Chinook Salmon Fishing in Cowichan, BC

Chinook hold in Cowichan waters year round, and we cover 13 spots that carry them. The run builds through June and stays strong into September, with the peak stretch running from late August through mid-September as Cowichan River-bound fish stage off the river mouth. July gives you a second plateau of Fraser and transient Chinook feeding through Sansum Narrows. From December through April, resident feeder Chinook hold at lower but steady numbers, so there is fishable water in any month you book.

Downrigger trolling does most of the work here. Run anchovy in a teaser head, hootchies or trolling spoons behind flashers at 60 to 150 feet along the drop-offs at Cowichan Bay Reef, Bold Bluff and Danger Reefs. Mooching a cut-plug or whole herring over structure near Enterprise Reef and the Sansum Narrows shorelines takes holding fish that ignore a trolled bait. When Chinook stack near the bottom over bait balls and shelves, drop metal or soft plastic jigs in 80 to 200 feet. Active Pass, Genoa Bay, the Cowichan Bay Flats and the mouth of Maple Bay and Bird's Eye Cove all fish well on the same program.

Go at first light. The bite is best from just before sunrise through the first two hours of day, then again as the light fades. Fish moving water, 1.5 knots or better, and plan around the run of the ebb or flood rather than the turn.