bottom fish and saw lots of bait but no salmon around. All the bites came on teaser heads with anchovies. Lots of bait around.
I set prawn traps on the east side of Salt Spring where we normally have success. Came back after overnight and 2 sets of 2 traps were gone. I searched the area to see if the traps had moved with the tide but no luck. Thought maybe the buoys got pulled under by the current. Came back at slack tide twice but no luck. Seems that someone helped themselves to the traps.
Did some crabbing outside Ganges harbour and got a bunch of red rock but no dunganess.
Saw a bunch of boats at collision today going by on the ferry. Watching the boats through the binos. Didn’t see any nets out.
Overall a great trip. I am a bit jealous of the protection the islands offer. Even when the wind was blowing waves were small and easy to get around. Much nicer than the mainland side of the straight.
Grant_J
Member
As a newbie ocean fisher (3rd year now) I'm starting to see a definite pattern with the salmon fishing around the Island. (Likely won't be news to the seasoned anglers here). Fishing within the Gulf Islands I just don't have as much success. A small bit of luck near Wain Rock, not much luck at all near south and east end of Moresby, not much luck near Tent Island, not much luck near Secretary Islands. (I know others do and have watched with envy and wondered what I'm doing wrong.) I've also been at Collinson, again no luck, but that was prior to getting downriggers and using line weights. BUT as soon I venture into the waters of either the Juan de Fuca Strait in Sooke, or Strait of Georgia in Nanaimo (Entrance) or NE corner of Galiano, my success goes way, way up. Just a simple matter of much more fish in the straits? This last Saturday we were out at the NE corner Galiano, just south of Porlier Pass, and it was a blast. Grabbed a clipped 65cm 11lb Chinook about 10-20' foot from bottom near structure in 120' of water. As I was fighting it, I pulled the other downrigger up to 10-20' so as to minimize chances of getting all tangled up. We just got the fish in the boat and then BAM, the other line went off even though we'd been drifting with the gear floating at 10-20'. That one didn't feel quite as big and it threw the hook closer to the boat, but talk about a rush of adrenalin. The swells had really picked up at this point and we decided to call it a day as both my wife and I wondered if we were going to keep our breakfast down. I feel so fortunate to have such great fishing in such a beautiful spot of the world.
Grace underfire
Active Member
I had 2 of the best days fishing (not retaining) I've ever had at Porlier earlier this year. Better than almost every day I've had on the west coast. Couldn't keep the gear in the water between the Coho and all the Chinooks we had to release. After about 2 1/2 hours my crew cried 'uncle', as they couldn't reel anymore. Still one of my favorite spots to fish too, as that's where my dad and I went as a kid.
A-a-Ron
Well-Known Member
It’s definitely more of a local knowledge fishery that’s for sure. And dependant on time of year, dancing around the regs of course. Some of the good spots are quite tide dependant and you only get a short window at slack to work it. I’d call myself a solid “intermediate” level now, if you’re thinking of heading to an area feel free to message and I’ll help out if I can. Cheers.
Squire
Well-Known Member
Just like how good salmon fishing is off Gabriola from April 1 to July 14, fishing is excellent during the non- retention periods. It’s kind of the point of the regulations to generally allow retention of fish when they aren’t present.
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Aces
Well-Known Member
I think “ bite windows “ happen all over the coast and if you know where to be, when you’re catch ratio or CPU as DFO calls it goes way up. I seen them in a few different areas and find it fascinating. Like solving a puzzle.
Having a repertoire of these are worth the effort. All the top guides and local highliners have these. Keeping a log noting weather, times and tides has payed off for me in spades.
High Time
Crew Member
The map that you posted states that there is no fishing for Chinooks from April 1 - Aug 31 in the area of 29-5 that is East and South of Porlier Pass?
A-a-Ron
Well-Known Member
The bottom corner of 17-3 could also be considered “east and south” of Porlier pass.
Squire
Well-Known Member
Yes; as per the legend on the map the orange striped area is non-retention until Aug 31st. The ‘outside’ of Valdez near Porlier is 29-5 and non-retention but the ‘inside’ is 17-3 and you can keep one slot Chinook.
And there is an RCA to avoid for a ways West of that as well.
Grant_J
Member
Holy Crap. It's not just "non retention", but No fishing for Chinook So, myself and the 8 or so other boats fishing in 29-5 on Saturday (East side of Galiano) shouldn't have been, although I suppose you could argue you weren't "fishing for Chinook" per se, but Coho or others. God help you if you retained one and then DFO comes by. The Fishing BC app, which I use to try to stay in line with the regulations, doesn't show those orange striped sections. I'm starting to really appreciate the mass frustration with the regulations.
Squire
Well-Known Member
I wouldn’t feel too bad about it if I were you. There are obviously others who didn’t dig into the regs enough to find the closures.
The cynical part of me thinks they want the regs to be complicated so when people fish in the no-go zones they can say fishermen can’t be trusted to follow them and they should just shut everything down to be sure. The ‘abundance of caution’ phrase was used a lot by the fisheries minister in defence of the Pender bluffs closure for six months when the whales are there for 7-10 days per year. Apparently science can’t compete with politics when it comes to fisheries management decisions.
If you just read the table under Salmon for area 29 it says Chinook are Open(See Restrictions) for 29-5. Toward the bottom of the Restrictions table is a link to the Strait of Georgia Chinook Closure map that shows the closed area in blue stripe.
There is another link near the top of the Salmon section under Maps called ‘Area 17 and Sub-areas 29-1 to 29-5 Nanaimo, Sechelt, Strait of Georgia: Chinook and Coho openings and other management measures’ that takes you to the map I posted.
