2016 Secret Cove, Pender Harbour and Texada Reports

Fished Epsom most of the day. Bite came on for us as usual around 8pm. Kept a 12 lber on a 407 plug. Lost a screamer on a speckle back hoochie. Lost another good size fish on a broken rod. One of those days.
 
We got a 12, 14 and 17 at Epsom yesterday morning between 6-10am on irish cream spoon at around 90ft. Tried lasqueti and sangster today and saw lots of fish and bait on the sounder. Released 3 wild cohos and 1 small hatchery but no keeper springs for us. Beautiful two days on the water for the derby. Congrats to all the winners.
 
It's slow out there if you don't find them! Went out Sunday around Quarry & The channel for 4-5 hours around the mid-day tide... Should've went south a bit more to upwood or Epsom but wasn't planning on being out that long.
Nothing but one undersize. 1 Keeper-sized Fish this whole weekend for a little over 10 hours total. A few borderline undersized/ lots under! No good. Very worrisome return, I haven't had that hard of a time this year yet but I fully believe it now! :(
PS the water temp (surface) showed 67*F + !!! Crazy

Curious to know the winning fish for the derby? (wasn't in it just would like to know if other people hit much if anything)
 
Fishing was tough this weekend, we all had to work hard for our fish. We put in 15 hours on Saturday, 10 on sunday, a couple of serious shifts in search of the derby winner. We spent a lot of time at Sangster, but also hit Young Point, Upwood Point, Anderson Bay and explored the Texada side of the Sabine channel. We only connected with two solid chinook, we landed a 14.2 and lost another scoreboard fish after about 5 mins of battling it snapped my leader. Tough lesson, but on derby days always retie your leader after catching a dogfish... other then the two chinook we hooked up with 10 or so coho around Sangster, only 1 hatchery. Springs caught on chovies on long leaders (7 feet), coho on chovies, cut plugs, and normal plugs.

Lots of fun, wish there was more chinook around to play with this year tho! Cant wait for the Madeira and Gilligan's derby next year.
 
For live bait salmon fishers out there, what kind of hooks do you use?
Finally a nice forecast after the last few windy days.
 
Mid day Coho...... 10-12' 6lb maxima chameleon. Size 12. Only enough banana weight to keep it down.
Morning and evening springs 10-12' 10lb maxima chameleon. Size 10. Only enough weight to keep it down.
Use all you shorts on Coho and the biggest off bottom for springs.
You should be able to see a live herring being worked by fish on the rod tip.
 
Snuck out last night on the Hurt Locker for the last couple hours of day light. It's was a Dead Sea but we decided to grind right until last light, once all the other boats had cleared out a little after 830 we found bait stacked in 45 to 75ft of water and managed to get a 12lb and 14lb and lost another good one. Fish were on 602 and 407 plugs down around 40ft. Super fun when you get decent sized fish in shallow water like that with no flashers ! Both fish we kept were stuffed full of 6to 8 inch herring
 
Where were you at Livelines?

I fished Sunday morning for a couple of hours (this is a family trip I was reminded...) at Orchard bay. Only a couple of shakers released. I gave it more of an effort Sunday morning from 6-11 around Whitestone Island. Released 4 that were just undersized and lost a nice 10lb coho on the surface that was getting acrobatic by the boat. That one was the top rod on slip weight and the rest were down deep (100-200' on rigger in 150' of water). All were spoons and dummy flasher.
 
Anyone know if Coho or springs are in Sechlet Inlet yet? Taking a boating/camping trip up there in a week and wondering what fish might be around. Will take bottom fish gear as well.
 
Anyone know if Coho or springs are in Sechlet Inlet yet? Taking a boating/camping trip up there in a week and wondering what fish might be around. Will take bottom fish gear as well.

There haven't been many coho in Sechelt Inlet for the last couple of years since DFO stopped seeding it about 6 years ago. There have been rumours that there was a seeding of 20,000 this past year but can't get anyone to actually confirm that the fish were actually transferred from Cap Hatchery. Even if it did happen, won't affect fishing for a few years.

There have been some springs around but not in great numbers or any consistency. Lots of large jellyfish so check your lines frequently.

Good luck.
 
Sad that there was no viable population without hatchery fish. Obviously some work to be done on habitat before it's worth seeding again.

Looking forward to a trip through Skookumchuck and beyond. We've been there many times with the kids but never by boat. A few days of camping and exploring will be the relaxing break I need. Rods are in the racks anyway, I'm sure we'll fish. Mrs Sly doesn't like it if I go too fast on bumpy water, so there's a good excuse to slow down and look for bait on the finder. Meantime, I'll be hitting Epsom and the shoal over the weekend. I think most people monitor ch. 68, give me a call if you're out there. My call sign is 'Plan B'.
 
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