Chinook fishing is still productive, but has gotten a lot more finite with bite times and locales. The crazy jigging off the Flat Tops has slowed as the vast herring schools have moved out of the area. Thrasher is still hot, fishing “the wall” on the West side, but only during specific time periods. This is usually right around the low tide change. Orlebar Point and Entrance can be on fire, or asleep. We have been jigging Herring Aid Half Jigs in the 1 1/2 ounce size, and they are working very well when the bite is on. Trolling has been mostly mediocre, running 3 inch Tomic green/silver plugs through the shallows is the best approach currently. Jimmy Goehringer was moored at Silva Bay Marina, and we went out for a brief night fish, only to find The Flat Tops to the Grande totally devoid of bait. I have been fishing water depths of 40 to 100 feet around the Flat Tops, but we drifted out into 200 feet of water. At 300 feet we saw a nice Chinook swim under the boat. Jimmy dropped to 6 feet, and hooked him. We lost that fish but caught two nice Chinook jigging at 20 to 30 feet. This is such an aberration of what I normally do, but we blundered into it that night!
Coho have been in very short supply this year, but on the evening of August 8th, The Cabezon was fishing next to me and between us we caught 11 Coho in the 6 to 7 pound range. 10 of these were wild fish and safely released, with one hatchery fish amongst them. The irony is that only 10% of the hatchery Coho are fin clipped. So, we probably released 5 hatchery fish thinking they were wild fish. I really think D.F.O. should just allow a one Coho limit per person per day, and eliminate this stupidity. Or, better yet, actually fin clip all of the hatchery fish.
Ling and Rockfish have been generally good off Gabriola Reef. 5 inch herring in 30 to 50 feet of water has been the ticket.
Prawning is still really good, with no female spawners in the mix. A tip for prawners. The bigger the float, the more drag it creates, and the bigger chance it will sail away. Twice last week, people threw their giant floats too close to my traps, and they dragged me a quarter mile away. Please give people room when dropping your traps, and for your own well being, get rid of the three foot floats!
Good fishing!