This past week has been fair to excellent for both salmon and sturgeon, the weather is looking great for the next week or two so looks like we are going to have some great fishing weather. This would be a great weekend for some salmon fishing as the Gulf Islands are heating up, see below for detailed report.

Vancouver Salmon Fishing

Salmon fishing has been excellent this past week, lots of Chinook Salmon in the 10 to 25lb range being caught over at Thrasher Rock and around Nanaimo area. Most of the guides are trolling with the new Gibbs/Delta Guide Series Flashers with either spoons or hoochies with UV glo. This combination seems to work the best but fishing has been on fire the past few days so as long as you find them, you should be able to pick them up on spoons, hoochies or anchovi.

If you are looking to get out over the next week or two, give us a shout, Gulf Island fishing is red hot

Fraser River Sturgeon

The Fraser River is steadily rising and I would suspect that this warm weather we are about to get is going to bring it up even further. There is some debris in the water but not too bad so far. Sturgeon fishing has been fair to good this past week, most of our fish are coming on Lamprey eel but we are also picking up some fish on Eulichon and salmon roe. Covering lots of water seems to produce good results so lots of drops is the key right now.

Walt and Audrey with her first ever sturgeon, nice job Audrey.

Over the next few weeks we will see the Fraser rise due to the expected warm weather and snowmelt, this might make fishing the Fraser difficult but we will continue to offer daily sturgeon charters until the river becomes unfishable. If you are planning on going out, watch out for logs and partial sunken trees drifting down the river, best is to fish close to shore, back waters and side channels. The salmon fishing in the Gulf is hot so if we can’t do sturgeon we have options.

Upcoming Fisheries

As I mentioned above the salmon fishing is red hot right now and should remain that way for another 3 to 4 weeks, all Gulf Island trips are 8 to 10 hours but well worth the run over to the Island. We will continue to offer daily charters from Richmond and Granville Island so just give us a shout and we will hook you up. Another great fishery about to begin is the Upper Pitt River Bull Trout, this fishery begins last week in May and runs well into August.

For the month of June we are mostly targeting Bull Trout with fly or light tackle spinning gear, then as the sockeye and chinook move in we will be catching all 3 species. We are expecting a big run of sockeye on both the Fraser and Pitt this summer so this would be a great opportunity to experience the Upper Pitt River catch & release fishery, if you are looking to keep some sockeye for the table, the Fraser River is August/September will be your best bet.

West Coast Salmon & Halibut fishing is heating up, June through to August is best for Chinook , Coho and Halibut out of our Coal Harbour location on Vancouver Island. We will be operating 3 boats from last week in June through to first week in August so if you are looking for that trip of a lifetime, this is the trip for you. Our rates are reasonable and all charters are guaranteed a boat load of fish. Last season was amazing and we are anticipating an even better season for 2014.

Beautiful Yellow eye Snapper which are abundant in the waters we fish.

We still have 1 trip available for 4 nights 3 days for up to 4 anglers, cost is $1875 per person, includes accommodations, meals and guided fishing. We also have one 3 night 2 day and several day trips. If you are wanting to experience some of the best fishing on the coast, shoot me an e-mail.

In summary, if you are looking for some great salmon action, now through to middle of June is excellent in the Gulf Islands, then we move to West Coast for month of July where we are expecting over 1 million Coho and Chinook then back to Fraser River for August through to November where Department of fisheries has predicted up to 70 million sockeye salmon to return. During this time period will continue to offer daily sturgeon charters out of our 3 locations, Delta Airport Hotel, Mission and Fraser Canyon and don’t forget about the upper Pitt River Bull Trout Fishery.

Hope you have a great week, see you on the water.

Vic Carrao