2025 Secret Cove, Pender Harbour and Texada Reports

Beauty! What boat were you in? One of the Gradys?
Yep - coho killer was best spoon for me yesterday as well, in Homeland Security.
Yup! Was in the Grady, and I think we celebrated one of your double headers with you. We had a good laugh when your little crew member was grabbing the second rod and an appropriate level of chaos ensued.
 
Yup! Was in the Grady, and I think we celebrated one of your double headers with you. We had a good laugh when your little crew member was grabbing the second rod and an appropriate level of chaos ensued.

Hahaha.. bingo! Right after the fish whistle, if I recall correctly.. was stumbling on the depths report as I had raised both balls after the strikes and mind was all over the mapin the chaos - took a beat and remembered "Todd Bertuzzi and Paul Coffee!!" 😂
 
Hahaha.. bingo! Right after the fish whistle, if I recall correctly.. was stumbling on the depths report as I had raised both balls after the strikes and mind was all over the mapin the chaos - took a beat and remembered "Todd Bertuzzi and Paul Coffee!!" 😂
That's the one! And it was a great laugh on our boat - I had a couple American 'newbies' on board who were exceedingly confused when you yelled that out. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what you were saying!
 
That's the one! And it was a great laugh on our boat - I had a couple American 'newbies' on board who were exceedingly confused when you yelled that out. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what you were saying!

Classic! I'm glad they got to witness the chaos. Probably should have given both rods to Sig, as I lost the two fish of the day 😂 🤟

Anyone hitting Upwood today? Looks calm in the lee.
 
Passed the Coast Guard vessel on our way back from Sangster. Was wondering what it was doing - it was well offshore in at least 500 feet.

Had a great time with the family at Sangster but it was a bust for fishing. A couple small wild coho but very limited signs of life on the sounder and no strikes below 50'. Wind- and wave-wise, Secret to Epsom was the worst. Windy at Sangster but Sabine was calm on the way back (never seen that before on an otherwise windy day). The windiest place I saw all day was Welcome Pass in the late afternoon. My conclusion: don't be overly deferential to Windy or Environment Canada.

Tried out a coho killer based on yesterday's reports. Not a single strike. Perhaps a colour issue. But the no bananas and green skinny g's were getting lots of attention, both at Sangster and Pirate. Tried a white hoochie for a while in the hopes of attracting a spring at Pirate but it also struck out.
 
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DFO doing test sets off E side of Epsom bank right now. Waves are pretty sporty. Wind is gusty. Tomorrow looks like the window where the system flips from NW to SE.

More of our tax dollars at work to accrue data that will be ignored in regulations perhaps. Cool ship though.

I'm ready for this NW to sit down now!

@Ho Hum how was the water at Upwood?
 
More of our tax dollars at work to accrue data that will be ignored in regulations perhaps. Cool ship though.

I'm ready for this NW to sit down now!

@Ho Hum how was the water at Upwood?
We didn't pass Upwood but I expect it would have been similar to Lasqueti, which we briefly stopped at on the way to Sangster - ie, calm when fully in the lee but swelly at the edges.
 
Snuck out for an Epsom lap in the break from the winds last night, 5:30 - 7. Didn’t find much concentrated bait but did pick up 2 solid wild coho (released) and this slot chinook at 175’.

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68 cms, male, blush coloured flesh, nothing in the stomach. Felt like more fish were around and willing to bite if I had another license slot to fill.

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Could be the end of my season up here so good luck to all others. I’ll watch for reports!
 
Like Sherrett, the season has come to an end for me. Got to Epsom at dawn for my final attempt and stayed long past a reasonable quiting time (even Jordan330 was chased off by the big SE'er). Started shallow and worked out to 240' before heading NW along the outside edge. Very few signs of bait or fish and only one strike. I was about to head to Pirate (lots of coho there yesterday and a 65cm spring) but decided to first check out the NW edge of the shelf. Lots of faint signs of fish (but no bait) from 200' to 300' along the 250-350' contours. Steady small springs and a couple wild coho before landing a fat 76cm. Nice ending to another excellent season. Tight lines all!
 
Was out fishing last night and managed to hook into this absolute monster on the final pass at Priate Rock. Measured 102 cm and swam off happily upon release.

We hooked into lots of wild coho last night, but no slot springs or hatchery fish... Regardless, I had one seriously happy guest who got to reel this hog in!
 

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Interesting day yesterday, and started with a *bang*...

