I have received many inquires with regards to sockeye salmon this summer on the Fraser, as most of you know, this is one of the most difficult runs of salmon to predict, well at least for DFO it is. DFO history of accurate predictions are about as accurate as the local weather man in Vancouver so it really is a wait and see before anyone can really answer the burning question" will there be a sockeye opening?" Below I have provided you with DFO latest update.

Fishing has been really good for both salmon and sturgeon for us, in fact sturgeon fishing has been quite amazing the last few days. Yesterday i ended my day with double header 7 footers and managed to land an 8footer as well. Salmon fishing on the Fraser has been slow to fair but the ocean has been producing some incredible fishing. If you have a couple days to spare, our coal harbour fishing is on fire for both salmon and halibut.

Current assessment information suggests that the abundance of Summer-run

sockeye is either lower than forecast or the migration timing is much later

than forecast. At this time the return of Summer-run sockeye would need to be 9

days later than predicted in order to achieve the mid-point of the preseason

run size forecast of 3,718,000. Based on pre-season information, summer-run

sockeye (Chilko, Quesnel, Late Stuart, Stellako, Harrison, Raft, and North

Thompson) are expected to provide most of the fishing opportunities directed at

Fraser sockeye this season. The peak migration of Summer-run sockeye (Chilko)

was forecast to be earlier than average by approximately 5 days. No changes to

the run size of Summer-run sockeye abundance were made at the panel meeting

yesterday. The estimated escapement of Summer-run sockeye past Mission through

August 5th is 382,800 fish.

Catches of pink salmon in marine test fisheries continue to be at higher levels

than usual for this time of year. DNA samples indicate that the Fraser

comprises a very small proportion of the pink salmon presently being harvested

in marine test fisheries, with 4 to 6 % in Areas 12 and 20, respectively. Pink

salmon with other South Coast Canadian stocks make up between 86% (Area 12) and

59% (Area 20%) and the remainder of U.S. origin.

August is a busy month here in Mission, the Rock’n River festival gets going on August 15 and goes for 3 days. If you would like to see some great country bands and spend some time on the river fishing, give us a shout as we still have a few boats available. More info @ http://rockinriverfest.com/tickets/

The past two weeks have been very productive for both salmon and trout and fair to good for sturgeon. We have been fishing the Vancouver area, West Coast of the Island, Pitt River and Fraser for Sturgeon, See below for detailed report.

The Fraser River opens this weekend for sport fishing for salmon, water is dropping fast so there should be some salmon out there to catch. We highly recommend you fish with selective methods such as Bar Fishing to avoid catching sockeye salmon until they are open for retention. There are many methods used for catch salmon so maybe checkout some of the tips found on fishingwithrod.com

Vancouver Island Salmon

I have just returned from 2 weeks of guiding over at our Coal Harbour Location, the fishing has been red hot with Coho and Chinook Salmon as well as Halibut and Rock Fish such as snapper and ling cod. We still have dates available from now until end of August so if you are looking for a 2 or 3 day trip, this is a great location. The best part is that we do not have to fish too far out so most of the fishing is like trolling in a lake with flat water.

Glen, Brian and Taylor had some great fishing on the west coast, this day we limited out on both Chinook and Coho.

Glen hooked this beauty Ling Cod weighing 19lbs.,

This 29 lb Chinook was landed by Dan Cenentari of Asotin Washington, nice fish Dan

Salmon Fishing on the West Coast will continue to produce these types of results for another 4 to 6 weeks so if your looking for that trip of a lifetime, give us a shout. We are trolling spoons, anchovies and ultra violet Hoochies. Although most of the guides and anglers will only use anchovies we caught our 5 largest Chinook trolling the Silver Horde Kingfisher.

 This spoon fished very well behind our Highliner Flasher

Vancouver salmon

Salmon Fishing in around vancouver has been fair to good, our last charter a few days ago landed a couple nice Coho and a Chinook Salmon, as more fish begin to enter the Fraser, Salmon fishing will only improve. Best biat right now is Anchovies, White hoochies for Coho and G-Force Spoons has been knocking them dead both on the Island and Vancouver area.

 

The Pink Salmon have showed up on the north shore and they are hitting just about anything but small spoons, hoochies and just about anything Pink will work. The set up shown above would work well also.

Fishing for salmon around Vancouver can produce good results in July/August.

Fraser Sturgeon

Water is dropping really fast right now but I think we are goling to see a bit of a rise over the next few days due to warm weather. Sturgeon fishing has been fair with most trips landed between 3 to 6 fish in a 8 hour charter and 3 to 5 fish ion a 6 hour charter athough we did have a couple bad days with no fish. We are using all kinds of bait right now with no one bait being best but Lamprey has still been producing consistent results.

Nice big Kiss for the Sturgeon, hopefully he will appreciate all the love.lol.

Pitt River Trout & Salmon

The Pitt River has been fishing very good the past few weeks, lots of salmon showing up with both Chinook and Sockeye in the river as well as Bull Trout. All of our trips have done well this past week so now is the time to get out and enjoy the great fishing.

very nice Bull Trout caught on the Pitt River this past week.

Overall Fishing is very good right now and we are expecting some great salmon runs over the next 3 months, our schedule is beginning to get full but we will always do our best to get you out on the water. Our Fraser Canyon trips start this weekend and I will be up fishing and touring the canyon all summer.

Hope to see you on the water

Vic Carrao.

Some great fishing out there today, we had charters going out from 3 locations fishing for both salmon and sturgeon. Grant over at Whales Reach Lodge was hammering on salmon, our trip out of the Delta Airport Hotel produced 2 nice hatchery Coho and our Fraser River Sturgeon charter landed 2 fish over 6ft in just minutes of each other.

Nice work Grant, if anyone is looking for a great salmon/Halibut trip the next 6 to 8 weeks is primetime.

Great day on the Fraser even though it started slow, we ended with a back to back 6ft and 6’7″ sturgeon’s. My best bites came on Lamprey eel  and Eulichon but the scent of the day was garlic, once I soaked my baits I went from no bites to 5 fish so scent was definitely the answer yesterday.

Not only is the ocean and river producing good results but the fly fishing for trout is also very good. Anyone looking for a last minute trip we are on the water daily and working hard to put fish in the boat. Small spoons ( Gibbs G-Force) trolling in shallow water 20 to 40 feet produced the Coho.

This weekend looks like it will be good for all 3 species of fish, if you are looking for salmon, sturgeon or trout, give us a shout.

604-671-3474

Tight lines

Vic Carrao