Pacific Angler Friday Fishing Report: August 14, 2015

OUTLOOK

We’re headed into a weekend of slightly cooler temperatures and a little bit of rain so again a welcome break from the straight sun of the past week!

As we mentioned in previous reports many of our local rivers are closed so be sure that are familiar with all of the regulations and closures. Don’t hesitate to give us a call here at the shop if you have any questions. There have been reports of some nice chinook being landed on the Fraser this week so that is a good option to get out and do some fishing. If you are headed to the Fraser be sure to read the report below and practice selective fishing methods that target spring salmon only. If you’re looking to head more to the Whistler/Squamish area pink fishing has been great so definitely worth the drive.

Beach fishing has remained productive this week and there are a few more days of good tides. If you are looking to fish later in the week when we have some higher tides your best bet is to fish from a boat or head up to Furry Creek.

For  local saltwater fisherman chinook fishing is now in full swing and we’ve had some great catches at the Bell Buoy, North Arm, T-10 and further south.   The harbour has been productive as well with all our five hour charters this past Thursday landing chinook, pink and coho!  The full report is below and includes information on hot depths and presentations of choice for our guide team.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record don’t forget that the Vancouver Chinook Classic is here in just over two weeks! There is still time to register.

VANCOUVER CHINOOK CLASSIC

We know you’ve heard a lot about this in the last few weeks but we don’t want you to miss out on the $25,000 first place prize!!

The Vancouver Chinook Classic is the premier catch and release salmon fishing event hosted annually in Vancouver. With a new location, based out of the new marina at the amazing Pacific Gateway Hotel in Richmond derby entrants will be much closer to the mouth of the Fraser and be able to enjoy the amenities of the hotel throughout the tournament. Held one week earlier to maximize on this years big chinook return, this 2-day event awards the largest cash prize of any fishing derby in Vancouver.
Not only do you have the chance to win amazing prizes, the tournament is also an opportunity to support local charities and salmon stewards. The Vancouver Chinook Classic raises awareness and funds for Capilano Little Ones School and the Pacific Salmon Foundation. Last year’s tournament raised $10,000 for the Pacific Salmon Foundation!

Tournament Dates: Saturday August 29th and Sunday August 30th
Entry Fee: $1,500 per boat (includes up to 4 anglers)

Your tournament entry includes moorage, registration gift bag, hot fisherman’s breakfast both days, gourmet dinner including 2 drink tickets on night one, entertainment, awards ceremony and barbeque with 2 drink tickets on day two, and special daily prizes from our sponsors.

For more details and to register visit the Vancouver Chinook Classic Website!

COURSES

Our August courses have come and gone but don’t worry – there’s more to come in September. It’s ‘Back to School’ Pacific Angler Style.

Introduction To Fly Fishing
This course was specifically designed to give the new fly fisher the basic knowledge, casting skills and fly fishing strategies to effectively fish our local BC waters. This course is comprised of two sessions; 3hr evening seminar and a 3hr casting session. The dates below show the seminar date first and casting date second.

Seminar Date: September 16, 6:30PM to 9:30PM
Casting Date: September 19, 10:00AM – 1PM or 2PM to 5PM
Cost: $125.00

Introduction to Fly Tying
There is no greater satisfaction than catching a fish with a fly you tied yourself. This course was specifically designed to give you the fundamental skills needed to tie proven fly patterns used here in BC for trout, salmon, and steelhead. This course consists of 3 sessions; each session is 3hrs. Students are required to supply their own vise, tools and materials. A 10% discount is available on materials and tools purchased for the course.

Dates: September 14, 21 and 28 – 6:30PM – 9:30PM each evening.
Cost: $75.00

Fall Salmon River Fishing: Floats, Spinners and Spoons
This 3hr evening seminar covers float fishing, spinner fishing and spoon fishing; the three most productive techniques to catch BC salmon in a river. Upgrade your seminar to include a fully guided day on the water, putting into practice your new knowledge with a Pacific Angler guide.

Seminar Date: September 23, 6:30PM – 9:30PM
Cost: $45.00

Upgrade to a guided trip!! Call us or come see us in shop for more details.

FRESHWATER REPORTS

Chilliwack
The summer chinook fishery has come to an end on the Chilliwack. The majority of the fish have moved through the river and are in the hatchery. We are a couple weeks out from our fall salmon fishery. We should start to see pinks, chinook, and coho in the river by the first week of September. For right now it would be wise to conserve roe and gas money.

Lower Fraser (Tidal)
Lower Fraser – Still a couple weeks early before the pinks are in great numbers in the river. Right now the river is still quite dirty, but we are seeing big pods of pinks off the mouth of the river and expect things to get going soon. Good time for a scout to go out and check. With the presence of salmon in the river you can expect Sturgeon fishing to pick up as the Sturgeon gorge themselves on salmon carcasses.

Upper Fraser (Non-Tidal)
Salmon fishing on the non-tidal portion opened on August 3 and we have had some good reports of chinook being caught while bar fishing.

As a reminder there is no retention of sockeye salmon, for more information please see this fishery notice and anglers are advised to use bar fishing methods in order to avoid any incidental catches of sockeye salmon. If catches of sockeye are too high the river will be 100% shut down for all fisheries. Please see the poster below for some further information and other preferred methods of fishing.

