2025 Secret Cove, Pender Harbour and Texada Reports

[Cptn_Adventure]

Mighty quiet at Sangster last night. Fished the South end, East side, and North end, and only managed to scrounge up one coho. On the way home, we saw fish jumping at Young Pt. and decided to drop the lines. Loads of action. Mostly shakers, but a couple of hatchery coho salvaged the trip across the straight.

Anyone been fishing Pirate Rock lately? Was thinking about heading there this evening. 3 boats on it right now...

 

[Jordan330]

Fished pirate rock Sunday, managed one chinook on a white hoochie 189on the DR. Besides that couple shakers

 

[Jordan330]

Got up Thursday morning, fished quarry bay that night landed 1 chinook and 1 coho, lost a good one. All down at 230ft on the DR

Friday morning at epsom, wild coho after wild coho. Shaker after shaker managed to get 2 hatch coho and one chinook. White hoochie and anchovie.

Saturday morning epsom again managed 3 coho and 1 chinook had to work for the chinook, and keep checking gear as the shakers were plentiful. In the afternoon fished the shoals and caught a chinook and 1 coho all down deep again 230ft.

Sunday started at epsom hooked into 4 good chinook only landed one. By 8:30 am clients wanted band aids and tape for the fingers. 3 straightened hooks and bloody knuckles, don’t know how many times I told them when the fish wants to run let it run just couldn’t figure it out lol. Ran to pirate and picked up a chinook on the White hoochie right away then was quite with just shakers. Fished epsom again 6:30-8pm one hatch coho and plenty of nice size wild coho released.

Monday fished epsom managed with 1 coho and the rest were shakers or wild coho.

Has anyone else found you need to work for the Chinook? Or just me

 

[Salish Ranger]

Sounds like you're finding them - which is better than me. How far off the bottom were you running gear?

 

[Jordan330]

I’m an extra 10-20ft on the cable past bottom

 

[Salish Ranger]

We fished the Ag and Egmont on Sunday. No bites in the channel despite some targets showing on the finder.

All sub legal 50 cm chinook around the point and Killum Bay. My friend hooked into something good around slack. Went on a run but he lost it.

 

[MiddlepointBight]

Forgot to report our fish prior to yesterday's which was last Thursday (Aug 28) at Epsom. Really hot bite for chinook. Got our 3-fish limit in 1 hour with a double and a follow up single. Down at bottom in 170-200 FOW on Pesca spoons (3"). Also, Buddy Pete from Coastal Blue Adventures out of Nanaimo was at Sangster on Saturday and said it was very good. Also heard reports to the contrary re: Sangster though.

Had a short window to hit Epsom yesterday before heading to ferry. Lots of action over 30-45 min, some very chunky unclipped (could be hatchery for all we know!) coho passing, and found one 62 cm chinook for dinner. Could be wrong, but sure looked like a winter spring - no eggs or gonads. Lot of bait balls, most of which were marking fish.

@Jordan330 agreed with your post. If you put your time in and/or hit the right spot at the right time, there are still a few chinook kicking around, but it seems to be waning overall.

Another outstanding summer season on the Sunshine Coast. Grateful to have a full freezer with room for a few winter chinook in the months ahead. Thanks everyone for the reports and general stoke. Always good vibes our there on the tack, and met some awesome folks this year through this forum.

Aug 28:


Sept 2:

 

[Cptn_Adventure]

Things are definitely starting to slow down out there. Hit the slack at Epsom yesterday for a nice hot bite - ~6 fish to the boat in the first hour. 4 beautiful wild cohos that lived to swim another day and a couple undersized chinooks. After that, things went quiet for the rest of the night.

After Epson slowed a little, we decided to move to Pirate to hide from the wind/swell. Hit one nice wild coho, but otherwise complete silence. Tried deep, shallow, and worked my way up and down the tacklebox, but nothing.

similar to @Jordan330 , I'm having a heck of a time finding some nice big Chinooks.

 

[Jordan330]

For sure has slowed down for big chinooks. Friend of mine got a 15lb 270ft on the DR in 600ft of water on a flash fly…..I didn’t ask questions but did see photos lol.

Well I'm done for the year and back to the city for 4 days before heading south to Puerto Vallarta Mexico, to run my other charter boats chasing tuna, marlin and dorado.

Was another great season on the coast, can’t complain at all with plenty of action packed days and great weather. Turd hoochie, white hoochie, no bananas and anchovies were the ticket for me this year. Biggest fish we caught taped out to be a 28lb (released) off epsom July 28th turd hoochie. My magic numbers were 169ft and 189ft on the DR during prime time. Tight lines to everyone and sounds like it should be a good winter fishery.

Cheers,
Jordan

 

[Salish Ranger]

For sure has slowed down for big chinooks. Friend of mine got a 15lb 270ft on the DR in 600ft of water on a flash fly…..I didn’t ask questions but did see photos lol.

Well I'm done for the year and back to the city for 4 days before heading south to Puerto Vallarta Mexico, to run my other charter boats chasing tuna, marlin and dorado.

Was another great season on the coast, can’t complain at all with plenty of action packed days and great weather. Turd hoochie, white hoochie, no bananas and anchovies were the ticket for me this year. Biggest fish we caught taped out to be a 28lb (released) off epsom July 28th turd hoochie. My magic numbers were 169ft and 189ft on the DR during prime time. Tight lines to everyone and sounds like it should be a good winter fishery.

Cheers,
Jordan

Thanks for sharing. Good luck in Puerto Vallarta.

I also had a chinook (80 cm) off Nelson Rock a few weeks ago. Was surprised it didn't have eggs or sperm sacs.

 

[Tight Roll]

For sure has slowed down for big chinooks. Friend of mine got a 15lb 270ft on the DR in 600ft of water on a flash fly…..I didn’t ask questions but did see photos lol.

Well I'm done for the year and back to the city for 4 days before heading south to Puerto Vallarta Mexico, to run my other charter boats chasing tuna, marlin and dorado.

Was another great season on the coast, can’t complain at all with plenty of action packed days and great weather. Turd hoochie, white hoochie, no bananas and anchovies were the ticket for me this year. Biggest fish we caught taped out to be a 28lb (released) off epsom July 28th turd hoochie. My magic numbers were 169ft and 189ft on the DR during prime time. Tight lines to everyone and sounds like it should be a good winter fishery.

Cheers,
Jordan

Hey Jordan. What is the name of the charter company in PV?

 

[Jordan330]

Hey Jordan. What is the name of the charter company in PV?

Reel Dreams Puerto Vallarta, pictures of the boats I own down south

 

[Cptn_Adventure]

Well last night was the hottest Epsom night I've had all year. Relentless action off the Southwest point with a handful of boats chasing some serious bait balls. One keeper spring (62 cm) and one clipped coho for our boat, but the wild ones were hungry and biting constantly.

The spring had a belly full of herring and the coho was empty (clearly not a good hunter).

Heading out again tonight and tomorrow evening, if all goes to plan. I'm not ready for this season to end!