Pink Salmon & Big Chinook - Salmon Limit on the Kayak

Weather and Tide Conditions

I got out late afternoon and did an evening fish. I was most excited about a high slack tide around 6:00pm which I figured would be hot. The wind was good, it started off a little windy (nothing crazy) but as the evening went on it died down to roughly 3-5 knots. It was a blue sky day and and with the little breeze kept it comfortable. So essentially a near perfect evening to be on the water.  

Pinks are everywhere!!

This year there is an unprecedented number of Pinks headed toward the Fraser River and its tributaries, and with that prediction there is a TON of Pink salmon in the Georgia Strait where I'm fishing. I found them on my sounder at roughly 60-75' feet deep. They were all over the place, sometimes close to structure but generally seemed to be free flying all over the place!

I started trolling a new spoon for me a Gibbs Kingfisher spoon: Silver Knight UV Black Lightening. I fished the smaller size roughly 3" as I was targeting these Pinks. And it didn't take long to start getting into them. Once I found the schools at this depth every pass I was getting a bite.

Pink Salmon are Light Biters

One thing I kept noticing with the Pink Salmon was the light bite. Often I thought I'd have a smolt or some small juvenile Chinook on, but they were Pink Salmon which had a very soft bite. Most times the fight was pretty weak to begin with, but halfway to my kayak the fish would wake up and start fighting. It made for some fun fishing for sure.

Anyway, it didn't take long for me to get my 3 Pink Salmon. In my waters, the regs allow for a 4 fish species limit. That means I could keep 4 Pinks, BUT I wanted to save that 4th fish for something bigger, aka a Chinook Salmon. So I decided to switch tactics.

Vertical Jigging for Chinook

I found some fish schooling by some structure and decided to start using my spinning setup and do some vertical jigging. I love to use a Lil Nib Irish Mint Glow jig for salmon. This jig works particularly well when the salmon are up shallow, which was kinda the case (roughly around 75-100'). I started catching some pinks and coho with the jig BUT I knew Chinook would be in the mix too.

As the sun was dropping and the light was going down, BAM! I got the bite I was looking for. A big Chinook crushed my Lil Nib jig and I was in a battle. The fish made tons of runs from the kayak and my arms were dead, you can see that fight in the YouTube video linked at the bottom of this page. I measured the fish and it was within the slot limit for this area, so it came with a celebration and quick BONK! 

What a night! These are the trips I reflect on after the season's over. It couldn't have been better, a complete blessing.