Vancouver Friday Fishing Report, May 4th

Pacific Angler Outlook:

I’ve got to say it has been an excellent week of fishing.  Everything from amazing chinook fishing locally in the Vancouver harbour to lake fishing in the interior, good sturgeon fishing in the Lower Fraser River, and even some late season steelhead reports.  Yes, it is all happening here at Pacific Angler and the British Columbia fishing scene.

The boys at Pacific Angler have been gearing up all week stocking up on our favourite saltwater salmon gear and lake fishing gear.  Looking forward we are moving right into prime-time chinook fishing both locally around the Vancouver harbour and Thrasher Rock.  As well, the lake fishing will continue to improve as more and more lakes ice-off and turnover.

The forecast for the weekend in Vancouver is looking good.  You can expect rain on Saturday with a high of 11 degrees celsius, and sun with a high of 13 degrees Celsius for Sunday.  This past week has seen some cooler temperatures which has been good for some of our river fishing.  However, with the warmer temperatures expected next week, ranging from 17 to 19 degrees, most rivers will most likely go into full freshet.

Here is the marine forecast for all your saltwater anglers.  This is a great resource to check the conditions before you head out on the water.

Environment Canada – Georgia Basin Marine Report

Marine Forecast:

Friday and Saturday

“Wind westerly 5 to 15 knots becoming southeast 5 to 15 Saturday morning then increasing to 15 to 20 near noon Saturday. Wind diminishing to southeast 5 to 15 Saturday evening.”

Sunday

“Wind southeast 10 to 20 knots diminishing to light in the morning.”

Local Saltwater Fishing:

For a detailed fishing report written by Mr. Jason Tonelli himself click on the link – The Guide Journal.

In short the fishing has been amazing.  Our guides have been doing well both at the Hump and Thrasher Rock.

What a slab!

BC Lake Fishing Report: 

The lake fishing season is now fully underway.  As a general rule lakes that are below 3600 ft elevation have thawed out and are now fishing.  Please read below for Pacific Angler’s exclusive list of top producing lakes that have ice-offed.

Merritt

  1. Kentucky & Aileen Lake;
  2. Kump Lake;
  3. Kidd Lake
  4. Courtney Lake;
  5. Roche Lake;
  6. Marquart Lake;
  7. Lunbum Lake;
  8. Logan Lake;

Kamloops

  1. Peter & Hope Lake
  2. Horseshoe Lake;
  3. Friskan Lake;
  4. Black Lake;
  5. Bleeker Lake;
  6. Morgan Lake;
  7. Lac la Jeune;
  8. Jacko Lake;
  9. Stump Lake;
  10. 6 Mile Lake near Morgan;
  11. Edith Lake; and
  12. Scuitto lake.
Quesnel
  1. Dragon Lake;

We’ve been hearing good reports all week.  I’ll be heading out next weekend myself to the 100 Mile area for my first lake outing.  I can’t wait.

Make sure to drop by our store to stock up on all your lake fishing needs.  All of our staff are very well educated on British Columbia lakes and love to share their passion.

BC River Fishing Report:

The Vedder River is in freshet stage and will not be fishable for the remaining steelhead season.  In general the winter steelhead season is just about coming to an end.

However there are some river fishing opportunities.  We’ve heard of some early reports of coho caught at the Capilano River.  This is great to hear as this fishery doesn’t really start until the end of May/beginning of June.  As a general rule rivers to target at this time of year are ones that are dammed.  This is because they don’t go into freshet the same way as free flowing rivers.  The Capilano River is an example of that, as well as the Mamquam in Squamish.  There can still be some good trout fishing in the dammed systems that have fry in them.

Again make sure to look at your water levels at this time of year.  We can’t stress how critical this is for your success.

Jason is heading to the Skeena River today to fish with Nicholas Dean Lodge.  Hopefully he comes back with some pictures of bright chrome steelhead and chinook.  While the mainstem Skeena River is in freshet stage there are still good steelhead and chinook opportunities in the many tributaries.  This is still a relatively unknown fishery but can be world class.

Again we’ve heard some mixed sturgeon fishing reports in the lower Fraser River.  The guides we talked to said they had amazing days (+10 fish) which were followed with below average days (around 4).  The sturgeon fishermen have maybe 1 to 2 weeks of fishing before the Fraser River goes into full freshet and makes the system unfishable until August.

If you have any questions about our fishing report please do not hesitate to drop by our store at 78 East Broadway or give us a call at 604-872-2204.

Have a great weekend I’ll see you out there,

Dave

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