For the last week I've had nothing but great reports from both sides of the Island.
The hatchery Coho are thick in every locations I've had a report from in Georgia Strait. From Campbell River to Galiano Island. I do need reports from the Sidney, Victoria area fishermen. If you're fishing that area please email at the address below.
The Coho are from zero feet down to 140 with a huge percentage of hatchery fish out there. This is thanks to our local fish hatchery volunteers getting out there and clipping fins. The Nanaimo hatchery did 40,000 Coho this year, and a similar number for the last few years.
The best lures for the Coho have been white glow needlefish hoochies like NG 55R and small blue spoons like our custom made Skinny G Maverick. Pair either of these lures with Black Glow CB55 flashers and run them around 110ft. There are Coho deeper too, but you will start hitting Chinook if you go deeper.
As for the Chinook the big boys are starting to show around French Creek and Nanaimo. Fish in the high teens and low twenties are hitting plugs and larger spoons like Big-E Aquaman 6" spoons.
There are also some Pink salmon starting to appear in our area. So make sure to be able to identify all three species of salmon we have in our local waters. This year is forecasted to have a giant Pink run, so the opportunity to take home four salmon is here.
Prawning has been picking up. As the commercial season ended early and most boats targeted the North Island we are getting decent hauls in the mid-Island area. Made on the Island Bauer prawn traps are your best bet. And if you have old trap remember you have to have an escape panel installed as per the new regulations.
Tips up steve@harbourchandler.ca
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Spruce City Wildlife operates the only volunteer run hatchery north of Kamloops raising endangered upper Fraser River chinook stocks. We are being pressured to mark our fry in order to get data from the head recovery operation.
If we don’t get support from DFO and SFAB we can’t get volunteers to spend more hours to do this. We are a small group and our salmon support team spend hundreds of hours collecting brood stock from the upper Nechako and Fraser River. Both collection sites are a three hour drive from our facility and often require overnight camping to get the needed brood stock collected and get the eggs and milt back to the hatchery. We are trying to enhance endangered stocks and not necessarily enhance fishing opportunities 800 kms away. Some tangible support for the marking programme might allow us to take on this extra activity. If we don’t tag our fish the coast may not get more opportunities for chinook openings in the spring/summer months.