Powell River

happy hooker

happy hooker

Crew Member
Heading up to Powell River in early July with a friend and our families to Beach Gardens. Never been there, is there decent fishing and crabbing/prawning up there? Worth hauling all my traps? Also, he wants to run the boats up there from Vancouver. I have a 20' Hewes with 150 he has a 20' Trophy with a 150. Good idea? Bad idea? Anyone know approximate time it would take? Are there refuelling stops along the way? Help/info would be greatly appreciated.
TIA Sean
 
Powell River area is normally quite good at the end of June and beginning of July. About a mile and a half south of the Beach Gardens is Myrtle Rocks, prawn the lower end but keep an eye out for log booms or you will be buying your traps back in the sawmills on the Fraser. The Beach Gardens is directly across from the Eight Ball on Texada and 250 to 300 feet of water is great for prawns.From the ball north along the shoreline of Texada and around to Coho Pt and Limekiln Bay can be quite good for summer springs at that time of year. Crabbing along the sandbanks of Harwood and a run to Savary are productive. Since it is a family trip the beaches on the back of Harwood and on Savary are mostly sand, ideal for swimming and paddling. Quite often you will find a number of our size of boats pulled in at the spit on Harwood and BBQing on the Beach. from there it is a 15 to 20 minute run to Grants great at tide change and first thing in the morning and late evening.
June 15 to August 15 FN0346 closure on the backside of Harwood however we fish mostly Grants Reef and Texada then.
another great area is the Iron Mines directly across from Lund and Savary
Your boats will take approximately 3 to 4 hours (about 110 to 120km from Vancouver)to run from Vancouver but be forewarned Malaspina Strait can blow up pretty good with 4 to 6 foot chop at this time of the year in the central section.
If your arrival and departures are not exact times it is a great run Many great spots along the Sechelt Peninsula to explore and there is fuel available at Maderia Park/Pender Harbour and a couple of other sites.
I will post later this month to give you an update on which areas are picking up.
 
It's been quite a few years since I've been up there, but one spot I recall was trolling a couple hundred yards off the paper mill dock.
We did it at dusk/heading into dark, when the lights from the dock were on, about 20-30 feet down to get just below the surface discoloration from the mill effluent.
Good luck.
 
Thanks alot guys for the info. Really appreciate it. Will look forward to your report kisinana, do you live in the area? How long of a run is it to Savary from Beach Gardens?
 
It is about 20 km from BG to Savary. Fuel float is in Westview by the ferry terminal, or if you are at Savary just head east to lund about 3km for fuel. If you decide to trailer up about 1 km before you get to the Beach Gardens is a garage with boat fuel. From BG the local ramp is about 5 km north along main road in centre of town at the marina just past the ferry terminal and parking is 3 dollars a day.
Be sure to pick up chart 3513
Nice beaches are on southeast side of Savary if you dont mind shallow water just go in slow from about 1/2 mile out. Keep out of the reef that is to your west. Low tide to high across the sand flats and the water temp can be warmer than the air. Government dock is on North side, again nice beaches but deeper water and dock is for unloading only.
 
Sean - if you want to fish the Lund area either send me an email closer to the date or drop by the Resort with your boats and I'll give you an update on where we are finding fish. Wayne picked up two a couple of days ago on the flats right in front of Lund harbour, Mace Point on Savary produced a few last week, no salmon at Baker Pass but some good sized lings on the reef, and Ron picked up a nice 21# spring up closer to Cortes. In general we don't seem to be seeing as much bait fish this year... but maybe it's just us not finding it...

It's a great area for fishing with smaller boats as regardless of the direction the winds blowing there are islands you can fish to stay out of the wind - now getting to them can bea bit bouncy :-)
 
Well yesterday was a nice day on the water. Fished Texada across from town. Picked up a 14 a 12 and 2 9's plus a lovely 68 cm ling to boot. The only pink/white was the 14 all the others were nice deep red. Ate the ling for dinner last night and tonight I'm forced to sit on the deck and BBQ a fillet of red. All fish hit on different lures between 40 and 80 feet.
Not bad for a 5 hour outing.
 
Thanks for the reports guys, I'm getting pumped to come up there. SIR I will send you an email in the middle of June as I'm off to Vegas next week for 5 days.


diamondback485
 
quote:Originally posted by Kisinana

Well yesterday was a nice day on the water. Fished Texada across from town. Picked up a 14 a 12 and 2 9's plus a lovely 68 cm ling to boot. The only pink/white was the 14 all the others were nice deep red. Ate the ling for dinner last night and tonight I'm forced to sit on the deck and BBQ a fillet of red. All fish hit on different lures between 40 and 80 feet.
Not bad for a 5 hour outing.

Got a 22# whitey off the fingers in Nanaimo May long weekend. First one I've ever thrown on the bbq as I'd always heard they were not very good and to smoke them. Well I'll tell ya it was absolutely delicious with only some lemon and onion slices. I wont be so disappointed next time I get a whitey.
Click to expand...

diamondback485
 
Three guys limited at Sarah Point last week, largest was 36#s. They are out there you just have to work to find them. They first tried all the way up Lewis, the mouth of Toba and all the way back down the bays in Waddington. Sarah Point was the last ditch effort before heading home and they put them all in the boat in a short period of time. Seems like it's going to be a heavy on gas year trolling around to find them [V]
 
Had someone out two days ago. Tried Mace Point with no success. Tried the Iron Mines wall with three other boats, no one landed anything. Went out to Grant's Reef and trolled from the can out towards the bump out and got one 10 pounder on a wonderbread in 120'. Picked up a snapper and ling on the wreck on the bumpout and headed home having burned much more gas than hoped for.

Not exactly fast and furious yet but if you put in the time and do the rounds there are a few around. Would hope things pick up in the next few weeks.

Have been averaging 3 keepers per crab trap on Savary. The prawns have thinned down but the commercial season closes in three days so after a few weeks they'll consolidate into the holes again. The PSP closure has kept us away from clamming on Savary. The oysters are now well and truely soupy so they are off the roster until the fall.

Off to cook breakfast for our guests. This morning is smoked salmon wraps with grilled capers and a hollondaise sauce.
 
We picked up a couple at Sliammon on Saturday. There are around but it is still spotty. If the wind dies down we will try Grants later this week.
 
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