Squamish
On our calendar we consider the 2nd week of August “peak” time for chasing pinks on the Squamish. Thousands of fish are moving through every day and they are still fairly “fresh”. It looks like our calendar was correct. We heard of great fishing at the Mamquam Bar on the lower Squamish River and we have heard of anglers finding good numbers further up river as well.

Techniques
When fly fishing the Squamish use light to medium sink tips with short 4ft 10lb leaders. I tend to use pink patterns in the 1.5 to 2 inch size and tie them bushier than the beach style patterns so they stand out in the water. That said this week we did hear reports of guys hitting them on smaller pink and chartreuse patterns so always have a variety of sizes and weights. Come by the shop and we can show you some options.

If you are gear fishing focus on pink and white spoons as well as pink and chartreuse spoons. Another great option is to float fish with pink and purple jigs. If the water is coloured go with bigger lures and if it is clear go as small as you can. The best two clearer water lures are the cerise deadly darter and the pink blue fox. In short we recommend having a variety of options with you when you head out.

The limit for pink salmon is two per day on the Squamish but all other species are catch and release and it is strictly a single barbless fishery.

The really important question is has anyone been trying trout beads behind the pinks a little father up river? Probably a little early but I am already getting itchy having missed my trout fix on the Skagit.

Matt

Capilano
The Capilano is closed to fishing above the Highway No. 1 Bridge, be sure to familiarize yourself with the river and the closure location.

Chehalis
The Chehalis is closed to fishing.

Skagit
The Skagit is closed to fishing.

STILLWATER REPORTS

Local Lake Reports
As per previous Friday Fishing Reports there is little to report on our local lakes given the warm temperatures. If you are heading out, remember that morning and evening is the best time to get out there.

Interior Lake Reports
I haven’t had many interior lake reports this week, except from Tunkwa and Stoney and lakes nearby. Tunkwa continues to have some really good chironomid fishing. The fish are being caught any where from 10 to 15 feet deep. It is non-stop action, with some fisherman hooking up to 30 fish. We are also seeing a small hatch of emergers in the evening and fish caught on leeches too. So be prepared with a variety in your box. Leighton Lake, which is right beside Tunkwa, is also fishing well and worth a try. The lake is stocked with Fraser strain. Reports from Stoney Lake note that is fly fisherman have been successful with Gumphus dragon and leeches.

Andre

SALTWATER REPORTS

Beach Fishing

The salmon continue to mill around the estuary with the extremely low river levels. You are already seeing a lot of fish jumping, which indicates that they have been there longer than they should. It can be challenge to catch this fish but by no means is it impossible. At some point of the day, with the right fly at the right moment can entice a strike.

Lots of fresh fish will still move in until the end of September and you will encounter more wild and bigger fish. Pinks continue to roll in both at Ambleside and Furry creek. This is the time that you might hook a chinook as well as they will be joining the coho and pink salmon. The tides are low in the afternoon until August 17th and then off the beach and it is good again after the 23rd so until then fish off a boat at Ambleside or head out to Furry creek if you are beach fishing.

See you on the beach,

Andre

Local Saltwater Fishing
The chinook fishing is now in full swing and there has been some great catches this week at the Bell Buoy, North Arm, T-10 and Sandheads (South Arm).  Thursday was extremely hot, with multiple boats getting into double digit numbers of chinook in the 10-25 lb range, mostly reds, with the odd white.

The hot presentation has been bait (anchovies or herring) in a glow green or glow green chartreuse teaser head.  Hot flashers have been anything with glow tape and some green, chartreuse or blue blades.  The Oki Tackle Footloose in blue or green have been productive.  They have a reflective UV tape on one side and glow tape on the other side.  If you run out of bait, spoons and hootchies will work.  The Pesca Basketcase has accounted for some  nice fish this week as well as a white glow or just plain glow hootchy.  Productive depths have been 30 to 80 on the riggers with most of the fish in 50 to 65 range.  There have also been some hatchery coho around as a bonus and of course lots of pinks.  We have all the hot flashers and teaser heads in stock and  we also have lots of herring and anchovies in different sizes, including 3 sizes of herring and 2 sizes of anchovies.  So if you need to get geared up for the hot chinook action, come by the shop and grab your gear and get the latest report as our 3 boats are on the water everyday.

While we always get excited about the chinook fishing down at T-10 and Sandheads, there is still lots of hot action off W. Van and the Bell Buoy.  On Thursday we were out on some 5 hour charters and we were into multiple chinook on both boats as well as coho and pinks.  The chinook were reds, so Fraser fish that have been pushed into the harbour on the big tides this week.  So you just never know what you are going to catch from Point Atkinson down to the Cap Mouth.  There are definitely lots of pinks around in that area as well, so if you want to target these fish just put on a pink spoon, pink hootchy or pink Apex.  The fly fishing has also been good and if you cruise along the shoreline of W. Van in the Pink Apartment area, you can locate schools of eagerly biting pinks that will respond well to a pink fly or a small pink spinner or spoon.  The coho are getting tougher to catch, but we are still getting coho on white hootchies and bait starts to work well for the coho this time of year as they get stale and picky.  If a run down to T-10 or Sandheads is not in the cards, or it is just too windy, you have a good shot at chinook off the Bell Buoy.  The same flashers and teaser heads work here as discussed in the previous paragraph.  They are the same Fraser chinook that get pushed into the harbour on the tide.  There have also been some good sized schools of pinks in this area as well as a little further out off the QA marker.