Nanaimo Fishing Report
Updated Mon, Nov 9, 2026 from live weather and water data
Nanaimo on the Strait of Georgia: chinook and hatchery coho under Area 17 notices, rockfish conservation areas close to town and the Nanaimo River for fall salmon.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
Low 6:05 p.m. model
Air / High
6 °C / 10 °C
Wind
SSE 8 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Nanaimo has cold water and fish that move for very little; fish the warmest hours. Today brings cloud cover, wind SSE around 8 km/h, rising pressure near 1016 hPa and a high of 9 °C. Tides: high 11:20 a.m., low 5:21 a.m. and 6:05 p.m.: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 10 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 12:04 AM-2:04 AM and 12:22 PM-2:22 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Chinook (spring) salmon
Slow
Winter feeders on the BC coast, deep and slow, on the calm days only. In the Great Lakes, the run is over until next fall.
Lingcod
Closed today
Reopens May 1, 2027. Inside waters (Areas 13 to 19 and the inside subareas of 12, 20 and 29) are open to rockfish and lingcod 1 May to 30 September; lingcod 1 a day, 65 cm minimum, 10 a year. Rockfish Conservation Areas are closed to all finfishing.
Tie on: Jigging spoon through the ice · Dead-stick minnow · Tip-up with dead bait · Tungsten jig and wax worm. Prime windows: 12:04 AM-2:04 AM, 12:22 PM-2:22 PM, 8:49 AM-9:49 AM. Warmer at 13 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
British Columbia requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from C$11.43. British Columbia fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing chinook (spring) salmon here? Check the size and bag limits with BC Freshwater Fishing before you keep anything; the Chinook (spring) salmon page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Nanaimo today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (08:16), sunset (17:42), the moon and today's score, with the modelled tide changes in the panel below. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 12:04 AM-2:04 AM and 12:22 PM-2:22 PM; minor 8:49 AM-9:49 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
A modelled tide curve for these coordinates and the forecast for the day.
Tides (modelled)
Modelled sea level curve from Open-Meteo Marine for these coordinates, datum mean sea level. Fish the moving water either side of each change.
A model, not the official prediction: times can drift by tens of minutes inside bays and estuaries. Check the Canadian Hydrographic Service predictions at tides.gc.ca for the exact times before you rely on them.
Mon
LOW5:21 a.m.-0.23 m
HIGH11:20 a.m.1.82 m
LOW6:05 p.m.-1.34 m
Tue
HIGH12:37 a.m.1.32 m
LOW5:53 a.m.-0.11 m
HIGH11:54 a.m.1.91 m
LOW6:45 p.m.-1.28 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp6 °C
High / Low10 °C / 6 °C
WindSSE 8 km/h, gusts 12 km/h
Pressure101.62 kPa, rising
Sky / Rain100% cloud, 95%
Sunrise / Sunset08:16 / 17:42
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~10 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Nanaimo
Today is the pick of the week on Nanaimo, at 3 out of 5.
Best day this week: today, Nov 9 — fair at 3/5, rising pressure behind a front, typically the slowest.
Today, Nov 9 — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 12:04 AM-2:04 AM and 12:22 PM-2:22 PM
- Minor period
- 8:49 AM-9:49 AM
- Sun
- 08:16 to 17:42
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Rain, 26 km/h
- Rain chance
- 95%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Nanaimo: seasons written for the Canadian year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Chinook (spring) salmon
BC coast: spring to late summer; Great Lakes tributaries: September and October
The biggest Pacific salmon, called spring or king on the BC coast. Feeds along the kelp lines, points and tide rips of the BC coast before running rivers in late summer; introduced to the Great Lakes, where it runs the tributaries in fall. Retention on the BC coast changes by area and by DFO fishery notice. Winter feeders on the BC coast, deep and slow, on the calm days only. In the Great Lakes, the run is over until next fall.
Coho salmon
BC coast: July to September; rivers: October and November
Silver, aggressive and surface-oriented. Feeds hard along the BC coast through summer and runs the Fraser Valley and Island rivers in fall, the Vedder and the Stamp among them. Hatchery coho are marked by a clipped adipose fin; what may be kept depends on the water and the DFO notice. Late fish in the rivers are dark and done; the coast is quiet until spring.
Pacific halibut
Spring and summer on the BC coast, under DFO limits
The big flatfish of the outer coast: Bamfield, Ucluelet, Tofino, Nootka and the north coast. Annual and daily limits and size rules are set by DFO and change during the season. Out of season or unfishable weather.
Lingcod
Spring to fall, with a winter closure in many areas
Closed now Reopens May 1, 2027. Inside waters (Areas 13 to 19 and the inside subareas of 12, 20 and 29) are open to rockfish and lingcod 1 May to 30 September; lingcod 1 a day, 65 cm minimum, 10 a year. Rockfish Conservation Areas are closed to all finfishing. Rule as read from Fisheries and Oceans Canada on 2026-09-27.
The toothy reef fish of the BC coast, on rock piles and pinnacles. Limits and closures vary by DFO management area.
