After yesterday's thrilling adventure (more on that later), I passed out just before midnight, which was rather unusual. This morning, I got up at 6:30am and was ready to hit the Tidal Fraser River with Erin. Many of you might remember
Erin who helped me out at the Rice Lake Family Fishing Day in June and caught her first ever fish that day. As promised, we've arranged an outing to see if she could get her first ever salmon this fall.
We hit the road at 7:30am and rain began pouring down. Being so hydrophobic, I thought that we were not going to last long once we got out there. Luckily, it drizzled the whole time once we started fishing. Flood tide was 11:30am, so the timing was perfect. If fish were going to show, we should be able to intercept them. Water clarity continues to improve, we're up to a couple of feet now in visibility. Even though the bulk of the run has gone past, there are still some fish trailing behind. With less people fishing, it makes the day more enjoyable, even if it means only hooking a couple of fish.
I started by showing Erin the proper operation of my spinning gear. Cast, reel, hook-set... As I started explaining the action of the rod, I gave the line a slight pull and suddenly the dreadful "snap" sound could be heard. I looked up, sure enough the top section broke in half. I had just broke my first rod ever! I then tried to figure out what just happened, and remembered that Dad was using it last week and he slapped the tip on rocks a few times while casting. Hmm... Easier just to blame the parent I guess.
The cost was not so much an issue, but this rod has served me well in the last five years, from hundreds of pink salmon, dozens of coho salmon, to sea trout and northern pike in Denmark. There wasn't much one could do, so I set the other rod up for Erin as we had fish to catch. I decided to try fishing with my broken rod anyways, since standing and watching in the rain was not an option.
After about 30 minutes, rollers started showing up in front of us. A few fins stuck out and I was quite motivated at last. The broke rod thick tip made detecting bites difficult, but finally a distinct pull and tightening of the line made me set the hook. I was into the first fish of the day. The fish rolled and leaped a couple of times. Erin was pretty surprised to see the size of the fish we were targeting.
The stiff bottom section of the rod made fighting the fish rather difficult, which made the fish popped off by my feet. Not to worry of course, at least we were able to see a fish.
Rollers disappeared soon after the first hook-up. Another hour or so went by with no action, I was once again worried. Finally one gentleman fishing further down from us was into a silver doe. I made my way down there to help him land his fish. Once netted, I took several look at the fish just to make sure that it was a pink salmon. This fish was so bright that I initially thought it was a coho salmon.
A few minutes later, another gentleman above us hooked into a fish. Again I made my way up to net the fish. After all, I was fishing with a broken rod, so I might as well make myself useful.
It was a male, which was slightly more coloured than the other fish, but a fresh one nevertheless. As I was taking care of this fish, I looked back and saw a big swirl in front of Erin. I went back down and asked, "Did you see that big swirl in front of you?"
"What swirl?", she said.
A few minutes later, Erin began asking me how she should hook the fish if she had a bite. As she was finishing that question, she pulled the rod up and it immediately bent to the cork. "Like that.", I said.
The fight was on as a incredibly bright female pink salmon surfaced just meters in front of her. This fish rolled and rolled, dove a couple of times, but never ran out luckily. I positioned myself by the edge of the rocks with my landing net. Waiting for the first chance I could get to scoop it up. It surfaced, but still not within reach. It dove again, surface again, I now wished my arms were a bit longer. By now I was a bit nervous, most people lose their first fish. This could be the only fish of the day, let's get it in now! Of course I didn't say that, otherwise Erin would probably haul it in and pull the hook straight out of its mouth.
"Take your time and guide it into the net.", I said. Finally she managed to keep its head out of the water, brought it closer to shore but too far to the right from me. It hit the rocks, splashed. I leaped over and extended the net out. As if it was planned, the fish hopped straight into the net as it bounced against the rock. Erin's first ever salmon was now landed and this guide could now relax.
This is why I mostly fish close to the Fraser River mouth. Check out how incredibly fresh this fish was.
After Erin's catch, rollers disappeared, but emerged again around peak tide. Unfortunately we did not hit anymore fish, but the rain did ease off. By noon all surface activities ceased so we decided to reward ourselves with some warm soup at Tim Horton's.
Good luck.
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Topic: Tidal Fraser River September 16th, 2007 (Read 3255 times)