How to Fish for Flounder, Bottom Fish and Crab

Bottom fishing off the Ambleside Pier in West Vancouver. In this video we catch Crab, Flounder, Greenling and Sculpin. There are many more species to be caught in this area like Dogfish, Surf/Pile Perch, Sea Cucumber, Star fish, Herring and many more! This is a great fishery for kids as the action is pretty consistent.
Full details on this trip go BC Fishing Journal:
www.bcfishingj...
If you have any questions on bottom fishing please let me a comment. Cheers! Jesse
#pierfishing #flounder #bottomrig

[@timothyloh6714]

Great vid! One of the first fisheries I participated in when I started fishing (and still at it today) long ago. Species IDs: Rock sole, whitespotted greenling, buffalo sculpin.

[@Gabriel_Apontes]

Show fantástico fique com Deus

[@niofruit]

Im going there yay

[@timothyloh6714]

The great sculpin is a much larger species and does not have the long antler shaped gill cover spines seen in the buffalo sculpin. Also the front head profile is different between the 2 species (steep in the buffalo, almost flat in the great). So far I have hooked 2 great sculpins from Ambleside pier...one at about 2 lbs (17") that I managed to land and the other a monster at 5+ lbs that broke off on me while trying to land it. The fight was horrible tho..it was like bringing in a huge clump of seaweed lol. They are edible but I wont recommend due to the heavy parasite load on them.

[@BCFishingJournal]

Timothy Loh awesome, I didn't realize the great Sculpin got that large! Thanks for the info.

[@timothyloh6714]

No problem...they are not a common sculpin but if you fish there long enough you will eventually get one! Here's a great little video on them: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6XJY5KXpK2Wes0

[@gavinmin7144]

I saw a navy submarine telescope. This looks like a military fishing dock.

[@DangerDad29]

Nice. Crabbing. Just use superstore cat food in any flavour. Like 28 cents and poke some holes. Lasts as many casts as you need for the day

[@BCFishingJournal]

I'll certainly give cat food a try! I'm not sure if you're familiar with this area, but there are a lot of problem seals that eat the crab bait, I wonder if the seals will eat the cat food?

[@Coastalfishes]

Pretty sure that flounder you caught is an English sole.

[@GeologyofGemsMinerals]

Is it possible to surf fish for edible size flounder? I'm near UBC and the only nearby pier is very crowded. Never managed to catch anything. The tidal fraser to the south has too much rip rap for me to cast a line out.

[@BCFishingJournal]

100%! There are a lot of edible sized flounder off the beaches of Vancouver and surrounding areas. You don't need to be off a pier as I've caught a large flounder off the beach while targeting Salmon. Definitely try tossing a bottom rig with bait or cast and retrieve a jig head with a Berkley Gulp mullet (white/chartreuse). As for your area by UBC, I rarely get out there. I'd try around Jericho Pier or rent a kayak/paddleboard to get away from crowds. Good luck! Let me know how you do.

[@Coastalfishes]

Other species you caught are whitespotted greenling and great sculpin.

[@BCFishingJournal]

Awesome! I knew the Whitespotted Greenling but wasn't certain on the Great Sculpin. I'm assuming the first one was pregnant?

[@Coastalfishes]

I was actually at Ambleside yesterday and did catch two pacific staghorn sculpin, totally different species than the grear sculpin.

[@Coastalfishes]

Jenny Harte ??

[@jennyharte7134]

Moms phone

[@Coastalfishes]

Those were because of the bass's nerves controlling movement in the bass's body after death. The fish wad dead for sure before the 20 minute mark.

[@GoodBlessings420]

Hey! I know this is an old video, but how is the winter fishing off piers in the Greater Vancouver Area? Ill be crabbing aswell but mostly interested if I could fish for dogfish, or halibut/flounder. maybe even surf perch?

[@BCFishingJournal]

I don’t spend a lot of time on the piers or shores in the winter. But when I have i haven’t seen a lot of action. A lot of the fish will move to deeper water in winter. That said, the smaller surf perch and species may stick around close to piers and rocks, but again haven’t spent a lot of time after them.

[@GoodBlessings420]

@@BCFishingJournal Thanks for the reply! good to know.

[@andyconda5194]

“Can’t keep any females” yeah, tell that to almost every single Asian crab fisher. Step your game up DFO!

[@jakenicholas2492]

Would u catch any doing cast and retreive

[@jakenicholas2492]

BC Fishing Journal ok thanks do u think worms would work

[@BCFishingJournal]

If you're casting and retrieving I'd recommend using the bright jig as mentioned, but you could tip it with a worm. The only time I'd only use worms is with the bottom fishing setup like what I was using in this video (and if you watch closely again is what I caught that Whitespotted Greenling with). Hope that helps.

[@jakenicholas2492]

BC Fishing Journal great thanks

[@estrelassort6161]

which has more flounder ambleside or jericho beach?

[@BCFishingJournal]

No idea 🤷‍♂️

[@tristannguyen3329]

Hi! What bait were you using that day?

[@BCFishingJournal]

Little pieces of Shrimp/prawn.

[@tristannguyen3329]

@@BCFishingJournal Thank you so much, would you happen to know any other places to fish for perch or other groundfish?

[@tristannguyen3329]

Also, would you happen to know other baits that would work?

[@kaze987]

Hi! What size hook were you using on your setup?? Thanks!!

[@BCFishingJournal]

Hey Rob, for these flat fish I was using a size 2 Octopus hook.

[@kaze987]

@@BCFishingJournal Thank you!! I live near the Barnet Marine Park in North Burnaby. Have you fished around that area before? I'm interested to see whats down there :)

[@BCFishingJournal]

@@kaze987 I have fished and crabbed there. I didn't spend a lot of time fishing but did catch lots of sculpin's and tiny sanddab's. However, I'm sure there would be Dogfish around as well. I typically like to fish for Dogfish in the evening or lower light times.

[@kaze987]

@@BCFishingJournal Thank you so much for your quick and helpful replies! This might be a silly question but because the ocean is always cold, does fishing slow down in the winter vs summer, such as they do in lakes and ponds? Catching a dogfish would be a thrill! I thought you hooked onto a real shark in your video! Thanks again!

[@BCFishingJournal]

@@kaze987 Fishing slows down big time around the piers in winter. It's definitely at its peak in Summer July/August. If you want to see some Dogfish videos, I have 2 on my channel, check out these below: Ambleside Dogfishing: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3mTqamhdrR9Zrc Boat Fishing Dogfish & Flounder: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gWjdgXh6lLGZlas

[@gavinmin7144]

Why are small male or female crabs are illegal to keep?

[@BCFishingJournal]

I believe the reason you can't keep smaller crabs is to allow them to reach a sexually mature size in order to spawn. Males reach sexual maturity around 2-3 year mark, but will not reach a legal retaining size until 3-4 years. That gap in time ensure the males have an opportunity to spawn well before they're legal to catch (and hence ensuring the future of the fishery). Hope that helps!

[@curiousjericho]

I thought you weren’t allowed to fish here?

[@BCFishingJournal]

Fishing is allowed here. Perhaps you heard about the pier being closed due to storm damage.

[@curiousjericho]

@@BCFishingJournal do you mind sending the address? Because when I googled maps it - it went to the pier.. but upon reaching the pier it said we weren’t allowed to fish?

[@BCFishingJournal]

@@curiousjericho Ambleside Pier in West Van.