OFFICIAL 2015 Vancouver-Howe Sound-Sechelt Reports Thread

chovies are well brined and I'll be out at North Arm / T10 by 5pm for a few hours. Looks like I'll be seeing a few more boats out that way. Wind looks fine on EC website and my Fishweather app but would appreciate a real-time report from somebody on the water if you don't mind. Tight lines to all.
 
Out at Sand heads right now and what a difference a day makes dead at the moment just seen the odd fish being taken but nothing like yesterday. We see killer whales off in the distance over by the airport closer to shore.
 
Great day on the water. Fished chovies off the bell buoy from 10 til about 3 pm and warmed up with about 6 undersize fish. Moved to the north arm around 3 pm, switched to purple haze flasher and green splatter back spoon at about 60 feet and got two nice springs in the low teens.
 
Hit the bell buoy at about 3pm fished till about 5, coupla pinks, saw 1 maybe 2 springs taken, very slow, saw the boats off the north arm but wasn't hearing really any positive chatter so made an executive decision and hit the cap for a coupla hours. only 5 or 6 boats there, coupla pinks here too (must've been the pink tshirt) and didn't see one spring on. what a beauty afternoon and evening on the water though. the pink t shirt hits the gardening clothes pile! the cap did produce the other nite, without the pink tshirt.
 
As mentioned we were out at Sandheads starting around 4:30pm with my bud who had high hopes after the epic day me and the Mrs. had yesterday and what a disappointment!! Nothing but undersized and didn't see one significant fish being taken by anyone. Just nothing large showing on the finder at all like yesterday ...simply weren't there. Must have been simply passing through yesterday. Heads up we were barely lucky to unsnag our gear from submerged old school small bullet shaped white and red crab pot float that obviously had too little line on it. It was right in the thick of things probably 100 foot area. Later on when tide dropped it was above water but some guy missed seeing it and snagged it thinking he had a big fish on and broke his rod trying to pull it in....just couldn't understand how he didn't see the float in front of him and didn't put 2 and 2 together when the crab pot wasn't fighting back. That's it for us till next week.
 
Spring fishing has been fantastic for the last couple of weeks. License is getting pretty full so that is going to be about it till later this year, maybe some winters or get some new fishers out. It's only my second year with my boat but I'll take fishing like this over limits of sockeye anytime.

Here's my boy with his first spring the other day, yes i helped, but man was he excited. He's only ever reeled in coho and pinks before.

According to my 5 dollar Rusty scale my boys fish was 14 pounds and my 2 were 16 and 21, but I have a feeling it may be a bit off. Battle with the big boy was epic.

Best of luck everyone, hopefully the hot fishing continues.
 

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Was out last night from 4 till sunset at T10. Had a lot of bites, pinks and a jack spring. We moved on towards the north arm and lost a spring that hit at 20' while I was setting my gear. Was pretty bummed but then boxed a 16lbs spring at 7 that hit at 37' on a chovie. Wasn't as hot as it sounded yesterday but still another wonderful night out.
 
Will be put off the bell/north arm sat afternoon , and Sunday morning. Hoping all this rain pushed some fresh fish in from the straight and doesn't get the existing mass of fish too horny for the fresh water .
 
little late on the update. managed to get in 2 hours wed night with my buddies at south arm. started fishing at 5ish. managed to get 4 nice springs. few other shakers. saw huge schools of sockeye. probably as many as they say are returning in total. what an amazing calm night. whales all around us. rods popping steady. fished between 99 and 39'. all on bait. all nice shiney reds.
i would post pictures if i could figure it out.
 
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Fished 4 till dark last night between t10 an NArm. got one nice red quickly but that was it.
 
Nice work on the fish there ryanb (and kid!). always fun times when the little guys are on board.

So I ended up heading out last night after work for about 3 hours and we must have been in the right place at the right time. I fished in between the 2 packs of boats at the north arm / T10 and we had a big chunk of water nearly to ourselves (maybe 3 other boats around). Fished 3 rods with chovies at 42, 52, 62 and we ended up tubbing out by 7pm. Nothing of serious size as 15# or so was the biggest but 6 keeper springs in under 3 hours made for a great evening. Got a handful of unders as well and lost 2 decent ones so the action was pretty steady all evening for us. Don't think we were doing anything different than most other boats other than getting away from the packs which paid off this time. Glad we made the call to head out prior to the rain/wind coming this weekend.
 
