British Columbia Fishing Blog

The annual BC Family Fishing Weekend took place this past weekend. Residents and visitors of British Columbia were invited to participate in recreational fishing without the need of purchasing a licence. As if it’s BC’s tradition, it rained throughout the entire weekend! Despite of the gloomy weather, it definitely did not stop people from wanting to wet a line.

During this annual festival, community events take part across the province, where experienced anglers volunteer their time to pass on the passion to newcomers. In the Lower Mainland, four popular events are usually well attended. They are BC Federation of Drift Fishers‘ Lafarge Lake Family Fishing Day, Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery’s open house, Greg Clark Memorial Family Fishing Derby and Seymour Salmonid Society’s Family Fishing Day.

This year, I dropped by Lafarge Lake to see BCFDF’s event and was surprised by how popular this event was. The rain gradually became heavier as the morning went by yet the crowd continued to grow. The organizer, Cam Aronetz, who has put on this event since BC Family Fishing Weekend was formed, sets up a special net pen where hundreds of rainbow trout are held so kids have a better chance of catching one.

We attended Seymour Salmonid Society’s family fishing day at Rice Lake as an exhibitor as usual on Sunday. This is an event that we have been involved since it was established in 2002 and it has been a pleasure to watch its growth in the past decade. Many of our website visitors came by and had a chat with us, so we thank you for all the support!

While we did not make it to Greg Clark’s Memorial Family Fishing Derby this year, I have been told by Fraser Valley Salmon Society that they had record attendance, with over 900 registered derby participants!

This year, I have the honour to become a board member of the Family Fishing Weekend Society and I look forward to offer my skills on web marketing to make these events more successful in future years.

Here are some photographs from the weekend.

Last Saturday we hosted the 8th annual Fish for the Future in Steveston. This is an yearly event that we host to give something back to the community by encouraging families to take up fishing and bringing more awareness to the precious Fraser River ecosystem.

The weather co-operated. Out of all the events that we’ve attended this year, it was finally sunny for once! We estimated the attendance to be around 400 to 500 people. 150 juvenile saltwater fishing licences were issued. Almost every kid caught at least one fish. The most abundant species caught was sculpin, while some peamouth chub and northern pikeminnow were also caught. One very large northern pikeminnow was caught by a little girl near the start of the event while a cutthroat trout was caught near the end.

Many thanks to our volunteers for working so hard to make this possible. We also appreciate the BC Family Fishing Weekend Society, City of Richmond, Seymour Salmonid Society, OWL, Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC and Fisheries & Oceans Canada for their support once again.

Next year’s event will be on July 9th, we hope to see you there! This year’s photographs can be seen on this page.

Today we dragged ourselves out of bed for one of our favorite events because it is only ten minutes drive from our house. It was the annual Steveston Bullhead Derby at Garry Point Park. This grassroot event is organized by the Richmond Golden Rods and Reels Society, a group of seniors who enjoy the outdoors. Beside sharing their passion in outdoors with each other, they have passed it along to the new generations through this event for many years.

For some reason, the weather has never worked out at this derby. The chilly easterly wind kept everyone bundling under the tents. It began drizzling just during registration. Who can believe that Goretex jackets are still needed in the end of June? This certainly was not going to stop anxious contestants from fishing, 109 kids signed up by ten o’clock.

Once the derby start horn sounded, it did not take long for catches to show up at the measuring table. Each fish was measured, recorded and the largest bullhead would win the trophy.

Bullhead, or pacific staghorn sculpin, are not the only fish that were brought in. Peamouth chub, northern pikeminnow and starry flounder were also recoreded in the “non-bullhead” category. The Fraser River estuary has the best of two worlds. Because its water is a mixture of salt and fresh water, one can find a large variety of fish species simply by bottom fishing with some bait.

By Noon, it was all over. The winning bullhead in 2010 was 12.5 inches long. Its head was almost as wide as its body length. Prize and trophies were then given out to the lucky few. Although the entire event only lasted three hours, these special moments have surely hooked some kids for life. We have one more event to take care of before more summer fishing actions. Although the most labour intensive, Fish for the Future is the most rewarding to us. Be sure to join us on July 10th!

More photographs from today’s derby can be seen on this page.

Last weekend was the BC’s Family Fishing Weekend and the Seymour Salmonid Society had its Family Fishing Day at Rice Lake as usual. We were happy to be invited to the event once again, because this is always a great opportunity to meet and chat with website visitors.

The day was rather cool, the weather that is! The clouds never left the mountains and we were left shivering at times. That did not cool off the enthusiasm among visitors. With so many rainbow trout released into the lake, there was not a shortage of anglers. The society did a great job as a host once again. Thanks to all who dropped by to pick up all the fish identification cards and chat.

Photographs from the event can now be seen in this album. Next Sunday, we will be at the annual Bullhead Derby at Garry Point Park in Steveston.

June 18th to 20th is BC’s Family Fishing Weekend. During these three days, if you do not have a freshwater fishing licence, you can obtain a free licence and fish at lakes and rivers across British Columbia! Please note that freshwater regulations still apply while you fish with a free licence. There will be many community events happening as well. You can find a listing of all the events on this page.

On Saturday June 19th, we’ll be visiting the Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery for its family fishing day and hatchery open house, starting at 8:00am. We’ll also be dropping by the Greg Clark Memorial Fishing Derby at Cultus Lake. On Sunday June 20th, we’ll be setting up a booth at the Rice Lake fishing day in North Vancouver, organized by the Seymour Salmonid Society.

Plenty of excitement in one weekend, we hope to see you at these events!