2024 OFFISHALL Vancouver-Howe Sound-Sechelt Reports Thread

[PNWMatt88]

The boat around the piling at waterfall was a dive boat. There were people diving the reef for a few hours Sunday around noonish

Ahh, ok that would make sense! Thank you for the info! Were you out over the weekend? Looking at your profile picture I think I remember seeing your boat out and about...

 

[A-a-Ron]

Here it goes... I had a great trip up to VAN/Howe Sound this weekend! First off, I appreciate everyone who helped throw some pointers out/shared intel and a few who even shared their phone numbers with me. We arrived at Vanier at 4:30PM on Friday. Launched the boat, motored around the corner to Coal Harbour/Bayshore West. We ended up getting the Westin Hotel to work with us and let us keep the single axle trailer in a parking space for the weekend and just paid self-park rate...So was nice to have close and secured. We met up with another Arima owner/new friend Saturday morning. Dropped Crab Pots at Pt. Akinson and Shrimp Pots near Seymour. Headed to Tunstall, then Grace...They left for the day, we finished up at Waterfall.... Only had 2 fish to the boat Saturday...Both short, 19-20". Tons of bait at Waterfall in afternoon, but no bites. Sea Lions didn't seem to be roaming, just beached up on homeowner's docks. Pulled prawn gear and buddies 4 pots had enough for 4 limits plus a little extra..they set within 300 yards of us... Our two pots had...8 Shrimp. So my theories are: either I set incorrectly, the pots rolled or were not fishing right... the mesh was too large or worse case, someone saw my out of state buoy and decided to pull it. Crab pots came up with 2 limits plus some... We repeated Sunday with the same schedule, except this time we first fished the Bell at day break for a couple hours.. Ended up with 5 to the boat and released there, all 18"-23", too small...The dumped Pots at same locations...Passed Tunstall with only 3 boats fishing and didn't seem too active. We found a lot of boats fishing Waterfall and fell in line to begin the troll... We worked the area for a few hours, there was a commercial boat circling the Piling/marker post out there for like 30 minutes + straight...Any idea what they were doing? Looked like a long liner or prawn boat checking bottom. We hooked 3 fish and landed 2 there...Once again, too small. Headed back South and caught 2 Orcas heading up the Sound near Tunstall. That was a hilight for me...We don't get to see many Orcas in Central/South Puget Sound (Seattle). Pulled gear and same story...Almost exact same spot for Prawn gear...for 3 shrimp total. Using shrimp pellets soaked in blood/fish oil juice, added in chunks of Salmon Bellies, Whole Pollock and other chunks of fish...All mashed up in a bucket that soaked overnight to get the oil/scent trail loaded up strong...Ran into a Hewescraft with 2 guys pulling gear next to us and they thought their gear had been picked over too...I have no idea what the heck happened! Crab Pots were ok, only 5 keepers total between both pots. Monday, we were either going to run up to Defense or over to Thrashers, glad we didn't go across... It was lumpy and didn't lay out like forecast said... We were the second boat out at the Bell and decided to just focus on that area and only Blackmouth for the day, not crab/shrimp. We landed 9 to the boat. A couple were at 23.5" so just under...But about 5 fish in, we had a stupid Harbor Seal latch on and wouldn't let go. I hand pulled the line in and used a gaff to do a quick hook pull from its cheek and saved both the lure and flasher, so big win! As we were about an hour or less from calling it quits, Port side rod twitches and releases clip...tip was just slightly bending, nothing major...thought that I came off...And then rod buried and head shakes began... Game on, real one! Landed a 27.5" male, hatchery with an empty stomach. Few more passes and then pulled out and headed to Seattle. I'd say 80% of the fish were caught on an Ace Hi Fly with salt cured herring strip off the trailer hook. Next popular lure was Silver Horde Coho Killer (White Lightning). Soaked in anchovy/herring lotion. Flashers were Limeade glow, herring aid, black hallucinator. Also fished hoochies, Gibbs skinny g's and a couple Tomics.

