2024 Secret Cove, Pender Harbour and Texada Reports

[Cptn_Adventure]

Yesterday (Mon, Jul 29) – Fished full lap of Epsom, starting at the SE corner, rounding the N end and working both shallow water and deeper water on the SW sides from 11 am to 3 pm with high tide at 2:49. One small coho resulted. Mostly worked on my boat control in the 12+ knot SE winds. Weather a bit snotty and fish not cooperating at all (though I felt I was putting in my time for the fish gods!).

This morning (Tue, Jul 30) – Fished Epsom W side from in shallow to out deeper on the SW side from 7-10 am. Low tide at 8:13 am. Again, working in some steady 12+ knot winds so working on the boat control. Got 2 small coho and 1 small chinook and put them all back. Patchy bait balls and only okay looking conditions for any bite. Maybe a night bite right now?

Spent a little time at Epsom over the weekend (Saturday evening, Sunday morning) and it was a lot quieter than it had been earlier this summer. Found two nice springs just before sunset on Saturday - we were in ~125 ft of water one was on a plug down near the bottom and the other was on a white hoochie around 80 ft. The white hoochie caught us a white spring, which is a first for me. Looking forward to trying it! (Beer for scale). Both hit within 5 mins of each other after a rather quiet evening trolling around the various structures.

We were still finding hatchery hoes down at Pirate Rock, but it took some work to find them. As always, Sangster was a great option for some guaranteed fun on Friday night (last pic).

 

[sherrett]

Fished Epsom this morning for a few hours, 9-12 or so, and found lots more bait and some willing fish. Somewhere around 6 coho to the boat and 3 chinooks. I didn't bonk any of them. Some because they were small. Some because I really just wanted to get a mature chinook.

Fish were active in shallow too, which is always fun. Lots of bait and hits in 80'-100' toward the N end of the shoal. Fun to have a day without rollers.

 

[Netanyahu]

Real quick, Blown off Sunday for the take the neighbors out trip. Circled Wed. afternoon as a possible fallback time. Bingo worked out perfect! Flat waters, sun, food (Human) It was just about out of my mouth "this is the longest have gone with out a hit this year" Pop! Then gone. Bottom line we had a great time, neighbors youngster jumping up for most of the many Coho hits. Kept one hatch home happy. Epsom. NEXT!

 

[Deepaaaar]

Real quick, Blown off Sunday for the take the neighbors out trip. Circled Wed. afternoon as a possible fallback time. Bingo worked out perfect! Flat waters, sun, food (Human) It was just about out of my mouth "this is the longest have gone with out a hit this year" Pop! Then gone. Bottom line we had a great time, neighbors youngster jumping up for most of the many Coho hits. Kept one hatch home happy. Epsom. NEXT!

How did the Human taste? I've heard it's pretty gamey.

 

[sherrett]

Got out for the evening fish last night and found the solid chinook I had been seeking.



80 cms on the nose and thick. 175’ on the sounder, 155’ on the downrigger. Just about halfway through a turn that slowed that line. Then the adventure of landing and netting on my own.

Marble on the inside.

 

[sherrett]

Got in a few tacks last night at Epsom and found a few out deeper in 225’ or so.

This one taped out at 88 cms and went on to swim another day.

 

[sly_karma]

Nice!!

 

[Cptn_Adventure]

Very quiet at Priate Rock (no bites) this morning for an hour. Headed to Epsom and got a couple cohos. Slow morning all around. How are others doing? Anyone try Sangster?

 

[sherrett]

Fished the past 2 nights at Epsom with no luck. Broke a rod holder and had to hand hold it.

Tried in shallow (~80') and out deep (~275'). Marked lots of fish in the deeps. Marked lots of bait in the shallows. Didn't mark a lot of both together.

Anyone else having any luck? Didn't see any other nets out but did hear some shouting from another boat. Could have been Olympic highlights.

Hung out for about half an hour after sunset of Texada, hoping. But no. Not to be.

 

[Pineapple Express]

Got out for the evening fish last night and found the solid chinook I had been seeking.

80 cms on the nose and thick. 175’ on the sounder, 155’ on the downrigger. Just about halfway through a turn that slowed that line. Then the adventure of landing and netting on my own.

Marble on the inside.

Beautiful fish! Any idea what this one weighed?

 

[sherrett]

Beautiful fish! Any idea what this one weighed?

I'd guess low 20s. It wasn't too long but really thick. We ate a quarter of it the other night smoked on a cedar plank and the bottom of the belly section was 1" thick with wide veins of lovely fat.

 

[sherrett]

Back to fishing reports, I ran a tack along the SE shore of Texada yesterday afternoon, from just S of Anderson Bay to the marker off Upwood Point, and got nothing. Tried a few different depths on the contours and riggers with no joy. About another half dozen boats out and didn't see any nets moving. Another boat told me they had gotten into some coho but I didn't see any action.

