Tunstall Bay (Bowen Island)

Tunstall Bay sits on the southwest shore of Bowen Island in DFO subarea 28-1, an inner-protected pocket where a rocky drop-off falls from the shoreline into 40 to 180 feet of water. Chinook Salmon move through from June to August, followed closely by Coho Salmon which hold from June into September, while Rockfish stay resident on the structure year-round. Downrigger trolling with anchovy in teaser heads, hootchies, or trolling spoons behind flashers covers the salmon along the drop-off edge, with mooching cut plug herring a productive alternative when Chinook stack deeper on the rock. For Coho working closer to the surface, bucktail flies and small casting spoons draw strikes over the same contour. Rockfish come to leadhead jigs with soft plastics and metal jigs worked tight to the bottom in the deeper end of the range.