TO ALL ANGLERS: On June 11, 12, 13 and 14 we will be seeing very low tides. Please ensure all vessels are secure and watch approaching and departing Pedder Bay Marina during the mid-mornings of these days.
Wow, who would have thought we are into the six month of the year already…it’s crazy!
Now I’m not a weatherman but isn’t June supposed to be summer time in this hemisphere? I’ll tell you one thing, the only thing summertime about the latter part of May was the start of “FOG” season and westerly winds.
The finish of May saw Salmon in the high teens and mid twenties as the norm, we did have a few larger mentionable like Tommy and his 27lber taken off the west end of Race passage and Doug Fougere and his 30lber taken at Church Rock both these guys were using anchovy and trolling in about 35 to 55 feet.
As for halibut fishing, it was an O.K. month. I say that because usually, halibut fishing is good in May but this month the fish just didn’t seem to be there. I don’t know if it was weather or not but catches were down for this part of the spectrum and that’s not the norm for this time of year. A few notables for May were BBS with a 120, Sea Ghost Charters with a 32 and 24, and Get Hooked Charters with a 22lber. Other than that like I said May was not as it should have been. Thankfully June has already started off better so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
May also saw great fishing in the form of jigging again. Good catches were recorded from areas like Ron’s blasting at the mouth of the bay, the Deep Hole in Pedder Bay and Church rock just off the reef. It’s nice to see that salmon fishery come back to itself after a bit of a silent spell, especially when compared to last year. Good job gang and keep it up.
Salmon Fishing
Spots to look at for Spring fishing this month:
- I’d stay with a good thing and as long as the bait stays in the bay, Pedder bay itself should continue to produce. That leaves it open to both trolling and jigging.
- Ron’s Blasting is still hot so that’s a good one to try both trolling and jigging on the slacks, turns, and flood tides.
- Whirl bay to Church rock will continue to work well just remember to check which tide you want to fish on and what side of the bay you want to be on. Try one line at say 37feet and the other at say 55 to 71 feet. Remember to stay clear of the reef on SE corner of Church rock it loves to eat cannonballs. For you people that want to Jig or cut plug, I’d suggest trying to work the Rock on the slack this way you won’t be pushed around as much.
- Moving west lets look at Church through to the Bedford’s, this area is great on an ebb tide because it turns into a holding area. Watch your depths in here because there are some nasty little pinnacles but having said that, the depths are much same as fishing at Church rock. Do remember that part of the Bedfords is closed to angling because it is an RCA. Check your Fish regulations for more info.
- Now we’re off to Aldridge and the Head, Aldridge is most notably fished on a flood tide or High slack but don’t get in to close or the kelp will torture you gear. As for the Head well everyone has their own methods of madness when fishing here but the rule of thumb to follow is go in the same direction as the fleet. If you get a fish on make sure you let the boats know so you can wedge your way out of the pack and deal with your fish properly. Beechey works well on slack tides or on the turns to Ebb when the Salmon tend to back off into the “HoneyHole”
- From here on out west its a crap shoot, the old word of mouth is “the further a man goes west the bigger a fish he will catch” well folks if you want to go west I can’t stop you but sometimes better things happen to one that is patient.
Halibut Fishing
Hot dates in June for Halibut are:
- Well even though I’m a little tardy in reporting the first weekend of June was good and that carried through right to today.
- June 5, 2006 Cardiac tide all day long from daylight to dinnertime, this is your sick day if you know what I mean. This is a good day to be sitting on the hook catching Halibuts.
- June 6, 2006 another great day with a low tide in the morning which then proceeds to go into a full day of flooding until 6:00pm.
- June 7, 2006 a big low slack around 7:00am and a nice flood tide from 1:00 pm on till dark.
- June 8, 2006 another low tide morning with a fish time set around 8:20am then in the afternoon you could set up and fish the flood from 2:00pm through to dinner.
- Now we’ll jump forward to Friday June 16, 2006 you will have a 3 hour window mid day to fish the low tide, areas I’d try would be West Race, or off Albert Head.
- June 17, 2006 you have a bit longer low tide starting around 1:00pm.
- June 18, 2006 you start the early morning with a cardiac ebb this tide won’t pick up any real speed until maybe 10:00am then you’re back to fishing the low slack at about 1:30pm.
- June 19, 2006 well halibut anglers this is a day when I suggest you call in sick again, we should be on a slow moving early morning flood and about 11:00am that should turn back to slow moving ebb until 5:00pm.
- June 20, 2006 the tide will be on the flood from daylight right through till almost 6:00pm.
- June 21, 2006 low slack will be around 6:00am so you should get a couple of hours in the morning, then you should get your last chance of this week from 4:00pm on till dinner time.
For the halibut addicts you can fish the low tides of the 28th, 29th, and the 30th all starting mid morning and finishing around 2:00pm.
Good luck to all and remember to boat safely
To all entrants in the 20th Annual Juan de Fuca Salmon Championships may the biggest fish win and to all be safe!!!!!
See you at the Banquet
Sean
