The OFFISHAL Vancouver 2011 Reports Thread

[Teja]

Speaking of incidental springs ... We buzzed out the Harbour Friday at 445pm thru the crowd at the Bell Buoy and thought about stopping but continued on to T-10 on the way to Salt Spring, questioning the whole way whether we should have stopped at the Bell Buoy. As I was putting out the sockeye gear, with kone zones on each side at 55 ft and lines at 50 ft and 40ft, we listened to the guide chatter about how good the Bell Buoy and mile markers had been during the day for sockeye.

5 minutes of guide chatter later, the bottom line on one side went off ... A very long and slender 18 lb white that took off like a freight train (felt like I had been sealed). 5 minutes after getting the lines back down, the other bottom line went off ... 15 lb marble. Pulled the lines up after that and headed on given our fridge and freezer constraints on Salt Spring. Would have been interesting to have stayed longer ... Didn't see any sign of pink or sockeye schools so it was almost like the springs had a chance to compete for the bait (even if it was just a few pink squirts).

 

[Sea Morgan]

Heading out on Monday to target the Socs, where would a guy start, south or North Arm?

 

[J-GLOBAL]

Heading out on Monday to target the Socs, where would a guy start, south or North Arm?

Today I got mine just out of the North Arm. Although Pinks outnumber Sox there 3-1 (at least on my gear), with white springs thrown in. Weren't many boats there, got pretty rough. I had all my action there early, then it died off around 9. Went for a tour of the Harbour where I heard it was hot, but didn't hit anything in the 30 minutes I was there. And there must have been close to 100 boats in the harbour.

 

[Red Monster]

I'm taking my little guys out tomorrow for a shot at some socs so they can try to catch their first fish.

Are there lots of socs at the bell buoy or do you need to keep going out past the north arm? Thanks

 

[Finally]

Left the launch at 6:15am this morning and headed out to T-10. Nothing there that we saw so left after an hour or so and made our way to the bell buoy. Started picking up the odd fish and ended up inside the harbour where we started getting into them consistently. Had a great day and ended up with 10 fish in the boat before calling it a day. 50/50 sox and pink. The sox were pretty big to.

 

[scotty]

we ended up with 8 pinks and lost atleast the same! we were at the south arm and almost ended up in point roberts. heard some socs being caught at the north arm but never ventured over there.

 

[Sea Morgan]

Thanks for the updates, socs in the harbour, are they just between the frieghters?

 

[waddy29]

fished bell buoy today got a late start.. tons of boats. saw a few fish being caught, couldnt tell if sockeye or pinks. we kept 2 pinks a sockeye and a 22# white spring. nice day on the water until the chop picked up in the afternoon

 

[sir-vivor]

Anyone try the QA lately (for Springs) ?

Anyone see where the guides are fishing lately ?

 

[high tide]

Been out the last 2 days, unfortunately my guests yesterday had a tough time both fighting our soft mouth friends The Sox and pinks, and yesterdays water was down right Nasty, forceing me to take them to cover for a while!

That said they managed a few and lost a biggy Spring .

Today was not quite as rough but still a little nasty, we managed to get on the Sox boxing 6 and taking some pinks as fillers, lost again another good Spring.

All our luck on Small Pink hootchies, 45 to 75 feet. To bad a guy has to use all the attractors to mainly get Sox, crappy running all that gear in a chop and tide flow.

Good luck to all over the next 2 days of the Sox, I'm done on the Sox and look forward to the big Hog Springs ....... here day come !

HT

 

[dmurph]

Seemed like for every fish we caught today we lost something as pay back, lost 2 flashers to the kicker today, one shot right in there from a lost fish and one was sucked in by accident while hanging a rod back there during a couple of hook ups. Then right at the end of the day our braid snapped off at 16 feet , right at the red stopper where we have been stacking, saw it was getting worn and should have re tied , oh well lost clips 15 lbs ball and dummy flashers, sucked. Went out around 11 am and played quite a few sockeye ending with 4 and released many pinks and had some played fish that out played us. Ran 2 pink and blue squirts and and bait or big uglies. Squirts had pretty much all the action no matter the depth, which was between 65 and 30 some. Water was driving me crazy , strong current and wind made for a day trip from the first marker to bell ,LOL. Some good action to be had so should not complain ,as how many times have we suffered through these same conditions for 6 hours or so with out a single bite. Should be a good day tomorrow.

 

[dmurph]

No kidding , and maybe I'll get a spring while I am at it.

