[postelsia]

Hi,

I am new to this discussio forum and thought I would try it out. My husband and I are planning on going fishing next week with his parents. We are torn between traveling to Port Alberni and fishing at China Creek or staying around the Lower Mainland and trying out the mouth of the Fraser. We have a boat. The last time my father in law went fishing was three years ago and it was in the early summer. We don't know where we should head. Any suggestions or opinions would be greatly appreciated. I have been checking the fish reports daily. but as a newbie I am sure I am not getting all the info. Love all the pics posted on here. I am hoping to catch something when we go as I have never been salmon fishing - just shore fishing for little trout when I was really young. Thanks!

 

[Junebug]

My choice would be Port Alberni. September and October is prime.

 

[high tide]

Late Sept. to Mid Oct. on Vancouvers water front can produce some fantastic fishing, that said it's also hit and miss sometimes. Good one day not the next. If you have lots of time and $$ then maybe the Island is the way to go. I personally would not be going to the Island so late as we can do quite well here at home. Just be willing to put in your time waiting for the biggy. Just one guys opinion.
H/T

 

[postelsia]

Thanks for all the helpul information and opinions. My father in law and my husband want to go to China Creek because they have fished there in the past. There are four of us splitting the cost and we have a motorhome as well. Maybe we will head to the Island and try our luck for four days. This Sunday we will try heading out of McDonald Beach and try Vancouver's waters and see what we get. Then on Monday we will head to the island. Meeting with the inlaws tonight to discuss the plans. Wish us luck! Hopefully I will be posting pics at the end of the week.

 

[ja]

High tide, you mentioned in your post there's some good fishing on "Vancouver's water front". Can you please tell me if you mean shore fishing? If so, whereabouts? Type of fish? Is there a source or place I could get more info on this? Cheers :cheers:

 

[high tide]

I did mean fishing from a boat, although, you can catch some salmon from shore off the mouth of the Capilano River, I imagine there are other spots but I really do not do that style of fishing on our waterfront. The main action is from boats. Others on this site may be able to help you.
H/T

 

[ja]

thanks H/T

 

[hunterj]

since you have a 16 ft boat with 115 horsepower and 2 down riggers with fishfinder i would try the bell boy off of ubc. use anchove and flasher and try 40/50 feet. have been out 5 times lately and got fish 4 times. do not go to deep or you will get dog fish. weekends will be busy but give it a go. i assume guys go fishing and women go shopping. good luck and let us know how you make out.

jim

 

[postelsia]

Thanks for the advice hunterj, we will definately try out the fishing on Sunday. I am actually going to try my hand at fishing as I have never been salmon fishing. It will also be my son's first time fishing ( he is only 1 but it he loves riding in the boat). It should be a good time for all. I'll let you all know how it turns out. :thumbup:

 

[hunterj]

make sure the weather is calm. i did not think they make life jackets for one year olds. my prays are with you.

jim

 

[postelsia]

It should be fine and yes I have a life jacket for my son, he is tall for his age and the life jacket fits him well. Thanks for your concern If the waters are rough, my mother in law won't go out on the water, so she will stay on shore and watch my son.

 

[Diger]

Launched in ladner ran out the river and dropped the lines. Before I could get the second rod down the first one popped.The fish took one quick run and was gone.It hit on a purple haze hootchie at 55ft.Trolled all the way to the coal port and the hootchie rod pops again(35 ft ) and this time I am rewarded with a 24 pound chinook which put up a great fight. That was it, a good day for me. LOL tryed to get a fishing partner for today but ended up going out solo..seas were calm and the sun was shinning ...boat ran great ...glad I live BC ....Tight Lines

 

[postelsia]

So we launched out of Steveston boat launch around 8 this morning to fish out of the south arm of the Fraser. After 4 hours ...nothing; not even a bite. So they came back in and I joined them, ( i was out for a run with my running group). This time we tried anchovies and herring strips. We were out for 3 hours. No bite on the anchovies and caught one Chinook on the herring strips at about 100 feet down - but we had to let that one go as it was too small. We tried trolling at different depths and didn't get even any good bites. While we were out there were a couple of fish caught, but it looked as like it was slow for everyone. I guess it wasn't our day. And, hunterj, since it was rainy and the waters were choppy my son was cozy, safe and warm in an RV with grandma. Figure we will head out later this week and try out the waters off of UBC. Thanks again to everyone for their tips and reports.

