🎣 Fishing Conditions
📍 No location🌊 Current Conditions
📅 7-Day Forecast
📊 Historical Data
Pender Islands fishing & marine conditions
The Pender Islands sit in the middle of the southern Gulf Islands, sheltered from open-water swell but surrounded by channels that carry significant tidal flow. The shoreline is broken into bays, points and narrow passes, giving a lot of fishable structure within a small area and generally moderate conditions.
What runs here, and when
Chinook are present through much of the year, with resident winter fish in the surrounding channels and migratory fish moving through in summer. Coho follow later in the season. Crab and prawn are taken in the sheltered bays, subject to the seasonal openings and area closures that change through the year.
Pender Islands salmon fishing — runs, limits & season
Local hazards
Currents run strongly through the passes between the islands and can catch out boats that plan by the clock rather than the tables. Reefs and drying rocks are numerous and some are unmarked. Ferry traffic serves the islands regularly and transits the surrounding channels. Boundary Pass to the south carries commercial shipping.
Tides, current and sea state
The channels between the islands accelerate the tidal stream and create back-eddies along the shores that can run opposite to the main flow. That structure is what holds bait. Height predictions for the immediate area are straightforward; current timing in the passes is the thing that needs separate planning.
Live data on this page
Conditions above are for 48.780°N, 123.220°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
Pender 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 Pender 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
Pender 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
- Mayne & Saturna Islands (Area 18)
- Fulford Harbour
- Saltspring Island South (Area 18)
- Montague Harbour
- Sidney
- Point Roberts