It's been a great week for mid-Island fishermen. I've have had excellent reports from Comox, Powell River, French Creek, and Nanaimo. The Coho and Chinook are doing well with plenty of Pinks in the mix. There have also been more large Chinook than I have seen for a long time. A good amount of them are white springs at the moment. I suspect this is the Harrison Lake run. For the record I believe white Springs are the highest fat and best flavored Chinook salmon. I wrote an article on white springs a few years ago if you want to learn more.
As for lures, plugs have been very effective locally. We have a good selection of hand painted Tomic plugs in store. They are not on the website as stock changes too rapidly. But if you want to order them email me at the address below. We do have our West Coast Tackle Hyper glow plugs online. My top ones are, Green Meanie and NVP.
The top spoon has been our custom made Panic Attack behind a Purple Phantom flasher. I find purple really works really well for August and September for Chinook.
I also saw a video of a very nice halibut being caught and released near Five Finger Island last week. There are a few caught in this area every year as bycatch when guys are trolling close to the bottom. It might be worth targeting them in that area. If you ever get one please let me know!
On the west side of the Island it is starting to heat up for Chinook in the outer sounds. I'd say the fish are running a week or so late. The Sockeye went late so it seems everything is a bit behind this year. I'm hearing it's starting to get hot up in Nootka and the fish are making their way South. Not much action in the Alberni Canal yet, but there good fishing at Effingham and Folger Islands. The top lures have been anchovies in Glow Purple Teasers and west coasts Black herring spoon.
Tips up!, steve@harbourchandler.ca
