🎣 Fishing Conditions
📍 No location🌊 Current Conditions
📅 7-Day Forecast
📊 Historical Data
Mayne & Saturna Islands fishing & marine conditions
Mayne and Saturna sit on the outer edge of the southern Gulf Islands, facing Boundary Pass and the international boundary. They are more exposed than the inner islands, with the big tidal exchange between Georgia Strait and Haro Strait moving past them, and they carry some of the strongest currents in the island group.
What runs here, and when
Chinook use these passes as a migration route, and the area holds fish through much of the year including resident winter chinook. Coho move through later in the season. The heavy tidal flow concentrates bait against the points and in the back-eddies, which is the reason the fishing here is tied so tightly to current stage.
Mayne & Saturna Islands salmon fishing — runs, limits & season
Local hazards
Active Pass, between Mayne and Galiano, is the notable hazard in this group: the current runs hard, the channel is narrow and dog-legged, and large vehicle ferries transit it frequently on a fixed schedule. Small boats fishing near the pass need to know when ferries are due and stay clear of the channel. Boundary Pass carries heavy commercial traffic, and the international boundary runs through nearby water.
Tides, current and sea state
These islands sit where a large volume of water moves between Georgia Strait and Haro Strait, so currents are strong and the rips and eddies are pronounced. Plan around slack water for transits of the passes, and remember that current timing does not match high and low water. Wind against a big ebb through the passes produces steep, confused water quickly.
Live data on this page
Conditions above are for 48.850°N, 123.280°W. Wind, wave and pressure data come from Open-Meteo and refresh every three hours; tide predictions come from the Canadian Hydrographic Service. The fishing score combines wind, wave height, barometric trend, moon phase, tide movement and time of day.
Marine forecast & warnings
Mayne & Saturna Islands lies in Environment and Climate Change Canada's Strait of Georgia marine forecast zone.
No marine warnings are in effect for this zone.
ECCC reissues the forecast through the day and can post a warning at any hour, so the Marine Forecast panel above carries the current wind, visibility and multi-day outlook word for word. It describes the open water of the zone, not a particular bay inside it, and is no substitute for the VHF or weatheradio broadcast.
Tidal currents
Fishing Mayne & Saturna Islands is timed by the current, not the tide height. The pass that governs it is Active Pass.
Active Pass floods to the northeast and ebbs to the southwest, running to 5.9 knots. Slack on November 1: 03:46, 11:09, 18:14, 21:54.
Predictions for the pass itself, not the water around it. Slack shifts about 50 minutes later each day, so these times are wrong for any other date. The Tidal Currents panel above gives every turn with its maximum-flow speed; CHS is the source.
Regulations
Mayne & Saturna Islands lies in DFO Pacific Area 18. Openings, closures and limits change in-season and differ between subareas, so check the DFO Area 18 recreational fishing page before you go. Nothing on this page is a substitute for the current regulations, official charts, or the marine forecast.
As of November 1, 2026, five closure areas are in effect in DFO Pacific Area 18, among them Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) Recreational Salmon Fishing Closure, Pender Island Vessel Restricted Zone and Saturna Island Vessel Restricted Zone. Salmon limits for the area: chinook 2 per day; chum 4 per day; coho 2 per day; pink 4 per day; sockeye non retention.
Read from the DFO Area 18 page, last updated 2026-11-01. See the full Area 18 regulations for every closure and limits table, or the Fishery Notices for changes newer than that date.
Nearby locations
- Pender Islands (Area 18)
- Montague Harbour
- Saltspring Island South (Area 18)
- Fulford Harbour
- Saltspring Island North (Area 18)
- Tsawwassen