Pacific Angler Friday Fishing Report: May 22, 2015

OUTLOOK

Again we have another week of sun and warm temperatures in the forecast. This is keeping many city dwellers and saltwater fisherman happy but for those of you looking to get out to river fishing, you’re not alone in wishing for some rain

Lake fishing has continued to be consistent. Andre has some tips below on how to approach this fishery with the warm weather and set yourself up for a successful day on the water.

Interesting is one word used to describe the saltwater fishing this past week.   Fishing has been hot in numerous spots throughout the week. The challenge has been finding the action – location, timing and a little bit of luck have been requirements to getting into fish this week.  Jason has a few recommendations in his saltwater report below.

COURSES

There are just a few spots left in a few of our upcoming June classes. Due to overwhelming demand we have added a new date for our Mastering Local Saltwater Salmon course.   Don’t miss out on getting your spot. Call the shop today to sign up for these great courses. 

Mastering Local Saltwater Salmon
Over 50 million salmon migrate past Vancouver annually. Learn how to catch these fish with a Pacific Angler. This course offers an in-depth look at the local saltwater scene. We cover the local saltwater salmon fishing for the entire year, showing you the how, when, and where. This course includes a 3hr evening seminar and a fully guided day on the water in one of our Grady Whites.

Cost: $250.00
Seminar Date: June 3
On the water: June 7 or June 13

Introduction to Fly Tying – last introduction to tying course until September!
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.

Cost: $75.00
Dates: June 10, 17 and 24
Time: 6:30pm to 9:30pm

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.

Cost: $125.00
Seminar: June 16, 6:30pm to 9:30pm
Casting Date: June 20, 2pm to 5pm

Tying Beach Fly Patterns – 3 spots left
Join Pacific Angler for a 3hr evening seminar of tying flies specific to catching salmon on our coastal beaches. Without a doubt, fly selection is critical while beach fishing. These flies are often not commercially available, so successful beach anglers learn to tie their own patterns. Your instructor will walk you through each fly pattern step-by-step. This course is suitable for fly tiers with a basic knowledge. Students are required to supply their own vise, tools and materials. A 10% discount is available on materials and tools purchased for the course.

Cost: $40.00
Dates: June 23
Time: 6:30pm to 9:30pm

FRESHWATER REPORTS

Capilano
The Cap is going to be low until the next good dump of rain ( we’d like to see 30 to 50mm), which doesn’t look like it will be happening anytime soon. Fish still move up into the river but they aren’t pilling in by any means. In these low water conditions timing your outings with first and last light will increase your odds of hooking up. Casting spinners and spoons tends to be more effective when the river is so low and there is little to no current. Stripping Andre’s “Cap Bugger” on a full sink line is another way to target these spooky fish. Now might be a good time to start brushing up on your rain dance.

STILLWATER REPORTS

Local Lakes
The local lakes are still fishing well but I would get out there sooner than later if this nice weather continues as the water temps rise and fish tend to go deeper. Fishing from shore Rice, Como Sasamat , Buntzen and Deer Lake are still fishing good. Deer Lake also has bass and carp in there as well.  Lakes that allow small boats or personal watercraft are a better bet allowing you to move around and fish deeper spots. Weaver, Grace, Wood, Hicks lakes in the Chehalis area are on higher elevation and should fish well throughout the warmer temps. If you are looking to fish through the summer another option is to head the Squamish/Whistler way for lake fishing. In Squamish there is Stump, Edith, Brohm and Cat Lake. In Whistler you can fish Alta (for cutthroat) and Green Lake and the small lakes around it. Bigger lakes in Pemberton like Birkenhead, Anderson fish well using trolling gear as the fish are much bigger and deeper. For more in depth information in what to use and how to fish please come in to the store and we will make sure you are set up with the right tackle for your preferred weekend destination.

Andre

Interior Lakes
The interior lakes are heating up with this nice weather we are having.  If you are fishing under 4,000ft elevation lakes, start looking for deeper spots in the lake where the fish might be swimming comfortably. For those who like to continue fishing chironomids, you should start head to higher elevation lakes in Merritt and Kamloops or go to the Cariboo region lakes as this is a much later start to the lake season.

With this heat be aware of the chaoborus  hatch also known as “the glass worm” as they are prone to hatch with higher temperatures . If you catch the beginning of this you might have a chance to catch a fish. Otherwise it is best to move to a different lake as the fish suffocate themselves with these larvae. These larvae are very small and almost transparent with a black head. They have no gills and wiggle a lot to bring themselves up to the surface.

