April is prawn season on the West Coast! Prawning can be one of the most productive fisheries, and filling your freezer with tasty prawns is a spring time treat. This year should be great, as it has been closed over the winter, so prawn stocks should be built up in the mid-Island area. The local hot spots are around Entrance Island and Tent Island off of Ladysmith. But that being said, there are honey holes all over the place, you just need to get out and find them. The key is often using the right bait, and weighing down your traps so they don't jiggle with the wave action pulling on your float, so use a 5lb clip weight to achieve this. Choose good quality oily prawn pellets like our Skretting Brand and soak them with Copper River Prawn Oil to increase the scent trail to your traps. Always run two traps per line to increase your chances, and to add weight to the line.
As always Bauer brand traps are the most productive. Built here on Vancouver Island with a 10 year warranty they always out-produce other styles.
*Important note: Regulations change to prawn traps for this season. Rot cord is now mandatory. See the DFO page at this link: BC tidal area 17 - Nanaimo: Recreational fishing limits, openings and closures | Pacific Region | Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Salmon fishing has been good again this week from Entrance Island down to Thrasher Rock. Five Fingers is still holding a ton of undersized Chinook and loads of Coho. In both locations the West Coast Tackle Hulk spoon has been dominating. This lure is shaping up to be the best lure of the year, if it continues to work like it has been. The top flashers have been Bon Chovy and Salty Dawg.
Expired flare drop off in store this Saturday March 29th, 10:00am–3:00pm. This is a one day event, as shipping flares off the Island is now expensive and difficult.
