2025 OFFISHALL Vancouver- Howe Sound-Sechelt Fishing Reports Thread

[Marco Polo]

Heading out this AM. Hoping to have the complete opposite experience you had doc.

How are the conditions this morning? Slow start but was thinking of heading out now.

 

[Trayvreller]

Question. Does anybody have any intel on how the fishery has been in English Bay? I'm considering an after work fish, heading out of Port Moody.

Boxed a couple springs at the Bell on Sunday morning hiding from the wind on the straight.

 

[Rain City]

Boxed a couple springs at the Bell on Sunday morning hiding from the wind on the straight.

How's it been at the Bell with the whale closure? Are people still rounding the corner toward the North Arm into the whale zone or has RCMP/DFO been out to enforce it? I remember it getting pretty loose a couple years back and people were well into it.

 

[capman]

Due to wind, stayed close and fished Cowan yesterday afternoon for 4 hours. No hit on hoochie or spoon for over 2 hours then switched to bait and had 4 fish. 2 spring 2 clipped coho and released a wild coho. 45’ to 75’ on the rigger.

 

[Trayvreller]

How's it been at the Bell with the whale closure? Are people still rounding the corner toward the North Arm into the whale zone or has RCMP/DFO been out to enforce it? I remember it getting pretty loose a couple years back and people were well into it.

Didn't see anyone venturing into the whale zone on Sunday, but did see a police/dfo boat alongside a boat fishing the north arm on opening day.

 

[pescador]

How are the conditions this morning? Slow start but was thinking of heading out now.

Moderate slop. Low winds. At Bell Bouey.

 

[pescador]

Weather picking up at Bell. 3 ft waves. winds 10/15 small caps.

 

[Ringo]

Weather picking up at Bell. 3 ft waves. winds 10/15 small caps.

Any hookups?

 

[el.Pereh]

SAND HEADS AUG 9th. . .

Well, the wind wasn't really forecasted very well... but it was blowing, building, and blowing hard from the North West. I think that's about as bad as I want it to be out there while fishing. It's hard to even stand and control the boat. Poor fishing buddies were feeling the effects of sea sickness.

We stuck it out, I was almost certain we would have to call it quits early.

The same program tried out further 300 to 400 in AM 60 to 80 down and catching a bunch of pinks and coho. Caught two hatchery coho in a row, and the rest were wilds.

No chinook, though. So we trolled back towards the light house. Whe. We were doing our turn, and we hooked our first chinook. In tight with boats around and the wind, we were forced toward the fish, and it popped off.

Continued to catch coho and pinks to the north.

It wasn't till close to 3 pm when we hooked two 54, cm chinook, a 63 cm, a 65 cm, and a 77 cm chinook. We hooked them all deep. 100, 120, and 140 feet. White/glow hootchies worked well.

Wind finally started to die down.

He started to notice the bilge wasn't coming on, and the boat was feeling a little sluggish. When we took off, it wouldn't plane so I figured it was full of water.

We used our hand pump to drain the boat while the nose was up. Crazy wind. Sinking boat. Hectic.

Yesterday was lumpy!! Glad you got some too…

 

[el.Pereh]

Due to wind, stayed close and fished Cowan yesterday afternoon for 4 hours. No hit on hoochie or spoon for over 2 hours then switched to bait and had 4 fish. 2 spring 2 clipped coho and released a wild coho. 45’ to 75’ on the rigger.

Smart

 

[pescador]

Any hookups?

Two lost springs. Lines cut right at lure knot. Weird. One was a slab. Saw one just landed in another boat. 20 lb approx. lots of wild hos

 

[capman]

I’m sure many of us already know this, but I just want to share something that’s worked really well for me. Whenever I need to bring my line up whether it’s to check the bait or to wrap up fishing, I never reel in too quickly. Instead, I let the flasher rise to the surface first. Doing this gives fish hanging at different depths a chance to strike the lure or bait on the way up. It’s paid off for me several times, including just yesterday when I hooked a beautiful coho using this method.
Now back to the report.

 

[Squire]

I’m sure many of us already know this, but I just want to share something that’s worked really well for me. Whenever I need to bring my line up whether it’s to check the bait or to wrap up fishing, I never reel in too quickly. Instead, I let the flasher rise to the surface first. Doing this gives fish hanging at different depths a chance to strike the lure or bait on the way up. It’s paid off for me several times, including just yesterday when I hooked a beautiful coho using this method.
Now back to the report.

When I pack it in for a specific tack or for the day I’ll often pop the clip on the one side with the rod left in the rod holder and start the downrigger retrieve then go to the other rigger and reel that rod in while both downriggers are retrieving. I did this a few weeks ago with a Tomic plug that I drug for a while at 200’ without a hit and it didn’t take very long on the rise to get a big wild coho. I guesstimated the hit to have happened around 150’ so I dropped it down to there and the next hit was an 80 cm spring!
A bit flukey I know but sometimes it works out. With the number of times I have got a hit just as I started reeling in after popping the clip I believe the change in speed/angle and the different flutter of the flasher from popping it out of the clip is enough to entice a fish to hit.

And back to the reports because I need more reason to lose sleep tonight in anticipation of heading over to Sandheads again in the morning.

 

[terrin]

When I pack it in for a specific tack or for the day I’ll often pop the clip on the one side with the rod left in the rod holder and start the downrigger retrieve then go to the other rigger and reel that rod in while both downriggers are retrieving. I did this a few weeks ago with a Tomic plug that I drug for a while at 200’ without a hit and it didn’t take very long on the rise to get a big wild coho. I guesstimated the hit to have happened around 150’ so I dropped it down to there and the next hit was an 80 cm spring!
A bit flukey I know but sometimes it works out. With the number of times I have got a hit just as I started reeling in after popping the clip I believe the change in speed/angle and the different flutter of the flasher from popping it out of the clip is enough to entice a fish to hit.

And back to the reports because I need more reason to lose sleep tonight in anticipation of heading over to Sandheads again in the morning.

I heard it was pretty lumpy this morning.

 

[Aquaholic]

When I pack it in for a specific tack or for the day I’ll often pop the clip on the one side with the rod left in the rod holder and start the downrigger retrieve then go to the other rigger and reel that rod in while both downriggers are retrieving. I did this a few weeks ago with a Tomic plug that I drug for a while at 200’ without a hit and it didn’t take very long on the rise to get a big wild coho. I guesstimated the hit to have happened around 150’ so I dropped it down to there and the next hit was an 80 cm spring!
A bit flukey I know but sometimes it works out. With the number of times I have got a hit just as I started reeling in after popping the clip I believe the change in speed/angle and the different flutter of the flasher from popping it out of the clip is enough to entice a fish to hit.

And back to the reports because I need more reason to lose sleep tonight in anticipation of heading over to Sandheads again in the morning.

Chemainus to Sand Heads. That must be a saved route by now.