no report this week

no report this week

Marine Area 11

The salmon fishing is fair right now with mostly immature chinook ranging from 4lbs to about 9lbs although there has been a couple of larger spring chinook in the upper teens landed but released carefully, remember to look for the intact adipose fin that indicates a unclipped chinook and must be released outside the boat.

The salmon are being caught on a variety of gear from mooching with herring, jigging with salmon jigs to trolling flasher and artificial squid, spoons and salmon plugs by themselves best depths have been in 130’ to 160’ of water and about 10’ off of bottom.

Ling cod season starts 5/1/18 and runs through 6/15/18. Shrimp Season in Area 11 and 13 is May 5, 2018 from 7 am to 11 am

Stay safe on the water and good luck fishing.

Basic Fishing Classes -Adults (Ages 15+) May 26, 2018 from 10 am to 12 pm. Learn local freshwater and saltwater skills, regulations, and safety. Cost $15.

Freshwater – Lake Chelan

Bobby “the scarf” Loomis of Mack’s Lure and Mike Carey of Northwest Fishing Reports with their mornings mixed bags while filming a show for Mike’s TV show. See him Sundays on Fox in the Spokane market.

What’s hot is trolling for Mackinaw around the Yacht Club. Also, fishing for Kokanee in the lower basin of Lake Chelan continues to provide most of the action in the lower basin. An added bonus is the occasional Lake Chelan Chinook. Additionally, Roses Lake is hot for upsized planter trout.

The Bagleys of Chehalis, WA with their mornings catch.

Fishing for Mackinaw around the Yacht Club has been productive using U20 and T4 flatfish as well as Jeff drift rigs baited with a bit of Pikeminnow. We are continuing to have great success fishing for Chelan’s Kokanee. Fishing from the surface all the way down to 220′ in the lower basin with Mack’s Lure wedding rings and mini squid rigs baited with corn scented with Pro Cure’s Bloody Tuna have gotten these delicious Landlocked Sockeye to bite. Pautzke’s Fire Corn has also been productive when baiting these rigs. Landlocked Chinook have shown up in the catch with either Kokanee or Mackinaw gear. What a bonus!

Roses Lake continues to pump out limits of chunky overwintered Rainbow trout. Fish from 12 to 14 inches is the rule with some larger holdovers in the catch. They can be caught by a variety of methods, but plunking Pautzke’s Firebait with a 30″ leader off a slip sinker rig is particularly relaxing. For a slight change of pace, slip bobber those fish at about 15′ with an oldie, but a goodie, Pautzke’s Balls O Fire salmon eggs.

Your fishing tip of the week is to “know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em”. Knowing when to change locations is probably the most “artsy” part of fishing. This spring Kokanee fishing is an especially sensitive part of that. My best advice is to plan how long you will go without a bite before changing locations, then stick to the plan. I think that changes from a productive presentation to a different one is usually the wrong choice. Almost always, the better choice is to change locations to find biters.

The kid’s tip of the week is to use these longer days to get out to Roses and Wapato Lake. Just an hour or two of bait fishing after supper can be a real memory maker for school age child. I know your tired, but…

Your safety tip of the week is to watch out for woody debris as Lake Chelan fills and floats all the wood off the shoreline.

For more info call Anton & Sandra Jones of Darrell & Dad’s Family Guide Service;darrellanddads.com; antonj@aol.com or call (509)687-0709 or toll free at (866)360-1523.

Right on schedule, our offshore chinook fishery has started! Good numbers of 8 to 15 pound chinook salmon are now out in the deep water off the South End of Bowen Island and the outer reaches of Vancouver Harbour. It has been a good first couple weeks of April, really looking forward to the second half!

Every spring, the longer days trigger the first plankton blooms of the year in the Strait of Georgia. This plankton bloom draws the herring, stickleback and anchovies out into the deep water to feed. Right behind all the “bait fish” is the feeding chinook salmon. For the next 4 to 6 weeks the offshore waters will be a very good option that can provide some explosive angling opportunities. Having said that, we are fishing out in the structureless water and some days you have to spend some time trying to find them or you have to wait for the right current for them to bite. Good areas to focus on this time of year include the Hump, the QA Marker, the Bell Buoy and the Gulf Island’s. Productive depths are typically in the 65 to 150 foot range. One thing to pay attention to out there is the currents, we find that these fish don’t like to bite in heavy current this time of year. Quite often we will look for areas with softer currents if we are between tide changes or fishing days with big tidal swings.

The offshore fish we are getting into now seem to be keying on bigger herring and walleye pollock and subsequently bigger 4.0 spoons seem to working well. We have been running 4.0 G Force and Silver Horde Spoons. Our Gibbs Delta G Force Spoons this time of year are the Trailhead, No Bananas and the Bon Chovy. Irish Cream, Green Glow and Kitchen Sink patterns from Silver Horde have been productive as well. We have not been running bait much as on a lot of days it is hard to keep up with the undersized and the baits are constantly getting fouled.

It looks like we are in for another solid spring chinook fishery in our local waters. It is very encouraging to see the strength of spring fishery in Strait of Georgia year after year. It is truly one of the most consistent fisheries in British Columbia in April, May and June. Give us a call or an email to get out there! If you have the time, an 8 or 10 hour charter is always a good bet this time of year. On our 10 hour charters, it opens up the possibility to fish the Gulf Island’s if weather and fishing conditons permit!

See you out on the water…..It looks like things are going to warm up this week.. FINALLY!

For more info call Jeff or Jason at Bon Chovy Fishing Charters (604) 763-5460, bonchovy.com email: info@bonchovy.com.