Salmon season planner — where & when to fish from shore

Region 2 fresh water + tidal Areas 28 & 29 · September 2026 – March 2027 · built for bank and beach access from Vancouver · reviewed 11 October 2026

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The season at a glance

Things that are closed — know these before you cast

Fraser River mainstem

  • No fishing for salmon upstream of the CPR Bridge at Mission, Apr 1 until further notice.
  • The tidal Fraser (below the CPR Bridge at Mission, Subareas 29-9 to 29-17) is closed to all salmon year-round.
  • Mouth of the Fraser Salmon Closure (in 29-3): all five salmon species closed Aug 1 – Sep 30.
  • New on the Area 29 table (5 Sep 2026): in the tidal Fraser, no natural bait for salmon Sep 5 – Oct 6. Salmon there are closed year-round regardless — the restriction matters if you are fishing the tidal Fraser for anything else and carrying bait.

Tidal chinook closures

  • Howe Sound & Burrard Inlet Chinook Closure (part of Subarea 28-2, south of the Halkett Point line): chinook closed Apr 1 – Aug 31 — so it is reopened for the planner season and comes back in the spring.
  • Strait of Georgia Chinook Closure (parts of 29-3 to 29-5 east of the Gower Point – Shah Point line): chinook closed Apr 1 – Aug 31, likewise reopened now.
  • 28-8 (False Creek) and part of 28-10 are closed to harvesting under navigational closures, so no salmon there regardless of season.
  • The Sep 2026 Area 28 tables no longer list a standing year-round chinook closure for 28-1 and 28-7. Both are boat water rather than shore access, and a fishery notice is the check to make before relying on either.

Area 29 subareas closed to all salmon

  • 29-6, 29-7 and 29-9 through 29-17 — zero daily limit for every salmon species. Only 29-1 to 29-5 and 29-8 are open.
  • Check the Area 29 subarea map before fishing any south-of-Fraser beach.

Spots closed to all fishing, year-round

  • Whytecliff Park (28-2)
  • Porteau Cove (28-4)
  • Point Atkinson (28-6)
  • Navigational closures apply in 28-8 (False Creek) and parts of 28-10.
  • Rockfish Conservation Areas cover parts of 28-1 to 28-4 and 28-11 to 28-13.

Seasonal and night closures — new or easy to miss

  • Mannion Bay (Deep Bay), Bowen Island (28) — closed to all finfish, any gear, Sep 1 to Dec 31.
  • Tidal Fraser (Area 29) — all finfish closed from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise, year-round. It is also closed to all salmon year-round.
  • Little Campbell River — from the boundary signs down to the Stayte Road pedestrian bridge, no fishing for salmon Aug 15 to Sep 30, on top of the retention rules below.
  • Downriggers are prohibited in the Howe Sound glass sponge reef refuges in parts of 28-1 to 28-4 and 29-3.

Rules that apply everywhere

Licence

  • Tidal waters: federal Tidal Waters Sport Fishing Licence + Salmon Conservation Stamp.
  • Fresh water: provincial BC Freshwater licence + Conservation Surcharge Stamp — the province renamed the non-tidal salmon and steelhead surcharge, so look for “Conservation Surcharge” at checkout, not “Salmon Conservation Stamp”.
  • They are different licences, and so are the two stamps. Ambleside beach and the Capilano canyon need one of each.

Gear

  • Barbless hooks required for salmon, tidal and fresh.
  • New this season: in all of tidal Areas 28 and 29, Sep 1 – Mar 31, no hook with more than one point — trebles are out in the salt too, not just in the rivers.
  • Areas 28 and 29, Sep 1 – Mar 31: no hook with a single point more than 22 mm point-to-shank.
  • At the Capilano and Seymour river mouths, Aug 1 – Dec 31: no hook with a single point more than 15 mm point-to-shank.
  • Bait ban year-round: Squamish, Cheakamus, Mamquam, Ashlu.
  • Bait ban Aug 1 – Oct 31: Capilano.
  • Single barbless hook: Khartoum and Lois lakes.
  • Fresh water: salmon fishing in Region 2 is daylight hours only, and no fishing within 100 m of a hatchery counting or rearing facility.
  • Squamish watershed: the coho limit is 1 per day across the whole non-tidal system combined — not 1 from each of the Squamish, Cheakamus, Mamquam and Ashlu.

Limits & sizes

  • Fresh water: 4 salmon/day aggregate, 8 in possession, unless a water says less.
  • Minimum size fresh water: coho 25 cm, all others 30 cm.
  • Tidal minimums: chinook 62 cm; coho, chum, pink 30 cm.
  • Annual limits: 10 chinook from tidal waters coastwide, and 10 chinook over 50 cm from fresh water.
  • Sockeye: non-retention everywhere in Areas 28 and 29 this season.
  • Tidal chinook: 2 per day, minimum 62 cm, hatchery and wild combined. The DFO tables list no maximum size this season — the 80 cm upper slot that applied in earlier years is not in the current Area 28/29 tables. Confirm in a fishery notice before you keep a big one.
  • Tidal coho: 2/day, hatchery-marked only (0 wild). Tidal chum 4/day — raised from 2 on 3 October 2026 (FN1081), to 31 March 2027, in Area 28 and Subareas 29-1 to 29-5 and 29-8. Pink 4/day.
  • Changed on 5 September 2026, both by fishery notice and both now on the Region 2 table: the Capilano chinook size sub-limit is gone to Nov 30 (FN0960), and the Coquitlam went from chinook non-retention to 1 hatchery-marked/day to Dec 31 (FN0961).
  • Changed again on 19 September 2026 (FN1008, issued 16 Sep): on the Coquitlam the daily limit for unmarked chinook went from zero to 1 per day to Dec 31 — so it is now 1 chinook per day, marked or not, with no size limit beyond the 30 cm minimum. Every change this season has been a loosening, so if you prefer to be cautious the old advice still keeps you legal.

Recording

  • Record every retained chinook immediately and permanently — on the licence itself or in the FishingBC app — before you carry on fishing.
  • “Hatchery-marked” means the adipose fin is clipped. If the adipose is intact, it goes back.
  • 2026 is an even year — the big Fraser pink run is odd-year, so don’t plan around pinks.