Sports fishermen off Vancouver Island’s west coast say they’re hauling in heavyweight chinook and coho salmon in one of the best seasons in memory.
The sports-fishing bonanza is happening at the same time that experts puzzle over the disappearance of millions of sockeye from the Fraser River.
“It’s the best I’ve ever witnessed,” said Steve Veloso, a guide and sales and marketing director for Gold River Fishing Lodge. Salmon are biting “any type of gear,” he said.
Five tyees were caught off Gold River this past week, Veloso said. A tyee is a chinook salmon weighing at least 30 pounds and is considered a prize catch. Other recent catches include a 23-pound coho and a 168-pound halibut.
Off Port Renfrew, Trevor Zboyovsky, owner of No Bananas Fishing Charters, said he’s regularly seeing chinook between 20 and 50 pounds, and just about one tyee a day for the last couple of weeks. Between 15 and 20 coho are being pulled in daily, he said. “Fishing is as good as it’s ever been since I’ve been fishing,” said Zboyovsky, who has two decades’ experience.
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Rather interesting comments after the Province article. People really do prefer to boil things down to simplistic terms, don’t they?
I still think it has to do with water temperature, Mac. I used to carry a thermometre in my tackle box when I went down to the creek in the fall. If the water temperature was to high I went home because I knew the salmon wouldn’t be along that day.
I expect the run is just starting late due to the high temperatures in BC this year.
We’ll see.
You could be right, Jack but that’s too complicated for most folks. They’re rather blame it on (insert your least favorite cultural group) than look for real causes…
Yep, it’s limits everyday on the WC. Nice size to the Coho too. 10-15 lbs. in Aug. is pretty good. They’ll grow like mad over the next month. I’ve already heard of 23 lb. Cohol.