With the nice weather conditions our ocean salmon fishing is still going strong! Most salmon runs seem to be running a bit late this year, giving us extra time to fish.
This years mature Chinook are still holding in the ocean, and fishing is still great. In addition next years feeder Springs area already beginning to arrive. These fresh fish are often over 10lbs already, which points to an excellent winter fishery to come.
Hot spots have been French Creek, Nanaimo's Entrance Island and Thrasher Rock which are all still producing nice chrome Chinook. These fish are feeding on large herring, and are holding deep at 200-250. Large plugs like Sparkle Herring Glow Belly are working well for these mature fish.
In areas closer to shore like Five Finger Island, and near river mouths there are very large Chinook waiting on the rain. Target these fish with brighter colour lures like Skinny G Outfitter and black blade/Gold tape flashers like Black Onion.
For the feeder springs faster action spoons like our custom Black Squiggle Skinny G paired with Barbie's Revenge flasher with a 6ft 25lb Seaguar fluorocarbon leader between them.
On the West Coast the Renfrew Coho fishing winding down, but there's still some time left. There have been some good sized fish this year. Smaller spoons like West Coast Tackles Sex-E Black Panther or Skinny G Gold Phantom.
River fishermen are gearing up for the Nanaimo River opening, or heading north where it's already underway. Stock up on purple/black VMC twitching jigs , or soft beads like BNR 12mm Clown for salmon in the river time.
Thanks to Tim Kelter and his crew for the great photo of a very nice chrome Chinook at the top of this post.