After clearing the lines of the salad off Upwood a second time, I switched to the jigging rod and pulled in a nice ling cod.

Planning to try further W later this week, off Sangster / Lasquiti, to see if any more mature Chinooks can be found.

 

[Cptn_Adventure]

Back to fishing reports, I ran a tack along the SE shore of Texada yesterday afternoon, from just S of Anderson Bay to the marker off Upwood Point, and got nothing. Tried a few different depths on the contours and riggers with no joy. About another half dozen boats out and didn't see any nets moving. Another boat told me they had gotten into some coho but I didn't see any action.

After clearing the lines of the salad off Upwood a second time, I switched to the jigging rod and pulled in a nice ling cod.

Planning to try further W later this week, off Sangster / Lasquiti, to see if any more mature Chinooks can be found.

Thanks for the update - I thought about trying Upwood Sunday morning, and glad I burned the extra gas to get over to Sangster.

We found a nice 77 cm soring almost right away followed quickly by a just undersized 60 cm spring off the SE End. Thought we might have found the fish again... but after those two early bites the action slowed right down and shifted to a handful of wild coho's. We did see a few other boats having success, but it seemed to be sporadic and tilted towards the early morning hours.

Two interesting parts:
1. We got almost all of our action on bait (anchovies). We fished bait on one side and hardware on the other. Only picked up one wild hoe on a white hoochie, otherwise crickets... and I tried nearly every lure that's gone hot for me this year.
2. The keeper spring had almost nothing in it's stomach. Out of desperation I cut it open to see if we could match the feed, but all I found was a hungry fish.

 

[demco99]

New to fishing this area but running my boat up this weekend and staying in Secret Cove at a friend's place. What is your guys' favorite tide for fishing Epsom Point? Looks like nice flood tide in the morning into 920am high slack on Friday.. and then another nice evening high slack at 950pm... Figured I'd try those but if it's more of an ebb tide fishery I'd love to know.. thanks in advance guys and hope to see some of you up there this weekend.

 

[sherrett]

Fished Epsom this morning for a couple of hours through the high tide, 7:45 - 10:15, and landed ~15 fish. Mostly coho, and mostly wilds, with a few hatch coho mixed in and some rearing chinooks. No mature chinooks for us and we released all fish.

Bite was strong right away when we arrived. Had one of the downrigger counters quit on me right away so I bounced the cannonball off the bottom, pulled it up 10’, and had a fish on. Lots of boats getting fish and a few nets out.

Early on we got fish in 90’ - 105’. Those seemed to turn off when the tide started around 8:40 so we moved out deeper off the S and SW corners of the bank.

Fish hit both spoons and hoochies throughout the water column, anywhere from 140’ - 240’. Had one bigger-feeling fish break off with my favourite PA flasher.

 

[Straitsrunner232]

First class report, appreciate

 

[mikef]

Out this morning off Epsom and it was productive. A few wild coho released, one hatch keeper and an 80cm spring keeper. Spring was on a 5" purple tomic plug, 140ft in 190 water. Great fishing today.

 

[Liam_I]

Epsom tonight 6:00 - 8:00. Very productive evening, 3 slot springs all around 70cm, 1 oversized 87cm(released), 2 hatch ho’s and the ol’ lady caught probably the biggest wild coho I’ve personally seen in the area! Happily released and shot off like a rocket. 90’ - 170’ on the riggers in 200’ of water. fish throughout the water column. White hoochie and spoon produced equally.

 

[sly_karma]

New to fishing this area but running my boat up this weekend and staying in Secret Cove at a friend's place. What is your guys' favorite tide for fishing Epsom Point? Looks like nice flood tide in the morning into 920am high slack on Friday.. and then another nice evening high slack at 950pm... Figured I'd try those but if it's more of an ebb tide fishery I'd love to know.. thanks in advance guys and hope to see some of you up there this weekend.

Epsom on the flood. The rising tide pushes bait up against bottom structure that rises rapidly from 300-350 onto a shallow flat. Look on the chart to the SW of the navigation light and you'll see it.

 

[sherrett]

Back out this morning at Epsom from 7:45 - 9:15. Hoped to find some fish in shallow on the bank from the flood tide. Didn’t.

Moved out deeper to the SW contours and got into some coho around 120’ and deeper. Really feisty and fresh wilds that I released.

Moved out deeper and found a mass of bait below 200’, all the way down to 275’. Like a paint brush swatch across the sonar running for minutes on the troll.

Dropped the lines to the bottom of the bait cloud and fish didn’t disappoint. Double on at 175’ and 225’ on the wire (braid).



68cms male and 65 cms female. Both hatchery chinooks. Dark one had lots of scarring on his head from butting the bottom for sand lance.

Male had an empty stomach. Female had been hitting the anchovy buffet.