Born To Fish BC - Saltwater Fishing Report Jan 12/2015

January 12,2015

Got a chance to fish with two of my favourite fishing buddies Sunday. My wife, Luisa, and Grady, our new family dog and fishing companion. We hit the water for first light which was around 7:45 and launched out of Ambleside. The water was flat calm but there was a heavy fog. The fog was so heavy that I had trouble finding my favourite crabbing spot. Here's a look across the harbour off our rod and reel.

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Not too much to see.

With the fog we decided we would stick to the West Van shoreline until the fog broke up and fish our usual line. 90 - 120 feet of water from the Pink apartments to the Cap mouth. We were running four rods because recent trips have yielded hook ups as shallow at 70 feet. Our gear choices were. STS Gibbs Delta Flasher ( custom red stripe ) and Silver Horde Cop Car glow spoon 3.5, Gibbs Delta Guide Series lemon lime flasher and Kitchen Sink Silver Horde spoon in 3.5, Bonchovy Gibbs Delta flasher and Bonchovy G-Force spoon in 3.5 and Guide Series Lemon Lime flasher and Gibbs Delta G-Force 3.5 Trailhead spoon. As we fished the fog broke up slightly and we could see the other boats fishing. I counted seven other boats out fishing the usual area. I had cell contact with a few regular locals and everyone was pretty much reporting the same in the area - which was not a lot.

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At about 10 AM I saw Luisa launch out of her seat for a bouncing rod. We were right on our usual spot on the troll heading west off the Pink Apartments. The rod to yield the bite was my favourite flasher and spoon combo. I'm sure those of you following my salmon info will know. The Gibbs Delta " Red Racer " or custom " STS " guide series flasher with the red stripe and the Silver Horde Cop Car Glow Kingfisher Spoon in 3.5. I'm thinking Gibbs Delta should add that flasher to the Guide Series line up and call it the "Born To Fish BC."

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I helped Luisa hit the center of the boat and could tell by the bend in the rod and the Islander MR3 peeling line that this was going to be a decent winter fish. Luisa did everything right ... she let the fish run and kept her rod tip nice and high. When I figured it should be time for us to see the fish surface the rod bent hard and I could see a large head pop out of the water. SEAL! I could also see that gorgeous bright chrome slab with purple sheen scales in this HUGE seals mouth. I pretty much knew what was going to happen next. Check out the video clip.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHT : Seal Grab Salmon Clip

What was amazing is we were using our new Seaguar 25lb fluorocarbon leader and our new Owner Stinger Siwash hooks and even with the amazing pressure from this huge seal pulling on our salmon when the fish was released from our line, everything came back to us intact ... just a slight bent in the hook. Still a tough break, as is the case with winter fishing in the area, bites can be spotty ... so you have to maximize your opportunities. Today ... the seal won.

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We fished for salmon until about noon and then tried our luck at some alternative fishing ideas to prepare for some future video collaborations we are going to do with Rodney Hsu of fishingwithrod.com and an idea I have for another kids fishing video! Keep an eye out for those projects coming soon. Grady seemed fascinated by all the creatures we were hooking with our seven foot spinning rods and it made for a fun hour or so before we decided it was time to go check out our luck for crab.

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Even though we didn't manage to drop our traps in our usual spot we did manage to find some nice large crabs in our traps.

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All and all a great fun day in our local harbour right off the West Vancouver shoreline. We did hear awesome success from the pros and anglers with the bigger boat who could make the trip over to the Gulf Islands with the flat calm waters. My good friend Jason Assonitis of Bon Chovy Fishing Charters had this to say ...

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( photo courtesy of Bon Chovy fishing Charters )

"Lots of action again today..... Greg guided his guys on Rock N Reel into some good numbers of winter chinook! They kept 5 legal and released quite a few undersize.. Homeland Security Spoon and the Guide Series Madi Flasher worked well!"

And while we at Born To fish BC didn't manage a fish Sunday ... the crab went just fine with dinner.

#surfandturf

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