Marine Area 4 (Neah Bay)

Marine Area 6

Marine Area 7

This past weekend at Potholes there was a lot of activity and nice weather to go along with it. There was a two-day big bass tournament with 65 boats entered. This is part of a series of this type of tournament with the finals ending at Moses Lake. At the end of each hour the largest bass weighed was the hourly winner with 14 hourly winners winning a check. The largest bass of the event was 6.76 pounds caught by the team of JR Clark and Keegan Anderson; they took home $7000. Lots of fish were caught and released with one two-hour winner reported releasing more than 100 fish. It was crazy how good the fishing is. There was a youth award for a 2.88 pound fish weighed-in by Mason Messeberg

At the same time the bass tournament was going on there was a carp archery event occurring. Thirty-five boats competed with each boat equipped with a high shooting platform. Boats came in with tubs filled with carp. It was reported that over 7000-pounds of carp were turned over to a rendering company. I understand that is just one of several events held each year in different lakes with a  population of uncontrolled carp. Some lakes have been killed off to control carp populations, like Sprague by Spokane.

Another fishery is going on for large trout being caught north of the state park or off the shoreline north of Medicare beach. These fish are chunks weighing at 3 to 5 pounds using needle fish. My neighbor has brought in boat limits of 10 each day he fishes.

The lake is dropping rapidly but is still high compared to past years. Walleye are still back in the dunes and high up in Crab creek. They should be moving with the ware level dropping. Still there are Walleye being caught daily with a select few limiting on a regular basis.

Report submitted by Tom Pollack

British Columbia

Vancouver

We have enjoyed fantastic weather and consistent salmon fishing in local Vancouver waters and the Gulf Island’s over the last couple weeks. The fish have not been huge, but there is healthy numbers of feeding chinook in the 8 to 15 pound range. We are also very excited that the first coho have shown near Bowen , Gabriola and Galiano Island’s! A very encouraging sign for coming months.

In local waters, we have been spending most of our time fishing the deep waters searching for feeding chinook. Depending on the day, we have had good success off the QA Marker, the Hump, Cape Roger Curtis, Hole in the Wall and Cowan Point. The local chinook are chasing the schools of anchovy that seem to be one of their main food sources in the spring now. It is very interesting how the emergence of the anchovy schools has now changed our spring chinook fishery…..for the better!! Because of the abundance of anchovy, especially near Bowen Island, we have had really good success on Gibbs Delta Skinny G spoons. The normal productive patterns like the Outfitter, Bon Chovy and Irish cream seem to be working well as usual. Silver Horde Irish Cream, Killy Mcgee and Herring Aide Spoons also seems to be working very well. We have been running a bit of bait, but spoons have been just as good if not better.

The fishing in the Gulf Island’s has also been very good. Depending on the day anywhere from Active Pass up to Nanaimo has seen good numbers of chinook and increasing numbers of early coho salmon. The fish have been tight to structure and also in the deep water. Spoons, bait and hootchies have all been working. Some days they are as shallow as 50 feet down and other days we have had success dragging bottom in 150 to 200 feet.

Our local guides association, “The Vancouver Sport Fishing Guides”, with support from the Capilano Hatchery, has recently completed another successful chinook net pen project in Vancouver. Spearheaded by Phil Grassi, for the 10th year in a row, 100,000 chinook smolts have been released into the waters near Point Atkinson. The chinook smolts are transferred from the Capilano Hatchery to a net pen at the West Vancouver DFO labs. For a couple weeks our group of volunteers feed the young chinook daily to give them a bit of a jump start in life. Check out this video we put together with www.corbiefieldwalker.com, it shows the net pen in action and explains things in a little more detail.

Sturgeon fishing has been pretty tough on the Fraser River due to the high water. As we get into July, the water levels will improve and the sturgeon fishing will get better.

If you are looking to get out on the water, it is looking like we should have continued good fishing for chinook salmon. While there is often good opportunity on our 5 hour trips, our longer 8 hour and 10 hour trips are very good bets in June. It allows to run a little further and catch that extra tide change. On 10 hour trips, we can run over to the Gulf Island’s if the fishing and weather conditions permit. Give us a call or an email to get out on the water!

Tight lines!

For more info call Jeff or Jason at Bon Chovy Fishing Charters (604) 763-5460,bonchovy.com email: info@bonchovy.com. The cover image of this week’s report was also contributed by Bon Chovy.