2023 Secret Cove, Pender Harbour and Texada Reports

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Went out and fished Epsom on the 3:20 slack yesterday... had very little action and no success (one dropped by my rookie net job, one lost somewhere down deep on a good effort). After 2 hours we decided to go try out luck and Sangster. Bit windy, but we thought why not...

My first time over there and it DELIVERED! Loads of action fishing 55-85 feed deep in ~150 feet of water off the east / southeast side of the island. Mostly good sized coho and some small springs.

Switching out to area 14 meant wild Coho's were in according to my buddy - I double and triple checked and believe it or not, crossing some imaginary line meant he was right. Between 3 of us we brought home 5 nice keepers (3 hatchery, 2 wild) and threw a bunch more back.
 
Still a couple nice ones at Epson, one 83 cm Spring and a pink on afternoon slack tide. Sunday evening around Pearson was slow with a couple pinks only.
 

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I'm seeing a few boats seemingly trolling just south of Merry Island. Does anyone have experience with this zone?
There's some rapid depth changes amd other structure all around Merry. Ramps up pretty fast at the south end, a flood pushes feed up from the 400-500 ft flats toward the SW corner of the island.
 
Nice work! how deep were you for the spring? What kind of tackle?
All summer they were hitting at 110-130 on the DR in 180+ water, but this one hit hard at 125' on the DR in 112' water (just off the bottom in shallow water). Look for steep bottom changes, fast troll. Green flasher and white hootchie with long leader seems to work well.
 
Fishing Bjerre and Whitestone Island this morning. A couple wild coho and then this beauty hatchery. 68 cm and 8.5 lbs. Looks like a northern coho but I've never got one this far south. Could be the hook forming for spawning.

85' in 150'.
 

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Probably off topic, but has anyone ever used a salmon carcass in their prawns traps? I've caught tones of crab this year with salmon carcasses, and am curious to see how it works for spot prawns... My usual go to is fancy feast seafood flavoured cat food and pellets, in case anyone's wondering.
 
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sweet! I'll report back and let the group know how it goes...
I scrape the salmon carcass with a spoon and any other scraps like smaller heads and trimmings. Then I take the frozen bait out when I go prawning and slide it into the baskets in my traps. Normally I have some pellets in a regular pellet container as well, but i have just fished salmon scraps as bait and it outperforms pellets.
 
OK ! Where to start? Old time good fisher Buddy from the west coast days out of Ukee. I say, come over "F" the ferries you are long retired, just hit the lineup and wait, got the next boat. Shows up, we go! FN0878 said 1-1 for Ho's in area 14 Nice! as long as the weather is GOOD, see the pic's. 2 glory days, we recalled old days with friends long gone in rough weather, we rode the smooth carpet! Cannot ask for more had a blast. Got our Coho Friday and Saturday. Today looked like it could get nautical, called it and "cleaned the boat" so to speak, fridge had stuff that could have spoiled in the next few decades, cleaned it up with some of the weird mixes we found. Fantastic to catch up with an old pal, The fish..... Sangster, Bait, skinny G, jigging Sabine with no love, but check out the Scenery! (Not the old guys!)
 

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Probably off topic, but has anyone ever used a salmon carcass in their prawns traps? I've caught tones of crab this year with salmon carcasses, and am curious to see how it works for spot prawns... My usual go to is fancy feast seafood flavoured cat food and pellets, in case anyone's wondering.
Half a pink in your trap really ups your prawn haul
 
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