Pacific Angler Outlook
Well it’s lucky Friday the 13th. Hopefully you are all enjoying the fine weather Vancouver has got to offer. This weekend is definitely going to be a great one for fishing. Sunny with some great daily temperatures.
Within a two hour drive you’ve got your choice of fishing for steelhead and cutthroat trout in our rivers. April is the peak of the run so if you are crazy about steelhead or cutthroat make sure to get out there. The local lakes have been receiving their fresh stocks of fish as well. Also, for the saltwater angler we’ve started to hear some good reports locally.
The forecast for the weekend in Vancouver is looking good. We are expecting sun on Saturday with a daily high of 13 degrees Celsius. On Sunday we are expecting cloud with a high of 13 degrees Celsius again. Make sure to enjoy the sun on Saturday because rain is in the forecast for the upcoming week.
The marine forecast for the Straight of Georgia is looking somewhat mild. We should expect to have winds ranging from 10 to 20 knots and shifting from Northwest from friday and Saturday to southeast on Sunday:
The saltwater guys have started to roll into the store getting ready for another great salmon season. You know summer is just around the corner when purple haze flashers start flying out the door.
Local Saltwater Fishing:
The Salty Dawg had been out fishing a couple of times this past week. The fishing had been pretty tough locally with few undersized shakers being caught. However, any day now we should hear of a few reports of fish being caught around the Hump and the south end of Bowen Island. This fishery should be good any day now until the middle of May. Our largest fish of the year was caught off of Bowen Island in late April – so you know they are around. It’s just a matter of getting out there and fishing.
Spoons and hootchies and even anchovies fish well for this time of year. The Hump is fairly deep between 300 to 400 feet. You typically want to stagger your lines around the 90 foot mark on the downriggers. Once you find a pod of fish try to focus on that area until the action dies down and then move on. The name of the game is covering ground and finding those moving pods of fish.
I also talked to a customer who ran over to Thrasher Rock for the day. He did not have any luck but again it is a bit early for this fishery. Expect it to start fishing well towards the middle of May.
The crabbing locally has been quite good. It’s always great to see a smile on our customers when they go home with a few big crabs for dinner.
BC River Fishing Report:
The river fishing has been nothing short of amazing, and as it should be for April. The cutthroat fishing has been great. Pretty much where there are large concentrations of fry there should be cutthroat hanging around. The Harrison seems to be a favorite this year with lots of big cutties and even steelhead being caught on the fry.
The steelhead fishing has also been red hot at the moment. The Vedder is fishing very well at the moment with lots of fish in the system.
Usually steelhead fishermen are burned out by this time of year. After a long winter of grinding it out on the rivers the average steelheader now has his sights on lake fishing or just wants to take a break. But now is the time that you want to be out there. Our daily temperatures are now in the double digits and the nightly temperatures are well above zero. This means that the water temperatures will have come up a few degrees, making steelhead just that much more aggressive. If you love to catch steelhead on the fly then make sure to get out there and swing away.
The don’t come any brighter than this…
Float fishermen usually have their best days on the river at this time of year as well, often getting to double digits. Steelhead roe is the ticket for these fish at this time of year. Dimitri, our gear fishing expert, has put an incredible number of days on the water this year. If you have any questions or just want to talk about anything related to steelhead and float fishing then drop by the store when Dimitri is in. Check out this double header he had a couple of weeks ago…
In fact all of the boys at Pacific Angler love steelhead and love the month of April. So if you have any queries regarding steelhead please don’t hesitate to drop by the store or give us a shout at 604-872-2204.
BC Lake Fishing Report:
Well I was hoping of doing a detailed report for all of the lakes in the interior then I went to Lac La Hache for the easter weekend to help my wife’s family with the ranch and wow…there was a lot of snow and ice.
So the bad news is there is still lots of ice on the majority of the lakes in the interior. I’ve heard of some of the lower elevation lakes around Kamloops starting to open up but the majority of the productive lakes still have a good layer of thick ice.
So here is the good news. There was noticeable snow melt within the three days that I was up at Lac La Hache. I also asked the locals when they expected the snow to melt and they all said 2 weeks if they get a warm spell. The nightly temperatures were still well below zero degrees Celsius but the daily temperatures were quite high (around 9 degrees Celsius). So here is hoping…
We’ll keep an eye on the ice off in the interior and make sure to update you next Friday. If you have any questions as well please do not hesitate to contact us. We’ve got all you need for your lake fishing, from fly tying materials to rods and reels.
Have a great weekend I’ll see you out there,
Dave