May Fishing Report for Vancouver and Sidney
This fishing report is long overdue as we have been anxiously waiting on the DFO to make an announcement in regards to Marked Selective Fisheries for Chinook this spring. The decision was slated for April 1st, but it was very late and the announcement finally came on May 2nd. We received some very good news for our Sidney side of our charter operation. In Vancouver, we are under the same regulations as the last handful of years.
Let's start with the HUGE news for our Sidney operation! We are open to the retention of 1 hatchery chinook per day right now! Some areas are open until July 31st, some areas are until July 15th and some are open until May 31st. May will be the best month to come and fish in Sidney as it is the month with the most area open!! What this means is that our Sidney operation has year round opportunties for the retention of Chinook salmon!! This is great news for next year to as April and May are typically very good months to fish in Sidney. Ling cod also opened in Sidney this week... Been a good week for regulations! Our Sidney boat is only 5 minutes from the ferry and if you are on the Lower Mainland, a day trip is doable if you take the ferry from Tswassen! Also, if you are staying on the Gulf Island's we can pick you up from Saltspring, Pender, Mayne or Galiano!! Have a look at our Sidney Page here >>>>>>>
https://www.bonchovy.com/fishing-packages/sidney-vancouver-island-fishing-packages.html
In terms of gear gear to target hatchery chinook in Sidney, needlefish and sandlance patterns are excellent bets. Skinny Gs, Wee Gs, and Coho Killers are great bets!!
In Vancouver, the fishing has been very strong on a catch and release basis for chinook salmon. We are involved in the Avid Angler and have been DNA sampling on our charters. We are optimistic that we will see a strong year for coho. We have seen quite a few coho around this winter and spring, especially in the Gulf Island's. We are hoping that this will translate into a good start to the hatchery coho fishery in June when it opens to the retention of 2 hatchery coho per person per day! Fingers crossed.
Crabbing has been good in Vancouver Harbour and we will be dropping crab traps on our Vancouver Charters until Mid June. We are prawning on some of our longer full day charters for the next 10 days. On May 15th, the commercial prawners open and we put our prawn traps away until next fall! If you want to get out for the last week of prawning give us a call!
Give us a call or an email to get out on the water! Hatchery chinook retention is open from our Sidney Location....finally!!!
