OFFICIAL 2016 Vancouver-Howe Sound-Sechelt Reports Thread
- Thread starter kevind
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Reeltime
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Seen them all around QA and in the harbour ,i bet they are at the banana to .. still some decent size out there ,i just drop where the commies wouldn't go.
aheny
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I managed 9 keepers from 2 traps in 40' north of t10 2 days ago. Just make sure you use heavy traps or add weight.
Light traps seem to get "stolen" by the current
Hey Tightlines22 ... or anybody else who might provide some edumacation to a still learning fishing guy ... when you say you saw "huge amounts of small anchovies or herring" and you trolled around them are you referring to what we saw at the Grande yesterday ... a large area of seemingly bubbling water with a gull or some kind of bird hanging around it and what looked like little fish jumping out of the water or do you mean a bait ball showing on the fish finder (hope that's not too dumb of a question ... lol).
If what we saw is what you refer to ... how do you approach the area ... meaning at what depth would you want your riggers to try to slam some of those coho?
We were running our riggers at about 125 ft at the time and just decided to go through the area without any adjustment ... to no avail of course ... but in hindsight I'm thinking we probably should have raised the lines to 30 or 40 ft ?
Would appreciate yours or others insight into this so that we might approach things a bit different next time out if we come across that same type of scene.
I get that you try to match depths of bait balls seen on the sounder ... is the scene we saw simply a bait ball at/near surface?
We had a couple pin poppers that didn't stick and 7 undersize at the Grande and Thrasher over the course of the morning. Went home without a prize but was good times anyway.
Cheers to all and thx in advance for any insight on this.
Tightlines22
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Hi BH99. Almost all our hatchery Coho over there have been caught shallow. 35-50' so you were likely fishing too deep especially if you saw the bait described. We have been catching wild ones deeper however in general Coho are in the top third of the water.
Salmon will slash their way through bait balls and then go back and pick up the krippled ones. So sometimes try trolling just below. And quickly!
getbent
Well-Known Member
Typically when bait is busting on the surface it is being driven from below. Meaning a predator is working the bait up to the surface so you should fish closer to the bottom of the bait ball. Also a good idea to not blow through a ball as you can break it up or sound the whole works.
Good luck
Good luck
Thx for your thoughts Tightlines ... just as I suspected in hindsight of course. On a funny note ... with hindsight always kicking in too late (lol) we suspected we had caught a decent coho (different area from the baitfish we saw) but let it go because we weren't sure about our identification. After flicking it off the hook I grabbed our fisheries handbook for a refresher ... it dawned on us that that might have been the only salmon we would have had an opportunity of keeping that day ... that turned out to be the reality ... doh !!!
I would be more than happy to limit on decent coho. Maybe a few more years of success catching decent springs will have me consider coho pests as do the veterans on these forums ... lol. 4 trips to Thrasher/Grande this year, 2 decent springs each on two of the four trips which is pretty good for us but I'm not beyond slaying coho yet !!!
Thx Getbent ... we won't use that approach next time as that is exactly what we did ... DAMN !
TheBigGuy
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Just thought I'd give guys the heads up. The fishing around Vancouver is about to get red hot within the next few days. How do I know, because my bilge pump was acting up and I ended pulling the whole back end of the boat apart this afternoon to get at it. Had to pull out both batteries, disconnect all wiring, remove battery trays, cut fuel lines, remove rear bulkhead, and remove floor boards to get at bilge pump. So I'm pretty sure the fishing will totally turn on any day now. The last time there was really good fishing reports from local spots was earlier in the year when I had my truck stolen and didn't have a vehicle that could launch my boat. So get ready, the fishing is about to become fantastic very shortly.
I could be wrong, but it would seem to be the pattern with me this year. So get ready.
I could be wrong, but it would seem to be the pattern with me this year. So get ready.
TheBigGuy
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Nothing personal TheBigGuy but if thats the case take your time will ya, maybe shoot for back in the water by november
Hoping the fix won't take quite that long. Of course it's probably just my imagination, but we'll see if the great reports start pouring in all a sudden. Been pretty dam quiet lately so things are bound to change soon anyways, you'd think. If it does heat up all of a sudden, you know who to thank.
I was out front of West Van shoreline on Saturday marked a lot of bait but only one bite that didn't stick. The Crab Trap situation out there was just brutal. One commercial style setup with no markings and no name on a long white float and about 400' of unweighted rope. Next trap was a typical box style that although weighted, the weight was only down about 10' in 100' of water with about 200' of rope so where you saw the float was not where the trap was as the strong tide basically setup a trap line for anything coming thru. Was monitoring the radio and heard a boat named High Tide (26' Sea Ray I think it was) was taking on water up by Thormanby Island. Wondering if that was HighTide that posts here and if he made out OK.
Nope wasn't this High Tide ....... Sure hope the folks are safe though. I must admit, I haven't been out locally, although I'm chomping at the bit, waiting for it to heat up locally with better catch results. Don't have a ton of cash to spend traveling as far as I must to release a wack of shakers. Been to the island a couple times baggin some Hali and good springs in their mid twenties. Outside Van Isle hasn't been itself either, but have heard of a couple good results locally outside the banana. Almost time to fire ER up here I hope. HT
Tockeyetalmon
Well-Known Member
Productive morning at west van. Bonked some springs. Lost some coho. Released some undersized and had a face to face with a massive bald eagle. All sorts of depths. All sorts of lures.
TheBigGuy
Well-Known Member
Oh sure. Here it comes. My boats still in pieces. I knew it, the harbour is finally starting to produce. I'm fabricating an aluminum floor plate for where the batteries are stored, also upgrading my fuel filtration while I'm at it. New bilge pump and other wiring upgrades in order as well. Of course I knew as soon as I pulled things apart the fishing would pick up. We'll see if things get hot, it's about time the fishing improved. I was just worried my finicky bilge pump might seriously hurt my fishing with an aluminum hull, if it was throwing a charge into the water. So it was time to do a some work. Hopefully I'll have it back together before the good fishing is over.
Aces
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Well, look at the calendar. It always picks up around now
TheBigGuy
Well-Known Member
Ya I know that. This Aint my first time on the chuck. I'm just kind of kidding around. Still all the same it has been pretty dead. If it doesn't pick up pretty soon this summer will be in in rough shape for returns. Big numbers predicted not a lot showing up so far. Hopefully they show soon.
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