November Fishing

November Fishing The best Chinook fishing season in 25 years is winding down. We have seen more Chinook than I can remember, or at least since the mid 1990’s. (Despite what you may have seen on Facebook…) I’ve never seen so many rookie fishermen go out and actually be very successful. With winter upon us the question is whether to pack up the gear for next year or not. November is normally our slowest month for salmon fishing in Georgia Straight. Its generally a time for winter maintenance and smoking last falls catch for Christmas treats. While some clamming or prawning may be done, normally its not considered a salmon fishing time of the year. However, for the third year in a row we have excellent fishing for winter springs, and the fish are generally larger than what I would consider a standard feeder spring to be. It may be the large schools of bait fish attracting these Chinook, or possibly water temperature, but what ever the reason, we have more Chinook and larger Chinook. I had a report last weekend from Tent Island of one fisherman releasing 7 legal Chinook, and keeping one 14 pounder. The best lures seems to be small anchovies with a Herring Aid teaser head, or small spoons in Yellow Tail pattern. Fish the Tent Island reef (105 ft) right off the bottom. Off Nanaimo, it’s a bit more hit and miss with bait moving around. Generally, the far side of Gabriola is best, and again right on the bottom, but in deeper water. Try to get to 200 ft. There are a lot of juvenile Coho in our area. This is good for next year, but try to avoid fishing in areas that have large concentrations of them. Prawning off Nanaimo has been incredibly good. It may have slowed a tiny bit this week, but I would still call it better than average. Just a heads up, our annual Black Friday sale is coming next Friday November 23. Tips up, Steve Vavrik