Couple of thoughts/questions....

- Canadian Tire is awesome! Why is every parking lot, even one that was designated if for a specific store, pay to park?

- Security Guards in almost every single retail store we went into...Even a restaurant had a security guard.. Bad crime or homelessness?

- Had a Big Grady White blow by me really fast at the Bell Buoy Sunday morning when we were trolling... Only another boat or two out there, plenty of ocean to find a different path.. Why couldn't have he gone further outside of us and not thrown us into his wake..Seemed targeted. heard there is a guide boat or two that's known to cause problems... Also happened again to us and a couple other boats, I believe it was a Maroon Hardtop Tin Boat leaving Waterfall Sunday afternoon...We are not used to Salmon Trolling and having guys fire up and blow out of the zone to head somewhere else, usually a person will slow motor out of the troll zone and then pick up and go... Maybe it's more common/normal there?

- South end of Bowen Island, right in the wide open... saw a lot of Buoys just offshore line and some guys trolling...Is that another popular area for Blackmouth? Good spot for Crab/Shrimp?

- Holy cow, $6.55-$7.00/ Gal for Fuel. You all weren't kidding when you said fill up before we get up there...Glad we went to Costco Friday, haha. What is the reason behind the high prices?

Re: Prawn. On Sunday I’m pretty sure one of my sets got poached also.
One pair of traps had a bit less than expected but still about 35-40 in each trap.
The other set was a big double-zero. Not exact same spot but pretty close by. I left it a bit long (7am-2:30pm).
Poachers were out for sure.

 

[Alex_c]

Re: Prawn. On Sunday I’m pretty sure one of my sets got poached also.
One pair of traps had a bit less than expected but still about 35-40 in each trap.
The other set was a big double-zero. Not exact same spot but pretty close by. I left it a bit long (7am-2:30pm).
Poachers were out for sure.

So frustrating. Blatant poaching that happens regularly, and zero enforcement. The most effective solution to this problem would probably get me in trouble for saying out loud, but we all know what it is.

 

[PNWMatt88]

Poaching/Theft is so petty and one of the slimiest things a person can do. It makes you feel vulnerable and unprepared. Alex-C, your thoughts are probably matching others. And stupid me for leaving the pots out that long, we dumped between 8:00/9:30AM and picked up between 3:30/4:30pm each day. I figured leaving them out for the day wouldn't be an issue...overnight, sure, that makes a little more sense as to when a dirtbag might slither over and try to nab them. Looking back, if it had been clearer at the time of picking that location/gear/bait was all on point and theft was the true culprit, then maybe we would have bounced around the passage just outside the bays and watched from afar. But then what...Unless I had video/pictures, and even then...would anything be done?...At least in Washington, probably not! Sad, sad, sad. I believe in BC, for commercial Dungeness, the government was going to/did adopt a new method where every fisherman's buoys had to have a barcode tag affixed and that individually numbered tag had to get scanned under a reader on the boats hydraulic block before it would go into gear and begin pulling the pot.???

 

[Alex_c]

Poaching/Theft is so petty and one of the slimiest things a person can do. It makes you feel vulnerable and unprepared. Alex-C, your thoughts are probably matching others. And stupid me for leaving the pots out that long, we dumped between 8:00/9:30AM and picked up between 3:30/4:30pm each day. I figured leaving them out for the day wouldn't be an issue...overnight, sure, that makes a little more sense as to when a dirtbag might slither over and try to nab them. Looking back, if it had been clearer at the time of picking that location/gear/bait was all on point and theft was the true culprit, then maybe we would have bounced around the passage just outside the bays and watched from afar. But then what...Unless I had video/pictures, and even then...would anything be done?...At least in Washington, probably not! Sad, sad, sad. I believe in BC, for commercial Dungeness, the government was going to/did adopt a new method where every fisherman's buoys had to have a barcode tag affixed and that individually numbered tag had to get scanned under a reader on the boats hydraulic block before it would go into gear and begin pulling the pot.???