I am finally getting the boat finished so I am reading here and wondering which is better. Go to MacDonald to launch or try on the south side somewhere.

I thought the gate closed a Mac rather early doesn't it? And what time would be best? Tide, 24' Sea ray. How's the parking and security?

Haven't used this boat before so I am going to be a little slow launching. Don't want to aggravate to many people.

Think there will still be a bite on?
 
At Macdonald beach The Gate closes at 8 or 9 I think. I've been late once and the guy that lives there gave me ****, Stormed out and said "Can you read time?". He was being a bit of an AssHat but it was my mistake and I owned up to it and appologised, once he saw that he calmed down and was quite friendly... The gate is dummy locked so he'll ask you to open the gate, then close it behind you and wrap the chains around.
 
We've had a good season with the typical setups, should my presentation change at all with this rain? Will the rain change the bite at all? I'm planning on getting out Sunday, rain or shine as long as the winds are within reason!
 
Thanks, I don't want to be out too late, but ....new boat to me and getting on the trailer might be a bit of a hassle, one guy to watch and me to do everything else.

Certainly don't want to be doing this in the dark.
 
Out at t10 this morning from 7-1ish. Just an utter **** show. We must of landed 30 fish. Mostly pinks. Few jack springs, few coho ( one mint hatchery) few sockeye ( one we caught was about 12 pounds!) but no big wigs. Went to bell buoy/North arm area for the late bite and nothing but more pinks and jacks. Had one massive hit almost pulled the rod out of the rod holder but couldn't set it. Pretty disappointed we got no real nookies but was a killer day none the less. All fish on chovys, pink hootchie, or Irish cream spoons

DFO has asked us not to target Sockeye, shouldnt be using anything pink.
 
That's a good reminder chinnok. The sockeye numbers this year are way, way down from pre-season forecast and those that have arrived and are heading up river now are in very bad shape in some cases (small, skinny, ratty tails, fungus, etc). To avoid catching these fish it's definitely best not to use gear they typically like to bite (pink squirts, etc). Any gear / bait you use will still get you into pinks if that's what you are looking for and you'll really cut down on any sockeye by-catch.

DFO has asked us not to target Sockeye, shouldnt be using anything pink.
 
Good point,

My buddy caught 4 pinks Wednesday at t10 on anchovies at 60'

That's a good reminder chinnok. The sockeye numbers this year are way, way down from pre-season forecast and those that have arrived and are heading up river now are in very bad shape in some cases (small, skinny, ratty tails, fungus, etc). To avoid catching these fish it's definitely best not to use gear they typically like to bite (pink squirts, etc). Any gear / bait you use will still get you into pinks if that's what you are looking for and you'll really cut down on any sockeye by-catch.
 
As I've said in earlier posts I've caughtt 2 20 pound springs in pink hootchie this year, also all my hatch cohos in the freezer were also caught off the pink. I use a different hootchie than most u guys probabley do. We call them "campbellriver hoitchies" as you only see them sold in marinas along the waters up there. To target sockeye I would be using a RED campbellriver hootchie and I would also run 2 or 3 dummy flashers. So "targeting" sockeye isn't at all what I was doing. And for the record the sockeye that we did catch were apsolutey gorgeous and in superb shape. As I said one of them was 12 pounds. Never seen such healthy looking fish. Don't be a sheep and believe everything the DFO says word for word.


don’t make excuses, all we are asking is, avoid the use of pink hootchies till the bulk of the sockeye run threw. It doesn’t take much for DFO to add area 29-3 to the banana closure.
DFO asked the Fraser flossers to stop, which they didn’t. Now we have a banana and Fraser closure because of this.
 
I have never fished the T10 in a SE wind........I assume it would get hit pretty directly or is it bit protected? I notice that the winds at the airport are always less than Sandheads.
 
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