March started out much the same as February finished, High winds, rain, cold temperatures, and the always-lovely big seas. What made it worse was, they weren’t Westerlies, so fishing Pedder Bay wasn’t practical or safe to do.
Now I’ve finished grumbling lets move on to all the good things that are going to happen in March. First off there is herring in the area so if you need some watch for bait balls both on the surface as well as on your sounder. If you spot some you’re going to want to have the old herring rig rod close by. As for Salmon fishing “BIG” anchovy, green on green #4 Coyote spoons, a #4 Cop car, and glow Hootchies especially black with glow and Army Truck should all work well. Remember we’re trying to imitate the bait at hand and that’s the herring coming through.
Pedder Bay is still going to be a great spot right out at the Can Buoy. Another place I’d start to try and fish would the west side of the Race just out on the 120-foot ledge. You want to fish this area back and forth from Rosedale Rock into Christopher point.
“Remember this area has reefs and has pinnacles so don’t run your gear to deep because you just might hook into something you really don’t want, Vancouver Island”
Another place to fish would be on and off the ledge running from Christopher over to Church rock, in this area “Whirl Bay” the bottom is again more forgiving much like Pedder but don’t overdue it in your skipping the cannonballs or you may be buying more. Hey who knows you might even stir up a nice Halibut while trolling through here.
“The warning for this area is on your approach to Church rock, if you look on your chart you will see that there is a reef that is just ENE of Church on the Whirl bay side, if you don’t want to loose your gear I’d recommend a wide sweeping portside turn just as you parallel Swordfish Island if you do that and go into about a 180-200 feet of water you should miss it”
Most guys fishing “Winter Springs” will pick out an area and just keep working it. Remember the fish are right on the bottom and the sea bed in Pedder at the Can Buoy and Whirl Bay are both sandy gravel bottomed.
Don’t forget, you crazy fishers: the Blow Your Own Horn Derby Revival #4 is Sunday, March 26th from dawn to 12:30pm. Tickets are $25.00 per rod and are available at either Island Outfitters or Pedder Bay Marina (your only weigh in station).
REMEMBER THERE ARE ONLY 100 TICKETS (The more sold means more payouts.
Check for all the rules at your ticket outlet
GOOD LUCK TO ALL MAY THE BIGGEST SALMON WIN!!!!!!!
“There will also be trophies for the 3 big Salmon as well as cash”
Cash prizes after 3rd place will be given out until the money or fish run out!!
Halibut
With no thanks to the weather again, halibut fishing has gotten of to its worst start in all the years I’ve been here. I don’t think I’ve seen the pages as blank as I’ve seen this year. My hope is that after it stops snowing outside my window we will actually get some decent weather.
This year maybe DFO will try something different with the commercial halibut boat working in around the RCA’s at Race Rocks.
Halibut tides for March are as follows:
The 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th all look good starting at first light and carrying through till late in the afternoon. During these days you will get 2 distinct tide turns.
For the 19th, 20th, 21st, and the 22nd the mid to late morning right through to afternoon offers a 3 to 4 hour low tide window that should be good.
To finish off the month you going to see great high tides starting at daybreak and running through until well into the afternoon. The day’s start on the 25th, and carrying thru to 28th
Check out some of the new halibut bait we just got in it looks awesome.
See you next month and good luck fishing
