2025 OFFISHALL Vancouver- Howe Sound-Sechelt Fishing Reports Thread

I can only recall the last sockeye opening from 2022. I would imagine it would be a reeducation for some of us on what to use and how to use it.
Sockeye 101:
-As many dummy flashers as you can run
-Slow 1.5-2 knots max
-Don’t set the hook hard (soft mouths)
-Small pink hoochies (rip off half the tentacles)
-short (18-22”) stiff leaders 50lb test

This lure looks ridiculous but it’s lights out for sockeye. If they’re there, you’ll get into them.
 

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Sockeye 101:
-As many dummy flashers as you can run
-Slow 1.5-2 knots max
-Don’t set the hook hard (soft mouths)
-Small pink hoochies (rip off half the tentacles)
-short (18-22”) stiff leaders 50lb test

This lure looks ridiculous but it’s lights out for sockeye. If they’re there, you’ll get into them.
Isn’t that also a chum attraction?
 
Ah yeah I remember now. Weather and work/other commitments didn’t cooperate, so I never got the chance to get out and get ‘em.
They even opened the banana that year for about three days.

Subareas 29-6, 29-7, 29-9, and 29-10 (Fraser River approach area).

I would like to show that fisheries notice for 2022 where the sockeye opening was also in 28–1, 28–2, and 28–7, to the people that are selling their hair on fire for it being open now.
 
Any salmon will take any salmon gear if it’s right in their face, but this is the best way to target sockeye from what I’ve gathered over the years. Got a beauty spring on that Googly eye in 2018 I remember
The guys from Brown’s Bay resort were at an outdoor show a couple of years ago, and I think this is what they showed me as their best chum tractor.
 
The guys from Brown’s Bay resort were at an outdoor show a couple of years ago, and I think this is what they showed me as their best chum tractor.
Makes sense, I believe the chum one they have is the same colouring except a couple of the tentacles are black.
 
How was the fishing been around Cape Roger Curtis lately? :) thinking of heading out later this week but got totally skunked last time (2hr drive from where I am to fish!)
 
Tried for sockeye first time ever east of the Bell Sunday evening. Couple times I thought I seen a school on the sounder but nothing but pinks, so many of them jumping everywhere. A few almost landed in the boat. Had a couple nice slot springs hit the sockeye gear that were safely released.
 
Live in Victoria but am working over here for awhile. Never heard anything but fantastic fishing there !!
Not a lot of guys fish it until Sept now because of the "No fishing for Chinook" regs. I bet there's still plenty out there, they just don't talk about it for fear of the FLAME!
 
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What gets me right now is all those people fishing for Pinks and hoping to hook a hatchery Coho off Sandheads right now. Chinooks are closed. Chums are currently non-existent. Pinks are abundant. Hatchery Coho are rare. Sockeye are currently closed there.

So…. WHY on earth are so many boats fishing Sandheads? Fisheries are going to be all over you and literally harass you out of there. Fish elsewhere.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should- and there is a reason you don’t see guides there until September 1.

Flaming is going to begin on me- but hey- I said what I said.
 
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