Went over to Upwood to fish the ebb with the kids. NW swell was pretty lumpy coming across from Secret, but not too bad in the lee. Sabine was blowing a solid 15-20 kn NW, so we tucked in south of the marker/reef to troll back up towards Anderson Bay. Had just got the lines in when a sailboat came steaming downwind (full canvases up), wrapping around the southern tip of Texada. Kids and I watched this thing absolutely careen into the reef located just E of the marker - yes, the one that dries at low tide and is very well marked (oops...). Long story short, the sailboat was lodged directly on top of the rock and in a pretty sketchy predicament. We called out a mayday on Ch. 16 and then phoned the Coast Guard via *16 and went over to the boat in distress. Two guys on board who were pretty rattled - they managed to get the sails down and about 10 mins later a distal swell came through that teeter-tottered them off the reef. Luckily the were not taking on water, and seemed to have operational power. We stayed with them until two Coast Guard boats showed up ~15 mins later. Crazy way to start the tack!! First time I've ever witnessed a mayday incident pre-syn-post event. Put the Restricted Operator Certificate (ROC-M) course to good use. I highly recommend getting the ROC-M cert - super practical knowledge and very helpful in tense situations.

Anyhow, Upwood was slow-ish. Lost what felt like a slot chinook at 177' on rigger in ~300 FOW about 1/3 the way to Anderson Bay from Upwood. Couple undersize and saw that the NW wind in Malaspina had dropped, so we pulled lines and went over to Epsom. Fishing was hot right out of the gates. Doubled up a few minutes after putting lines in with 1 wild and 1 unclipped coho, and got a mix of coho and/or just under chinook every pass. Lost a nice slot chinook at the boat, and started to second guess the very fiber of my soul. We started marking fish at the bottom so we dropped one line deep and pop - thick hatch nook in the boat. Reset that side and dropped both to bottom and doubled up immediately on 2 more slot chinook to round out our limit (1 hatch, 1 unclipped). When we dropped deep I swapped both sides to 3" Pesca glow spoons and they were nailing them (loaded up before Pesca closed up shop!). Gut Bomb and Happy Hour. Not a sniff of bait in any of the stomaches, which is odd because we were definitely marking balls with fish in them.

All in all a great day. It was a hoot out there at Epsom - looked like consistent hookups for most boats, and definintely saw others landing nice chinook. Lots of nets and gaffs out. Seas dropped to flat calm for a smokey orange sunset.

Have a feeling the upcoming rain event might push a lot of the remaining chinook south, but hope I am wrong. Was hoping to repeat the same tack tonight, but that SE doesn't have a waning vibe to it. Tight lines!!

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Was out fishing last night and managed to hook into this absolute monster on the final pass at Priate Rock. Measured 102 cm and swam off happily upon release.

We hooked into lots of wild coho last night, but no slot springs or hatchery fish... Regardless, I had one seriously happy guest who got to reel this hog in!

Absolute tank!! Nice fish.
 
Like Sherrett, the season has come to an end for me. Got to Epsom at dawn for my final attempt and stayed long past a reasonable quiting time (even Jordan330 was chased off by the big SE'er). Started shallow and worked out to 240' before heading NW along the outside edge. Very few signs of bait or fish and only one strike. I was about to head to Pirate (lots of coho there yesterday and a 65cm spring) but decided to first check out the NW edge of the shelf. Lots of faint signs of fish (but no bait) from 200' to 300' along the 250-350' contours. Steady small springs and a couple wild coho before landing a fat 76cm. Nice ending to another excellent season. Tight lines all!
Started on the outside tac north and was none stop action of pinks and wild coho. Finally picked up a few hatch cohos and did a tac towards thormanby nothing but under chinooks, probably wasn’t the best idea as soon as I made that turn my clients started puking lol. Packed up and headed to Pearson island outside of Pender and picked up 2 springs 70cm and 72cm
 
Started on the outside tac north and was none stop action of pinks and wild coho. Finally picked up a few hatch cohos and did a tac towards thormanby nothing but under chinooks, probably wasn’t the best idea as soon as I made that turn my clients started puking lol. Packed up and headed to Pearson island outside of Pender and picked up 2 springs 70cm and 72cm

Beauty! Weirdly enough I haven't come across a single pink out of the fish I've been able to see. There were some nice sized coho in the mix last night. Mistook a couple for chinook with longer bigger headshakes.
 
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