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   August has been a great month so far with excellent sockeye and chinook salmon fishing! For the most part, the weather has also cooperated with many flat calm sunny days making for some great memories on the water. Sockeye fishing is at it's peak now with double hookups being common along with the occasional triple hookup to create heart pumping chaos! Chinook have ranged between 15 - 20 lbs on average with the odd fish pushing 24-25lbs. We should see that average increase now that we're into the final weeks of August through September and into October. Great time of year in Vancouver waters!
 We've recently returned from our annual Nootka Sound trip with the boats. Another great visit to an incredibly picturesque part of our province! Fishing on the inside was slower than usual this year but we did get several Chinook near Coopte Point. We had to go quite a bit deeper than prior years to find them on the inside with anchovies being the most productive by far.   We also spent some time on the outside at the Red Can off Bajo Reef and back toward Beano Creek and Maquinna. Offshore conditions were unbelievable. Lake like conditions every day which is almost unheard of. We eventually found a very hot bite in around Beano where the predators gathered to feast on large schools of tiny (2-3") baitfish. It's always exciting when we find large concentrations of baitfish. The water surface comes alive as everything tries to get in on the feeding frenzy. The salmon and whales push the bait into the shallows while the birds dive into the concentrated bait balls from above - it's tough being toward the bottom of the food chain! We got limits on hatchery coho and released many nice wild fish. The coho were averaging a feisty 9lbs with the occasional beauty pushing 12-15lbs! We had a push of nice chinook move into the area on one night that provided some great action with screaming long runs. Most fish were in the 15-22lb range. A few whales showed up to feast as well and surfaced within 30' of the boat. Always a really cool sight to see! And then we were rewarded with a surprise 46lb halibut while trolling for Chinook in tight near the kelp - what a great fight on light salmon gear!  Now we're back in Vancouver where sockeye fishing is officially open and really beginning to heat up. We're also in prime time for chinook fishing with new waves moving into the area with every flood tide. Combine this with the coho we've had in the area and it's a great time to be out on the water! Our last trip out picked up some really nice sockeye that were averaging about 7lbs. With a large return projected, we're expecting sockeye will be open for a few weeks but it's never a guarantee. So if you want to get into some premium sockeye salmon action, don't wait too long!
 As anticipated, we've had a nice push of coho into the area and have been doing well running anchovies from the surface down to about 60'. With the great sunny weather we've also had to deal with very strong NW winds which hampered our ability to target some of the areas we would have liked to. However we're usually able to locate some calmer sheltered water on those days that still give us an opportunity of getting into a few fish. Chinook fishing should continue to improve with every passing day as more schools return to the area. Overall we're entering a peak time for local waters from now into October. Crabbing has been "ok" with an average of 2-4 keepers per trip. But it has definitely slowed down which is not unusual for this time of year. We'll continue to drop traps on the way out for the next week or two.
 We've had some nice weather this week making for a great time on the water! Fishing has been somewhat of a hit and miss over the past few trips. We should see the local fishing pick up again very soon as the coho move into the area along with new schools of chinook. Our best success over the past few days has come on bait (anchovies) and we'll start to run these almost exclusively as we push further into July. The commercial crabbing season is underway but we're still getting a few nice Dungeness crabs each trip. We'll continue dropping traps through the next few weeks as long as our success rate keeps up!
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