OUTLOOK  Welcome to July.  Wow, it was hot last week, we hope everyone found a way to stay cool. Prayers and best wishes go out to the residents of Lytton.    Besides causing major problems across the province, the heat has also shifted fisheries.  River levels rose in many areas.  We didn’t see major rises on too many of the Lower Mainland rivers, but we also didn’t see the drop we were hoping for.  Matt has a water levels update in the video version of today’s report so you can tune into that for more information.    Saltwater fishing continues to be good with a few more coho reports this week as well.  Jason has details below.    Lake fishing obviously suffered through the heat but anglers who know how to change tactics still found fish.  Sterling has an update on the…

OUTLOOK  Heat wave incoming!  It looks like another amazing week of weather, but the heat has some caveats when it comes to fishing.  Local lake trout fishing will slow with this heat.  We have some details as to how to deal with this in that section below.   Interior lakes will still fish well at higher elevation, but fish will be going deep.  Early season shallow tactics will not work.  It is time to break out the sinking lines for chironomid fishing, deep cast and retrieve and trolling techniques.  Sterling has details in the interior lake section and be sure to have a read of a report from Mike after his trip up to the interior as well.    Alex has tuned in with an outlook on the upcoming opening for the Vedder/Chilliwack River so if you’re getting ready for that…

OUTLOOK Freedom! Freedom at last! We are all very excited about the announcement on the 15th  which lifted the restrictions on regional travel.  It is great to see the numbers headed in the right direction.  We are also super excited about the 14-day weather forecast. Summer is coming right on time! We should see an epic warm weekend and it will carry right into next week.   This is all good news for getting out fishing. For our saltwater readers Jason is back this week with a report.  To date local coho fishing has been slow but now is the time we usually see it pick up, so check out Jason’s report Sterling has an interior lake report.  The heat is maybe not a good thing…

OUTLOOK  June is moving fast and everyone has fingers crossed for the travel restrictions to be lifted on the 15th.  With this in mind, Sterling has an interior lake update where fishing has been good but is shifting.  He will go through the bugs and strategies below.  Local lakes are still worth looking at this weekend too.  A handful were stocked at the end of last month and we have included the latest stocking report in the lake section below as well as some rigging updates for fishing when things warm up.   The Capilano is another one to look at this time of year.  Fishing continues to be challenging but we are hearing of more fish both in the river and along the north shore beaches.  Taylor has details in the freshwater report section.  Matt is off this week when…

OUTLOOK  What a week of weather!  This little hot spell on the coast was well received, but it has tweaked a few fisheries.  Unfortunately, it looks as though it will be back to the mid-teens for the weekend, but that is not exactly a bad thing for fishing.   We have heard reports from the interior that the lower elevation lakes in the 1800-2200ft range got very hot over the last 3 days and the fishing that had been red hot for the last 3 weeks has slowed.  We have details on this and tips on how to deal with it in the interior lake report.  Time to look at the higher elevation lakes!  With warm weather in mind, Alex has a piece on top water bass fishing.  We’ve heard good reports over the last week with the warmer weather.  He has some tips…

OUTLOOK  May is moving along quickly and we are almost into June.  We are all looking forward to the middle of next month when travel restrictions are hopefully lifted.  We wish the province had declared fishing “essential” and allowed travel but, if everything goes as planned, we are all eagerly awaiting the middle of next month when things are expected to open up. With this in mind, we have a light report for you this week.  Matt will tune in next week with a video version of the report and Jason will be back with an update on the saltwater front. In the report, this week, we have a piece on saltwater pier fishing locally in Vancouver, aka “shark fishing”!  This is a fun and…

We had hoped we would have a more positive update on regulations but unfortunately DFO has yet again chosen to ignore science and data.  After an inexcusably long wait DFO has finally provided the subsequent Fisheries Notice (see below for the full notice) to the interim regulations put out in April.     We couldn’t say it better than the SFI did, so have shared an excerpt from their mailout here which provided a brief overview of today’s notice.  “The wait was not only inexplicably long, today’s notice is disappointing and failed to deliver a balanced and conservation-minded approach the sport fishing community has been seeking for over a year. While there were some times and areas added to current retention opportunities, rather than adopting an approach…

OUTLOOK  It is a big week for announcements on the retail front.  First up – Reel West Coast – Brendan Morrison’s fishing show has dropped merchandise and we have a great selection in stock!   From hats, including youth hats, to buffs and dry bags we’ve got it all.  Swing by the shop to pick up yours today or give us a ring at the shop and we can ship it out to you.    On the lake fishing front Phill Rowley released his new lake fishing book today and it is a doozy!   It has been in the making for over 2 years and it was worth the wait.  It is rare we get this excited for books but this one is something special.  Matt managed to get a copy a little early…

OUTLOOK  It looks like another good-looking fishing weekend on the horizon.  We have been in many ways blessed locally over the last 3 weeks.  It has been not too hot to blow out rivers and not too cold to be unpleasant outdoor weather.  With a little rain, temps in the low teens and some sun, it looks like the trend will continue for the weekend.    We were holding our breath this week for a fisheries announcement on the saltwater chinook fishery, but unfortunately it sounds like it will be further delayed until next week.  Jason has more details in his saltwater report this week along with an update on the fishing.  When  an update to the regulation does come out we will be sure to send out a special announcement and it will also be on all our social media feeds.     On the Vedder, it has changed to fly only below the Vedder Crossing bridge and is closed to fishing above.  We are not tuning…