 

[cohochinook]

Seemed like for every fish we caught today we lost something as pay back, lost 2 flashers to the kicker today, one shot right in there from a lost fish and one was sucked in by accident while hanging a rod back there during a couple of hook ups. Then right at the end of the day our braid snapped off at 16 feet , right at the red stopper where we have been stacking, saw it was getting worn and should have re tied , oh well lost clips 15 lbs ball and dummy flashers, sucked. Went out around 11 am and played quite a few sockeye ending with 4 and released many pinks and had some played fish that out played us. Ran 2 pink and blue squirts and and bait or big uglies. Squirts had pretty much all the action no matter the depth, which was between 65 and 30 some. Water was driving me crazy , strong current and wind made for a day trip from the first marker to bell ,LOL. Some good action to be had so should not complain ,as how many times have we suffered through these same conditions for 6 hours or so with out a single bite. Should be a good day tomorrow.

The currents around the Bell are nasty for fishing all that Sockeye gear. We almost suffered the same fate on Thursday with are downrigger ball and a bunch of flashers and clips. It suddenly snapped, but I managed to grab it and hand bomb everything back in!

We had lots of hit and misses that day. Had friends from Seattle with us for most of the day. Got 10 Pinks and 1 Sock. Our slowest day for socks this year. Might have had a bit to do with newbie crew. We lost double that.

Hit t-10 later that evening with just my 2 Sons. Lots of fish showing on the sonar, but nothing happening. Finally hit a nice red Spring at 40 feet on small pink hoochie. My 7 year old Son landed it. It was his biggest Salmon ever. He was thrilled. Other then that we had one more pink before calling it a night.

Out on Monday for one last crack at the Socks and hopefully some Springs.

Here's the photo of my Son holding up his Spring with some help from his older brother:
http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1948

 

[high tide]

What a great Picture WAY TO GO YOUNG FELLA !

And congrats to dad for getting them out there and into the addictive passion we call fishing !

HT

 

[ferret]

a quick question, does sockeye close on sept6 in all of area 29, or just areas 29-11 to 29-17. i read it as just 11-17, anyone know for sure, i'm probably mis reading the closure.
thanks ferret

 

[Kristo]

Yesterday I couldnt catch a soc if my life depended on it only pinks.
Previously I was getting 1 soc to 4 pink
Today I couldnt catch a pink .....only socs at the same location (bell bouy Van harbour)
Heres the difference ( after reading a few posts on this forum)
I put dummy flashers on the cannonballs with a 5 ft heavy mono leader , took every other strand off the hoochie and then cut the length of the remaining strands down to half.
Kept the length from the release to the hooch quite short 10 ft on the bottom 15 on the top line. 12 ft between upper and lower.
It made all the difference.


*
*

 

[J-GLOBAL]

Best day ever

Started out at the North Arm, nothing happening.
Moved into the Harbour. Was losing fish after fish, landed/released 3 or 4 pinks.

Went in to pick up my 6 y.o. son @ Vanier, and back out on the water around noon.

A double header of pinks on the Starboard side before the port side was in the water. Released.

Then the SOCKEYE turned ON for us. We hadn't changed a thing, but only landed 1 more Pink in the afternoon.

Kept our LIMIT of SOCKEYE - Big'uns. Couldn't keep'em off. Double headers, triple headers, tangles, motor wraps. We had everything, and had a Great Time on the FLAT water.

My son reeled in fish, and even netted a couple.

I hadn't changed anything from the morning to the afternoon, except I added my fishing partner! The pinks must have moved on/out and the Sox in.

And we both got (more of) a Tan

 

[dmurph]

Had a great day of fishing today wit a couple of friends , managed to limit out on good sized sockeye. Was only running one side of flash and squirts cause I knew the fishing would be good, but what a difference having both sides flashed up. Ran geen glo chovy and whole herring on the other side. Had the whole herring on a light 9 ft rod I USUALLY use for sox or pinks but though it would be fun to have a good spring on it, well hit a monster on it at 30 ft , fun little time with no flasher and such a light rod, had it to the boat several times but always off the back . Hard to get over the other gear with a short rod, any way after it ran through the one side still set with 2 rods and tangled everything together I managed to get to just out of reach of the net when it snapped off. Then my one last rod still standing goes off with a just under spring we released .Pretty fun any how always stoked when you get a good look at the fish. Left the day with 8 big sockeye.

 

[scotty]

I am completely dumb founded with todays outting! 6 nice size socs and 2 pinks in 2.5 hrs. The wife didn't believe me. Never thought it would happen in Vancouver of all places???

 

[sir-vivor]

I am completely dumb founded with todays outting! 6 nice size socs and 2 pinks in 2.5 hrs. The wife didn't believe me. Never thought it would happen in Vancouver of all places???

Hey Scotty,

Were were you at today , now deep and what was working for ya

clint