Hit the Harrison for the first time in years just for an exploratory trip. Used the launch on the west side of the Hwy 7 bridge, costs $5 on the "honor system". It was very shallow as we had to walk the boat out to deeper water before firing up the motor. Its fine for small boats but a few larger ones had to drive to Kilby to launch. After a 3 minute run up to where the river starts to narrow we started seeing lots of fish surface action. They were sockeyes in full tomato colour and dark springs moving up.
The water speed near shore was at a brisk walking pace and the water had that glacial green runoff colour. I'm thinking that there must have been a slide up river as I recall it being much cleaner in the past. Found a likely coho spot and pulled over for a few casts. Hooked into a few male socks on a pink streamer but no coho. Moved further up and fished a riffle and its tail out but no luck for coho just more aggressive tomato socks and a few chums.
On the move up again and found a slow moving back eddy that was loaded with fish due to the numbers that we saw rising. We were into fish right away using type 3 tips and it didn't matter what fly was on. We caught chums,socks,springs and coho here. The springs were mostly dark but there were a the odd clean one that showed. The chums were oddly very small for what the Harrison is known for,maybe it was just the run that was in.
As far as coho went we hooked six,all wild but one dark clipped fish and lost a couple more. If it wasn't for the pouring rain it was a great day.
It was amazing to see the tremendous volume of fish in this system for it was a constant flow of socks and springs that was moving past us all day. There were huge dead springs on the bank some up to an estimated 40+ pounds. Talked to some of the fish counters and they spoke of fish up to 60 lbs washed up on shore. The place is full of wildlife,eagles are everywhere,gulls make the beaches look covered with snow,seals working the river,shore birds picking up eggs, and herons feasting on fry.
The boat traffic is something else too. Jet boats roared up and down in front of us some charters and some private and many eco tours with passengers swinging their cameras in all directions. I would guess there must have been easily $400K worth of jets that day. A fall trip to the Harrison during salmon season is a must if you haven't done it already.
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Topic: Harrison River, November 12th 2011 (Read 1211 times)