I’ve had the idea of an RFID alarm/disturbance monitoring system rattling around in my brainbox for a while, but to work it would require buy-in from the DFO, and I’m sure that’s where my progress would end.

 

[Aquaholic]

Kits Point Marina, Coast Guard & Park, Vancouver, 1982.

 

[Alex_c]

Kits Point Marina, Coast Guard & Park, Vancouver, 1982.


View attachment 103466

Probably haven’t upgraded the boat ramp since this was taken

 

[Aquaholic]

Probably haven’t upgraded the boat ramp since this was taken

now now....looks great without all those stupid trees in the way.

 

[sherrett]

Fun day fishing a few tracks between the north arm and the Bell yesterday from 10 to 12:30. Landed and released ~10 or so unders and kept one 63 cm slot fish.



Fish seemed fiesty and fresh. I found the best action away from the clouds of bait around the bell. Best depths 150-175. Best set up the black PA flasher with silver / white Big Eye anchovy spoon.

 

[Aquaholic]

Fun day fishing a few tracks between the north arm and the Bell yesterday from 10 to 12:30. Landed and released ~10 or so unders and kept one 63 cm slot fish.

View attachment 103517

Fish seemed fiesty and fresh. I found the best action away from the clouds of bait around the bell. Best depths 150-175. Best set up the black PA flasher with silver / white Big Eye anchovy spoon.

Above the bottom bait clouds was working for me recently too. Have not had success bottom bouncing lately.

 

[hebert]

Fun day fishing a few tracks between the north arm and the Bell yesterday from 10 to 12:30. Landed and released ~10 or so unders and kept one 63 cm slot fish.

View attachment 103517

Fish seemed fiesty and fresh. I found the best action away from the clouds of bait around the bell. Best depths 150-175. Best set up the black PA flasher with silver / white Big Eye anchovy spoon.

Had a ton of fun solo today west of the bell. I found the action in 130 fow 150 & 120 on the wire, trolling fast. Red, with a belly full. Makes me wonder why it hit a spoon.

 

[Fasty]

Has anybody got a coles notes version on reporting illegal fishing to DFO? I spied a fellow and his wife taking rock cod off Worlcom Island while waiting for his prawn traps to fill up. So I did get his name and number. I looked on the DFO site and it was trying to get me to fill in a Quebec based on-line form.

 

[Sea Chaser]

Has anybody got a coles notes version on reporting illegal fishing to DFO? I spied a fellow and his wife taking rock cod off Worlcom Island while waiting for his prawn traps to fill up. So I did get his name and number. I looked on the DFO site and it was trying to get me to fill in a Quebec based on-line form.

Did you look up the RAPP line ? Maybe try that phone number

 

[Ken J]

DFO Report Line 1 800-465-4336

 

[Brett83]

Kits Point Marina, Coast Guard & Park, Vancouver, 1982.


View attachment 103466

Is that a parking lot right behind with only 3 cars? What a dream

 

[sweettjim]

The boat around the piling at waterfall was a dive boat. There were people diving the reef for a few hours Sunday around noonish

that would be a fun place to dive bet u could collect alot of tackle and downrigger balls off that reef

 

[Gallivanter]

that would be a fun place to dive bet u could collect alot of tackle and downrigger balls off that reef

That’s how I filled my freshwater tackle box when I was kid. Dad would take me to the lakes with docks and we would snorkel around finding shiny treasures. Good memories.

 

[Davis]

Fished the bell from 8-1 this morning 5 to the boat that were just under. Got two of these cod at 150 fow I’m assuming that they are pacific cod but if I am wrong pls let me know.

 

[adanac]

P cod , can tell from the barbells . How big?

 

[Alex_c]

Aren’t they Alaska or Walleye Pollock? Or do we have multiple cod/pollock species locally?