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 Overall May was a fantastic month for fishing in local waters! Several trips had guests hooking into more than 10 fish. Most of the salmon have been in the 8-12 pound range. However there are a few much larger fish around. Our biggest fish of the season so far was an estimated 21 pound chinook caught by John Carr (pictured above) - well done John! Great battle with long line ripping runs before it finally came to the boat. Then safely released after a few great photos. What a fish for this early in the season!    We had Orca’s pass through one of our prime locations at the end of May. It’s always a special day when we see these amazing mammals. However, the salmon were less enthusiastic given they are on the killer whale menu. This definitely impacted the fishing but it’s hard to complain when you get to see these top predators in their natural environment.  Crabbing continues to be very good. We’ve been dropping traps on every trip. Spoons and bait (anchovies) are continuing to be very productive. The season for Coho salmon opens June 1 and we should see them showing up in numbers locally during the second half of June.    We still have openings if you want to experience great west coast salmon fishing. Reserve your trip today!
 We’ve been enjoying some great fishing throughout April with consistent feeder Chinook in the 8-10 lb range on every trip. Most of the fish we’ve caught have been feeding on herring but some have been stuffed with other small bait fish as well. Crabbing and prawning has continued to be very productive. We’re currently dropping crab traps on every trip & prawn traps on the longer charters (6hrs +) - it takes more time to set and pull prawn traps given the depth of water we fish them in making this most feasible on longer charters.  Given the fish are aggressively feeding this time of year, they tend to be less selective and are hitting many different lures. We have mostly been using a variety of glow spoons in various shades of green to imitate herring. There’s been no need to run bait since the artificial lures have been working so well but we always have some on board ready to deploy if the fish show signs of being picky!  The government agency that manages our tidal water species, Dept of Fisheries & Oceans ( or DFO), has recently modified the regulations requiring catch and release for Chinook salmon until August 1st. Other salmon species such as Coho can be retained. In mid to late June, we will see schools of Coho salmon showing up in Vancouver and guests can retain 2 hatchery Coho each. These Coho will be in generally the same areas as the Chinook and feeding on the same schools of herring & anchovies. This is always an exciting time anticipating if the next hit will be a Chinook or Coho! Once they arrive, the Coho will be prominent in our local waters into early October. As we progress through July into August, we will also see the arrival of schools of Pink & Sockeye salmon. Prior to releasing any Chinook, we’ve been bringing them onboard for a few quick photos before safely sending them on their way. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing several guests catch their first salmon this April. Now is a great time to get out on the water to catch your first salmon as well!   We had a surprisingly rainy September which was followed by one of the best Octobers we can remember - many consecutive sunny October days with incredible sunsets!  Normally September is dry and sunny with rivers and creeks running relatively low. This causes the schools of migrating salmon to congregate in the harbour and river mouth areas while they continue to mature and wait for the typical October rains. Heavy rains in September meant water levels were sufficient for salmon to enter local streams at any time. Nonetheless, we still had some excellent fall fishing in September through into October. Sockeye fishing remained open well into September and continued to be very good. Coho were also plentiful but often 'finicky' biters. At this time of year, salmon are no longer actively feeding but a well placed anchovy or herring will usually trigger a strike.  With that in mind, we typically use bait (herring & anchovies) almost exclusively in the final few months of the season. We had some great days near the Capilano river mouth with chinook up to 26lbs!  Crabbing improved as we moved into late September and we managed a few limits of keeper size Dungeness crabs into October. There continue to be a few late coho around along with Chum salmon. But most of our target salmon are now in their native river systems. It's been another great season on the West Coast. Lots of great fishing stories, spectacular scenery, and great memories!    We had a few days of strong NW winds that made it difficult to get to our prime fishing locations. Now that those winds have subsided, we've been back to our favourite areas to enjoy the continued great fishing! Sockeye, coho, & chinook salmon have been our primary focus and it has been common to hook into all three salmon species on a single trip. Each flood tide continues to bring more salmon into local waters. The sockeye fishery continues to be open and has provided a lot of fun trips over the past several weeks. Lots of jumping sockeye from the large gathering schools have been entertaining to watch and have kept the anticipation high watching those rods for the next strike! We expect excellent fishing to continue through to the first week or two of October. Good times!
 Fishing continues to be excellent for both sockeye and chinook salmon. Large schools of sockeye continue to arrive and hold off the mouth of the Fraser river. It's made for some entertaining trips with non stop action that we hope will continue for at least a few more days before sockeye season is closed. Most trips have been focused on sockeye but the fishing for chinook has been great as well. The average size is increasing with most fish in the 18-22lbs and a few 30 pounders now being reported! Many are being caught while targeting sockeye and we've seen limits when switching the gear to target them specifically. Calm days and great fishing with family and friends ... it doesn't get much better than this!
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