Pink salmon
Late summer, mainly in odd-numbered years in the south
The smallest and most numerous Pacific salmon. In the south of BC the big runs come in odd-numbered years; the fish crowd the estuaries and the lower rivers in August and September. Out of season.
When to come: the Nanaimo calendar
Activity by species and month for the Canadian year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.
Species activity by month
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Chinook (spring) salmon
Coho salmon
Pacific halibut
Lingcod
Pink salmon
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 10 °C (estimated, not a reading).
Angler reports
Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. Nothing here is copied from a shop or a charter. The water log below tracks each day automatically.
No angler reports yetBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Nanaimo today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
2/5 Slow. The wind owns today. 37 km/h gusts make boat control the real battle. Coho salmon led the card at good. High of 14 °C, wind to 37 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Coho salmon led the card at good. High of 13 °C, wind to 27 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Coho salmon led the card at good. High of 13 °C, wind to 34 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
BC freshwater fishing licence, from C$11.43 for a resident adult, with higher prices for other Canadians and visitors. Details and where to buy → In salt water you also need the federal BC Tidal Waters Sport Fishing Licence.
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and protected areas are set by BC Freshwater Fishing and, in salt water and for salmon, by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the British Columbia licence page before you keep anything. The zone-by-zone seasons and limits are on British Columbia fishing seasons.
Access
Salt water needs the DFO tidal licence and salmon stamp, and lingcod kept in inside waters such as Area 17 must be recorded on the licence immediately.
About this water
Nanaimo is a coastal town in British Columbia, Canada, covered from the British Columbia reports and listed in all Canada waters.
Fishing Nanaimo: the full guide
Fishing Nanaimo
Nanaimo is the harbour city on the east coast of Vancouver Island, facing the Strait of Georgia, with Newcastle and Protection islands off its harbour and Gabriola beyond. For DFO it sits in Area 17. Its fishing is salmon in the strait, bottom fish on the reefs in season and the Nanaimo River south of the city. Conditions on this page are scored for downtown Nanaimo, with a modelled tide curve for the harbour.
Species and seasons
Chinook and coho are the salmon here. In 2026 Area 17 opened with chinook non-retention to protect Fraser stocks, a hatchery-marked-only chinook fishery ran in two Gulf Islands subareas in spring, and wider retention came on July 15; coho retention was hatchery-marked only from June to December. Lingcod and rockfish follow the inside-waters season, open in 2026 from May 1 to September 30. The Nanaimo River has fall coho and chum, opened by DFO notice.
Where to fish it
Boats fish off Gabriola, the channels between the Gulf Islands and the drop-offs close to town. Several closures sit on the doorstep: in 2026, Nanaimo Harbour south of Newcastle Island and Departure Bay were closed to finfishing from summer to late October, and rockfish conservation areas near Snake Island and Horswell Channel are closed to all fin-fishing. From August 1 to October 15, 2026 the subareas around the city, 17-13 to 17-17 among them, were chinook non-retention.
Planning a visit
Nanaimo has marinas, launches and tackle shops, and the strait is sheltered compared with the outer coast, though it turns rough in a southeaster. The Nanaimo River estuary south of the city is a good place to read the tide before choosing where to fish; in the fall of 2026 DFO closed the tidal river from the Cedar Bridge downstream about 400 m from October 25 to November 30.
The water through the year
Chinook and coho in summer, fall runs in the river and bottom fish in the spring-to-summer window make the seasons here. The river rises and colours with the winter rain, and in summer it shares the Region 1 closure of streams in Management Units 1-1 to 1-6, from July 15 to August 31.
Reading this report here
The tide panel is modelled and labelled as such, while the Canadian Hydrographic Service publishes the official tables. A southeaster funnelling up the strait is the wind to watch, and pressure and sky finish the score.
Licence, access and rules
Salt water needs the DFO tidal licence and salmon stamp, and lingcod kept in inside waters such as Area 17 must be recorded on the licence immediately. The Nanaimo River needs a BC freshwater licence, with the non-tidal salmon surcharge for salmon; for 2026, DFO set a hatchery-marked-only coho fishery between the Cedar Road Bridge and the Highway 1 overpass from October 16. The synopsis adds no fishing upstream of the Highway 1 bridge from December 1 to May 31.
Common questions
What can I catch in Nanaimo?
Chinook and coho in the strait, lingcod and rockfish in their inside-waters season, and coho and chum in the Nanaimo River in the fall when DFO opens them.
Are there rockfish closures near Nanaimo?
Yes. Rockfish conservation areas, including waters near Snake Island, are closed to all fin-fishing, and DFO publishes their boundaries.
Do I need two licences?
For the strait and the river, yes: a DFO tidal waters licence and a BC freshwater licence.
Is fishing good at Nanaimo right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Tide curve (modelled)
- Open-Meteo Marine, sea level height including tides
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- Pages checked
- notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?pg=view_notice&ID=all&DOC_
- notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?pg=view_notice&ID=all&DOC_
- notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?pg=view_notice&ID=all&DOC_
- notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?pg=view_notice&ID=all&DOC_
- www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/sports-recreation-arts-and-culture/outdoor-r
- The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on How our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.