This is a good time to make sure you have plenty of damsel nymphs in different shades of olive, brown and cream color as they will be lurking around the shallow parts of the lake before they migrate to the shore and hatch.

Spotlight on Roche Lake – Week Two
I headed up to Roche Lake again this weekend. The fishing on was noticeably slower over the long weekend compared to the weekend of the 9^th and 10^th.  The spotty weather made fishing tough at times, however, there were decent chironomid hatches in 6-12ft of water in the late morning and early afternoon. There must be an algae bloom of some kind, as the water was noticeably murkier than the previous weekend.

Andre’s “mini leech” fly fished under a strike indicator produced well in the morning and evenings. There is no shortage of small football-shaped Fraser Valley strain rainbows, and some larger Pennask rainbows mixed in. A small caddis hatch happened on Tuesday, and fish could be seen taking them at times. Hopefully the lake clears up again soon and we can once again have the opportunity to watch rainbows take your chironomid pupa in 7ft of water!

Max Stickel

SALTWATER REPORT

It has been an interesting week out on the water with some hot and cold fishing depending on your location and your luck.  There have been some double-digit chinook days from Thrasher and Nanaimo only to be followed by some days of extremely tough fishing for a lonely chinook or two.  To make things even more interesting there were even some days this week where the Hump was out producing Thrasher and Nanaimo!  So if you were scratching your head this week, you were not alone.  To make things even more interesting Mother Nature decided to add some Orcas into the mix in the Thrasher and Nanaimo area.  This likely accounted for some of the hot and cold action.

So where to go this weekend?  Well typically this time of year if the winds are co-operating and you have the boat for it, you want to head over to the Gulf Islands and fish from there up to Nanaimo.  Popular spots are Porlier Pass, Thrasher Rock, and right out in front of Nanaimo from Entrance Island up to Five Fingers.  That is a lot of water to cover, and there in lies the dilemma.  Where do you go?  As mentioned in the previous paragraph, one spot is hot one day and cold the next.  These fish move around a lot, so the best we can suggest is you head to a spot and fish it hard.  If you are in the right spot on the right day, you are going to have some pretty hot fishing.  Most of these spots are about 25-35 minutes apart, so if you do need make a change, you usually have enough time to move once and hit the next slack tide.  For instance, if you are at Thrasher and it is slow, you can run up to Nanaimo in about 30 minutes or so.  Another good piece of advice is to fish deep.  The water has been very, very clear this year and we haven’t seen much Fraser River water coming over to the Gulf Islands.  This might change as things heat up later this month and the rivers start to freshet, but for now the water remains very clear and the hot depths on the downrigger have been from 135 all the way down to 215, with most of the activity in the 150-200 range.  You want to be fishing at least a 15 LB cannonball and when the tide is pushing hard we have even been using 18 LB cannonballs.

On the business end of things, we have been doing well with Oki Tackle green or chartreuse glow flashers, the Green Footloose Flasher, and the Purple Onion Glow and Green Onion Glow flashers.  When fishing deep, even though the water is clear, you want to have some glow tape on the flasher.  A 6 foot leader to your favourite spoon is always a good choice, like the Pesca Gut Bomb, Clupea, and Leprechaun in 4.0 and 5.0 and the Kingfisher 3.5 and 4.0 in Yellow Tail, Irish Cream, Kitchen Sink, and Homeland Security.  Hootchies are also doing well and we have been doing well on the Ernie Ross Shimmertail in OG140R, NG142R, and Thrasher Basher with a 32-36 inch leader length.  Don’t forget about the bait.  Normally we fish only spoons and hootchies for this fishery, but for some reason there have been some days when the fish really have wanted a herring or anchovy.  Perhaps it has something to do with the clear water this year, but there have definitely been some days where bait was the ticket.  Try some of the Oki teaser heads in glow green chartreuse or glow green.  We have a great bulk teaser head selection in a variety of styles and colors including glow, chrome, and UV finishes.

If you want to stay a bit closer to home then the Hump might be worth a try as it definitely surprised us on a few trips this week with hotter fishing than Thrasher and Nanaimo.  The same flashers and lures just discussed will work very well at the Hump but adjust your depths slightly.  Productive depths for the Hump have been 90 to 160.   The deeper depths seem to produce more on sunny days and the shallower depths on the overcast days.

We are pleased to announce that crabbing is open again in Vancouver Harbour so we are dropping traps again on our trips and this picture speaks for itself.

 

We are booking up fast, but we still have a few prime time dates for Thrasher and Nanaimo and the fishing the next 4-5 weeks should be awesome.  Give us a call at 778-788-8582 to book your trip and get some nice chinook and some fresh dungeness crab!

Jason