 

[hunterj]

thanks for your report and the weather will get better latter on in the week. hope to fish at ubc latter this week also. if you know when put it on the board.

jim

 

[postelsia]

Going to try our luck out by ubc this afternoon. Hopefully we will have better luck. :-\

 

[hunterj]

let me know how you make out. going out wed to ubc.

jim

 

[postelsia]

we must NOT know how to fish. Was out at ubc this evening and didn't even get a bite - we tried fishing by the bell buoy. There were a couple other boats out at the time and they didn't seem to catch anything either. Just not our time. My father-in-law wants us to try the mouth of the Fraser off the south arm on Wednesday - at least there we caught a small chinook. Let me know how ubc is on Wed hunterj. Happy fishing everyone. Our luck has to change sometime. ???

 

[high tide]

Welcome to fishing the Vancouver water front area. This is what can happen in our area. Good today not tomorrow. Some days you hammer them, use the same set up the next day, same depth, same place, tidal time etc. and nothing. General tips, fish both sides of the tide change, use different combinations of gear and bait. Watch what others are doing, find the baitfish, find the concentration of boats, check lunar tables etc....
bottom line.....if you caught them every time it would'nt be a challenge. But it sure would be nice to catch them more often then not. Good luck and keep trying.
H/T

 

[hunterj]

went out with piperfeltcher today and to make a long story short we did not even get a bite. went town to his place at 620am to find a parking spot for our 7am meeting. i am still looking for a parking spot at 730 as no one wants to go to work. eventually he gets okay for me to park at fishermans wharf in false creek. we are now heading out to bell buoy off ubc and we run into 3-4 feet waves so we do not get fishing till 830. we got bounced around and would not know if we even got a bite. we persever till 1 and head across the bay to west vancouver and the swell are now even higher and we fish till 330 and called it a day. you would call it fishing but todays waves would give you a better ride than going on the roller coaster at the pne. only thing positive is we only used 4 anchovies and got home save. we no doubt now have hit bottom and our next trip which may be friday can only get better. postelsia i assumed you stayed on shore?

jim

 

[postelsia]

Actually we also headed out to the waters of ubc around 8 am this morning. We were the other boat you saw out there around that time - I think we saw your boat as you headed to West Vancouver. We tried our luck on those huge waves (in our little boat they looked more like 5 to 10 feet swells) that tossed our little 14ft boat around like a rag doll. I had prepared myself with gravol and seabands that I used when I was pregnant, so I managed to keep from getting nauseous. Unfortuneatly for the rest of of my boatmates, the waves were too much for even their seasoned stomachs. I gave my husband a gravol and my father in law had a smoke, but it was even too much for them to handle and we had to pack it in. We headed back to McDonald Beach and had some lunch then headed to the Steveston boatlaunch.

After some lunch and a few hour break qw headed back out around 3:30 from Steveston to check out Sandheads but the swells were even worse by the afternoon. We made it out to the pointe but the waves were really swallowing up our boat. As we started to head back in, another boat tried to head out the same way we had gone and the also ended up turning around. They came up to our boat and asked us "Were you guys out there and is it as bad as it looks?" We replied that it was pretty nasty and rough out there. On the brighter side, when we checked out Sandheads we saw a really cool group of Puffins.

Anyhow, we ended up going up towards Westham island and tried fishing there for the heck of it. I ended up catching a tiny little fish barely 3 inches long. My husband really wanted to take a picture of it to post here but it was so small it fell off the hook before he could snap a shot. We are going to probably try heading out on Friday as well - I am not sure where we will go. All I know is I don't want to talk to either my husband or faterh in law about it until they cool off from being ticked off for not catching a thing after almost 3 days of fishing.