Outlook

June is flying by, and we are looking forward to a great summer of different fishing opportunities. The Saltwater salmon fishing has been good this past week over at Thrasher. The fishing will soon be much closer to home as the Bell Buoy and the North Arm are starting to produce.

The Caribou region is the place to be right now if you are a stillwater angler. Try lakes in the 4000ft range and above this time of year.

Summer trout fishing is just around the corner! It could be an early season on the Thompson and Skagit River. Keep your eyes on the graphs and stay tuned.

Upcoming Courses

FLY FISHING ON BEACHES

Class Size: 20

This single evening 3hr seminar will cover the basic principles needed to be an effective beach fly fishermen in BC from Howe Sound to the east coast of Vancouver Island. Topics covered will include rods, reels, fly lines, flies, tides, and techniques. Andre Stepanian, the instructor for this course, has been chasing salmon on our local beaches for over two decades. Remember, east coast Vancouver Island has a pink salmon run every year and last year the Capilano had 12,000 coho!

Book this course early as we sold out all 3courses in 2013!!

Cost: $40.00

Dates : July 15 and July 23

Time: 6:30pm – 9:30pm

SAGE ROD SALE

Sage is coming out with New Fly rod models and that means 2 of their most legendary rods, the VXP and XI3 are going to be discontinued!

This means that all VXP and Xi3 models that we have in stock are going to be drastically reduced in price. We were going to announce the deals for our Summer Super Sale next month but we thought to start the sale for these rods early!

ALL Sage XI3s and VXPs will be sold for 35% off on in stock models!

The XI3 has been the sage saltwater work horse for the past 5 years and really set the bar for saltwater fly rods. With high end saltwater components and an aggressive fast action, weather you are chasing Coho on the beach or traveling to Mexico for Tarpon this rod is perfect.

In Stock Right Now: 790-4 (7wt) 890-4(8wt) 990-4(9wt) 1090-4(10wt)  – These will be sold on a first come bases.  Call and give a deposit over the phone or come down to the shop!

The VXP has been one of our favored rods and simple put the best medium action casting rod on the market. We have lovingly called it the Cadillac of sage rods. With a relaxed action, extremely light graphite and great high end components this rod is perfect for a beginner or experts who love a smooth action rod.

In Stock Right Now: 590-4(5wt) 896-4(8wt) 7133-4 (7wt Spey Rod) Call and give a deposit over the phone or come down to the shop!

Where is Jordan?

Jordan has left the shop for the summer for his yearly guiding duties up at Langara Fishing Lodge.  Guest Chris (on the left) and guide Jordan (on the right) are sporting the Pacific Angler hats with style, as they hold up a nice hatchery chinook with the typical June overcast SE conditions often incurred up at Hadai Gwaii this time of year.

Freshwater Reports

RIVERS

Squamish

There won’t be much to say about this river system until the fall. Resident trout can be targeted in the summer months once the water has dropped. These trout are best targeted with nymphs, streamers, and dry flies.

Squamish Cheakamus system is a100% catch and release, single barbless fishery so play by the rules and have fun!

Chilliwack River

The next fishery on the Chilliwack system will be chinooks starting July 1st.

Note: The Chilliwack river is closed to fishing for the month of June.

Chehalis River

The Chehalis River is now open to fishing. We have not heard anything from this system yet. We suspect that the water is still too high. If you are in this area, we would love to see a picture of the water or get a first hand report.

Capilano River

The Capilano is scary low for June! The river needs a lot more water before the fishing gets better. It could be an early beach season if it stays like this. Fresh fish are the most willing bitters, so when the river bumps up, the fishing will improve. The fly fisherman seem to be having the most success, which is a product of the low water.

Please note: ALL steelhead(adipose clipped and unclipped) must be released with the utmost care.

The most popular method for this fishery is short-floating with light/medium power casting and center-pin rods. Productive baits include cured roe, roe bags, krill, dew worms, and Colorado blades. Fly fishing is also quite effective for these early run coho. 7-8wt single hand fly rods equipped with full sinking type-6 lines allow you to strip your fly while maintaining a deep presentation. The most effective flies are olive woolly buggers (Andre’s Cap Coho Bugger), muddler minnows, and small polar bear winged flies in sizes 8-12.

