2017 Chinook Salmon - how was your season ?

Area 19/20 was really hit or miss. On average I would say an OK year. Size down for sure. All in the teens. A spring over 20# seems now as elusive as an over 30# a few years back.

Port Hardy mid July was a bit better than the previous 2 years but still considered slow in my books. Will look for another destination next year.
 
In nootka this summer fishing was GOOD. Bigger fish this year! In vancouver and the gulf island this spring was also GOOD. Lets hope fishing continues to be good this fall.
 
Caamano early July good including 3 Tyee
Milbanke - excellent to Good Cape Mark best for us, few Chickens at Mushroom and Emmaline
Port Hardy - excellent at Sutil and beyond, terrible at local points, 91 hump
 
Locally around Vancouver (speaking for myself)

Winter fishing was average
April, May got HOT at thrasher for a bit
June and July were slower than usual
August has been excellent
I expect September to be good aswell

My experience as well! April, May was also good around QA,-Bell West Van-PA and Bowen
 
Sooke July/August average, 1st time I can remember trips with back to back skunks.
And where did the Pinks go, 2015 was red hot for a month and a half.
My first ever trip to Hardy 1st week in August was good (in hindsight). We brought back 7 Springs (up to low 20's).
 
Vancouver/Howe Sound was good for Chinook in April/May. Didn't have as many fish in June, but still some good fishing. July fished over at Thrasher/Nanaimo and hit some Chinook, found the fish much deeper than I have ever fished. Picked a couple up at 290 feet. August has been decent around Vancouver, haven't been out in September. I have found in August, that when the bite is on its on and then you have longer periods of just smaller undersize chinook. Seem to catch as many as previous years, just in smaller windows of time.

I did 2 trips to the west coast of the island. One to Esperenza and one to Tofino. Fishing in Esperenza was tougher, mainly due to winds, but still caught lots of Chinook. Not as many larger ones and had to be able to be adaptive in techniques and not stick one method. Tofino wasn't as good as last year, but still got some Chinook and had one half day of fishing, where we went 15 for 22. Stacking a small herring aid 10 feet above a hoochie or anchoive picked up the biggest Chinook at 25 pounds.
 
August 1-5 in Bamfield..... poor, caught 3 springs largest at 15 lbs 1 coho and 1 pink and some bottom fish
Nootka August 20-24.... good, caught 6 springs and 2 coho all good size
Vancouver.... August and September only, (late start to the year for me) for the amount of times out..... good.. 4 springs and 1 pink, couple of nice size springs in there
 
Area 20 was good for me. Not many days with limits but multi fish every trip.
I judge it by the days on the water and how I did against the fleet. So I feel I fended well.

Fished with many different partners and family. Some great memories created.
Many days on the water with my 7 year old son.
This makes for great fishing days.

Very few pinks except for one day that I targeted them for my son. That is a victory also.
Most pink years they are a nuisance.

Tips
 
I would say this year was good to poor depending on where you where fishing

May, June, July - Oak Bay Flats and Gap where average to good days and throw in some poor days. August Oak Bay has been poor. I have had some really good days in Oak Bay with limits of nice fish. But this was a rare occasion.

July and August Beecher Bay and Sooke - Poor to Good. Depending on the day. I have had multiple back to back skunk days. I have never had so many skunk days when fishing.

August Waterfront - Poor - Average.

I think I have counted about 8-10 times that have been out and worked the gear hard and was skunked. I recall only ever been skunked 1-2 times ever in the summer months particularly.

I believe the fish are there, there is a ton of bait in the water and there is arches. But they are not hungry. I am sure hopefully that over the next two weeks more fish will come thru. But who knows anymore. Seems to change every year. I usually stop fishing around the middle of October. So still 1 month a bit of fishing to go.

Great post nice to know I am not alone out there.
 
Region 8 Hakai Pass.
If you like Coho, it was stellar.
Few if any limits of Springs left the dock.
We didn't have the rosy weather found down south.
Lots of poor weather days with some tough windy conditions.
48#, 40#, 34#, 30# were the biggest Springs for the whole camp.
Maybe 2 dozen Hali as well. Biggest 60-70#. Not many unders.
I would say below average for this region...
 
Average to good in Esperanza:
Early July was excellent.
Late July average to slow.
Mid August Average.
 
Overall: Poor for salmon after the most fishing days I have ever been out.
Victoria & Sooke- average numbers of salmon and halibut in spring, but salmon size was very small, so few fish over 6lb.
Victoria and Sooke- poor numbers of salmon in summer and I hear that size was down as I did not catch any large ones here, halibut was good size and numbers. others caught some big ones but they were the lotto winners hitting small schools
Sidney- doughnuts- only a few lost fish
Renfrew in early July- lots of 14-18lb chinook close to shore. First trip there, so nothing to compare to. Charters were bringing limits from Swiftsure but mostly all in the 6-10lb range with occasional 12lbers
Numbers of salmon were definitely way low, because if you did not catch in Renfrew or Otter Point and west, the chances of catching dropped very dramatically. Very few on the east end of the straight after June. Pink salmon size was up in some cases, but numbers very low. Never caught any pinks off victoria or oak bay or Constance and only a few days out of sooke.
 
Sooke:

If there was a level poorer than poor Id select that, fished about once a week with all sorts of gear in different areas from June until now and not a single keeper spring.
 
Fished Nootka 3 trips over summer. July definitely better than August with a few epic bite days. Port Alberni two trips in August and we got some nice fish. Not as good as past years but far better than last year. Been out a few times in Vancouver. Last time a few weeks ago was awesome. My buddy put us on the fish at Sandheads, we got 6 springs in a few hours.
 
Fished Massett & Kyuqout. Chinook were scarce, small, & underfed with far less than average fat content.
Dave Murphy mentioned that the near-shore population of Candlefish has disappeared.
Chinook counts for up to yesterday on the lower Columbia are about 33% of last year. Fall run peaks about now.
 
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