Thread: Southen Vancouver Island fresh/salt water fishing

The bigger Chinooks are starting to make a showing, soon the coho, sockeye and pinks will make a showing. Here's a few pics from the last couple weeks on the south coast of vancouver island.

Nice slabs!

thanks, but sadly all but one had to be relesed thanks to a slot limit on wild springs HOWEVER, the slot limit is now over and we can keep one wild spring over 67cm

this one was from today

Damn, that's some pretty heavy handling for a fish you're going to release. I suggest getting rid of that mesh net and getting one of those rubber nets that doesn't destroy scales (like the promar) so your fish actually has a chance.

I'm all for c&r for wild springs. Hatchery fish are for keeping; wild fish are for breeding - and killer whales.

Originally Posted by hop

Damn, that's some pretty heavy handling for a fish you're going to release. I suggest getting rid of that mesh net and getting one of those rubber nets that doesn't destroy scales (like the promar) so your fish actually has a chance.

I'm all for c&r for wild springs. Hatchery fish are for keeping; wild fish are for breeding - and killer whales.

It may seem to be a bit heavy yes, but i take great pride in the fish i release. however, seeing at the slot limit is over and your now allowed to keep one fish (clipped or not) i will be out as much as possable.... Once I get my boat motor fixed that is

Originally Posted by raym

thanks, but sadly all but one had to be relesed thanks to a slot limit on wild springs HOWEVER, the slot limit is now over and we can keep one wild spring over 67cm

this one was from today

Is that a starbucks cup on the back transom ?
Good to see you have your priorities straight.

I have heard that this year is set to be the largest pink run in the south straight in many years. ??
Get your flyrod out.

Fair enough. Duncan huh? Where are you fishing out of? The backgrounds look like either Strait of Georgia or JdF, not Gulf Islands. Take pics of any killer whales you see.

Originally Posted by bad dancer

Is that a starbucks cup on the back transom ?
Good to see you have your priorities straight.

I have heard that this year is set to be the largest pink run in the south straight in many years. ??
Get your flyrod out.

Yes thats a starbucks coffee. However, timmys would be MUCH better.
As for the pinks, its going to be a MASSIVE run this year!

Originally Posted by hop

Fair enough. Duncan huh? Where are you fishing out of? The backgrounds look like either Strait of Georgia or JdF, not Gulf Islands. Take pics of any killer whales you see.

Pedder bay, I tend to fish pedder bay/race rocks area. But when i dont feel like driving down I go to the croften or cowichan bay areas.




took these out in sampson narrows a month and a bit ago

Got the exact date? That male looks like T20. BTW, if/when you see more, send your sighting info to Orca Network.

15/04/2011 is the date.... aperintly there where 12 more just north and around the corner into the maple bay area that day as well. I didnt hear about them till i had taken the boat out of the water

edit: 2 whales in the 2nd pic, one was a much smaller calf.

In the 2nd pic you have an adult male and an adult female or subadult male, not a calf. As far as I can tell it looks like T21, the presumed mother of the adult male T20 (if that is who that is... I can't be 100% from that version of that pic). They were definitely there though. The other option for the adult male would be T87, who was a bigger version of T20 but got raked by another whale in the last year and now his fin is starting to hang like T20's.

"Graeme Ellis of Canada's Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans called in a report of his encounter with the large group of Transients in Sansum Narrows and Ladysmith Harbor, B.C. from April 15th. They had a total of about 31 orcas total, IDs include the T100s, T36s, T20 & T21, T124s, T65As T90s, T99s, T137s, T87s and T37s. They found them in Swanson Channel after we got the call from Tamar Griggs, then followed them down as they went into and back out of Ladysmith Island, and left them around 7 pm up by Yellow Pt."

yeah sounds like them, I thought I had herd more splashing and blowing a bit north of me, more into maple bay end of the narrows but I was to caught up in watching these two.

saw these ones 13/10/2010 in the same area. if you can see in the fourground the salmon rising when ever the whales did. I figured they where the same whales as the one in the first pics.

That's a cool pic of the salmon! FYI the whales you saw in April are marine mammal eaters, not salmon eaters. Resident (fish eaters) rarely end up in Sansum Narrows; their "normal" route through the Gulf Islands is Swanson Channel -> Active Pass or Boundary Pass.

i didnt know that, i figured they where residents.
I always have my eye out for whales and dolphins. when I see them I just pull up my gear and watch.

fishing has been good, so Im told. My old merc packed it in a wile ago so I havent been out doing the fishing I would like. my dad has got springs 32lbs, 21lbser and a few other in the teens.

I got to tag along with my parents today and we got a 22lbs spring and an 7lbs coho in the bag, relesed an under size chinook and had a few other shakers.

LOTS of boats out today, best guess would be in the high hundreds range fishing for springs, coho and pinks.

did some fishing in the last few days, limited out on pink a few days ago and went out today and got me a 15lbs hatchery spring and 3 more pinks to limit out.
we are having a STRONG pink run right now, hard to keep the things off your line, non-stop double headers and lots of action. Sockeye should start showing up real soon.

Few more pinks from today, the biggest being 6lbs

Pinks already down island?? Been a little slow on the Campbell of late but crossing the river today after a few days at Cain(the skiing was great) there was a ton of people so things must be picking up. My Etec shit the bed again last week so i feel for ya on the outboard front...

the pinks have been here for about a month, Ive been fishing them out in pedder bay, they are the frazer river run. Ive been going out running on my kicker all day. $7 and I can troll for 6 hours.

The seiners and gillnetters are absolutely slaying pinks and sockeyes off of San Juan Island. A friend reported witnessing the biggest haul he's ever seen (he's been watching since 1990 fwiw) two days ago.

sometimes, you get one of these MONSTERS!!!!!!

couple from today

Sockeye (top)
Pink (bottom)