Interior Lakes

With warm summer weather already here, it is best to start looking at lakes in the 4000ft range and above.

We have heard some slow reports from Sheridan as well as Corbet Lake.

Tunqua is reportedly fishing well. The damsel flies are out and the fishing is good. Damsel patterns and of course the pumpkin head have been the ticket. Similar story for Hathium lake. Good time of year to have damsels in your box!

More solid reports have arrived from Douglas Lake Ranch. Stoney and Minnie have been fishing quite well recently. The fish have been down deep in both lakes (20-30ft). Both the sunk line chironomid technique and long leader floating line technique have been accounting for many of the fish to the boat. Boobie flies fished on a full sinking type 3 or type 6 line have proved to be deadly since the fish have been down deep. This technique can elicit some incredibly aggressive strikes.

Here are some lakes that are worth checking out in the Merritt area: Davis, Englishmen, Harmon, Marquart, Lundbom, Kump, Corbett, and Courtney. For more in depth information and getting set up for your trip please drop by the store.

Andre & Max.

Local Lakes

Rice, Lafarge, Como, Buntzen, and all the other local lakes are fishing well.

It is a good idea to play around with different techniques to find the most effective method on any given day. When experiencing slow fishing with stationary bait rigs like float fishing or bottom fishing, a spinner or a spoon can really change your luck.

We encourage people to take the introductory angler in their life to one of these stocked lakes. It is a great way to get people into the sport based on how willing the fish are and proximity to the city.

The Whistler Lakes are fantastic this time of year. We have heard good reports from Alta lake and Nita lake recently. The species of target in Alta lake are cutthroat trout and rainbow trout. Cutthroat are best targeted with woolly bugger and minnow type flies like muddlers and belly dancers or small spoons like a Dick Nite. The rainbows can be taken on a variety of flies. Chironomids fished under an indicator can actually work quite well on Alta for rainbows.

We have also heard decent reports from the Pemberton Lakes recently.

Local Saltwater

 

Jason with a nice Thrasher Rock chinook about to hit the cleaning table.

 

Dimitri’s Haul from Thrasher last week

 

On the local front, we are starting to book some 5 hour charters and Eddie has hooked some nice Fraser River chinook off the Bell Buoy.  The best depths for this fishery are 30-60 feet on the downriggers with Green Onion and glow flashers with a 6 foot leaders to a glow green anchovy teaser head.  If you don’t like to use bait you can use the spoons mentioned above, but bait is always the top producer for these Fraser River bound chinook.

Eddie’s client landed is nice Fraser River red spring off the Bell Buoy recently.

We haven’t spent much time over at W. Van looking for coho yet as the vast majority of our customers this time of year are looking to take advantage of the chinook fishing over at Thrasher Rock.  The Capilano River has been low for about 3 weeks now and it is right about this time that the coho should start to show up so things could change quickly on this front.

Crabbing has been pretty awesome this week, but the commercial guys are now out there so watch out for the traps when fishing the Bell Buoy and expect the crabbing to slow down considerably over the next 2 weeks as a result of the commercial opening.  Usually by July 15th it is tough crabbing unless you set in out of the way areas.

Crabbing continues to be good but the commercial season has opened so it will likely slow down soon.

We should start to get some numbers trickling in regarding the size of the projected sockeye return in about 2 weeks.  The phones are already buzzing as people are calling in to book dates in August for sockeye and chinook.  There are already some days in August when all our boats are booked so if you are looking to experience what will likely be some of the best salmon fishing in the past 100 years, you should phone and book a date now.

See you in the shop or on the water,

Jason, Eddie, Dimitri, Gordy

 

To book your trip give Jason a call at 778-788-8582. If you are heading out in your own boat, stop by the shop for the latest up to the day report and info on the hot flashers and spoons.

 

On behalf of the Pacific Angler staff we wish you the best in your fishing endeavors and we hope to see you either at the shop or on the water. To check out the latest Pacific Angler news view the Pacific Angler Facebook page.

-Jason, Eddie, Matt, Andre, and Max.