Stare at the water
Published on October 26th, 2008 by Rodney
After bringing up followers and ambushers yesterday in the Tidal Fraser River, I saw some pretty exciting actions in the shallows today. With only a couple of hours to spare after the weekend chores, I hurried down to Garry Point Park to catch the end of today’s incoming tide. The Westerly wind was blowing hard, but that was not so much a factor since the park has fishing spots at all directions.
Today I decided to retire the spinners temporarily and try some bigger lures. I had a box of Gibbs Croc and Koho spoons in size 1/4 and 3/8oz stocked up recently. Green and orange are my productive colours. Green seems to work for chum salmon when they decide to bite, while orange almost never fails if there are coho salmon around.
Soon after I began trying the shallow portion of the first bay, a bull trout darted upward and lunged at the Croc spoon. It was rather exciting as I saw the entire event. Again, because the fish came up from the side of the spoon, it managed to get foul hooked. Unfortunately, I don’t think this particular fish will survive after being released due to the size of the gash near the abdomen. It swam away quickly, so you just never know. If it doesn’t, a nearby heron will be happy tomorrow.
Something that I’ve noticed this fall is the amount of juvenile salmonids that have been swimming by while we fish. During every flood tide, it has not been unusual to see schools after schools of them swimming toward the ocean. Perhaps this is a good indication for the fishing in several years from now.
I managed to produce a couple more hits but no hook-ups in the shallows before moving on. After a spot change, two more bull trout decided to grab the spoon in the deeper water. As tide started flowing outward, my expectation for even a sighting of salmon quickly diminished. After another spot change, I then made another exciting observation. Big boats are always moving by at the Fraser River mouth, so waves pound the shoreline constantly at times. When this occurs, I usually choose to cease fishing and wait for the water to calm down again. While waiting at one point today, I just happened to glance down between two wave crests and saw a big salmon, probably a chum salmon, swimming by several feet below the surface. See salmon in the Chilliwack is a norm, but seeing them swimming in the murky Tidal Fraser River is rare. It reminded me that anything could be swimming by in front of me while fishing this brown canal. After that sighting, I quickly dropped the ultralight setup and brought out the salmon gear again.
I finished today’s outing with this gorgeous sunset shot.
