2018 Gulf Island Reports

There seemed to be lots of fish caught around the Gulf Islands last year in April/May but this thread has been pretty quiet this year. Has anyone had any luck around Tent or Porlier lately? I’m thinking of heading up there from Victoria tomorrow, but it’s a long haul if there’s not much happening?
There were some nice fish caught at Tent yesterday.
 
Prawn Traps lost, Name on floats is REINHARDT and SIMMONS.

On Monday, April 16th, we put the traps out of Port Washington/Grimmer Bay on the northwest side of Pender (around the west end bend of Navy Channel).

1 Float was a Hard Orange Plastic float labeled SIMMONS + Phone number
1 Float is a smaller scotchman with a white boat fender trailing (labeled "REINHARDT" with my phone number)

As for fishing reports, it's still slow in the Gulf Islands but we'll see migrating fish in the next few weeks - will let you know what we scrape up!
 
Great day on the water today, had a late start this morning as we were up late last night rushing to finish our new trim tabs, and like always there were a few kinks we discovered at the ramp and things we forgot to finish completely luckily we had everything solved in about an hour and were on our way and had gear in the water at 0715 and by 0720 we had the first fish on and then it became almost impossible to keep gear in the water, we released several undersized,and got a few double headers and within an hour and a half we had our 6 chinook in the boat and were on our way back to the ramp. Incredible day. Nice to see DFO out boarding a few boats as well this morning.
 

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Great day on the water today, had a late start this morning as we were up late last night rushing to finish our new trim tabs, and like always there were a few kinks we discovered at the ramp and things we forgot to finish completely luckily we had everything solved in about an hour and were on our way and had gear in the water at 0715 and by 0720 we had the first fish on and then it became almost impossible to keep gear in the water, we released several undersized,and got a few double headers and within an hour and a half we had our 6 chinook in the boat and were on our way back to the ramp. Incredible day. Nice to see DFO out boarding a few boats as well this morning.

Sounds like a great morning. What general area were you fishing?
 
Sounds like a great morning. What general area were you fishing?
Yeah, I’d be interested too. We were at Tent Island today and found nothing. We released one undersized. Got a few crabs by the Crofton ramp though...
 
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Yeah, I’d be interested too. We were at Tent Island today and found nothing. We released one undersized. Got a few crabs by the Crofton ramp though...
There is good fishing off thrasher. Spoons 110-170. Derby Winner was the best producer but most spoons working.
 
Thrasher worked out well for us today ... boxed a 12, 10 and two 7's ....... 6.0 spoons at 165 and 180. Caught them and played many more in water between 400 and 1,000 ft.
 
1st day out this year. Was at Salamanca for the tide change around noon ~ 4/5 other boats saw a couple of smallish fish caught ( which was better than my none-ish ). Not much bait, water light brown, no algae, but lots of nasty weed came with the ebb. Highlight was 2 Humpbacks that cruised by. Gorgeous day to be in the boat
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Had a similar day at Thrasher on Sunday and got our limits quite easily. 4" spoons for us though we did see some big herring inside a few of our so I'm not surprised 6" spoons were working for ya. Nice to see so many fish around. Let's hope it continues for a while!

Thrasher worked out well for us today ... boxed a 12, 10 and two 7's ....... 6.0 spoons at 165 and 180. Caught them and played many more in water between 400 and 1,000 ft.
 
We passed two boats at Tent on our way to Thrasher....the outside of the outside marker into 300 ft. mark. b There were a number of bars there already....we were late in getting out, didn't arrive until 11:00 AM. Put the riggers down to 165 with flashers and green / pink stripe/yellow spoons and filled the box in two hours , releasing two others.
 
Out at thrasher yesterday. Nice day on water, and interesting to fish a totally new area we know really know little about. We hit several fish from 100 ft to 150 feet. A little different fishing to what we are used to vs the shores of JDF. Still a lot of fun. Hit a larger fish up high that spit the hook running at that boat. Kept two under 10lbs.

The other boat we came out with limited out with a few fish in low teens. Definitely a fun fishery and will be up island this year in Nanaimo area and Thrasher for May and June.

The only thing that I noticed is we weren't set up to fish deep. Usually in winter we only fish 120 max. May have to out fit my boat with newer high speed down riggers running 18's.
 
Out at thrasher yesterday. Nice day on water, and interesting to fish a totally new area we know really know little about. We hit several fish from 100 ft to 150 feet. A little different fishing to what we are used to vs the shores of JDF. Still a lot of fun. Hit a larger fish up high that spit the hook running at that boat. Kept two under 10lbs.

The other boat we came out with limited out with a few fish in low teens. Definitely a fun fishery and will be up island this year in Nanaimo area and Thrasher for May and June.

The only thing that I noticed is we weren't set up to fish deep. Usually in winter we only fish 120 max. May have to out fit my boat with newer high speed down riggers running 18's.


This has become a traditional fishery over the last 5 years so keep the dates and places in mind.

It reminds me of fishing Swiftsure Bank in that the depth can be very unpredictable....start with lines at 145 and 180 ft., then adjust so that you cover from 60 feet to 190 feet....they can be anywhere in between. For me the 160 to 180 has been most consistent, but a friend did well at 60 feet last week....who knows? I have 15 lb. balls and wire line....seems to work most places
 
Thrasher was inactive from 7- 130. One 9lber. 200 in fuel a little painful. Sunday, low tide looked promising.
 
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