East Vancouver Island fishermen are counting down the days to the Chinook season opening! It is scheduled to open up Tuesday July 15th, so now is the time to check you Chinook gear and repair/replace anything needed.
And right on time the big Chinook have shown up in Georgia Strait. I have heard of multiple fish in the low 20's and lots in the high teens. While some of these fish have come shallow mixed in with the Coho, most are still deeper. Get down past 140ft if you want to target them. Fish 140 to 100 and you should get a mix of Coho and Chinook. 100ft and up is all Coho and a few early Pinks.
Try running 6" glow 602 plugs at 180ft with a Fusion X Green Glow flasher on a dummy flasher rig to target the big boys. The humps off French creek and East of Thrasher Rock have been the local hotspots for Chinook.
Thrasher Rock and Five Fingers still have loads of Coho at 100ft and up. 3" Loony Spoons in Herring Aid, and UV Blue Fish Candy Flash Fly's have been the top lures of the week.
Jigging for Coho has also been hot. Three Chandler staff caught and released well over 60 fish after work earlier this week. They were jigging Macdeeps and Blue Clarkspoon Pogie Shads around Entrance Island and Fiver Fingers. We still have lots' of clipped fish so your odds of getting your limit are very high.
On the West Coast the Sockeye have continued to be very hot, and the big Chinook are starting to appear in good numbers. Small pink sockeye style hootchies like MP15 behind a blue gold mirror flasher will allow you to target both species. In fact at this time of year I think I've caught more Chinook on Sockeye gear than using more typical Chinook gear.
Tips up!
steve@harbourchandler.ca
